Heading towards fate with bedroom eyes.
In the 1920s and 1930s, this singer made an incredible impression on anyone who saw her perform, but she has since dissolved into oblivion.
Minister’s daughter Lee Morse from Kooskia had what was called “country” in her voice. She was an irresistible beauty with full lips and dreamy bedroom eyes. Those melancholy eyes drove men to ecstasy, but what made her famous was her voice – a voice with “whoops, yips and yodels” – and a phenomenal range. Variety magazine judged: “She looks like a male impersonator: she yodels sweetly, and she sings the blues songs better than most.”
She was accompanied by musicians such as Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Red Nichols. Her artistic success (with songs like “Wasting my love on you”, “I’m an unemployed sweetheart”, “Blue turning grey over you”, “Nobody cares if I am blue” and “Something in the Night”) was, however, accompanied by a bad temper and a vicious alcohol problem.
Behold the route to disaster she took. After her last partner exchanged her for a young stripper, she died, unexpectedly, on a visit to her neighbour’s house – a death that was an anti-climax after a turbulent life.
