Monica Lewis

Monica Lewis (1922-2015) was an American jazz singer and film actress. Her films include such MGM entertainment films as The Strip (951), Everything I Have Is Yours (1952), and Affair with a Stranger (1953), and she later appeared in some 1970s disaster films such as Earthquake (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), and Airport '77 (1977).


Vintage collectors card.


Vintage postcard by I.F.P.A., no. 6.

The idealised, wholesomely sexy sound and image of apple-pie America

Monica Lewis was born May Lewis in Chicago, Illinois, in 1922. She was the youngest of three children in a musical family. Her father, Leon Lewis, was a symphonic composer and pianist, her mother, Jessica, sang with the Chicago Opera Company and became one of the country’s leading vocal coaches. Her sister, Barbara Lewis Golub, became an accomplished concert pianist; while her brother, Marlo Lewis, was the producer of the original Ed Sullivan television show, The Toast Of The Town.

A career in show business was virtually inevitable. May studied singing with her mother. At the age of 11, the Lewis family moved to New York because of the Great Depression. Lewis began singing on the radio after a successful audition at WMCA in New York. While attending Hunter College at the age of 17, she began working as a singer for the Gloom Dodgers radio programme to support her family. Shortly after working for Gloom Dodgers, Lewis had the radio show 'Monica Makes Music'. She also starred in 'The Chesterfield Supper Club' on radio.

She won a role as a singing cigarette girl in the Broadway show 'Johnny 2X4'. Lewis's work on Broadway led to performances at the Stork Club. She changed her name from May to Monica because she thought it was sexier. In 1943, jazz pianist Leonard Feather told Lewis that the 'King of Swing' bandleader Benny Goodman, needed a singer since Peggy Lee had left when she married his band's guitarist Dave Barbour. At an audition in Times Square with hundreds of women participating, Lewis earned the job and began singing on the roof of the Hotel Astor with Goodman's orchestra.

With Goodman's help, she began to establish her career through nationally broadcast shows such as 'The Revere Camera Show' and 'Beat the Band'. Lewis was dubbed 'America's Singing Sweetheart' during this time. After appearing on the radio with Frank Sinatra, Dick Powell, and Morton Gould, Lewis had recording sessions with Signature Records and Decca Records. She had several successes, including ‘A Tree In A Meadow’ and ‘Autumn Leaves’. Other songs included 'Put the Blame on Mame', and 'I Wish You Love'. However, Lewis' parents did not allow her to perform on out-of-town tours.

Further recordings emerged with jazz musicians such as Yank Lawson, Carmen Mastren, Bud Freeman, Frank De Vol, Chuck Domanico, Lee Ritenour and Kirk Whalum. Lewis briefly participated in advertisements for companies such as Burlington Mills and Camel cigarettes. Beginning in 1947, Lewis provided the singing voice for the animated TV campaign Miss Chiquita Banana. In 1948, she appeared in the very first Ed Sullivan Show, which was created and produced by her brother Marlo Lewis. IMDb: "For almost two decades, Monica Lewis was the idealised, wholesomely sexy sound and image of apple-pie America, lending a curvaceous, dimpled smile and melodious voice of hope to thousands of U.S. troops through two of the 20th century's greatest wars."


Vintage postcard. Photo: M.G.M.


Vintage collectors card. Photo: M.G.M.

The darling of U.S. servicemen worldwide

In 1950, Monica Lewis was signed by MGM where she was groomed as a dramatic actress and the studio’s answer to Lana Turner. Among the films Lewis made was The Strip (László Kardos, 1951), which starred Mickey Rooney as a jazz drummer with the featured band of Louis Armstrong. She appeared alongside Red Skelton in the musical Excuse My Dust (Roy Rowland, Buster Keaton, Edward Sedgwick, 1951).

Monica volunteered her talent for the war effort, becoming the darling of U.S. servicemen worldwide through the war bond drive, military radio broadcasts and a 1951 USO tour of South Korea with celebrated entertainer Danny Kaye. She continued to play roles in films and also provided an on and off-screen singing voice, including Everything I Have Is Yours (Robert Z. Leonard, 1952), in which she sang the title song and danced with star Gower Champion.

Her other films included Affair with a Stranger (Roy Rowland, 1953) with Jean Simmons and Victor Mature and The D.I. (Jack Webb, 1957) with Jack Webb. Although at the height of her popularity, and headlining at leading hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco and elsewhere, Lewis, now married to movie executive Jennings Lang, retired. However, the call was too strong for a permanent absence. She appeared in numerous television shows, including Wagon Train, Peter Gunn (1958), Ironside (1968-1974), Quincy (1977), Remington Steele (1985) and Falcon Crest (1986).

In the 1970s, she appeared in disaster films such as Earthquake (Mark Robson, 1974), Rollercoaster (James Goldstone, 1977) and in both Airport '77 (Jerry Jameson, 1977) and The Concorde ... Airport '79 (David Lowell Rich, 1979). In the mid-and late 1980s, Lewis returned to the recording studio, releasing the highly praised 'Never Let Me Go'. The success of this album resulted in the re-release of her 1950s recordings. AllMusic: "A fluent interpreter of standards and the great show tunes, Lewis’ singing voice is clear and true. Her warm sound, allied as it is to a subtle vibrato and underlying power, allows her to bring a distinctive touch to a wide range of materials. Her son Mike Lang is a noted studio musician and composer who has played piano with several leading jazz artists. He accompanied Lewis on some of her later recordings, which he also produced."

Monica Lewis retired from the entertainment business in 1988. She spoke about her career in The New Yorker magazine just 10 days before she died. Lewis was married twice: from 1945 to 1947 to music producer Bob Thiele and from 1956 to his death in 1996 to film producer Jennings Lang. Monica Lewis died in 2015 at the age of 93 at Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, a district of Los Angeles.


Belgian postcard offered by Ri-Ri Demaret Chocolatiers Confiseurs. Photo: M.G.M.


Dutch postcard by Sparo (Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam). Photos: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The picture stars are Judy Garland, Betty Hutton, Vivian Blaine (twice), Monica Lewis, Pier Angeli, Ann Blyth and Mario Lanza, Coleen Gray, and Jane Powell. The postcard must date from ca. 1951, when Blyth and Lanza starred together in The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).

Sources: Alan Eichler (IMDb), AllMusic, Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.