Vivian Blaine

Blaine was born in Newark, New Jersey to Leo Stapleton, an insurance agent,^[1] and Wilhelmina Tepley.^[2] The cherry-blonde-haired Blaine appeared on local stages as early as 1934 and she started touring after graduating from South Side High School.^[3]

Blaine was a touring singer with dance bands starting in 1937.

At one point in the 1940s, she was the top-billed act at New York's Copacabana nightclub. In his book, Dean and Me: (A Love Story), Jerry Lewis wrote about appearing at the club when Blaine was on the same bill: "We [Lewis and Dean Martin, as the double act Martin and Lewis] weren't even the top-billed act. That honor went to a Broadway singing star named Vivian Blaine, who'd conquered Manhattan, gone out to Hollywood to make movies for 20th Century Fox, then returned to the Big Apple in triumph. Vivian was a lovely and very talented actress and singer ..."^[4]

In 1942, Blaine's agent and soon-to-be husband Manny Franks signed her to a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox, and she moved to Hollywood,^{[citation needed]} sharing top billing with Laurel and Hardy in Jitterbugs (1943) and starring in Greenwich Village (1944), Something for the Boys (1944), Nob Hill (1945), and State Fair (1945).

Blaine appeared on Broadway in Guys and Dolls; A Hatful of Rain; Say, Darling; Enter Laughing; Company; and Zorba, as well as participating in the touring companies of plays such as Light Up the Sky; and musicals such as Gypsy.

Blaine was a special guest during the This is Your Life tribute episode to Laurel and Hardy, seen over NBC-TV on December 1, 1954. Blaine had worked with the duo in the film Jitterbugs and had fond memories of the experience.

On the 25th annual Tony Awards in 1971, she appeared as a guest performer and sang "Adelaide's Lament" from Guys and Dolls.

Later in her career, her television career took off, with guest appearances on shows like Fantasy Island, The Love Boat (S2 E9 1978), and a recurring role in the cult hit Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.^[5]

Her final onscreen appearance was in "Broadway Malady", a Season 1 episode of Murder, She Wrote.

In 1983, Blaine became the first celebrity to make public service announcements for AIDS-related causes. She made numerous appearances in support of the then-fledgling AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) and in 1983 recorded her cabaret act for AEI Records, which donated its royalties to the new group; this included the last recordings of her songs from Guys and Dolls. Her prior albums for Mercury Records^{[citation needed]} have all subsequently been reissued on CD.^[6]

Blaine died of congestive heart failure in Beth Israel Hospital North in New York City on December 9, 1995, aged 74.^[7]