Eileen Barton

Eileen Barton (November 24, 1924 – June 27, 2006) was an American singer and performer whose career spanned vaudeville, radio, Broadway, television, and recording. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Barton came from a show business family; her parents, Benny and Elsie Barton, were vaudeville performers. Though her birthdate was frequently listed as 1929, a certified copy of her birth certificate confirms 1924 as the correct year, a discrepancy common among performers of her era who adjusted their ages professionally.

Barton's performing life began in early childhood. At two and a half years old, she appeared in her parents' act in Kansas City. By age three and a half, she was performing at the Palace Theater as part of comedian Ted Healy's routine, doing two shows daily. Healy later assembled the comedy group known as The Three Stooges. By age six, Barton was appearing on The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour, a radio program sponsored by the Horn & Hardart Automat restaurant chain. At seven, in 1936–37, she worked with Milton Berle on his Community Sing radio program under the name "Jolly Gillette," playing the role of the sponsor's daughter for Gillette Razors. She also appeared as a regular on The Milton Berle Show in 1939. At age eight, she hosted her own daily singing program on radio station WMCA, called Arnold's Dinner Club. At ten, she made two appearances on Rudy Vallée's network radio program in 1936 and acted in radio series including Death Valley Days.

After a brief departure from show business at age eleven, Barton returned to performing and made her Broadway debut at age fourteen as an understudy to Nancy Walker in the musical Best Foot Forward. She subsequently appeared on Broadway under her own name alongside Elaine Stritch in Angel in the Wings, completing her Broadway work between 1941 and 1947. At fifteen, a guest appearance on a Johnny Mercer variety series brought her to the attention of Frank Sinatra, who gave her a regular spot on his CBS radio program. She began co-starring on Sinatra's show on August 16, 1944, and also appeared with him in fifteen engagements at the Paramount Theater. During this period she performed alongside Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, and Danny Kaye. In 1945, Barton launched her own radio program, Teen Timers, which was renamed The Eileen Barton Show that November and broadcast Saturday mornings on NBC. In 1954, she starred in a separate thirteen-episode transcribed program of the same name produced for the United States Marine Corps.

Barton's recording career began with a V-Disc twelve-inch release for servicemen on which she sang "Great Day" and "Lover, Come Back," a disc she shared with Frank Sinatra's "I Have But One Heart." Her first commercially available single, "They Say It's Wonderful," was released on Mercury Records in 1946. She subsequently recorded a single for Capitol Records in 1948, "Would You Believe Me?," backed by the orchestra of Lyle "Skitch" Henderson. After signing with National Records, she recorded "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake," written by Bob Merrill, Albert Hoffman, and Al Trace, who used the pseudonym Clem Watts. Barton introduced the song on Don McNeill's radio program The Breakfast Club. The record was initially released on National Records as catalog number 9103 and later distributed by Mercury Records. It became one of the best-selling records ever released on an independent label, reaching number one in store sales for two weeks, remaining the most-played record by disc jockeys for ten weeks, and charting on Billboard for over four months. In a 2005 interview for the liner notes of a Jasmine Records CD release, Barton stated that she never received any royalties from either National or Mercury despite a contractual entitlement of five percent of each sale.

Following that success, Barton moved to Coral Records in 1951 and charted with cover versions of songs including "Cry," "Sway," and "Pretend." She signed with Epic Records in 1956, though the rise of rock and roll curtailed her chart presence in the late 1950s. After releasing singles on four additional labels, she retired from studio recording in 1963. Despite seventeen years of recording activity, her entire output consisted of singles and EPs, and she never released a long-playing album. In the 1950s she was a featured singer with Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, and she continued performing live until the early 1980s.

On television, Barton was a regular performer on The Swift Show in 1948, Broadway Open House in 1951, and The Bill Goodwin Show from 1951 to 1952. In 1961–62, she appeared as the "assistant mayor" on the game shows Video Village and Video Village, Jr.

In her personal life, Barton married industrialist Dan Shaw in Juarez, Mexico, on April 15, 1961. She had previously been divorced from Lawrence Kane. Barton died on June 27, 2006, at her home in West Hollywood from ovarian cancer at the age of 81. She had no children and was not married at the time of her death.