1. Life and career

2. Family

3. Hit records

4. Filmography

5. References

6. External links

• Big band
• Traditional pop}}

• Decca
• Mercury
• RCA Victor
• Motown}}

Alvin Morris (December 25, 1913 – July 27, 2012), known professionally as Tony Martin, was an American actor and popular singer. His career spanned over seven decades, and he scored dozens of hits between the late-1930s and mid-1950s with songs such as "Walk Hand in Hand", "Stranger in Paradise" and "I Get Ideas". He was married to actress and dancer Cyd Charisse for 60 years, from 1948 until her death in 2008.

Life and career

Martin was born on December 25, 1913, in San Francisco,^[1][2] the son of Hattie (née Smith) and Edward Clarence Morris.^[3][4] His family was Jewish, and all of his grandparents had emigrated from Eastern Europe.^[3] He was raised in Oakland, California.^[5] At the age of ten, he received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother.^[6] He went to Oakland High School and St Mary's College.^[7]

In his grammar school glee club, he became an instrumentalist and singer. He formed his first band, named "The Red Peppers," when he was at Oakland Technical High School, eventually joining the band of a local orchestra leader, Tom Gerun, as a saxophone player sitting alongside the future bandleader Woody Herman. He attended Saint Mary's College of California during the mid-1930s. After college, he left Gerun's band to go to Hollywood to try films. It was at that time that he adopted the stage name of Tony Martin.

On radio, Martin sang and was master of ceremonies on Tune-Up Time, with Andre Kostelanetz, on CBS in the early 1940s.^[8] The Tony Martin Show, a 15-minute variety program, was broadcast on NBC from 1954 to 1956 prior to the evening newscast. One of his guests was Dinah Shore, soon starring in her own hour-long NBC variety program. {{Citation needed|date=October 2011}}

He was a featured vocalist on the George Burns and Gracie Allen radio program. On the show Allen playfully flirted with Tony, often threatening to fire him. Allen would say things like, "Oh, Tony, you look so tired, why don't you rest your lips on mine?"

In films, Martin was first cast in a number of bit parts, including a role as a sailor in Follow the Fleet (1936), starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He eventually signed with 20th Century-Fox and then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which he starred in a number of musicals. Between 1938 and 1942, he made a number of hit records for Decca. In 1941, Martin received equal billing with the Marx Brothers in their final film for MGM, The Big Store, in an effort to lure pop music fans and as an indication of MGM's lack of interest in the comedy team.^[9] In the film he played a rising singer and performed "Tenement Symphony," which was written by Hal Borne, who became his long-time musical director. Martin was the last surviving actor to co-star with the Marx Brothers.^[10]

Martin joined the United States Navy in 1941 as a non-commissioned officer, but was dismissed from the service in 1942 after an investigation of bribery of a naval recruiter by members of the entertainment industry. Martin was drafted into the Army and assigned to the United States Army Air Forces. He was assigned to Capt. Glenn Miller's band as he was considered one of the best singers in the armed services. Martin later said he felt as though he had "stumbled into heaven through the side door."^[11]

He was promoted to technical sergeant in the Air Transport Command and stationed in India, where Brig. Gen. William H. Tunner, commanding the Hump Airlift, put him to work as an entertainer, forming a troupe of amateur talent from the command and taking it around the various bases to perform. He eventually signed with Mercury Records, then a small independent label run out of Chicago, Illinois. He cut 25 records in 1946 and 1947 for Mercury, including a 1946 recording of "To Each His Own," which became a million-seller. It was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.^[12] This prompted RCA Victor to offer him a record contract, which he signed in 1947 after satisfying his contract obligations to Mercury.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}}

He continued to appear in film musicals during the 1940s and 1950s. His rendition of "Lover Come Back to Me" with Joan Weldon in Deep in My Heart – based on the music of Sigmund Romberg and starring José Ferrer - was one of the highlights of that film. He also starred as Gaylord Ravenal in the Show Boat segment from the 1946 film Till the Clouds Roll By.

In an unlikely pairing, Martin recorded for the Motown Records label in the mid-1960s, scoring a minor hit with the record "Talkin' To Your Picture."

Martin was a stockholder in the Parvin-Dohrmann Corporation, a hotel and casino company that owned the Flamingo Las Vegas.^[13]

Martin and Charisse were both staunch Republicans who campaigned for Richard Nixon.^[14]

Martin died on the evening of July 27, 2012, of natural causes.^[15][16] He was 98 years old. Martin was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Family

In 1937, he married actress and singer Alice Faye, with whom he had appeared in several films. They divorced in 1941.

Martin remarried to actress and dancer Cyd Charisse in 1948. They remained married for 60 years until her death on June 17, 2008. Martin adopted Charisse's son Nicky from her first marriage. They had one son together, Tony Martin, Jr. (August 28, 1950 – April 10, 2011), who predeceased his father.

Hit records

Filmography

• Foolish Hearts (1936)
• Follow the Fleet (1936)
• The Farmer in the Dell (1936)
• Murder on a Bridle Path (1936)
• The Witness Chair (1936) (scenes deleted)
• Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
• Back to Nature (1936)
• Sing, Baby, Sing (1936)
• Pigskin Parade (1936)
• Banjo on My Knee (1936)
• The Holy Terror (1937)
• Sing and Be Happy (1937)
• You Can't Have Everything (1937)
• Life Begins in College (1937)
• Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937)
• Sally, Irene and Mary (1938)
• Kentucky Moonshine (1938)
• Up the River (1938)
• Thanks for Everything (1938)
• Winner Take All (1939)
• Music in My Heart (1940)
• Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
• The Big Store (1941)
• Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
• Casbah (1948)
• Hollywood Goes to Bat (1950) (short subject)
• Two Tickets to Broadway (1951)
• Clash by Night (1952) (Cameo)
• Here Come the Girls (1953)
• Easy to Love (1953)
• Deep in My Heart (1954)
• Hit the Deck (1955)
• Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956) (Cameo)
• Quincannon, Frontier Scout (1956)
• Let's Be Happy (1957)
• Dear Mr. Wonderful (1982)

References

External links

• Tony Martin bio on The Interlude Era site
• Tony Martin bio on the Oldies.com site
• Tony Martin bio on the Feinstein's site
• {{IMDb name|0553149}}
• Photographs and literature
• [https://archive.org/details/Musical-varietySeriestheTonyMartinShow1954higherQuality 1954 episode of his television series at the Internet Archive]

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