Frances Langford

Frances Langford, born Julia Frances Langford on April 4, 1913, in Lakeland, Florida, was an American singer and actress whose career spanned the Golden Age of Radio, film, and television. She died on July 11, 2005, at her home in Jensen Beach, Florida, from congestive heart failure at age 92.

Langford originally trained as an opera singer, but a tonsillectomy she underwent as a young girl altered her soprano range to a rich contralto, redirecting her toward big band and popular music. By age 17 she was performing at local dances. Cigar manufacturer Eli Witt heard her at an American Legion party and hired her to sing on a local radio program he sponsored. Her first public performance had taken place in an amateur show staged in Lakeland by her schoolmate, actor Dan White.

Her Broadway career ran from 1931 to 1934 and included appearances in Here Comes the Bride and The Pure in Heart. Following her time on Broadway, she relocated to Hollywood, where she appeared on Louella Parsons' radio program Hollywood Hotel while launching a film career. Rudy Vallée heard her on radio in the early 1930s and invited her to become a regular on his show. From 1935 to 1938 she was a featured performer on Dick Powell's radio program.

Langford made her film debut in Every Night at Eight in 1935, introducing what became her signature song, "I'm in the Mood for Love." That same year she appeared in Broadway Melody of 1936, in which she popularized "Broadway Rhythm" and "You Are My Lucky Star," performing in the film as herself. Subsequent film appearances included Born to Dance (1936), Too Many Girls (1940) — in which her Lakeland schoolmate Dan White also appeared — and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) alongside James Cagney, in which she portrayed Nora Bayes and performed "Over There." In 1946 she took the lead role in The Bamboo Blonde, and in 1953 she appeared in The Glenn Miller Story, singing "Chattanooga Choo Choo" with the Modernaires. She also co-starred with her first husband, actor Jon Hall, in the Western Deputy Marshal.

Beginning in 1941, Langford joined Bob Hope as a regular singer on The Pepsodent Show, starting with his first military entertainment broadcast at March Field in Riverside, California. During World War II she toured with Hope, Jerry Colonna, guitarist Tony Romano, and other performers through Europe, North Africa, and the South Pacific on USO tours. During one Pacific theater tour she was invited aboard a P-38 fighter plane, and the flight was interrupted when the pilot spotted a Japanese ship and broke off to strafe it. In his memoir Don't Shoot! It's Only Me!, Hope recounted that at a South Pacific USO show, a soldier's response to the opening line of "I'm in the Mood for Love" produced the biggest laugh Hope had ever heard. Throughout the war Langford also wrote a weekly column, "Purple Heart Diary," for Hearst Newspapers, documenting her visits to military hospitals and giving wounded troops a platform to voice their needs. Her work earned her the nickname "GI Nightingale." Her collaboration with Hope extended into the 1980s, and in 1989 she joined him on a USO tour to entertain troops in the Persian Gulf.

From 1946 to 1951, Langford played Blanche on the radio comedy The Bickersons alongside Don Ameche. The two later brought the feuding-couple format to television with The Frances Langford/Don Ameche Show on ABC in 1951. She also worked on The Spike Jones Show in the late 1940s and starred in the DuMont variety program Star Time in 1950. She hosted two additional television programs: Frances Langford Presents on NBC in 1959 and The Frances Langford Show in 1960, each lasting one season. Langford holds two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, both dedicated on February 8, 1960 — one at 1500 Vine Street for her contributions to motion pictures and one at 1525 Vine Street for her work in radio.

Langford married three times. Her first marriage, to actor Jon Hall, lasted from 1934 to 1955. In 1948, she and Hall donated 20 acres of land near her Jensen Beach estate to Martin County, which designated it Langford Hall Park. In 1955 she married Ralph Evinrude, president of Outboard Marine Corporation. The couple lived on her Jensen Beach estate and built a Polynesian-themed restaurant and marina on the Indian River called The Frances Langford Outrigger Resort, where she performed regularly. Evinrude died in 1986. In 1994 Langford married Harold C. Stuart, who had served as assistant secretary for civil affairs of the United States Air Force from 1949 to 1951 under President Harry S. Truman. She and Stuart spent summers in Georgian Bay, Ontario, traveling from Florida on their 110-foot yacht.

In 1946, Lakeland honored Langford for her USO work and her career by dedicating the Lake Mirror Promenade as the Frances Langford Promenade. She was a consistent supporter of the Jensen Beach community and contributed to the Florida Oceanographic Society on Hutchinson Island, whose visitor center bears her name and houses some of her artifacts. A bequest from her estate funded the Frances Langford Heart Center, which opened at Martin Memorial Hospital in Stuart, Florida, in 2006. Per her wishes, Langford was cremated following her death, and her ashes were scattered off the Florida coast near her home.