The Helen Morgan Page

… 1928, Helen Morgan recorded her Show Boat songs.

The event was historic for multiple reasons.

1. Her waxings proved to be, essentially, the only commercial recordings by any member of the original Broadway cast.
2. The day’s session marked Helen’s initial work for Victor Records and her first recordings made in America (the previous summer, she waxed twelve sides for the London version of the Brunswick label.)

Morgan would record exclusively for Victor for the next six years. Frustratingly, she was an infrequent guest to the Victor studio and a year would pass before she again appeared before their microphone. During this era, Victor was more interested in dance bands than vocalists: they only hired Morgan to sing songs they knew would sell … and sell they did.

First up was “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.” Helen begins this cut with her brief solo from “Mis’ry’s Comin’ Aroun’,” despite the fact that the latter number was cut prior to the Broadway premiere. She repeated the verse as an introduction to her 1932 recording for Brunswick.

Note her billing. The label “comedienne” hardly applies to the flip-side, her initial go at “Bill.”

I wrote that, essentially, these are the only commercial recordings made by the original Broadway cast of Show Boat. A few caveats are in order.

Jules Bledsoe, who originated the role of Joe in 1927, eventually recorded “Ol’ Man River” in 1930 … in London. Paul Robeson, for whom the role was written, was unable to participate in the 1927 Broadway production, but did play the role in London (1928) and appeared in the first Broadway revival (1932) and the Universal film adaptation (1936.) He recorded “Ol’ Man River” multiple times over the years.

In the stage play, Helen Morgan, as Julie, sang “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” as a solo, before being joined by Queenie, Joe, Magnolia and chorus. Tess Gardella, who originated the role of Queenie – in blackface as her stage persona Aunt Jemina – also recorded “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” – also on February 14, 1928 – for Columbia.

Neither her vocal nor the bluesy arrangement have much to do with how the song was originally presented on stage, but at the forty-two second mark, she sings Queenie’s brief solo verse that starts the quartet reprise of the song. As such, twenty-five seconds of this recording constitutes an original cast recording.

Howard Marsh, the original Ravenal, made a few recordings for Columbia in the early 1920s. Curiously, most of his output were Irish folk tunes, not souvenirs from his Broadway appearances at the time.

A decade would pass before he recorded again, and so, his most most impressive stage work, in Blossom Time, The Student Prince, and, most importantly, Show Boat, went unrecorded.

Norma Terris, the original Magnolia, never recorded anything, although she appeared in a couple of early film musicals. The team of Eva Puck and Sammy White (Frank and Ellie) never recorded either, although they appeared in a couple of experimental sound films. The team broke up before Universal produced its film adaptation in 1936. White teamed with Queenie Smith and preserved his stage role, including the interpolated song “Goodbye My Lady Love,” for the motion picture camera. Veterans from the 1927 production, Charles Winninger (Cap’n Andy) and Francis X. Mahoney (Rubber Face) also appeared in the 1936 film.

Finally, Bledsoe, Gardella … and Helen … appeared before the cameras in the sound prologue of the 1929 part-talkie film version of Show Boat. As with the paucity of audio recordings, Universal chose to preserve only the vocals assigned to the Black characters.

As of this writing, the film prologue has not been fully stitched back together, but much of it can be seen here.

This site serves as a companion to the book Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld’s Last Star.