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Frances Newbern Langford (April 4, 1913, Lakeland, Florida – July 11, 2005, Jensen Beach, Florida) was an American singer and entertainer who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and also made film appearances over two decades.

Contents 1 Radio 2 Films 3 Television 4 Filmography 5 Listen to 6 External links

Langford originally trained as an opera singer. While a young girl she required surgery on her throat, and as a result was forced to change her vocal style to a more contemporary big band, popular music style. She began singing for radio during the early 1930s, and was heard by Rudy Vallee, who invited her to become a regular on his radio show. She was a well-known radio performer before making her film debut in Every Night at Eight in 1935, in which she introduced what would become her signature song: "I'm In The Mood For Love". From 1935 until 1938 she was a regular performer on Dick Powell's radio show.

From then, she began appearing frequently in films such as Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), Born to Dance (1936) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) with James Cagney, in which she performed the popular song "Over There". In several of these films such as Broadway Melody she appeared as herself.

From 1941 she worked on Bob Hope's radio show, and during World War II she performed frequently with Hope entertaining troops. Her association with Hope continued into the 1980s; in 1989 she joined him for a USO tour.

She worked for several years in the late 1940s on Spike Jones' show before being teamed with Don Ameche in for a short-lived television program, The Frances Langford/Don Ameche Show (1951), a spin-off of their successful radio series The Bickersons in which the duo played a feuding married couple like the Kramdens in The Honeymooners). Langford was also the host of her variety television program Frances Langford Presents, which lasted one season.

She married three times. Her first husband, from 1934 until 1955, was actor Jon Hall. In 1955, she married outboard motor heir Ralph Evinrude. They moved to her estate in Jensen Beach, Florida, and opened the Outrigger Resort where Langford frequently performed. Evinrude died in 1986. In 1994 she married Harold Stuart, who had been assistant secretary of the United States Air Force under President Harry S. Truman and who survives her. She had no children.

Although her greatest successes were in radio, her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1500 Vine Street, acknowledges her contribution to motion pictures. Frances Langford was also supportive member of the Jensen Beach community who constantly donated money to the community. She died at her Jensen Beach home after suffering from congestive heart failure, aged 92.

• The Subway Symphony (1932) (short subject)
• Rambling 'Round Radio Row #5 (1933) (short subject)
• Every Night at Eight (1935)
• Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)
• Collegiate (1936)
• Palm Springs (1936)
• Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs (1936) (short subject)
• Born to Dance (1936)
• Hit Parade of 1937 (1937)
• Hollywood Hotel (1937)
• Dreaming Out Loud (1940)
• Too Many Girls (1940)
• Hit Parade of 1941 (1940)
• Swing It Soldier (1941)
• All American Co-Ed (1941)
• Picture People No. 4: Stars Day Off (1941) (short subject)
• Mississippi Gambler (1942)
• ture People No. 10: Hollywood at Home (1942) (short subject)
• Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
• Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4 (1942) (short subject)
• Combat America (1943) (documentary)
• Follow the Band (1943)
• Cowboy in Manhattan (1943)
• This Is the Army (1943)
• Never a Dull Moment (1943)
• Career Girl (1944)
• Memo for Joe (1944) (short subject)
• Dixie Jamboree (1944)
• Girl Rush (1944)
• Radio Stars on Parade (1945)
• People Are Funny (1946)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Victory Show (1946) (short subject)
• The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
• Beat the Band (1947)
• Melody Time (1948) (voice)
• Deputy Marshal (1949)
• Purple Heart Diary (1951)
• The Glenn Miller Story (1953)
• Fun at St. Fanny's (1956)

• Internet Archive: Maxwell House Coffee Time (1947): Frances Langford (13 episodes)

• Frances Langford at the Internet Movie Database
• Frances Langford biographical fansite