"The rose speaks of love silently in a language known only to the heart."

           Ghost Voices….
         …the actors we never see!

Part II…..

Many of our singing “ghosts” were songbirds with careers outside the film industry. Bonnie Lou Williams who gave voice to Virginia Mayo, June Haver, Betsy Drake and Lana Turner, was a band singer with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra. Trudy Erwin, who also sang for Lana Turner(who couldn’t sing a note), did her vocalizing with Kay Kyser off screen and even sang along with Bing Crosby. Bill Lee who did the work for Christopher Plummer in “The Sound of Music” was part of the popular quartet “The Mellomen”. But the most popular of all was a romantic troubadour by the name of Buddy Clark.

Jack Haley was more than a little miffed when Fox brought in Buddy Clark to do his singing for “Wake Up and Live” in 1937. After all, Jack had done his own singing in vaudeville and films for years. But the studio felt the music in this movie needed something special and Buddy had that special something…a voice that wrapped around your heart!

Buddy in the 1930s

Buddy was born Samuel Goldberg in Dorchester, Massachusetts on July 26th, 1912 and grew up in the West End of Boston with his eye on the ball…literally. Little Sammy really wanted to be a big league baseball player or maybe a lawyer but he couldn’t stop singing. Sam sang at family gatherings, weddings, and sawdust-on-the-floor saloons. He even sang in the street. He was singing at a wedding when he caught the eye and ears of Boston’s foremost furrier. What does fur have to do with music? Well, it seems Mr. David Lilienthal and his company I. J. Fox sponsored a local radio program and could use a vocalist. Soon studying law at Northwestern lost out to Sammy’s passion for music.
                      

Sam changed his name to Buddy Clark (he thought it would be more memorable) and wowed them on Boston radio for over 9 years before heading for New York and even bigger audiences. In 1934 he made his debut with the “King of Swing” Benny Goodman on the radio show “Let’s Dance’. From 1934 to 1939 he added “Hit Parade” and “Buddy Clark’s Summer Colony” on CBS to his resume. About that same time, Buddy began his “ghostly” activities with uncredited vocals on transcription discs with name bands who couldn’t yet afford live music air time…names like Freddy Martin, Archie Blyer and Fred Rich.
                                     

Buddy with Victor Mature and Arnold Stang

That is where Darryl Zanuck heard him, a fantastic voice with no name attached, and hired him to be the singing voice of Jack Haley. For Buddy’s next “ghosting” he was asked to sing a cowboy ditty for baseball great Lou Gehrig in the 1938 western “Rawhide”, the only movie appearance Lou ever made. For baseball fan Sammy Goldberg that must have been a dream come true. In 1942 Buddy sang for Victor Mature in “Seven Days Leave” and even snagged a cameo role as well (as Buddy Clark!)
                                   

Buddy at the recording studio

At the same time, Buddy was making one hit record after another, But he stopped his career to do a job for Uncle Sam by enlisting…..he spent a lot of time singing there, too, with military bands. It also signaled the end of his first marriage (he and Louise had 2 children, Tommy and Catherine). When he was discharged , he took back his career and a new wife, a lovely model named Nedra, and soon they had an equally beautiful daughter they called Penny.*
                  

In 1946 Buddy signed with Columbia Records and in 1947 recorded a song with Ray Noble and his orchestra that would hit the top of the charts and stay there for 6 months. The title of that song was “Linda”, written by Jack Lawrence for his attorney’s precocious 6-year-old daughter. Twenty years later that same little girl became the Linda of Beatle Paul McCartney’s dreams and his wife. Buddy also had another chart topper that year….his recording of “Peg O’My Heart”. And, in 1947, he was the singing voice of Mark Stevens in “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now”.
                      

Buddy in 1947

By 1949 Buddy Clark was up there with the most popular vocalists of the era….Crosby and Sinatra. The 3 films he made in 1948 and 1949 he did as himself except for dubbing the voice of William Holden for “Father was a Bachelor” (released in 1950). He was recording duets with Doris Day (“Powder Your Face With Sunshine”) and Dinah Shore (“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”). His duet with Doris on “Love Somebody” sold a million records and hit #1 on the charts. But tragically for Buddy, time was running out.
                      

Buddy gravely injured in crash.

Returning from a college football game on October 2, 1949, the twin-engine Cessna carrying Buddy and four others ran out of fuel and crashed during an emergency landing on Beverly Boulevard in Burbank, California. Ironically no one on the road were hurt and no one else on the plane died. Buddy Clark died several hours later at the hospital.
                           

Buddy's grave at Forest Lawn   Memorial Park, Glendale, California

*But Buddy’s death was only part of the tragic story that surrounded him and his second family. Several years before Nedra married Buddy, a crazed ex-boyfriend stabbed her, her mother and her infant daughter. Only Nedra survived.  Then, less than a year after Buddy’s death, their daughter Penny was killed by a car after stepping off the school bus. In 1951 Nedra Clark married film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and they adopted a son. Nedra became pregnant in 1954 and had a healthy baby girl they called Tina. But she died shortly afterward of cancer. Both Nedra and Penny Clark are buried beside Buddy in Forest Lawn.

I want to thank Christine Souter, Jim Todd and Tom Degan for their invaluable help with this story.

The Whoopi Goldberg Rose