Alice Faye Collection

Alice Faye
(1915 – 1998)

So many of the personalities we learn about when we look at the entertainment industry wind up being tales of tragedy. This is particularly ironic because so many dream of going into show business as a means of finding lasting happiness. That it is so elusive is a comment on both the demands of stardom and the frailty of dreams.

With this in mind, it is somewhat of a relief when we learn about someone who endured the struggles and trials necessary to achieve Hollywood stardom and still found happiness, even when they discovered that being happy was ultimately more satisfying than being a star, and essentially walked away from stardom.

Alice Jeane Leppert was the daughter of a New York City cop growing up on the mean streets of Manhattan’s "Hell’s Kitchen". Little Alice was quick to realize that the singing and dancing that she enjoyed so much not only brought joy to others, it could be her ticket to a better life. She joined a vaudeville troupe at about the age of 13 (Alice’s actual age is often disputed, records are inconclusive and she often lied about her age early in her career because producers thought she was too young).

She was still a teenager when she adopted her stage name of Alice Faye and landed a role in the chorus of the Broadway revue "Scandals of 1931". The show starred Ethel Merman, Roy Bolger and radio’s Rudy Vallee. Vallee heard Alice sing at a party and hired her to appear on The Fleischmann Hour.

When Hollywood decided to make "Scandals" into a film, Vallee insisted that his protégé be included in the cast to sing a single song. When the film’s star, Lilian Harvey, abandoned the project, Alice wound up as the picture’s leading lady. Actual scandal touched the project when Vallee’s wife sued for divorce and named Alice as party to the complaint. Rudy Vallee had a reputation for wandering affections, but Alice denied that the affair took place.

The scandal was not enough to divert the attention of Fox Studio’s Darryl F. Zanuck, who orchestrated a makeover for Miss Faye to make her a more profitable property for the studio. First came a shift from roles as a smart mouthed chorus girl to a youthful yet motherly figure. She played Shirley Temple’s mother in a few Fox musicals and the studio also took advantage of her good looks by turning her into their own singing version of Jean Harlow with a platinum dye job and plucked eyebrows.

Zanuck’s attention was not always a happy experience for Alice, but it was a steady road to stardom. She won the female lead for In Old Chicago (1937) and sang a song for the sons of Mrs. O’Leary played by Don Ameche and Tyrone Power. The trio next appeared together in Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938), which was designed as a showcase for Irving Berlin tunes. Alice received strong reviews and became an established star for Fox.

The Fox PR department was not above stirring up flames by creating a supposed rivalry between Alice and rising star Betty Grable. Grable had starred in Down Argentine Way(1940), a role that Alice had to turn down due to illness. The rivalry supposedly flared as both ladies were cast in Tin Pan Alley (1940), wherein fact they were close friends and got along famously during production. Alice was becoming more disillusioned with Zanuck and the Fox machine, however she was distracted by a new love in her life.

Jazzman turned funny-man, Phil Harris seemed an unlikely match for the lovely Alice Faye, but it was very much a story book relationship. Harris had taken a cue from his boss, Jack Benny, and created a radio persona which was miles away from his real life personality. Benny was self centered and stingy on the radio while in real life he was known to be generous and warm. His musical director Harris was supposedly a loud-mouthed braggart who never saw a mirror, bottle or pretty girl that he wasn’t determined to get closer to. When he wasn’t performing, Phil was actually incredibly loyal and down to earth. However, in 1938 he did get in a fist fight at the Trocadero club when he came to Alice’s defense after her romance with producer Bob Steven’s ended.

Although a serious romance was outside of Phil Harris’s playboy character, Benny decided to make comic hay over Phil and Alice’s marriage in 1941. Phil and his whole band joined the Navy in 1942, and after their daughters were born, Alice renegotiated her contract with Fox so that she was only obligated to make one picture a year. The last of them was Fallen Angel (1945), in which Zanuck had insisted that several of Alice’s scenes be edited to place more attention on his new star protégé, Linda Darnell.

After watching a screening of the final cut, Alice packed her things at the studio and drove off the lot, leaving her dressing room keys with the guard as she went through the gate, never to return. Her contract committed her to at least two more pictures, so Zanuck had her blackballed from pictures for breach of contract. Not that Alice was particularly upset to be out of work; raising her daughters and actually managing a household was a new and more satisfying challenge.

After Phil finished his military service he continued to work for his old boss, Jack Benny. By now he was considered an elder statesman of Jazz, so he and Alice were tapped to host The Fitch Band Wagon. Since the new show was scheduled immediately after Jack’s show, this led to some difficulty. Jack’s writers piled up plenty of gags about Phil having two shows while jack only had the one, but the biggest challenge was having the musical director leave the studio in time to make it to the next show. This was compounded when Jack moved to CBS; instead of walking a few feet between studio’s for the next show, Phil had to leave halfway through the Jack Benny Program to drive to NBC.

Although Fitch Bandwagon was sold as a showcase for Jazz bands, the sketches between the married couple were the real hit of the show. This was not what the Fitch Shaving Cream people had intended, however, so the show was repackaged as a situation comedy for new sponsor Rexall Drugs.

The show was centered on a hard working show business couple raising a pair of precocious daughters. Harris refined his jive-talking character from the Benny program. Now a responsible father, he kept a good deal of the vanity and added a penchant for dunderheaded schemes that his tart but loving wife had to rescue him from. Harris’s character was "six parts Gracie Allen and half a dozen parts Yogi Berra".

The real Harris girls were too young to participate, so they were played by Jeanine Roos and Anne Whitfield. Lovable blowhard Gale Gordon became the sponsor’s rep, and the butt of many jokes on The Jack Benny Program, guitar player Frank Remley, became Phil’s sidekick. The real Frank Remley was an important part of Harris’s band, but he didn’t want to act on the radio, so he was played by Elliott Lewis. Child impersonator Walter Tetley from The Great Gildersleeve played the fresh mouthed delivery boy, Julius. Julius’s running gag was getting the best of Harris while maintaining a crush on Alice.

Each episode featured a musical interlude from each of the stars. The real strength of the show was the obvious affection that the leading couple had for each other. Their marriage, the second for both, lasted 54 years until Phil passed away in 1995.

The couple continued with their individual projects as well. Phil was introduced to a whole new generation of fans through his voice work in Disney films like The Jungle Book, The Aristocats and Robin Hood. Alice appeared on Broadway and was a spokesperson for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to promote an active senior lifestyle. Three years after Phil’s death from a heart attack, Alice succumbed to stomach cancer four days after her 83rd birthday.

Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6651 Hollywood Blvd and 6508 Hollywood Blvd recognize Phil Harris’s contributions to Radio and Recording. The Star at 6922 Hollywood Blvd honors Alice Faye's work in Motion Pictures. Their ashes rest next to each other in the mausoleum of the Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs.

See also: Female Comedians of the Golden Age of Radio