Helen Forrest

Helen Forrest, born Helen Fogel on April 12, 1917, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was an American singer of traditional pop and swing music who became one of the most recognized vocalists of the Swing Era. She died on July 11, 1999. Her Broadway credits include an appearance in the 1921 play Swords.

Forrest's parents, Louis and Rebecca Fogel, were Jewish. Her father died from influenza when she was an infant, and she was subsequently raised by her mother, who also had three older sons: Harry, Ed, and Sam. During Helen's early teenage years, the family moved to Brooklyn, where her mother remarried a house painter. The household became a brothel, and at age 14, Forrest was nearly assaulted by her stepfather, defending herself with a kitchen knife and injuring him. Her mother then allowed her to live with her piano teacher, Honey Silverman, who recognized Helen's vocal talent and encouraged her to pursue singing over piano. Forrest left high school to focus on a singing career.

She returned to Atlantic City and began performing with her brother Ed's band before moving back to New York City, where she auditioned for radio work and visited song publishers. Around this time she was encouraged to change her surname from Fogel, which was considered to sound too Jewish. By 1934, at age 17, she was singing for WNEW in New York and also performed for WCBS under the names "Bonnie Blue" and "The Blue Lady of Song." She subsequently secured a position at the Madrillon Club in Washington, D.C., where she performed for approximately two years.

Bandleader Artie Shaw discovered Forrest at the Madrillon Club in 1938, hiring her after vocalist Billie Holiday departed the band. For a period, both Forrest and Holiday performed with Shaw's ensemble. Upon learning that African-American performers were required to remain offstage at certain venues until their moment to perform, Forrest adopted the same policy for herself. She recorded 38 singles with Shaw's band, with "They Say" and "All the Things You Are" among her most notable contributions. Shaw disbanded the group in November 1939.

Forrest joined Benny Goodman in December 1939, recording 55 studio tracks with his orchestra, including the hit "The Man I Love." She described Goodman as the most demanding bandleader she worked with, noting that he would play clarinet behind her while she sang and that few special arrangements were written specifically for her. In August 1941, she left the orchestra, citing the need to avoid a nervous breakdown. Following her departure from Goodman, she briefly recorded with Nat King Cole and Lionel Hampton.

Later in 1941, Forrest approached Harry James with a single condition of employment: that she be allowed to sing a full chorus rather than only a partial one. James permitted her to audition, the band voted her in, and she was hired. With the Harry James Orchestra she recorded several of her most enduring numbers, including "I Had the Craziest Dream," "I've Heard That Song Before," and "I Don't Want to Walk Without You," all in 1942. That same year she appeared with the Harry James Band in the Hollywood film Springtime in the Rockies, starring Betty Grable. In both 1942 and 1943, Down Beat magazine's poll named her the best female vocalist in the United States.

Forrest left Harry James in late 1943 to pursue a solo career. She signed with Decca Records, and her first Decca release, "Time Waits For No One," reached second place on the Hit Parade. From 1944 to 1947 she co-starred with Dick Haymes on The Dick Haymes Show on CBS radio, which achieved top ratings. Between 1944 and 1946, she and Haymes recorded 18 duets for Decca, ten of which reached the Top Ten, including "Long Ago and Far Away," "It Had To Be You," "Together," "I'll Buy That Dream," "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," and "Oh, What It Seemed To Be." In 1944 she also appeared in the Esther Williams film Bathing Beauty alongside Harry James and his orchestra, as well as in the film Two Girls and a Sailor. Through the late 1940s she headlined at theaters and clubs.

In 1955, the year her mother died, Forrest reunited with Harry James in the studio to record Harry James in Hi-Fi, which became a bestseller. As rock and roll grew in popularity toward the end of the decade, her solo career declined. She recorded for the startup Bell Records and in the early 1960s sang with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra, then led by Sam Donahue. In 1963 she was performing at Lake Tahoe with Frank Sinatra Jr. when he was kidnapped.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Forrest performed in supper clubs on big band nostalgia tours, appearing alongside Harry James and Dick Haymes. In 1977 the three reunited on The Merv Griffin Show, which led to a touring production called The Fabulous 40s in 1978 and a follow-up revue, The Big Broadcast of 1944, in 1979. Six months after Haymes' death in 1980, Forrest suffered a stroke but recovered and resumed performing and recording. Her autobiography, I Had the Craziest Dream, was published in 1982 and is dedicated to her only son.