Frances Langford

Frances Langford

Born: April 4, 1913
Died: July 11, 2005
in Hernando, Florida, USA
Frances Langford won fame on radio (primarily as Bob Hope's vocalist, later sparring comically with Don Ameche as "The Bickersons"), via recordings and in the movies. In spite of the fact that she played mostly in minor musicals (plus appearing occasionally in "A" productions, including Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), This Is the Army (1943) and The Glenn Miller Story (1954)), she introduced major songs like "I'm in the Mood for Love" in Every Night at Eight (1935), "You are My Lucky Star" and "Broadway Rhythm" in Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), Cole Porter's "Easy to Love" in Born to Dance (1936) and "Hooray for Hollywood" in Hollywood Hotel (1937).

Date of Birth 4 April 1913, Lakeland, Florida

Date of Death 11 July 2005, Jensen Beach, Florida  (congestive heart failure)

Movies for Frances Langford...

This Is Bob Hope...
Title: This Is Bob Hope...
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: December 29, 2017
Type: Movie
During his career, Bob Hope was the only performer to achieve top-rated success in every form of mass entertainment. American Masters explores the entertainer’s life through his personal archives and clips from his classic films.
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Winter Wonderland
Title: Winter Wonderland
Character: Frances Langford (voice) (archive sound)
Released: November 18, 2003
Type: Movie
A look at everyone's favorite Disney characters as they explore the joys of Christmas.
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Entertaining the Troops: Bob Hope & the USO
Title: Entertaining the Troops: Bob Hope & the USO
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 2002
Type: Movie
When the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt exempted Bob Hope from military service because of the need for entertainers. So began Bob's lifelong career entertaining U.S. troops at home and abroad. When the USO (United Service Organizations) was formed, Bob Hope was the perfect person to be its headliner, bringing "a bit of home" to front lines and military hospitals around the world.
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James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Title: James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: November 22, 1988
Type: Movie
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
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Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
Title: Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: May 16, 1988
Type: Movie
Stars celebrate Bob Hope's 50 years with NBC.
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That's Dancing!
Title: That's Dancing!
Character: From 'Born to Dance' (archive footage)
Released: January 18, 1985
Type: Movie
A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s 50s and 60s up to the break dance and the music videos from the 80s.
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Title: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 1962
Type: TV
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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Title: The DuPont Show of the Week
Character: Self
Released: September 17, 1961
Type: TV
The DuPont Show of the Week is an American anthology drama series which aired for three seasons on NBC from September 17, 1961 to August 30, 1964.
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Music Land
Title: Music Land
Character: Singer (archive footage)
Released: June 11, 1955
Type: Movie
Walt Disney animation animated cartoon musical compilation ("The BIG Parade of MIRTH and MELODY"; "Offering hits re-released from 'Make Mine Music' and 'Melody Time'"; featuring cartoons from the 1946 musical, "Make Mine Music," and the 1948 musical "Melody Time") featuring Donald Duck, Joe Carioca, and other Disney cartoon characters, and also songs by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Frances Langford, Roy Rogers and Trigger, The Andrews Sisters (Laverne, Maxene, and Patty Andrews), Freddy Martin and his orchestra, Sons of the Pioneers, Jerry Colonna, and Ethel Smith
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A Star Is Born World Premiere
Title: A Star Is Born World Premiere
Character: Self
Released: September 28, 1954
Type: Movie
Live television broadcast of the world premiere. Described by various participants as the biggest world premiere in memory, even bigger than the Academy Awards.
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The Glenn Miller Story
Title: The Glenn Miller Story
Character: Frances Langford
Released: January 4, 1954
Type: Movie
A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.
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Purple Heart Diary
Title: Purple Heart Diary
Character: Frances Langford
Released: November 12, 1951
Type: Movie
A trio of singers entertaining hospitalized soldiers during WWII encourage a wounded soldier in his love for a nurse.
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Title: The Colgate Comedy Hour
Character: Self
Released: September 10, 1950
Type: TV
The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show starred many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Ray Bolger, Gordon MacRae, Ben Blue, Robert Paige, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Broadway dancer Wayne Lamb and Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
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Title: Star Time
Character: Self - Singer
Released: September 2, 1950
Type: TV
Star Time is an American variety series which aired on the DuMont Television Network from September 5, 1950 to February 27, 1951, and starred singer-actress Frances Langford.
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Deputy Marshal
Title: Deputy Marshal
Character: Janet Masters
Released: October 28, 1949
Type: Movie
A lawman takes on gangsters attempting to steal property wanted for a railroad.
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Make Mine Laughs
Title: Make Mine Laughs
Character: (archive footage)
Released: August 3, 1949
Type: Movie
A kind of filmed vaudeville show, using old material from RKO films and some new.
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Melody Time
Title: Melody Time
Character: Frances Langford
Released: May 27, 1948
Type: Movie
In the grand tradition of Disney's great musical classics, Melody Time features seven timeless stories, each enhanced with high-spirited music and unforgettable characters. You'll be sure to tap your toes and clap your hands in this witty feast for the eyes and ears.
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Once Upon a Wintertime
Title: Once Upon a Wintertime
Character: Herself, Vocalist, Frances Langford (singing voice)
Released: May 27, 1948
Type: Movie
A short segment of the feature film Melody Time, re-released as a separate entity five years afterwards.
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Beat the Band
Title: Beat the Band
Character: Ann Rogers
Released: February 19, 1947
Type: Movie
Singer Ann wants back her money that the manager of a big-band has embezzled.
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The Bamboo Blonde
Title: The Bamboo Blonde
Character: Louise Anderson
Released: July 15, 1946
Type: Movie
A pilot of a B 29 meets Louise Anderson, a singer in a New York nightclub. He falls in love with her, but he had to leave next day for action in the Pacific. He lets paint her picture on his bomber, the "Bamboo Blonde" and becomes a hero with his crew sinking a Japanese battleship and shooting down a Japanese fighter wing. Back in New York, he leaves his fiancée and engages him to Louise.
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People Are Funny
Title: People Are Funny
Character: Frances Langford - Guest
Released: January 11, 1946
Type: Movie
A comedy based on NBC's "People Are Funny" radio (and later television) program with Art Linkletter with a fictional story of how the program came to be on a national network from its humble beginning at a Nevada radio station. Jack Haley is a producer with only half-rights to the program while Ozzie Nelson and Helen Walker are the radio writers and supply the romance. Rudy Vallee, always able to burlesque himself intentional and, quite often, unintentional, is the owner of the sought-after sponsoring company. Frances Langford, as herself, sings "I'm in the Mood for Love" while the Vagabonds quartet (billed 12th and last) chimes in on "Angeline" and "The Old Square Dance is Back Again."
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Radio Stars on Parade
Title: Radio Stars on Parade
Character: Sally Baker
Released: August 1, 1945
Type: Movie
A Hollywood talent agency tries to avoid finacial ruin by getting its best clients on the air.
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Girl Rush
Title: Girl Rush
Character: Flo Daniels
Released: October 21, 1944
Type: Movie
During the California Gold Rush, two down-on-their-luck vaudevillians attempt to become wealthy by bringing a girlie show to an all-male western mining town.
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Dixie Jamboree
Title: Dixie Jamboree
Character: Susan Jackson
Released: August 15, 1944
Type: Movie
A medicine man on the last show boat on the Mississippi is mistaken by two gangsters as a bootleger, and has to envade them.
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Memo for Joe
Title: Memo for Joe
Character: Self
Released: August 10, 1944
Type: Movie
Documentary short film extolling the virtues of the American Community Chest charity program and its value to the Allied war effort.
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Career Girl
Title: Career Girl
Character: Joan Terry
Released: January 11, 1944
Type: Movie
Joan Terry, from Kansas City, comes to New York to get a job on the stage. But until she finds an opportunity, she stays at a boarding house where other talent is also waiting. To get a better chance, the people there decide to build a talent pool, where the person with the most chances for a job gets the full support, trying to get jobs for the others there too - and Joan is chosen to do that. But this is not so easy when her fiance is trying to keep her away from the stage...
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Never a Dull Moment
Title: Never a Dull Moment
Character: Julie Russell
Released: November 19, 1943
Type: Movie
Nightclub gangsters hire a vaudeville act called the Three Funny Bunnies (Ritz Brothers).
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This Is the Army
Title: This Is the Army
Character: Herself
Released: August 14, 1943
Type: Movie
In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his son Johnny Jones, who was before his fathers assistant, gets the order to stage a knew all-soldier show, called THIS IS THE ARMY. But in his pesonal life he has problems, because he refuses to marry his fiancée until the war is over.
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Cowboy in Manhattan
Title: Cowboy in Manhattan
Character: Babs Lee
Released: May 21, 1943
Type: Movie
Bob Allen, a struggling songwriter poses as a millionaire cowboy to win Broadway star Babs Lee.
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Follow the Band
Title: Follow the Band
Character: Frances Langford
Released: April 1, 1943
Type: Movie
A farmer from Vermont travels to New York and becomes a successful singer in a nightclub.
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Combat America
Title: Combat America
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1943
Type: Movie
Produced in 1943 under the guidance of Army Air Force Lieutenant Clark Gable, this film follows a single 8th Air Force B-17 crew from training through a series of missions over Europe.
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Yankee Doodle Dandy
Title: Yankee Doodle Dandy
Character: Singer
Released: May 29, 1942
Type: Movie
A film of the life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer George M. Cohan.
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Mississippi Gambler
Title: Mississippi Gambler
Character: Beth Cornell
Released: April 17, 1942
Type: Movie
A journalist finds out, that a plantation owner he meets is a gangster the police is looking for, who has changed his face with plastic surgery.
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Swing It Soldier
Title: Swing It Soldier
Character: Patricia Loring / Evelyn Loring Waters
Released: November 7, 1941
Type: Movie
In this musical comedy, a pregnant disc jockey misses her husband who is fighting overseas. Stressed out by the situation and her job, she decides to take some time off and convinces her twin sister to trade places with her. The switcheroo causes the soldier her husband appointed as her unofficial guardian no end of confusion.
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All-American Co-Ed
Title: All-American Co-Ed
Character: Virginia Collinge
Released: October 31, 1941
Type: Movie
Fraternity brothers enter one of their own into a scholarship lottery after a women's college insults them. Though the Zeta boys are celebrated for their comedy drag revue, staying undercover as a woman at an all-girls' school wasn't part of the rehearsal!
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Hit Parade of 1941
Title: Hit Parade of 1941
Character: Pat Abbott
Released: October 14, 1940
Type: Movie
In this musical, the second entry in a five-film series, a thrift shop owner sells his business and buys a small time radio station. He begins looking for sponsors. He finds one with a department store owner who will only lend him the money if he will allow his daughter, an aspiring tap-dancer and singer, to perform on the air. This is unfortunate as she is tone-deaf. To compensate, the owner hires a real singer to dub the daughter's voice. The singer and the owner's nephew fall in love and mayhem ensues. Songs include: the Oscar nominated "Who Am I?," "Swing Low Sweet Rhythm," "In The Cool of the Evening," "Make Yourself at Home," "The Swap Shop Song," "The Trading Post," "Sally," "Ramona," "Sweet Sue," "Dinah," "Margie," and "Mary Lou."
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Too Many Girls
Title: Too Many Girls
Character: Eileen Eilers
Released: October 8, 1940
Type: Movie
Mr. Casey's daughter, Connie, wants to go to Pottawatomie College and without her knowledge, he sends four football players as her bodyguards. The college is in financial trouble and her bodyguards use their salary to help the college. The football players join the college team, and the team becomes one of the best. One of the football players, Clint, falls in love with Connie, but when she discovers he is her bodyguard, she decides to go back East. The bodyguards follow her, leaving the team in the lurch.
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Dreaming Out Loud
Title: Dreaming Out Loud
Character: Alice
Released: September 30, 1940
Type: Movie
Lum and Abner work at a general store in Arkansas. There they get involved in some misadventures with the locals.
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Hollywood Hotel
Title: Hollywood Hotel
Character: Alice
Released: January 15, 1938
Type: Movie
After losing a coveted role in an upcoming film to another actress, screen queen Mona Marshall (Lola Lane) protests by refusing to appear at her current movie's premiere. Her agent discovers struggling actress Virginia Stanton (Rosemary Lane) -- an exact match for Mona -- and sends her to the premiere instead, with young musician Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell). After various mishaps, including a case of mistaken identity, Ronnie and Virginia struggle to find success in Hollywood.
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The Hit Parade
Title: The Hit Parade
Character: Ruth Allison
Released: April 26, 1937
Type: Movie
Agent Pete Garland is fired by society singer Monica Barrett after he got her a new radio contract, because she thinks her lawyer friend Teddy Leeds fits in better with her social status. To get even, Pete wants to make an unknown singer into a star. He finds Ruth Allison, drives her hard through rehearsals and makes her a star. But she is worried about her past, something she hasn't told Pete: She's an ex-convict and jumped bail in order to keep her partners in crime out of it. Further she's in love with Pete, but feels that he's still carrying a torch for Monica. When Monica's popularity is decreasing, Pete is able to get Ruth a stint on the program, the result is Monica is fired and Ruth get her job, but Monica takes revenge by revealing Ruth's past. Ruth considers it is best for her to disappear before being arrested, but she has become a star in public opinion. Will she get Pete or will she go to prison again?
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Born to Dance
Title: Born to Dance
Character: 'Peppy' Turner
Released: November 27, 1936
Type: Movie
On leave, a sailor falls in love with a young lady aspiring to become a Broadway dancer, but their relationship is jeopardized by an established Broadway star, who is also enamored by him.
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Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs
Title: Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs
Released: August 5, 1936
Type: Movie
Winners of the Lucky Stars National Dance Contest - one woman from each state of the United States - are welcomed to Palm Springs. Palm Springs being the desert playground for the movie stars, the women are introduced to the cavalcade of stars vacationing in Palm Springs at the time.
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Palm Springs
Title: Palm Springs
Character: Joan Smythe
Released: June 5, 1936
Type: Movie
A gambler in need of cash plots a romance between his daughter and a wealthy Englishman. The daughter, however, has plans of her own.
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Collegiate
Title: Collegiate
Character: Miss Hay
Released: January 22, 1936
Type: Movie
A Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school and tries to save it by a big show.
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Broadway Melody of 1936
Title: Broadway Melody of 1936
Character: Frances Langford
Released: September 18, 1935
Type: Movie
Lovely, gifted Irene Foster hopes that her childhood sweetheart-turned Broadway producer Robert Gordon will recognize her--and her talent. Gordon is too busy sparring with a dirt-dishing gossip columnist to notice, but his wisecracking, heart-of-gold secretary certainly does. She and Irene must use their wits to show him what he's missing!
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Every Night at Eight
Title: Every Night at Eight
Character: Susan Moore
Released: August 2, 1935
Type: Movie
Three young girls working in an agency have build a singing trio. They want to "lease" the Dictaphone of their boss to make a record of their singing, but they are caught and fired. When they are not able to pay their rent any longer, they decide to try it on an amateur contest at a radio station.
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Rambling 'Round Radio Row #5
Title: Rambling 'Round Radio Row #5
Character: Singer
Released: June 7, 1933
Type: Movie
The Happines Boys Billy Jones and Earnie Hare are invited to a party, but separate themselves from the rest of the guests, so they can not be urged to perform. However, they are watching the other guests from radio doing their stuff: song team Reece & Dunn, as well as the Funnyboners are singing, Smith Ballew and Frances Langford are exchanging love songs, Arthur Tracy tries his luck with a girl, just to find out that she prefers Bing Crosby and 4 orchestra leaders are trying to find out, who the best conductor is, by conducting a piece of recorded music....