Tweet Any Lee Wiley fans out there?

Lee Wiley--most people say, who was he?

She was a wonderful singer, tasteful, musical, and with a wonderful feel for personalizing a song. Her great 78rpm "composer songbooks" of Gershwin (1939). and Cole Porter (1940), remain firsts, and classics.

Yet, I cannot find any film clips of her in action. She first recorded c1931. I wonder if any clips exist? Has anyone ever seen any?

The IMDB indicates that she was in a Warners musical short from 1938, "Woody Herman & His Orchestra". It *might* be the same one that's on the Warner Archive collection of band shorts.

-Harold

That short is indeed in thew Warner Archive Big Band, Jazz & Swing set, and Lee Wiley's name is listed in the opening credits, but there's no sign of her in the short. Whoever submitted the imdb listing credits her as being one of the twin girls in the dance number! The only one who sings in the short is Woody Herman.

Lee Wiley guested on one of Jolson's SHELL CHATEAU radio broadcasts during the summer of 1935 that has survived. She's in a playlet set in a dockside diner where she works as a waitress. Her boyfriend's ship has just come in and she can't wait to see him but when he stops by the diner he obviously doesn't remember her (he sounds a little like Popeye too) so off he goes while Wiley sings the lament, "The Little Things You Used To Do," by Dubin & Warren, not coincidentally from the Jolson film, GO INTO YOUR DANCE. Nice little segment that gives Wiley a chance to act as well as sing.

What I want to know is what did she do to essentially drop off the map at the end of the 1930s? I don't know what happened to her until she resurfaced in the early 1950s.

The liner notes of the CDs I have refer obliquely to a difficult personality, but did she really burn all her bridges?

Lee Wiley was supposedly involved romantically with Bunny Berigan. Both drank a great deal. Berigan died of alcoholism in 1942, at the age of 34. Lee would also have been 34 at the time.

She did some nice work with Eddie Condon's groups and made some good records during the 1940's. From what I know, she was very hard to work with. She wanted a career in radio drama. That never did work out.

There's a slender bio/disco/photo book on her by Gus Kuhlman, 68 pages, that's all. I never could find a copy.

Somebody also had a nice Wiley blog with many rare photos. But I can't seem to find it any longer.

Later in life Lee Wiley recorded some songs that came out on the US Monmouth-Evergreen, if I remember correctly and I imported this LP for my record wholesale business in the 1970s. I don't have now, though, unfortunately.

I've enjoyed everything I've heard by Wiley, which is assorted sides circa 1933, the Rodgers and Hart album, Night in Manhattan, and one of her RCA Victor albums, West of the Moon.

The way she sings "Who Can I Turn To Now?" on Moon, you feel like the world is ending. Devastating.