The Helen Morgan Page

… 1941, Helen Morgan married Lloyd Johnson.

Eighty-five years ago this month, Helen played Miami for the last time, in a surprisingly successful summertime engagement at Jack Dempsey’s Pago-Pago Room at the Dempsey-Vanderbilt Hotel.[i]

On Sunday the 27th, Helen and Lloyd Johnson were married[ii] poolside at Dempsey’s by Justice Ralph Pole.[iii] Ray Redman, Helen’s publicity man in Florida, wanted the two to marry while atop a Steinway, but the couple refused.[iv]

Following the ceremony, Dempsey’s manager, and the Best Man, Benny Gaines, pushed Redman into the pool, to the delight of everyone but the publicity man.[v]

Bowing to the wishes of photographers, they did, however, pose with their wedding cake while sitting on a piano in the broiling Miami sun. Although some wags felt the bride’s entrance number should have been “Bill,” Helen walked down her unconventional aisle to the conventional Wedding March. For the cutting of the cake, the band chimed in with the Johnson Rag.

Morgan did defy convention by choosing comfort over style. She was married in blue slacks, perhaps a first for the wedding of a public figure.[vi]

Helen also stood her ground in choosing her wedding party. It was suggested with vigor that Helen use chorines from the floorshow. “This is my wedding. I will have the girls I want for bridesmaids.” Helen’s Matron of Honor was Mrs. Ray Norton, hostess at the Dempsey. Following Helen’s lead, she also wore a pant suit, as did the other maids in attendance. They included locals Agnes Delaney, head switchboard operator, Jean Denson, Vivian Wolfson, Mildred Cochran and Loretta Gittleman. Another, Betty Fain, fell down a flight of stairs and missed the ceremony, hospitalized with a concussion. After the ceremony, the bridesmaids visited Fain and presented her with flowers.[vii]

The reception was a simple pool party for guests of the hotel and people in the business, like Wini Shaw, who happened to be in town. The sun was so hot that day that, to protect themselves from the glare, the photographers fashioned makeshift visors from dinner napkins.

Helen was ecstatic. The wedding was everything she was: elegant, unconventional, simple, generous and fun. Even the Marriage License echoed La Morgan. Instead of following the form of a large certificate, the license was designed in the style of an engraved wedding invitation. Adding to her happiness, she could spot an end to the grind and a future home in San Francisco.

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[i]    The Billboard, July 19, 1941, p. 17.

[ii]   Coincidentally, July 27, 1941 also marked Judy Garland’s marriage to bandleader David Rose. This was Garland’s first trip down the aisle. She was 18. Before arriving at MGM, Garland earned a name in Vaudeville by impersonating Morgan – particularly her rendition of “Bill.”

[iii]   Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1941.

[iv]   The Billboard, August 9, 1941, p. 24.

[v]    Miami News, July 28, 1941, p. 4A

[vi]    Redman, Ray, letter to Mark Hellinger dated January 9, 1943.

[vii]   Muir, Helen. “Very Truly Yours”, Miami Herald, July 29, 1941, p. 7A.