Johnny Desmond

Johnny Desmond, born Giovanni Alfredo De Simone on November 14, 1919, in Detroit, Michigan, was an American singer whose popularity spanned the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and who brought his career to the Broadway stage between 1958 and 1964. He died on September 6, 1985, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 65, following a battle with cancer.

Desmond's musical education began early. At age 11 he sang in the choir at St. Joseph's parish, and as a boy he performed on a local Detroit radio station before leaving at 15 to work in his father's grocery. He later attended Northwestern High School and spent time at the Detroit Conservatory of Music before moving into the nightclub circuit, where he played piano and sang. By 1939 he had formed his own vocal group, initially called the Downbeats. When the group was hired to work with Bob Crosby's big band in 1940, it was renamed the Bob-O-Links. The ensemble appeared on 15 commercial recordings with the Crosby orchestra, producing two charted hits: "You Forgot About Me," which reached No. 15, and "Do You Care?," which reached No. 18.

In mid-1941, Desmond departed the Bob-O-Links to pursue a solo career, becoming the featured vocalist for Gene Krupa's band after replacing Howard Dulaney in September of that year. He recorded more than a dozen songs with Krupa, including "All Those Wonderful Years" from the film Keep 'em Flying, which climbed to No. 21 on the US chart. In 1942 he enlisted in the United States Army, and his service took the form of continued musical performance. He joined Glenn Miller's Army Air Forces Orchestra, stepping into the role previously held by singer Tony Martin from November 1943 until July 28, 1945, when the band returned home. Desmond and the orchestra performed at troop and air bases throughout England and traveled to France in December 1944. He made numerous radio broadcasts with the Miller band and hosted his own program, "A Soldier and a Song," on the American Forces Network, with some broadcasts also airing on BBC Radio. He received his military discharge on November 23, 1945.

Following the war, Desmond became the singer and master of ceremonies on the NBC radio program Teentimers Club, a Saturday morning broadcast, and subsequently joined The Breakfast Club, a radio variety program based in Chicago, Illinois. His recording career during the postwar years produced a string of charted hits across multiple labels. The 1946 recordings, made for RCA Victor, included "Don't You Remember Me?" at No. 21 and "Guilty" at No. 12. His work for MGM from 1949 to 1951 yielded "C'est si bon" at No. 25, "Don't Cry, Joe" at No. 22, "Just Say I Love Her" at No. 24, "The Picnic Song" at No. 20, and "Because of You" at No. 17. Recording for Coral Records in 1953, he placed "Woman" at No. 9 and, on September 24 of that year, joined Don Cornell and Alan Dale to record "(The Gang that Sang) Heart of My Heart," which reached No. 10.

Desmond's television work included a guest appearance on Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town, which aired on CBS from 1951 to 1952, and a 1957 guest spot alongside Boris Karloff on NBC's The Gisele MacKenzie Show. Columbia Pictures cast him in two starring roles in 1957, the musical Calypso Heat Wave and the crime drama Escape from San Quentin, followed by the 1958 adventure film Desert Hell. In 1961 he co-starred on the CBS summer replacement series Glenn Miller Time, which featured the Miller orchestra under the direction of host Ray McKinley.

On Broadway, Desmond starred in the comedy Say, Darling in 1958 and later took on the role of Nick Arnstein in Funny Girl, joining the production after Sydney Chaplin departed the cast. These credits marked his stage presence during a Broadway career that extended through 1964. Desmond was married to singer Ruth Keddington.