Helena Mabel Checkley Forrest (6 March 1872 – 18 March 1935) was an Australian writer and journalist.

Forrest was born near Yandilla, Queensland (now part of Toowoomba Region), the daughter of James Checkley Mills and his wife Margaret Nelson, née Haxell. She began writing at an early age but did not publish her first book, The Rose of Forgiveness and other Stories, until 1904.

She became well-known as a writer of verse following the publication of her first volume of poems, Alpha Centauri, which appeared in Melbourne in 1909. Her first novel A Bachelor's Wife, was included in the Bookstall series in 1914. The Green Harper (prose and verse) followed in 1915, and Streets and Gardens, a small collection of verse, in 1922. In 1924 The Wild Moth, a novel, was published in London, and was followed by four other novels, Gaming Gods (1926), Hibiscus Heart (1927), Reaping Roses (1928), and White Witches (1929). Poems by M. Forrest, a collection of her verse contributions to Australian, English and American magazines, was published at Sydney in 1927.

In addition to her work in book form, for the last 30 years of her life Forrest poured out a constant stream of verse and short stories for newspapers and magazines. Probably no other woman in Australia ever maintained herself so long by freelance journalism. Her verse is represented in several anthologies. Her novels were perhaps little more than stories written to fulfil the demands of the circulating libraries, but Forrest was an admirable journalist who lived a life that had many misfortunes with great industry, ability and courage.

Forrest died of pneumonia on 18 March 1935 in Brisbane, after a long illness. She was twice married and was survived by a daughter. Gaming Gods was dedicated to the memory of her second husband, John Forrest.

External links[link]

• Text of Boy-Dreams from Alpha Centauri.
• Text of The Lonely Woman.

References[link]

• Kay Ferres, 'Forrest, Mabel (1872 - 1935)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, MUP, 2005, p. 131.
• Serle, Percival (1949). "Forrest, Mabel". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogF.html#forrest2. Retrieved 2008-10-25. 

John Carradine
in Blood and Sand (1941)
Born	Richmond Reed Carradine (1906-02-05)February 5, 1906 New York City, U.S.
Died	November 27, 1988(1988-11-27) (aged 82) Milan, Italy
Other names	Peter Richmond
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930–87
Spouse	1) Ardanelle McCool Cosner (1935-44; divorced; 1 child) 2) Sonia Sorel (1944-56; divorced; 3 children) 3) Doris Rich (1957-71; her death) 4) Emily Cisneros (1975-88; his death)
Parents	William Reed Carradine Genevieve Winifred Richmond

John Carradine (born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history. He was married several times, had several children and was the patriarch of the Carradine family acting dynasty. It includes four of his sons and four of his grandchildren.

Early life[link]

John Carradine was born in the Greenwich Village section of New York City, the son of Genevieve Winifred (née Richmond), a surgeon, and William Reed Carradine, a correspondent for the Associated Press.^[1][2] William Carradine was the son of evangelical author Beverly Carradine. The family lived in Peekskill and Kingston, New York.^[3] William died from tuberculosis when John was two years old. John's mother remarried "a Philadelphia paper manufacturer named Peck, who thought the way to bring up someone else's boy was to beat him every day just on general principle."^[4] John attended the Christ Church School in Kingston.^[3] and the Episcopal Academy in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where he developed his diction and his memory while memorizing portions of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer as a punishment.^[4]

Carradine's son, David, recalled that his father ran away when he was 14 years old. He returned at some point, as he studied sculpture at Philadelphia's Graphic Arts Institute.^[3] John lived with his maternal uncle Peter Richmond in New York City for a while, working in the film archives of the public library. David said that while still a teenager, his father went to Richmond, Virginia, where he served as apprentice to Daniel Chester French, the sculptor who created the statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Monument (see notes). He traveled for a time, supporting himself painting portraits. "If the sitter was satisfied, the price was $2.50," he once said. "It cost him nothing if he thought it was a turkey. I made as high as $10 to $15 a day."^[1] During this time, he was arrested for vagrancy. While in jail Carradine was beaten, suffering a broken nose that did not set correctly. This contributed to "the look that would become world famous."^[4]

David Carradine said, "My dad told me that he saw a production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice when he was eleven years old and decided right then what he wanted to do with his life".^[4] He made his stage debut in 1925 in New Orleans in a production of Camille and worked for a time in a New Orleans Shakespeare company.^[3] Carradine joined a tent repertory theater under the management of R. D. MaClean, who became his mentor. In 1927, he took a job escorting a shipment of bananas from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles,^[3] where he eventually picked up some theater work under the name of Peter Richmond, in homage to his uncle. He became friends with John Barrymore, and began working for Cecil B. DeMille as a set designer. Carradine, however, did not have the job long. "DeMille noticed the lack of Roman columns in my sketches," Carradine said. "I lasted two weeks."^[3] Once DeMille heard his baritone voice, however, he hired him to do voice-overs. Carradine said, "...the great Cecil B. De Mille saw an apparition - me - pass him by, reciting the gravedigger's lines from 'Hamlet,' and he instructed me to report to him the following day."^[1] He became a member of DeMille's stock company and his voice was heard in several DeMille pictures, including The Sign of the Cross.

Career[link]

Screenshot from The Hurricane (1937)

Carradine's first film credit was Tol'able David (1930), but he claimed to have done 70 pictures before getting billing. Carradine tested, along with Conrad Veidt, William Courtenay, Paul Muni, and Ian Keith, for the title role in Dracula, but all contenders lost out to Bela Lugosi. Carradine would later play the Count in the Universal Studios Dracula sequels House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. Lugosi and Carradine both also tested for the monster role in Frankenstein (1931).^[3] By 1933, he was being credited as John Peter Richmond, perhaps in honor of his friend, John Barrymore.^[4] He adopted the stage name "John Carradine" in 1935, and legally took the name as his own two years later.

By 1936, Carradine had become a member of John Ford's stock company and appeared in The Prisoner of Shark Island. In total, he made 11 pictures with Ford, including his first important role, as Preacher Casy in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), which starred Henry Fonda.^[1] Other Ford films in which Carradine appeared includeThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Stagecoach (1939), both with John Wayne.

As preacher Casy in The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

He also portrayed the Biblical hero Aaron in DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956).

Carradine did considerable stage work, much of which provided his only opportunity to work in a classic drama context. He toured with his own Shakespearean company in the 1940s, playing Hamlet and Macbeth. His Broadway roles included Ferdinand in a 1946 production of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, the Ragpicker in a 13-month run of Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, Lycus in a 15-month run of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and DeLacey in the expensive one-night flop Frankenstein in 1981. He also toured in road companies of such shows as Tobacco Road and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which he was properly emaciated as the cancer-ridden Big Daddy, a part, he said, which Tennessee Williams wrote for him.^[3]

Carradine claimed to have appeared in more than 450 movies, but only 225 movies can be documented (his count is closer to fact if theatrical movies, made-for-TV movies and TV shows are included).^[3][5][6] He often played eccentric, insane or diabolical characters, especially in the horror genre with which he had become identified as a "star" by the mid-1940s. He occasionally played a heroic role, as in The Grapes of Wrath, in which he played Casy, the ill-fated "preacher", and he occasionally played a sympathetic role, as in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, in which he played Blake's shipmate, who escapes with him to a tropical island full of riches.

He appeared in dozens of low-budget horror films from the 1940s onwards, in order to finance a touring classical theatre company. He sang the theme song to one film in which he appeared briefly, Red Zone Cuba. He also made more than 100 television appearances, including CBS's My Friend Flicka and Place the Face, NBC's Overland Trail in the 1960 episode "The Reckoning," and on ABC's Harrigan and Son and The Legend of Jesse James. He made recurring appearances as the mortician, Mr. Gateman, on CBS' The Munsters. In 1985, Carradine won a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance as an eccentric old man who lives by the railroad tracks in the Young People's Special, Umbrella Jack.

In 1982, he supplied the voice of the Great Owl in the animated feature The Secret of NIMH. One of Carradine's final film appearances was Peggy Sue Got Married in 1986. Carradine's last released film credit was Bikini Drive-In, released years after his death.

Carradine's deep, resonant voice earned him the nickname "The Voice". He was also known as the "Bard of the Boulevard," due to his idiosyncratic habit of strolling Hollywood streets while reciting Shakespearean soliloquies, something he always denied.^[3]

Personal life[link]

Carradine was married four times. He married his first wife, Ardanelle McCool Cosner, in 1935. She was mother of Bruce and David.^[3] John adopted Bruce, Ardanelle's son from a previous marriage. John had planned a large family but, according to the autobiography of his son David, after Ardanelle had had a series of miscarriages, Carradine discovered that she had had repeated "coat hanger" abortions, without his knowledge, which rendered her unable to carry a baby to full term.^[4] After only three years of marriage, Ardenelle Carradine filed for divorce, but the couple remained married for another five years.^[7]

They divorced in 1944, when David was seven years old. Carradine left California to avoid court action in the alimony settlement.^[8][9][10] After the couple engaged in a series of court battles involving child custody and alimony, which at one point landed Carradine in jail,^[9] David joined his father in New York City. By this time his father had remarried. For the next few years David was shuffled between boarding schools, foster homes and reform school.^[11]

Carradine married Sonia Sorel, who had appeared with him in Bluebeard (1944) immediately following his divorce from Ardanelle in 1945. Sonia, who had adopted the stage name of Sorel, was the daughter of San Francisco brewer, Henry Henius, granddaughter of biochemist Max Henius, and a great-niece of the historian Johan Ludvig Heiberg.^[12] Together she and Carradine had three sons, Christopher, Keith and Robert. Their divorce in 1957^[12] was followed by an acrimonious custody battle, which resulted in their sons being placed in a home for abused children as wards of the court. Keith Carradine said of the experience, "It was like being in jail. There were bars on the windows, and we were only allowed to see our parents through glass doors. It was very sad. We would stand there on either side of the glass door crying".^[13]

Eventually, Carradine won custody of the children. For the next eight years, Sonia was not permitted to see the children.^[14] Robert Carradine said that he was raised primarily by his stepmother, his father's third wife, Doris (Rich) Grimshaw, and believed her to be his mother until he was introduced to Sonia Sorel at a Christmas party when he was 14 years old. He told a journalist, "I said, 'How do you do.' Keith took me aside and said 'That's our real mother.' I didn't know what he was talking about. But he finally convinced me."^[15]

When John Carradine married Doris (Erving Rich) Grimshaw^[16] in 1957, she already had a son from a previous marriage, Dale, and a son from a later relationship, Michael, both of whom, along with Sonia Sorel's son, Michael Bowen, are sometimes counted among John Carradine's eight sons.^[17]. She was a one-time studio typist who typed the script to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and who went on to play a few roles in film and television^[18]. Doris died in 1971 in a fire in her apartment in Oxnard, California. The fire was caused by a burning cigarette. She had been rescued from a similar fire just two weeks earlier. At the time of her death, she and Carradine were separated.^[19] Carradine was married a fourth time, from 1975 to 1988, to Emily Cisneros, who survived him.^[2]

Carradine suffered from painful and crippling arthritis during his later years, but continued working.

Death[link]

On November 27, 1988, John Carradine died from multiple organ failure at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan, Italy at age 82. Hours before he was stricken, he had climbed the 328 steep steps of Milan's Gothic cathedral, the Duomo. According to David Carradine, he had just finished a film in South Africa and was about to begin a European tour. David was with him, reading Shakespeare to him, when he succumbed to his condition.^[20] By the time David and Keith Carradine had arrived at their father's bedside, he was unable to speak. "I was told that his last words were 'Milan: What a beautiful place to die.'" David recalled, "but he never spoke to me or opened his eyes. When he died, I was holding him in my arms. I reached out and closed his eyes. It's not as easy as it is in the movies."^[4]

There was a memorial for John Carradine at St. Thomas the Apostle Hollywood; a church he had founded. Jane Fonda was among those in attendance. The service included a full requiem and Holy communion. An Irish wake followed and eventually he was buried at sea.^[4]

Legacy and honors[link]

• For his contribution to the motion picture industry, John Carradine has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6240 Hollywood Blvd.
• In 2003, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Acting legacy[link]

Four of Carradine's five sons became actors: David, Robert, Keith, and Bruce. David had a prolific career, amassing 227 movie and television credits by the time of his death in 2009. He also had a brief Broadway career and produced and directed a number of independent projects. His success often led to work for other members of his family, including his father. The two appeared together in a few films, including The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) and Boxcar Bertha (1972), which was produced by Roger Corman and directed by Martin Scorsese.

David's television series, Kung Fu, featured his father John and half-brother Robert in the episode "Dark Angel". John would appear as the same character, the Reverend Serenity Johnson, in two more episodes: "The Nature of Evil" and "Ambush". David's brothers Bruce and Keith also appeared in the series, with Keith playing David's character as a teenager for a brief period. David, Keith, and Robert appeared together in a humorous cameo on The Fall Guy, on an episode called "October the 31st" in which their father co-starred.

David's daughter, Calista, Robert's daughter Ever, and Keith's son Cade and daughter Martha Plimpton are all actors. David's daughter, Kansas, rides horses in rodeos.

John's son Christopher is an architect and vice-president of Walt Disney Imagineering.

Notes[link]

David Carradine recalled that John Carradine had worked as an apprentice to "Samuel Chester French, the artist who fashioned the Lincoln Memorial."^[4] However, the sculptor who created the Lincoln statue was Daniel Chester French.^[21]

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

• Carradine family

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Weaver, Tom. John Carradine: The Films. McFarland & Co., 1999.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Carradine

• John Carradine at the Internet Movie Database
• John Carradine at the Internet Broadway Database
• John Carradine at AllRovi
• John Carradine at Find a Grave

Jean Parker
in Bluebeard (1944)
Born	Lois Mae Green (1915-08-11)August 11, 1915 Deer Lodge, Montana, United States
Died	November 30, 2005(2005-11-30) (aged 90) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active	1932-1965
Spouse	Robert Lowery (1951-1957) 1 child Curtis Grotter (1944-1949) Douglas Dawson (1941-1943) George MacDonald (1936-1940)

Jean Parker (August 11, 1915 – November 30, 2005) was an American movie actress. She landed her first screen test while still in high school. She made pictures with well-known actors including Robert Donet, Edward G. Robinson, and Lionel Barrymore. She was married five times and had one son.

Career[link]

Born as Lois Mae Green in Deer Lodge, Montana, she appeared in 70 movies from 1932 through 1966. In 1932 Parker posed as a flower girl and living poster in a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade, where she was seen by by Ida Koverman, secretary to MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer. The following day the studio calls her on the phone and invites her for a screen test.^[1] She attended Pasadena schools and graduated from John Muir High School. Her original aspirations were in the fine arts and illustration.^[2]

She had a successful career at MGM, RKO and Columbia including important roles such as the tragic Beth in the original Little Women, among many other film appearances including Frank Capra's Lady for a Day and Gabriel Over the White House; Sequoia; Limehouse Blues with George Raft and Anna May Wong; The Ghost Goes West, opposite Robert Donat; and Rasputin and the Empress, with the Barrymore siblings (John, Ethel, and Lionel) in the only movie they all made together. In 1939, she starred opposite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in RKO's The Flying Deuces.

On November 9, 1939 she opened the Downtown Theatre in Oakland, California, and in December 1941, she opened the Orinda Theater in Contra Costa County.^[1]

Parker remained active in film throughout the 1940s, playing opposite Lon Chaney in Dead Man's Eyes, and a variety of other films. Parker managed her own airport and flying service with then-husband Doug Dawson in Palm Springs, California until shortly after the start of World War II. During the war, she toured many of the veteran hospitals throughout the U.S. and performed on radio. In the 1950s, Parker co-starred opposite Edward G. Robinson in Black Tuesday; had a small but effective role in The Gunfighter which starred Gregory Peck and appeared with Randolph Scott and Angela Lansbury in the western A Lawless Street (1955). Her last film appearance was Apache Uprising (1966), directed by A. C. Lyles.

Parker also appeared on Broadway. In 1949, she replaced Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday on Broadway and enjoyed a successful run in this classic. Parker also appeared on Broadway opposite Bert Lahr in the play Burlesque, did summer stock in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was on tour in the play Candlelight and Loco, and performed on stage in other professional productions.

In 1954, Parker played the role of Cattle Kate Watson of Wyoming in an episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century, the first western program to win an Emmy Award. The series starred and was narrated by Jim Davis.^[3] In September 1957, she filed for divorce from Lowery.^[1]

Later in life, Parker continued a successful stint on the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Utilizing her artistic talents, she contracts in June 1935 to make eight original sketches a month for a Beverly Hills shop.^[1]

In December 1935 at age 20, she became engaged to New York socialite newspaperman George E. McDonald, and eloped with him to Las Vegas on March 21, 1936. McDonald continues his business affairs on the east coast, and after less than four years of marriage, Parker is granted interlocutory decree on January 23, 1940. On February 14, 1941, she married Los Angeles radio commentator Henry Dawson Sanders, known professionally as Doug Dawson. In July 1942, her husband joined the Coast Guard and in September 1942 she separated from her husband. They are divorced in July 43, and a month after she was granted her final divorce decree on July 29, 1944, she marries Dr. Kurt "Curtis" Arthur Grotter, a Hollywood insurance broker and former correspondent for a group of Czechoslovakian newspapers. They are separated on June 19, 1949 and divorced on December 29, 1949. On May 19, 1951, at age 45, she secretly married actor Robert Lowery, at the home of a friend in Miami, Florida. Lowery had played Batman in 1949.

While appearing at a nightclub in Sydney, Australia^[4] during 1951, Parker made international headlines when she was escorted off Bondi Beach when swimsuit inspector Abe Laidlaw measured her bikini and determined it was too skimpy.^[5][1] In 1952, Parker gave birth to a son, Robert Lowery Hanks, who later worked as an executive for the city of Los Angeles. She and Lowery filed for divorce in September 1957.^[1]

At age 83, she moved into the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, where she died of a stroke on November 30, 2005, at the age of 90.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jean Parker

• Jean Parker at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean Parker at the TCM Movie Database
• Jean Parker at AllRovi
• Photographs of Jean Parker
• Jean Parker at Find a Grave

Nils Asther
Asther in 1916
Born	(1897-01-17)17 January 1897 Hellerup, Denmark
Died	19 October 1981(1981-10-19) (aged 84) Farsta, Sweden
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1916–1963

Nils Anton Alfhild Asther (17 January 1897 – 19 October 1981)^[1] was a Danish-born Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid 1950s, known for his beautiful face and often called "the male Greta Garbo". Between 1916 and 1963 he appeared in over 70 feature films, 16 of which were produced in the silent era.

Biography[link]

Born in Denmark in the Copenhagen suburb of Hellerup to unknown biological parents,^[1] Asther was adopted shortly after birth by a wealthy couple in Malmö, Sweden, where he grew up. As a young man he moved to Stockholm, where he received acting lessons from local star Augusta Lindberg, who also became his mistress, although almost 30 years older than he was. Through her, he received his first theatrical engagement at Lorensbergsteatern in Gothenburg, and in 1916 Mauritz Stiller cast him in The Wings. This soon lead to a number of film roles in both Sweden, Denmark and Germany between 1918 and 1926.

In 1927 he left for Hollywood, where his first film was Topsy and Eva. The film also featured the Duncan Sisters, and in 1930 he married one of them, Vivian Duncan, who gave him a daughter, Evelyn.^[2]

By 1928 his good looks had made him into a leading man, playing opposite such stars as Pola Negri, Marion Davies, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, with whom he made two films. He grew a thin mustache which amplified his suave appearance.

With the arrival of sound in movies, Asther took voice lessons so as to minimize the presence of his accent, and was generally cast in roles where an accent wasn't a problem, such as the role as Chinese General Yen in The Bitter Tea of General Yen.^[1]

Between 1935 and 1940 he was forced work in England after an alleged breach of contract led to a studio-based blacklist.^[3] There he made six films. He returned to Hollywood in 1940, and although he made another 19 films back up to 1949, his career wasn't the same as it used to be. In the early 1950s he tried to restart his career within TV, but managed only to secure roles in a few episodes of minor TV series.^[1]

In 1958^[4] he returned to Sweden, almost destitute. He managed to get an engagement with a local theatre and had four film roles in Sweden and Denmark, before finally giving up on acting in 1963 and devoting his time to painting.^[1]

In 1988 his autobiography, Narrens väg (The Road of the Jester) was posthumously published in Swedish.^[2]

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Nils Asther has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6705 Hollywood Blvd.

Selected filmography[link]

• The Wings (1916)
• The Golden Butterfly (1926)
• Sorrell and Son (1927)
• The Cossacks (1928)
• Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
• Our Dancing Daughters (1928)
• The Single Standard (1929)
• Wild Orchids (1929)
• The Sea Bat (1930)
• The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
• Night of January 16th (1941)
• Flying Blind (1941)
• Night Monster (1942)
• Bluebeard (1944)
• The Man in Half Moon Street (1944)
• The Feathered Serpent (1948)
• Suddenly, a Woman! (1963)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nils Asther at the Internet Movie Database
• Nils Asther at the Swedish Film Database
• Nils Asther at AllRovi

Mabel Mercer (3 February 1900 – 20 April 1984)^[1] was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the Carlyle, the St. Regis Hotel, and eventually her own room, the Byline Club. Among those who frequently attended Mercer's shows was Frank Sinatra, who made no secret of his emulating her phrasing and story-telling techniques.

Early life[link]

Mercer was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England.^[1] Her mother was a young, white English music hall performer, and her father was a black American jazz musician whom Mabel never knew. At age fourteen, she left her convent school in Manchester, and toured Britain and Europe with her aunt in vaudeville and music hall engagements.

Career[link]

In 1928, she was an unknown member of the black chorus in the London production of Show Boat, but she had become the toast of Paris by the 1930s, with admirers who included Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Cole Porter.

When World War II broke out, she traveled to America to sing in the finest supper clubs in New York City. Her recording career began in 1942, with an album of selections from Porgy and Bess on the elite Liberty Music Shops label, featuring piano accompaniment by Cy Walter. Over the following decades, Mercer made many concert appearances across the U.S. In the late 1960s, she gave two concerts with Bobby Short at Town Hall in New York City.^[1] Both were released by Atlantic Records: Mabel Mercer & Bobby Short at Town Hall, in 1968, (Atlantic SD 2-604) and Mabel Mercer & Bobby Short Second Town Hall Concert, in 1969 (Atlantic SD 2-605). In 1969, she made two appearances on the television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Her original and reissued albums are collector's items. Atlantic Records reissued four of her early LPs in a boxed set in 1975, in honor of her 75th birthday. She was awarded Stereo Review Magazine's first Award for Merit, for her lifetime achievement and for "outstanding contributions to the quality of American musical life." This award was officially renamed the Mabel Mercer Award in 1984.

Late career[link]

When Mercer returned on 4 July 1977 for her first performance in England in 41 years, the BBC filmed three evenings' performances and later broadcast it in a week-long late-night television program, a BBC first for an entertainer.

In 1978, "Midnight at Mabel Mercer's," her 1956 album on Atlantic, was praised as "one of the best recordings of the past twenty years" by Stereo Review. That same year, Mercer played at San Francisco's Club Mocambo to sold-out audiences, in celebration of her 78th birthday.

In 1982. Mercer teamed up with her dear friend Eileen Farrell in concert as part of the Kool Jazz Festival. Farrell often expressed it was the one pirated record she wished she had!

Honors[link]

In January 1981, she was honored by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York with "An American Cabaret," the only musical event of its kind at that point in the museum's history. Mercer was the first guest on Eileen Farrell's new program featuring great popular singers, on National Public Radio.

Mercer received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian medal, in 1983.^[1]

When President Ronald Reagan presented it to her in a ceremony at the White House, he called her "a singer's singer" and "a living testament to the artfulness of the American song". She also received two honorary Doctor of Music degrees: one from Boston's Berklee College of Music, the other from the New England Conservatory of Music.

Mabel Mercer died on 20 April 1984, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.^[1]

The Mabel Mercer Foundation[link]

In 1985, the Mabel Mercer Foundation was established with the efforts of her long-time friend and professional associate Donald F. Smith. This not-for-profit arts organization was formed to keep Mercer's memory alive, and to contribute to the art of cabaret performing by supporting artists and providing information resources. Its international activities include the debut of the London Cabaret Convention in 2004. The Foundation produced Noël Coward's 100th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall, and also has a Young Person's Series to introduce young people to The Great American Songbook of popular classics.

Filmography[link]

Live concerts[link]

• 2005: Mabel Mercer: A Singer's Singer^[2][3]

As actress[link]

• 1936: Tropical Trouble^[4]
• 1936: Everything Is Rhythm^[5]
• 1961: The Sand Castle^[6]

Discography[link]

• 1942: Porgy and Bess
• 1953: Songs by Mabel Mercer, Vol. 1
• 1953: Songs by Mabel Mercer, Vol. 2
• 1953: Songs by Mabel Mercer, Vol. 3
• 1955: Sings Cole Porter
• 1956: Midnight at Mabel Mercer's
• 1958: Once in a Blue Moon
• 1960: Merely Marvelous
• 1968: At Town Hall (Live)
• 1969: Second Town Hall (Live)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Photos: The Mabel Mercer Foundation
• Mabel Mercer at the Internet Movie Database