Julia Frances Newbern-Langford was an American singer and actress who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and made film and television appearances for over two decades.
21 Facts About Frances Langford
2.
Frances Langford was known as the "GI Nightingale", an American armed-forces sweetheart, who entertained troops touring often with Bob Hope.
3.
Dan White and Langford were schoolmates, and she first sang in public in an amateur show that White staged in Lakeland, Florida.
4.
Frances Langford made her film debut in Every Night at Eight, introducing what became her signature song: "I'm in the Mood for Love".
5.
Frances Langford then began appearing frequently in films such as Broadway Melody of 1936, Born to Dance, Too Many Girls, and Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney, in which she performed the popular song "Over There".
6.
Frances Langford appeared on screen in Dixie Jamboree and Radio Stars on Parade.
7.
From 1941, Frances Langford was a regular singer on Bob Hope's The Pepsodent Show when he held his first military entertainment program at March Field in Riverside, California in 1941.
8.
At a USO show in the South Pacific, Frances Langford stood up on a stage to sing before a huge crowd of GIs.
9.
Also, during the war, Frances Langford wrote the weekly "Purple Heart Diary" column for Hearst Newspapers, in which she described her visits to military hospitals to entertain wounded GIs.
10.
Frances Langford used the weekly column as a means of allowing the recovering troops to voice their complaints, and to ask for public support for making sure that the wounded troops received all the supplies and comforts they needed.
11.
Frances Langford worked for several years in the late 1940s on The Spike Jones Show and starred in a short-lived DuMont variety show Star Time.
12.
Frances Langford was the host of two self-titled variety television programs.
13.
Frances Langford married three times, first to actor Jon Hall.
14.
In 1946, Frances Langford was honored by the hometown of her youth, Lakeland, Florida, for her work with the United Service Organizations and her music and acting career.
15.
In 1994, Langford married Harold C Stuart, who had served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Affairs of the United States Air Force under President Harry S Truman.
16.
Frances Langford died at her Jensen Beach home at age 92 from congestive heart failure.
17.
Stuart survived Frances Langford and died in 2007 at the age of 94.
18.
Frances Langford has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one at 1500 Vine Street, which acknowledges her contribution to motion pictures and one at 1525 Vine Street for her work in radio.
19.
Frances Langford was a supportive member of the Jensen Beach, Florida, community and constantly donated money to it.
20.
Frances Langford was a philanthropist and her generosity to the Florida Oceanographic Society located on Hutchinson Island in Stuart was well known.
21.
Frances Langford is featured on the DVD Entertaining the Troops with Bob Hope.