Frances Faye, cabaret singer and pianist, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. Peter Allen credited her as a major influence. He had Frances Faye sing the vocals on the track ‘Just a Gigolo’ on his 1974 album, Continental American.

Personally, I wonder whether the Continental in the name of that album refers to the Continental Baths in New York City where Allen re-launched his career after being rescued by a friend of mine, and Continental Baths owner, Steve Ostrow, who with, Bette Midler, found him unconscious one day on a Long Island beach.

You’ll hear Frances Faye live from a NYC nightclub over NBC in 1956 on this week’s Phantom Dancer. And she’s your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week in a 1979 performance live on Sydney’s midday weekly variety TV show, ‘The Mike Walsh Show’. (Missed this one, I was either at a Chemical Engineering lecture at uni or on a bus working as a conductor. ‘The Mike Walsh Show’ audience were famously all bussed in ‘little old ladies’.)

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. Presented and produced by 1920s-30s singer and actor Greg Poppleton, The Phantom Dancer’s been on-air over 107.3 2SER Sydney since 1985.

Hear The Phantom Dancer online from 12:04pm AEST Tuesday 4 August at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ where you can also hear two years of archived shows.

As always, the finyl hour is vinyl.

FRANCES

Frances Faye was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye, whose TV show I used to watch, laughing my head off, as a toddler in the mid-1960s.

She entered showbiz at age 15 in nightclubs.

She made her solo recording debut in 1936 and appeared in the 1937 Bing Crosby movie, ‘Double or Nothing’ in which she sang ‘After You’. She wrote the song ‘Well All Right’ recorded by the Andrews Sisters.

Her act became famous for including double entendres and references to homosexuality. Frances Faye herself was bisexual and hinted at this frequently in her act, playfully altering pronouns in love songs or weave her girlfriend’s name into lyrics of songs.

She recorded albums for Capitol Records, Imperial Records and the jazz labels Verve and Bethlehem Records.

FAYE

Faye was married twice in the 1940s. In the late 1950s, a woman named Teri Shepherd became her manager and lifelong partner. Shepherd discussed her relationship with Faye in Bruce Weber’s 2001 film Chop Suey.

She was arrested in 1955 on a narcotics charge in Los Angeles. Police alleged she and three men arrested at the same time possessed marijuana.

During the 1960s, Faye suffered a number of health related problems brought on by a hip accident in 1958. She nevertheless continued to tour into the early 1980s. Peter Allen credited her as a major influence.

She returned to film in 1978, playing an elderly cocaine-sniffing madam in the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. She retired shortly afterwards. At the time of her death in 1991, aged 79, she was living with Shepherd.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

And every week, right here, I find the jazzy or the quirky or both combined from YouTube, just for you, as your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week. This week it’s Francis Faye (she’s in today’s Phantom Dancer mix on NBC radio in 1956) live on Sydney TV (The Mike Walsh Show) in 1979 – singing, playing the piano, and being interviewed. Enjoy!

4 AUGUST PLAY LIST