Biography

Big band era vocalist Bea Wain was born April 30, 1917 in New York City; after learning piano as a child, she went on to appear on the NBC radio series Children's Hour, and in her teens sang with vocal groups headlined by Fred Waring, Kay Thompson, and others. After a stint with the Gene Kardos Orchestra, in 1937 Wain joined former Tommy Dorsey arranger Larry Clinton & His Orchestra, where in the following year her warm, engaging voice was featured on a series of hits including "Deep Purple," "Martha," "Heart and Soul," "My Reverie," and numerous others. So great was Wain's success that a 1939 Billboard magazine poll named her the year's most popular female band vocalist; she left Clinton in the spring of that year to pursue a solo career, and her string of hits continued with efforts including "I'm Nobody's Baby," "Do I Worry?," and "Kiss the Boys Goodbye." A frequent guest on shows including Your Hit Parade and Quaker Party, Wain and her husband, radio announcer Andre Baruch, later co-hosted their own series, Mr. and Mrs. Music, continuing with a similar series in Palm Beach, Florida during the 1970s. The couple moved to California in 1980, and hosted a syndicated radio show (a reconstituted Your Hit Parade) in Beverly Hills during the subsequent decade. Andre Baruch died in 1991, and Bea Wain continued to perform into her nineties. The last years of her life were spent in a Beverly Hills assisted living facility, and she died on August 19, 2017, four months after her 100th birthday. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi