Background
Alice Faye was born on 5 May 1912 in New York.
Alice Faye was born on 5 May 1912 in New York.
She was discovered as a chorus girl with George White’s Scandals and featured in the film of the show for her debut in 1934. Fox put her under contract, gave her conventional parts—Now I'll Tell (34, Edwin Burke) and She Learned About Sailors (34, George Marshall)—and loaned her to Paramount for Every Night at Light (35, Raoul Walsh).
She attracted more attention in Music Is Magic (35, Marshall), and King of Burlescpie (36) and Sing, Baby, Sing (36), both for Sidney Lanfield, but really came to the fore in On the Avenue (37, Roy del Ruth); Wake Up and Live (37, Lanfield); and You Can't Have Everything (37, Norman Taurog). Fox now eagerly starred her opposite Tyrone Powder in In Old Chicago (38, Henry King) and Alexander’s Ragtime Band (38, King).
She had a few more straight parts: Tail Spin (39, del Ruth); Barricade (39, Gregory Ratoff); Little Old New York (40, King); and Lillian Russell (40, Irving Cummings), but was more successful in frivolous wartime musicals, often with John Payne and Jack Oakie: Sally. Irene and Mary (38, William A. Seiter); as the Fanny Brice figure in Rose of Washington Square (39, Ratoff); Tin Pan Alley (40, Walter Lang); The Great American Broadcast (41, Archie Mayo); That Night in Rio (41, Cummings); Weekend in Havana (41, Lang); Hello, Frisco, Hello (43, Bruce Ilumberstone); and The Gang’s All Here (43, Busby Berkeley).
Already thinking of retirement (with her second husband, bandleader Phil Harris), she was suddenly very touching as the wife in Preminger’s Fallen Angel (45). Still, she left the movies and returned only for the tame remake of State Fair (62, José Ferrer) and The Magic of Lassie (78, Don Chaffey).
Plump and wholesome as a Mable Lucy Atwell illustration grown up, Alice Faye was a friendlv, sentimental star of musicals from 1935—45 and a big star with a warm singing voice.