Dick Haymes

Arguably one of the best crooners of the 20th century, Dick Haymes was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 13, 1918, to an English father and Irish-born mother of English descent. Brought to the U.S. as an infant, Dick inherited his vocal gift from his mother who had made ends meet during the Depression as a singer and voice teacher. A music gig in 1931 caught the eye of a local band leader and soon Dick was moving up, but it was pretty slow-going. In 1939, while Dick was trying to pitch his songwriting talents to band leader Harry James, the 21-year-old wound up as his featured vocalist instead. During the war years Dick hooked up with the Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey orchestras before deciding to go solo. Nabbing his own popular radio program, "The Dick Haymes Show" (1944-1948), in addition to a Decca recording contract, Twentieth Century-Fox soon expressed interest in his musical talents. Among his many staid but pleasant film leads were State Fair (1945) opposite Jeanne