[Dixielandjazz] Martha Tilton Obit

[Steve Barbone]

Martha Tilton, 91, ŒSweetheart of Swing,¹ Dies

NY TIMES - By DOUGLAS MARTIN - December 13, 2006

Martha Tilton, who as one of Benny Goodman¹s vocalists in the 1930s was
billed as the ³Sweetheart of Swing² and appeared on 80 of his recordings,
including the celebrated 1939 rendition of ³And the Angels Sing,² died on
Dec. 8 at her home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood. She was 91.
Skip to next paragraph

Her Web site announced the death, suggesting that another singer was needed
for ³the big U.S.O. Show in the Sky.²

On Jan. 16, 1938, Miss Tilton marshaled her easygoing, almost girlish voice
to win excellent reviews for her singing in the first purely jazz concert
ever held at Carnegie Hall. Her ³Loch Lomond,² a swing version of a Scottish
air that was later a hit for Maxine Sullivan, received one of the evening¹s
largest ovations.

In her solo career, she became one of the first artists to record with
Capitol Records, for which she made hits like ³I¹ll Walk Alone.² She
appeared on her own radio show in the early 1940s, and became known as
Liltin¹ Martha Tilton or the Liltin¹ Miss Tilton.

She appeared in movies, including playing a singer based on herself in ³The
Benny Goodman Story² (1955). She provided singing voices for film stars like
Barbara Stanwyck, Martha O¹Driscoll and Anne Gwynne.

Martha Ellen Tilton was born on Nov. 14, 1915, in Corpus Christi, Tex., and
her family moved to Edna, Kan., when she was 3. In 1922, they moved to Los
Angeles, where her father was a banker.

Her family sang and played the piano, and she began singing without pay at a
small radio station while still in high school in Los Angeles. An agent
heard her and found her work singing for money at larger stations. She
dropped out of school in the 11th grade to join Hal Grayson¹s band.

She was part of a vocal group, Three Hits and a Miss, when she was asked to
audition for the Goodman band. Mr. Goodman left the room during her second
song, so she left too, disappointed that he was not impressed. She later
learned that he had liked her, and was hired for $125 a week in 1937.

The song ³And the Angels Sing² was brought to Mr. Goodman by Ziggy Elman,
one of his trumpeters, who had recorded it as an instrumental. What had
originated as a Hebrew folk song became ³one of the most joyous-sounding
records of the swing era,² George T. Simon wrote in ³The Big Bands Songbook²
(1975).

Miss Tilton later sang with Artie Shaw and Billy Mills, among others. She
recorded on her own for Capitol from 1942 to 1949 and later for smaller
labels, including Coral and Tops.

During and just after World War II, she appeared with Jack Benny and others
on U.S.O. tours to entertain troops in the South Pacific and Europe. Miss
Tilton¹s marriages to Dave Thomas and Leonard Vannerson ended in divorce.
She is survived by her husband, James Brooks; her son, Jon Vannerson; her
daughter, Cathy Smith; and five grandchildren.

Early in her career Miss Tilton was introduced by Mr. Goodman as ³a pretty
gal from Hollywood that¹s really going places.² She missed the cue. After a
moment, Mr. Goodman ad-libbed, ³She¹s not going places, she¹s already gone.²