Jane Morgan (born Florence Catherine Currier; May 3, 1924) is an American former singer and recording artist of traditional pop. Morgan initially found success in France and the UK before achieving recognition in the US, receiving six gold records. She was a frequent nightclub and Broadway performer, and also appeared numerous times on American television, both as a singer and as a dramatic performer.
Early life
Morgan was born Florence Catherine Currier in Newton, Massachusetts, on May 3, 1924,[1] one of five children born to musicians Olga (Brandenburg) and Bertram Currier.[2] At five she began vocal lessons while continuing piano lessons. During the summers, she took on child roles and appeared in theater productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine, which her brother had founded.[3] In 1941, she was listed as the Treasurer of the Kennebunkport Playhouse.[4] After graduating from Seabreeze High School, she was accepted into New York's Juilliard School of Music.[5] Intending to become an opera singer, she studied opera by day and performed whenever possible.[6]
Early career
Morgan sang popular songs in nightclubs and small restaurants, and at bar mitzvahs and other private parties, to help pay her tuition expenses at Juilliard.[7] Orchestra leader Art Mooney changed her name to Jane Morgan by taking the first name of one of his vocalists, Janie Ford, and the last name of another, Marian Morgan.[3]
In 1948, French impresario Bernard Hilda selected her to accompany him to Paris.[7] Morgan became a sensation in Paris.[8] Many French songwriters, including Charles Trenet, frequented the club, and they wrote several songs that became hit recordings for Morgan. Morgan and Hilda soon opened a new weekly hour-long television show and she began recording in 1949 on the French Polydor label as well as Parlophone, Philips, and others.[8]
Morgan left her agent and began singing at Lou Walters' Latin Quarter in New York. Walters kept Morgan at the Latin Quarter for a year, when she was noticed by Dave Kapp, who had recently founded a new recording label, Kapp Records.[5] Kapp signed Morgan to a recording contract, and near that same period he signed pianist Roger Williams.[8]
To counter her reputation as a French singer, Kapp had Morgan record "Baseball, Baseball", and her first album release was titled The American Girl from Paris. She recorded several additional albums and soon was paired with Williams, who had gained national acceptance with his recording of "Autumn Leaves". They recorded "Two Different Worlds", which gave Morgan her first significant airplay on US radio.[5] In 1957 Kapp brought The Troubadors, a virtually unknown group of five musicians, to his studio. They had appeared in Love in the Afternoon. Kapp asked Morgan to join The Troubadors and sing "Fascination".[5] Although written in 1904 by F. D. Marchetti as "Valse Tzigane", the song was modified in Paris at the Folies Bergère as a "strip" number. With English lyrics added by Dick Manning in 1932, it had been played throughout the 1957 movie (the French lyric had been created in 1942).[5] Her recording was released in late 1957 and remained on the charts for 29 weeks.[10]
In 1958, Kapp released "The Day the Rains Came" (a French song by Gilbert Becaud called "Le jour où la pluie viendra") with Morgan singing in English on one side and in French on the other.[5] It reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in early 1959.[11] She was featured on the 10 November 1959, jazz special, Timex-All-Star Jazz III.[12]
Morgan's agent died in 1959, and her new manager, Jerry Weintraub, was able to obtain bookings for her in many noted US venues. Morgan divorced Larry Stith in 1964,[18] and married Weintraub, more than a decade her junior, in 1965; the couple later adopted three daughters, Julie, Jamie and Jody. Morgan also has a stepson Michael from Weintraub's first marriage.[5] Morgan and Weintraub separated but never divorced; he died in 2015.
In 1960, she recorded the English-language version of an Italian song, Romantica.[5]
Later years
After Morgan performed on Broadway, she said, "Being on Broadway was one of the most exciting things in my life because I had always dreamed of it".[19]
The only other time she had recorded without formal arrangements was on her hit single, "Fascination"; nevertheless, she was reportedly dubbed "The Countryest Girl in Nashville" by the crew.[20] She retired from performing in 1973, but has appeared occasionally over the years at special events and benefits. She has in recent years worked as a production assistant to her husband on films including the remake of Ocean's Eleven.[19]
Morgan's collection of her unique performance gowns spanning from the 1950s to the 1980s were exhibited to the public for the first time, premiering at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, in February 2022.[22]
Morgan appeared in such television specials as Highways of Melody 1961; Bell Telephone Hour: A Trip to Christmas (1961); Bell Telephone Hour: Christmas Program (1965); Bell Telephone Hour: Masterpieces and Music (1966); Coliseum (1967); Kraft Music Hall: Broadway's Best (1969) and Operation: Entertainment (1969).[citation needed] 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), as well as making several 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).[23]
Morgan's version of "If Only I Could Live My Life Again" was featured during the closing credits of the second season finale of Apple TV's The Morning Show which was released November 19, 2021.
^Cummins, Sharon. "History of the Kennebunkport Playhouse: Notes". The Log. Kennebunkport Historical Society. Retrieved March 3, 2017 – via Mykennebunks.com. 1941 Florence Currier is listed as the Treasurer of the Kennebunkport Playhouse
