Jane Morgan

Jane Morgan, born Florence Catherine Currier on May 3, 1924, in Newton, Massachusetts, was an American singer, recording artist, and stage and television performer whose career spanned more than four decades. She was one of five children born to musicians Olga (Brandenburg) and Bertram Currier. Vocal lessons began at age five, alongside piano studies she was already pursuing. During summers, she took on child roles in productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine, a theater her brother Robert Currier had founded, and by 1941 she was serving as the playhouse's treasurer. After graduating from Seabreeze High School, she enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music in New York with the intention of becoming an opera singer, studying opera by day and performing at nightclubs, small restaurants, and private events to cover her tuition. It was orchestra leader Art Mooney who gave her the professional name Jane Morgan, combining the first name of one vocalist, Janie Ford, with the last name of another, Marian Morgan.

Morgan's early international career began in 1948 when French impresario Bernard Hilda selected her to accompany him to Paris, where she became a sensation. French songwriters including Charles Trenet frequented the club where she performed and wrote songs that became hit recordings for her. She began recording in 1949 on the French Polydor label as well as Parlophone, Philips, and others, and she and Hilda launched a weekly hour-long television show. In 1954 she returned to Europe for a London West End revue with comedian Vic Oliver, followed by appearances at the Savoy Theatre and the London Palladium.

Back in the United States, Morgan began performing at Lou Walters' Latin Quarter in New York, where she spent a year before being noticed by Dave Kapp, founder of Kapp Records. To reposition her away from her reputation as a French singer, Kapp had her record "Baseball, Baseball" and released her debut album under the title The American Girl from Paris. She was subsequently paired with pianist Roger Williams, and their recording of "Two Different Worlds" gave Morgan her first significant airplay on American radio. In 1957, Kapp brought her into the studio with The Troubadors to record "Fascination," a melody originally composed in 1904 by F. D. Marchetti as "Valse Tzigane" and later given English lyrics by Dick Manning in 1932. The recording remained on the charts for 29 weeks. The following year, Kapp released "The Day the Rains Came," an English-language version of Gilbert Bécaud's French song "Le jour où la pluie viendra," with Morgan singing in English on one side and French on the other; it reached number one on the UK Singles Chart in early 1959. Over the course of her recording career, Morgan accumulated six gold records.

Her Broadway career ran from 1957 to 1966 and included appearances in the revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 and the musical Mame. She also toured with Jack Benny, a collaboration that extended to television through The Jack Benny Program. Beyond those verified credits, she performed in numerous stage musicals including Can-Can, The King and I, Kiss Me, Kate, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Bells Are Ringing, Anniversary Waltz, Affairs of State, and Hello, Dolly. She also toured with John Raitt and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry.

Morgan's television presence was extensive. She made her American television debut on Celebrity Time in 1951 and went on to make more than fifty appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show alone. Her early television credits included The Victor Borge Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Cavalcade of Stars, The Jimmy Dean Show, The Jonathan Winters Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Hollywood Palace. She starred in three of her own television specials: The Jane Morgan Hour (1959), Voice of Firestone: An Evening in Paris (1959), and The Jane Morgan Show (1968). She also made dramatic television appearances, including The Web: Rehearsal for Death (1952), Peter Gunn: Down the Drain (1961), and It Takes a Thief: The Suzie Simone Caper (1970). She was featured on the jazz special Timex All-Star Jazz III on November 10, 1959, and appeared in television specials including Highways of Melody (1961), two editions of The Bell Telephone Hour (1961 and 1965), and Kraft Music Hall: Broadway's Best (1969).

Morgan divorced Larry Stith in 1964 and married her manager Jerry Weintraub in 1965; the couple later adopted three daughters and Morgan also had a stepson, Michael, from Weintraub's first marriage. They separated in the 1980s but never divorced, and Weintraub died in 2015. Morgan worked as a production assistant to Weintraub on films including the remake of Ocean's Eleven. In 1960 she recorded an English-language version of the Italian song "Romantica," and her final albums were recorded for RCA Records. Jane Morgan in Nashville, her last LP, produced two moderate entries on the Billboard country charts in 1970, including "A Girl Named Johnny Cash," written by Martin Mull as an answer to Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue." She performed the song on Cash's eponymous television series in early 1971 and was reportedly dubbed "The Countryest Girl in Nashville" by the crew. She retired from performing in 1973, though she appeared at special events and benefits over the following years, including a performance at the UNICEF Ball on December 10, 2009, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where she sang "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Big Spender."

Throughout her career, Morgan performed for French President Charles de Gaulle and for five American presidents: John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush. On May 6, 2011, she received the 2,439th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In February 2022, a collection of her performance gowns spanning the 1950s through the 1980s was exhibited publicly for the first time at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine. Morgan celebrated her 100th birthday on May 3, 2024, and died at her home in Naples, Florida, on August 4, 2025, at the age of 101.