Morton Downey: Radio Recordings

Morton Downey

11:15 Tues.-Thurs.-Sat.

WINS-MBS.

Morton Downey is back on the air-waves for his favorite soft drink at 11:15 P.M. three times weekly, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, over the Mutual Network coast to coast.

In a program which is entirely different from the homespun songs and poems which he used to broadcast during the daytime, Downey is now specializing in what he calls his own kind of sooth-singing: soft, sentimental ballads and tunes.

With Downey on his new program are a quartet of male singers who provide soft, melodic background for Downey’s silvery voice, and an intimate orchestra of eight under the skillful baton of Carmen Mastren.

Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the son of the local fire-chied, Downey is probably the Nutmeg State’s most famous good-will ambassador and most popular citizen. Nutmeggers remember him as the kid who used to sing at Elks’ benefits for nickels, accompanied by a friend who played the accordion. And they also still talk about how he was bounced from a job as candy-butcher on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad because of his irrepressible yen to whistle while he worked.

It was through one of the talent scouts for Paul Whiteman that Downey really got his first big chance. That was when he was singing at the Sheridan Square Theater in New York, and a representative of Whiteman offered him seventy-five dollars for singing with the band.

Fame came quickly, and soon the Irish troubadour got equal billing with the Paul Whiteman radio band. The band and Downey went across the Atlantic several times on the S.S. Leviathan, and then Downey toured with Whiteman during the thrilling days of the “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Soon Downey was really on his own, a star in his own right, singing in the smartest clubs and hotels of this country and Europe. His first Hollywood appearance was with Fred Waring and his band in one of the first cinema musicals, “Syncopation.” After another seven-month tour of continental night clubs, Downey returned to New York to open his own Delmonico Club, the scene of his first United States radio broadcasting.

In the past sixteen years, Downey has sung over every major network in this country and many in Europe; he has traveled more in foreign countries than any other American singer. Those requests for special songs have come from more than 10.000 people, including the late Franklin Delano Rossevelt and the Duke of Windsor.