Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Arthur Tracy

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Instruments
  
Vocals

Also known as
  
The Street Singer

Years active
  
1920s-30s, 1982


Genres
  
Traditional pop, vocal

Name
  
Arthur Tracy

Occupation(s)
  
Singer, actor

Role
  
Vocalist

Arthur Tracy Arthur Tracy Records LPs Vinyl and CDs MusicStack


Born
  
June 25, 1899Kamenetz-Podolsky, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) (
1899-06-25
)

Died
  
October 5, 1997, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Spouse
  
Blossom Tracy (m. 1956–1967)

Movies
  
Follow Your Star, The Street Singer, Command Performance, Limelight

Albums
  
Always In Song, 1930's Street Music: East of the Sun

Similar People
  
Richard Tauber, Jimmy Durante, Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn, George Formby

Birth name
  
Abba Avrom Tracovutsky

Arthur tracy the street singer when i grow too old to dream


Arthur Tracy (25 June 1899 – 5 October 1997) was an American vocalist, billed as The Street Singer. His performances in theatre, films and radio, along with his recordings, brought him international fame in the 1930s. Late evening radio listeners tuned in to hear announcer David Ross' introduction ("Round the corner and down your way comes The Street Singer") and Tracy's familiar theme song, "Marta, Rambling Rose of the Wildwood."

Contents

Arthur Tracy httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumba

Arthur tracy the street singer marta 1931


Biography

Arthur Tracy East of the Sun Arthur Tracy Nostalgia Music

Born Abba Avrom Tracovutsky in Kamenetz-Podolsky, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), he emigrated to the United States with his parents, listed as Mordeche and Fannie Trasowitzkey, and sisters, in October 1906, as steerage passengers on the S/S Blücher, from Hamburg to New York. His brother was born in 1907. After their release from the Ellis Island Immigrant station, they settled in Philadelphia. Naturalized in 1913, Tracy's parents became known as Morris and Fannie Tracy.

Arthur Tracy ON THIS DAY IN JAZZ AGE MUSIC JUNE 25TH

In 1917 Tracy graduated from Central High School. He began studying architecture at the University of Pennsylvania but dropped out to become a professional singer. He began singing part-time in the Yiddish theatre, minstrel shows and vaudeville while working as a furniture salesman.

After moving to New York City in 1924, he appeared regularly in vaudeville, joined the Blossom Time touring company and appeared in various New York amateur revues, where he was seen by William S. Paley who offered him a 15-minute CBS radio program.

To avoid embarrassing his family if his show failed and to prevent being blackballed from future vaudeville bookings for having appeared on radio, Tracy decided to make his identity a mystery and borrowed a billing from the title of Frederick Lonsdale's musical The Street Singer (1924). Listeners demanded to know his identity, but it was not revealed until five months after his 1931 debut on CBS. The following year he was off to Hollywood to appear in The Big Broadcast (1932) with other radio stars, including Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, and the Boswell Sisters. In 1933 he performed at FDR's first inauguration.

In the short film Ramblin' Round Radio Row #5 (1933), his last name is pronounced "Treecy".

Tracy gave his romantic interpretation to such songs as "When I Grow Too Old to Dream", "I'll See You Again", "Trees", "Everything I Have Is Yours", "Red Sails in the Sunset", "Harbor Lights", "The Whistling Waltz", and "Danny Boy". His September 1935 recording of "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)" is among the very first of that much recorded song. And of course, at almost every performance he sang his theme song, Marta.

In 1978, Arthur Tracy was crowned King of the Beaux Arts Ball. He presided with Queen Hope Hampton, the one-time silent screen star.

Arthur Tracy's 1937 recording of "Pennies from Heaven" was chosen from hundreds of versions for the 1981 movie of that name, with Vernel Bagneris lip-synching to Tracy's voice. The film brought Tracy out of retirement, and at age 82 he returned as a cabaret singer at The Cookery in Greenwich Village in 1982. This brought a favorable review in The New York Times from John Wilson, who wrote that his vocalizing had "a delightful patina of period charm", adding that Tracy was "a spellbinder, setting a mood and scene, disarming the doubters by admitting that 'I always put all the schmalz I had into my songs.'"


Listen to

  • WFMU: Antique Music Phonograph Program: Arthur Tracy sings "Marta" (39 minutes in)
  • Filmography

    Actor
    1988
    Crossing Delancey as
    Pickle Stand Customer #1 (as Arthur Tracey)
    1963
    The Ed Sullivan Show (TV Series) as
    Old Time Street Singer
    - Episode #16.29 (1963) - Old Time Street Singer
    1938
    Follow Your Star as
    Arthur Tee
    1937
    Command Performance as
    The Street Singer
    1937
    Backstage as
    Bob Grant
    1937
    The Street Singer as
    Richard King
    1934
    Flirtation as
    The Street Singer
    1934
    Sea Sore (Short) as
    Arthur Tracy - Radio Singer (as Arthur Street Singer Tracy)
    1933
    Sing with the Street Singer (Short) as
    The Street Singer
    1933
    Nick Kenny's Radio Thrills No. 2 (Short) as
    The Street Singer
    1933
    Rambling 'Round Radio Row #5 (Short) as
    Arthur Tracy - The Street Singer
    1933
    Reaching for the Moon (Short) as
    The Street Singer
    1933
    Nick Kenny's Radio Thrills No. 1 (Short) as
    The Street Singer
    1932
    Romantic Melodies (Short) as
    The Street Singer
    1932
    The Big Broadcast as
    The Street Singer
    1931
    Russian Lullaby (Short) as
    The Street Singer (as Arthur Treacy)
    Writer
    1938
    Follow Your Star (writer)
    Soundtrack
    1997
    American Masters (TV Series documentary) (performer - 1 episode)
    - Vaudeville (1997) - (performer: "Martha, Martha, tu sparigis" - uncredited)
    1981
    Pennies from Heaven (performer: "Pennies from Heaven" (1936))
    1978
    Pennies from Heaven (TV Mini Series) (performer - 2 episodes)
    - Better Think Twice (1978) - (performer: "So Do I" - as Arthur Tracey, uncredited)
    - Down Sunnyside Lane (1978) - (performer: "Pennies from Heaven" - uncredited)
    1934
    Flirtation ("A Song of You", "The King Was Doing the Rhumba", uncredited)
    1933
    Sing with the Street Singer (Short) (performer: "What a Life", "Too Many Tears", "Call Me Darling", "River Stay Away From My Door")
    1933
    Rambling 'Round Radio Row #5 (Short) (performer: "Martha, Martha, tu sparigis" - uncredited)
    1933
    Reaching for the Moon (Short) (performer: "Reaching for the Moon")
    1932
    Romantic Melodies (Short) (performer: "Marta (Rambling Rose of the Wildwood)", "Santa Lucia", "Silver Threads Among the Gold ", "Under Your Window Tonight", "Good-Night, Sweetheart", "Here Am I - Broken Hearted" - uncredited)
    1932
    The Big Broadcast (performer: "Here Lies Love")
    1931
    Russian Lullaby (Short) (performer: "Marta (Rambling Rose of the Wildwood)" (uncredited), "Russian Lullaby")
    Self
    1998
    Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (TV Movie documentary) as
    Self
    1997
    American Masters (TV Series documentary) as
    Self
    - Vaudeville (1997) - Self
    1988
    Beyond Vaudeville (TV Series) as
    Self - Guest
    - Episode #1.11 (1988) - Self - Guest
    1981
    The Joe Franklin Show (TV Series) as
    Self
    - Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, Larry King, Arthur Tracy (1981) - Self
    1967
    The Eamonn Andrews Show (TV Series) as
    Self
    - Episode #3.35 (1967) - Self
    1966
    The Mike Douglas Show (TV Series) as
    Self
    - Episode #6.40 (1966) - Self
    1960
    The Kate Smith Show (TV Series) as
    Self - vocalist
    - Arthur Tracy (1960) - Self - vocalist
    1933
    I Know Everybody and Everybody's Racket (Short) as
    Self (as The Street Singer)

    References

    Arthur Tracy Wikipedia