BILLY DANIELS

'Billy Daniels' William Boone Daniels (b. September 12 1915, Jacksonville, Florida – d. October 7 1988, Los Angeles, California), was an American big band singer and famed nightclub entertainer. Daniels was the biggest nightclub draw in New York throughout the 1950s. He first toured the USA with the Erskine Hawkins Band in 1936 as their featured vocalist and scored a hit with "Until The Real Thing Comes Along." Famously he sang every day of 1938 on New York radio for 12 different sponsors. 'It was me or the horse racing' Billy Daniels, the 1930s radio star remarked. The first singer to go solo away from the 1930s big band scene, he was an actor, first film appearance was in ''Sepia Cinderella'' a landmark 'Race' movie of 1938, he performed in musicals, notably ''Hello Dolly'' with Pearl Bailey US Tour 1975 and ''Bubbling Brown Sugar'' with Clarke Peters London 1978 and was the first to sign a long term contract in Las Vegas, three years at 'The Stardust' from 1958. He appeared in films, and television in the US and UK 1950's and 1960's and was very popular in Australia. Billy Daniels arrived from the USA at The London Palladium in 1952 and broke house records.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, son of a railroad mailman with his mother a school teacher and organist with a heritage of Portuguese sailor, African American preacher, Native American (Choctaw) and pioneer white frontiersman Daniel Boone. William Boone Daniels moved to Harlem in 1935. He originally moved to New York to attend Columbia University to become a lawyer, but was side-tracked, during the Depression. Daniels grandmother was a seamstress in Harlem for the Ziegfeld Follies and encouraged her grandson to sing without a microphone, to diners in the club where he was a busboy, a singing waiter.
Daniels' first gained fame in 52nd Street, and when, partnered with pianist Benny Payne (see Cab Calloway) recorded "That Old Black Magic" in 1948 arguably one of the first 'pop' records, a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, it became Daniels' signature song and led to an extended engagement at New York's Park Avenue restaurant and a brief appearance in the 1950s Hollywood musical ''When You're Smiling'' with the later "Rawhide" singer Frankie Laine. Billy Daniels with Benny Payne paved the way for a legion of African American entertainers that followed. ''The Billy Daniels Show'' (1952 ABC Sponsored by the Rybutol Vitamin Corporation of America) established the Sunday night variety slot later occupied by Ed Sullivan. Billy Daniels appeared in the legendary Broadway musical ''Memphis Bound'' in 1945 with dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson and continued to entertain worldwide until his passing on October 7, 1988 at age 73 from stomach cancer. Billy Daniels star resides on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside Gerry Lewis as a 1950s pioneer entertainer.

Contents

Trivia

References

External links

Trivia

★ Danels recorded a disco version of "That Old Black Magic" in 1975.^[1]

★ Henry Hill and his wife Karen Hill were his guests of honor when they visited Las Vegas in the 1970s and spent the entire night they were with him looking for a prostitute for him.

★ Daniels' daughter, Yvonne, was a disc jockey in Chicago, notable for her stint at WLS between 1973 and 1982.^[2]

References

1. Billy Daniels
2. Rock Radio Scrapbook AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK For week of December 3

External links

★