The Eileen Barton Centennial

Born 100 years ago today: singer and radio/tv personality Eileen Barton (1924-2006)

Barton was a second generation vaudevillian, reported to have joined her parents act at age 2 1/2. Her parents Benny and Elsie Barton were apparently no relation to the legendary James Barton (Benny was born in Minsk). The Bartons had a flash act under various names, usually variations of “Benny Barton and His Californians”. Benny had played violin in vaudeville since he was 13; Elsie also played violin and danced. They employed a small troupe in their act in their peak years. Goodman Ace interviewed them when they were in Kansas City and met baby Eileen backstage. It was he who suggested that she go into the act. Later she worked with Ted Healy and even played the Palace, becoming Healy’s youngest Stooge by many decades. Her screen debut came in the variety short Show for Sale (1937) withJack Goode.

Barton became a child star on radio as a regular on The Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour. Throughout the late ’30s and early ’40s she could be heard on the shows of Milton Berle, Rudy Vallee, Johnny Mercer, and Frank Sinatra, joining the latter onstage for his live variety shows at New York’ s Paramont Theatre. In 1945 she got her own radio show Teen Timers, later renamed The Eileen Barton Show.

We pause now for a weird digression. In 1945 Barton was briefly married to a shady and unsavory character she knew as “Larry Kaye” (birth name Lawrence Klein) who, like her, had grown up in Brooklyn. Klein used a wide variety of aliases over the years (including “Lawrence Barton”). Today, when anyone talks about him at all, it is as “Lawrence Kane”, considered by some to be one of the prime suspects in the Zodiac Killings. Good coverage on him here and here.

Having made her Broadway debut in the chorus of Best Foot Forward (1941), Barton returned to the stage as one of the principals in the revue Angel in the Wings (1947-48) with Paul and Grace Hartman, Elaine Stritch, etc.

In 1949, Barton signed a recording contract and hit it big the following year with the novelty hit “If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked a Cake”, which went all the way to #1 on the pop charts. Several top 40 hit singles followed through the mid 50s, including “Cry” (#10, 1951) also a hit for Johnny Ray. She peaked in 1954 with her own CBS radio show, and a run at the Copacabana, on a bill with Joe E. Lewis, whom she’d known since her vaudeville days. She continued to perform in major nightclubs until the early 1980s. Over the years she performed with such eminent bandleaders as Skitch Henderson, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and many others.

Barton was also a frequent presence on TV variety shows starting in 1948. Her television credits include The Swift Show, The Morey Amsterdam Show, The Benny Rubin Show, The Frank Sinatra Show, The Saturday Night Revue with Jack Carter, The Ken Murray Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Arthur Murray Party,Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall,The Red Buttons Show, The Milton Berle Show, The Ed Sullivan Show,The Tonight Show with Jack Paar,American Bandstand, et al. She was a regular presenter on the game show Video Village (1961-62), replacing Joanne Copeland (later better known as the second wife of Johnny Carson, played recently by Molly Ringwald onTruman Capote vs. The Swans).

In 1963 Barton had a small role in the notorious film Promises…Promises with Jayne Mansfield, Mickey Hargitay, Tommy Noonan, Marie McDonald,Fritz Feld, Claude Stroud, Eddie Quillan, Imogene Coca, and Richard Dawson. Her last national appearance was on The Woody Woodbury Show in 1968.

There is a terrific interview with Eileen Barton, featuring much more color and detail, here.

For more about vaudeville historyconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.