Joy Hodges

Joy Hodges, born Frances Eloise Hodges on January 29, 1915, in Des Moines, Iowa, was an American singer and actress whose career spanned radio, film, big band performances, and Broadway. She died on January 19, 2003, in Palm Desert, California, of complications following a stroke, at age 88, and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Des Moines.

Hodges grew up in Des Moines, where she attended Wallace Elementary, Amos Hiatt Junior High, and East High schools. At age 11, she and a friend named Ardis Olson formed a singing duo called the Bluebird Twins, performing on radio station WHO and at local venues. During high school, a third member, Betty Illen, joined them to create the Crooning Coeds trio. A contest victory at a theater brought Hodges to Chicago, where her national career took shape. She performed at the Empire Room and the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, served as lead singer with Carol Loftner and his orchestra, and also sang with the orchestras of Ted Fio Rito, Ben Bernie, Jimmy Grier, Ozzie Nelson, and Abe Lyman, among others. Her work extended to radio broadcasts, nightclubs, and Chautauqua programs across the country.

Her screen career began with a short film, A Night at the Biltmore Bowl, for RKO Pictures. She subsequently signed a five-year contract with RKO, and her first feature film was Old Man Rhythm in 1935. Additional film credits include To Beat the Band (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Special Agent K-7 (1937), Service de Luxe (1938), Unexpected Father (1939), and Laughing at Danger (1940). She also recorded a number of soundies — musical short films — including "Exactly Like You," "Row, Row, Row," and "Why Don't We Do This More Often?," among others.

On radio, Hodges joined The Joe Penner Show on CBS as its female singer beginning in October 1936, a position she left in November 1937 to make her Broadway debut. In 1944, she substituted for Arlene Francis as host of the radio program Blind Date when it broadcast from Detroit. Two years later, she co-hosted Honeymoon in New York on NBC alongside Durward Kirby, serving as both singer and co-host on that program.

Hodges' Broadway career ran from 1937 to 1971, with an additional credit in 1972. Her stage debut came in the musical I'd Rather Be Right in 1937, in which she introduced the song "Have You Met Miss Jones?" Subsequent Broadway appearances included the musical Dream with Music in 1943, the farce The Odds on Mrs. Oakley in 1944, and the musical Nellie Bly in 1945. In 1972, she replaced Ruby Keeler in the Broadway revival of No, No, Nanette.

During World War II, Hodges traveled to Europe on USO tours, performing with Harry James and his orchestra for military personnel. Her connection to Ronald Reagan stretched across six decades, originating when both worked at radio station WHO in Des Moines — she as a singer and he as an announcer and sportscaster. In 1937, Hodges arranged for Reagan to meet with an agent, a meeting that resulted in his signing a contract with Warner Bros. The two also appeared together in vaudeville shows in the late 1930s, and Reagan later invited Hodges to the White House during his presidency.

In 1935, while under contract with Universal Studios, Hodges held an insurance policy from Lloyd's of London guaranteeing her at least $125,000 per year for three years on the condition that she not marry during that period; she did not marry but collected nothing because her earnings exceeded the guaranteed amount. She married Gilbert H. Doorly, a newspaper editor, in Des Moines on September 2, 1939; they divorced in 1941 and had no children. Her second marriage, to radio producer and writer Paul Dudley Helmund, took place on April 24, 1942, and ended in divorce in 1952. Her third husband was Eugene Scheiss, whom she married in 1955 and who died in 1990.