Frankie Laine

At 93 years old, Frankie Laine has this physical status:

Early career and stylistic influences

His vocal skills were enough to attract him even more at his school, including Chicago's Merry Garden Ballroom, to dances and to local dance clubs. He performed before a 5,000 audience at The Merry Garden Ballroom, astonish that he came up for five encores on his first night. When he was called to the bandstand to perform, Laine was teaching dance lessons at the Merry Garden for a charity ball.

Enrico Caruso, Carlo Buti, and especially Bessie Smith, a record of a man whose somehow ended up in his parents' collection, were among his early influences during this period.

Gene Austin, a falsetto crooner who had influenced him at this moment, was another performer who had influenced him at this moment. Laine worked after school at a drugstore across the street from a record store that was consistently hit by Gene Austin because of their loudspeakers. In time to Austin's songs, he will swab down the windows. Many years later, Laine related the incident to Austin when both were guests on the famous television variety show Shower of Stars. Along with Austin's daughter, Charlotte, he will also appear in a film titled Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder.'

Laine remained a member of The Merry Garden's marathon dance company and toured with them during the Great Depression, setting a new world record of 3,501 hours with partner Ruthie Smith at Atlantic City's Million Dollar Pier in 1932). Frank LoVecchio is still on the show. During the fifteen-minute breaks the dancers were given each hour, he would entertain them. During his marathon days, he worked with many up-and-coming entertainers, including Rose Marie, Red Skelton, and a 14-year-old Anita O'Day, for whom he served as a mentor (as noted by Laine in a 1998 interview).

Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong (as a trumpet player), Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey, and, eventually, Nat "King" Cole were among the artists whose styles began to influence Laine. When Laine's career was just starting to gain traction, she befriended Cole in Los Angeles. Cole's song, "It Only Happens Once," was written by the fledgling songwriter Laine. They remained close friends through Cole's life, and Laine was one of the pall bearers at Cole's funeral.

Perry Como was replaced in the Freddy Carlone band in Cleveland in 1937, and Como called Carlone about Laine. Como was also a lifelong friend of Laine's who once encouraged Laine to travel for a potential gig.

The Laine's lyrical style was insensitive to the Carlone band's sweet sounds, and the two bands parted soon. Laine's triumph continued to elude, and he spent the next ten years "scuffling"; alternating between performing at small jazz clubs on both coasts and a line of occupations, including those of a bouncer, dance instructor, synthetic leather factory worker, and machinist at a defense plant. He first began writing songs while serving at the defense plant during the Second World War ("It Only Happens Once") was written at the plant. He was usually homeless during his "scuffling" phases when he was sleeping on a bench in Central Park and reached his lowest point of his career.

After starting his career as a drummer for the New York City radio station WINS, Frankie Laine changed his profession to Frankie Laine in 1938. Jack Coombs, the program's director, felt that "LoVecchio" was "too foreign and too much of a mouthful for the studio announcers," so he shortened it to "Lane," an homage to his high school. Frankie used the letter "i" to avoid confusion with a young singer at the station who went by the name of Frances Lane. Helen O'Connell, the unknown songbird, was working with the Jimmy Dorsey band at this time. WINS dropped him after realizing that they no longer needed a jazz artist. With the help of bandleader Jean Goldkette, he earned a job with a NBC-sponsored (non-sponsored) radio show. Germany attacked Poland as he was about to begin, and all sustainer broadcasts were pulled off the air in deference to the military's needs.

Laine found work in a munitions plant for $150.00 a week. He resigned from singing for the fifth or sixth time in his already long career. He encountered a trio of girl singers while working at the studio and became engaged to the lead singer. Johnny Mercer's Capitol Records had discovered the group and persuaded Laine to go out to Hollywood with them as their agent.

He moved to California in 1943, where he appeared in the background of many films, including The Harvey Girls, and dubbed the singing voice for an actor in Danny Kaye's comedy The Kid from Brooklyn. It was in Los Angeles in 1944 that Al Jarvis and composer/pianist Carl T. Fischer, the latter of whom was supposed to be his songwriting partner, musical director, and piano accompanist until his death in 1954. "I'd Give My Life," "Baby, Just For Me," "Forever More," and the jazz standard "We'll Be Together Again" were among their songwriting collaborations.

When the war came, Laine soon discovered himself "scuffling" again, and was eventually given a place to remain by Jarvis. Jarvis did his best to help support the struggling singer's career, and Laine soon had a small, regional following. In the meantime, Laine will make the rounds of the major jazz clubs, wishing that the featured band will summon him to play a number with them. Hoagy Carmichael heard him playing at Billy Berg's Los Angeles club in late 1946, and that was when triumph finally came. Laine, who was unaware that Carmichael was in the audience, performed the Carmichael-penned "Rockin' Chair" when Slim Gaillard called him up to perform. This resulted in a deal with the recently established Mercury Records. "Put Yourself in My Place, Baby," Laine and Carmichael's track "Put Yourself in My Place, Baby" would later collaborate on a album, "Put Yourself in My Place, Baby."

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