Eugenie Baird

Eugenie Baird (November 19, 1923 – June 12, 1988) was an American singer whose career spanned big-band performance, radio broadcasting, vaudeville, and Broadway. Born in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of Eugene Baird, identified in his obituary as a construction foreman, though at least one source characterized her background as theatrical. Baird began singing in choral groups during grammar school and, while still a high school student, won an audition that earned her a recurring program on KDKA in Pittsburgh, broadcasting three times weekly.

Her big-band career began with Maurice Spitalny and Benny Burton before she moved on to sing with Jan Savitt. From 1942 to 1943 she was a vocalist with Tony Pastor, recording "The Bells of San Raquel" and "So Near and yet So Far" with him on the Bluebird label in 1941. In 1943 she joined the Casa Loma Orchestra led by Glen Gray, recording "My Heart Tells Me" on Decca that year and "Suddenly It's Spring" in 1944. That same year, jazz critic George T. Simon noted in a review that Baird was both the most visually striking performer he had seen fronting a band and the possessor of one of the finest voices he had encountered. She also appeared in the Universal Studios short subject Smoke Rings, released July 28, 1943, alongside Pee Wee Hunt and The Pied Pipers, with the Casa Loma Orchestra providing musical support; the film featured the songs "Can't Get Stuff in Your Cuff," "That's My Affair," and "Little Man with the Hammer."

In November 1944, Baird left the Casa Loma Orchestra to become Bing Crosby's singing partner on NBC's Kraft Music Hall, a position she held for one year. In 1945 she recorded "I Fall in Love Too Easily" with Mel Tormé and His Mel-Tones on Decca. During 1946 she hosted Eugenie Baird Sings on ABC and was chosen from more than fifty candidates to sing on Paul Whiteman's weekly ABC program Forever Tops, which debuted January 21, 1946, and ran into 1947. To take on that role she relocated from New York to Hollywood. She subsequently sang on NBC's The Jack Smith Show, The Alec Templeton Show from 1947 to 1948, and Don McNeill's Breakfast Club.

Baird's stage work brought her to Broadway, where she appeared from 1947 to 1950. She played the ingenue role in Angel in the Wings during its 1947–1948 run and later appeared in South Pacific. In 1947 she also made her New York vaudeville debut as the featured vocalist in Henny Youngman's vaudeville show, and in August and September of that year she performed with Ray Eberle at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. By September 1948 she was headlining at the Copa nightclub in Pittsburgh.

Beginning February 12, 1949, Baird became the featured female singer on the radio program Sing It Again. That year she also participated in a thirteen-disk series of electrical transcriptions featuring Eddy Duchin that promoted the United States Navy Reserve, alongside a group of other female vocalists. Her 1949 recordings included "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and "The Hucklebuck" with Cab Calloway on Hi-Tone, as well as "Blue Room" and "Candy Kisses" with the Bob Curtis Quartet on the same label. In 1950 she signed with Lang-Worth and contributed to the Remember When transcription series, and that year she was also active recording radio jingles, including work for the Pepsi-Cola Company producing records intended for home phonograph use. In 1954 she sang with Earl Wrightson on the CBS program Musicland U.S.A.

Baird released the LP Eugenie Baird Sings, Duke's Boys Play Ellington on the Design label in 1959. In October 1981, after a period of inactivity, she made a return appearance at a jazz festival in New York City, an event noted by The New York Times in connection with her earlier work with Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra.