Beatrice Ruth Wain (April 30, 1917 – August 19, 2017) was an American

Big Band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

-era singer and radio personality born in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York City. She had several hits with

Larry Clinton Larry Clinton (August 17, 1909 – May 2, 1985) was an American musician, best known as a trumpeter who became a prominent American bandleader and arranger. Biography Clinton was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He became a ver ...

and His Orchestra, including "

My Reverie "My Reverie" is a 1938 popular song with lyrics by Larry Clinton. Its melody is based on the 1890 piano piece ''Rêverie'' by the French classical composer Claude Debussy. Recordings A 1938 recording of the song by Clinton and his band with Be ...

", "

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

", and " Heart and Soul". Wain and announcer Andre Baruch, her husband, co-hosted radio programs from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Career

Wain made her debut on radio at age 6 as a "featured performer" on the ''NBC Children's Hour''. As an adult, she sang regularly on ''The Larry Clinton Show'' (NBC 1938), ''Monday Merry-Go-Round'' (NBC Blue 1941–1942), ''Starlight Serenade'' (Mutual 1944), and ''Your Hit Parade''. She led the vocal group Bea and the Bachelors (with Al Rinker, Ken Lane and John Smedberg). Her debut with Clinton was made in the summer of 1938 at the Glen Island Casino,

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

.Billboard, January 24, 1942

Recordings

On a 1937 recording with

Artie Shaw Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...

, she was credited as Beatrice Wayne, which led some to assume that was her real name. On record labels, her name was shortened (without her permission) to "Bea" by the record company, ostensibly for space considerations. As she explained, "They cut it to 'Bea' Wain. They cut the 'Beatrice' out to 'Bea.' I was just a little old girl singer, but that's the truth. So that's how my name became 'Bea Wain'". Wain's recording of ''My Reverie'' (Victor 26006) with the Clinton orchestra stayed at the top of the chart for eight weeks in 1938. Her other popular recordings included "Deep Purple," "Heart and Soul" and "Martha." Wain was the first artist to record the

Harold Arlen Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...

Yip Harburg Edgar Yipsel Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg; April 8, 1896 – March 5, 1981) was an American popular song lyricist and librettist who worked with many well-known composers. He wrote the lyrics to the standards "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" ( ...

classic " Over the Rainbow" (for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

on December 7, 1938, with Clinton's orchestra), but

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

forbade the release of the record until ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939) had opened and audiences heard

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

perform it. Wain rarely made recordings after she left the Clinton orchestra in 1939, focusing primarily on her work on radio.

"Mr. and Mrs. Music"

Following World War II, Wain worked with her husband, Andre Baruch, as a disc jockey team in New York on

WMCA WMCA may refer to: *WMCA (AM), a radio station operating in New York City * West Midlands Combined Authority, the combined authority of the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom *Wikimedia Canada The Wikimedia Foundation, ...

, where they were billed as "Mr. and Mrs. Music". An article in the May 1949 issue of ''Radio Best'' magazine noted, "In the trade she is looked upon as an accurate picker of hits and is a favorite song plugger of tunesmiths like

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallich ...

and

Harry Warren Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981) was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song ...

". During the early 1980s, the pair hosted a syndicated radio recreation of ''Your Hit Parade''. Baruch died in 1991. In a 2004 interview with Christopher Popa, Wain reflected: "Actually, I've had a wonderful life, a wonderful career. And I'm still singing, and I'm still singing pretty good. This past December, I did a series of shows in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

, and the review said, "Bea Wain is still a giant." It's something called ''Musical Chairs''. I did six shows in six different venues, and I was a smash. And I really got a kick out of it."

Death

Wain died of

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

at an assisted living home on August 19, 2017 in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

at the age of 100.

Listen to

Amanda Wilde's 2007 interview with Bea Wain, aged 90Sara Fishko's 2007 interview with Bea Wain on WNYC Radio

References

Sources

accessed 17 October 17, 2005.
Bea Wain
&
Bea and the Bachelors
parabrisas.com; accessed August 29, 2015.

accessed August 21, 2017.

External links

*
Profile
daisyfoundation.org
Profile
kuow.org
Bea Wain Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (1994)
Clip of Bea Wain singing ''Heart and Soul'' with Larry Clinton's orchestra (from YouTube)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wain, Bea 1917 births 2017 deaths American centenarians American jazz singers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American radio personalities Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery Entertainers from the Bronx Singers from New York City Swing singers Jazz musicians from New York (state) Women centenarians 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers Jewish American musicians