Lucy Monroe: The Star-Spangled Girl

Lucy Monroe (1906-1987) was called “The Star-Spangled Girl” and “The Star-Spangled Soprano” not merely to indicate that she was patriotic, a la the girl in the eponymous Neil Simon comedy. She literally performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” thousands of times.

Oddly, most biographies of the singer seem to present that fact, and the detail that she was a direct descendent of the U.S. President James Monroe, as totally unrelated bits of trivia, when surely they ought to be braided together as one stout nautical rope. Her ancestor had served as both the U.S. Secretary of State AND Secretary of War simultaneously during the War of 1812. And Francis Scott Key had written during the lyrics to the national anthem DURING that war. I don’t know if biographers just naturally assume the reader will pull together those details for themselves. Modern American readers? I assure you, 98% of them won’t. A glaring (a rockets red glaring) concomitant of the woeful state of U.S. education in the 21st century is an almost gleeful lack of historical literacy on the part of Americans. I’ve learned in speaking to people that you can take nothing for granted. Having Lucy Monroe sing at a national event was the closest America gets to royalty.

Amazingly, there’s even more to cement Lucy Monroe’s symbolic place in American hearts during her day. Her mother was Anna Laughlin, the first actress to play the part of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. This was in the original Broadway show in 1902. Her father, Dwight “Van” Monroe, a wealthy gem dealer, was a stage door Johnny who became smitten with the star and swept her off her feet. Lucy arrived a couple of years later.

Lucy Monroe attended Horace Mann School in Manhattan and received private operatic training as she got older. Her father having died when she was a teenager, she followed in her mother’s footsteps by going onto the Broadway stage, becoming a Ziegfeld chorus girl and appearing in the shows Louie the 14th, Sunny, and The City Chap, all in 1925. By the end of the decade, she had graduated to speaking parts in shows like Hello Yourself (1928) and Polly (1929).

In 1931, two events occurred that would directly effect the fortune of Luce Monroe. First, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was made the official anthem of the United States. And secondly, the program The American Album of Familiar Music premiered on NBC radio. Monroe became a regular on the show, and this is how she became a nationally known performer. In 1934 she appeared in the short-lived Broadway operetta O’Flynn.

Throughout this time, her mother had been functioning as a de facto manager, and the two had continued to live together. This all changed in 1936 when the 30 year old Monroe moved out and declared her independence. This appears to have been much for Laughlin, who took her own life the following year by means of gas, leaving being a three page letter blaming her daughter for having “forsaken” her. This tragedy was well-publicized in The New York Timesand elsewhere, but somehow did not prove to be any kind of scandal or career setback for Monroe. That same year of 1937 she was invited to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” for the annual convention of the American Legion, an event which proved to chart the course of the rest of her professional life. She became the official soloist for the American Legion and the VFW. She sang the anthem at FDR’sbirthday ball in 1938. She closed every performance of the American Jubilee at the 1939 New York World’s Fair with the song — over 650 times. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, and was appointed “director of patriotic music” by RCA Victor.

Some notable ensuing performances:

1941: 10th anniversary celebration of the song’s official status, Constitutional Hall

Throughout World War Two: Toured with U.S.O.

1942: led 40,000 people in singing the anthem at Lincoln Memorial

1944: Fort McHenry, 130th anniversary of “The Star Spangled Banner”

1945-60: sings anthem at every Yankees home game and World Series

1949: sings at Truman’s second inaugural

1949: sings at Babe Ruth memorial unveiling

Korean War: tours with USO

1960: sings at the demolition of Ebbet’s Field (okay, now that one’s kind of perverse)

In 1961, now 55 years old, Monroe finally married an attorney named Harold Weinberg, and retired. Her death came in 1987 — 50 years after her mother’s.

For more on show business history,please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous; and keep an eye out for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.