Born 1900 in Danville, Illinois, American singer and actress Helen Morgan worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s.
Morgan starred as Julie LaVerne in the original Broadway production of Hammerstein and Kern’s musical Show Boat in 1927, as well as in the 1932 Broadway revival of the musical, and appeared in two film adaptations, a part-talkie made in 1929 (prologue only) and a full-sound version made in 1936, becoming firmly associated with the role.
Morgan suffered from bouts of alcoholism, and despite her notable success in the title role of another Hammerstein and Kern’s Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline (1929), her stage career was relatively short. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1941 at the age of 41.
Morgan was portrayed by Polly Bergen in the Playhouse 90 drama The Helen Morgan Story and by Ann Blyth in the 1957 biopic based on the television drama. Take a look at these gorgeous photos to see portraits of Helen Morgan in the 1920s and 1930s.
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