Beatrice Kay

Beatrice Kay (April 21 1907 – November 8 1986) was a singer, vaudevillian, music hall performer, stage and film actress. She was born in New York, New York and died in North Hollywood, California.

Background

Kay performed at various media outlets, including burlesque, vaudeville, radio, motion pictures, sound recordings, night clubs, and television. Her career began at age six as "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in stock theater. She went on to becoming a headliner at Billy Rose's famed Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub in New York. She was on Mercury Theatre (directed by Orson Welles), and eventually hosted a radio show entitled "The Beatrice Kay Show".

Kay also appeared at top nightclubs including San Francisco's austere Fairmont Hotel Venetian Room, the Moulin Rouge in Paris, Hollywood's famed Ciro's in Los Angeles, and at the El Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas. She also recorded several phonograph albums, and appeared in a 1945 motion picture about the club where she had performed in her earlier years—"Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe" (the film also starred Betty Grable and Dick Haymes.) She also appeared with Cliff Robertson in 1961's "Underworld U.S.A." as well as 1969's "A Time For Dying", with Victor Jory and Audie Murphy. In 1974, she filmed "Ginger in the Morning" with Susan Oliver, Sissy Spacek, and Monte Markham.

Songs she popularized include "I'm Only A Bird In A Gilded Cage," "No! No! A Thousand Times No!!", "And The Band Played On", " Mention My Name In Sheboygan", and "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay."

Television appearances

Over her career, Kay starred in more than a half-dozen television shows, including:

Make Room For Daddy (with Danny Thomas)
M Squad
The Alaskans
Bonanza (with Lorne Green and Michael Landon)
Hawaiian Eye
The Rifleman (with Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford)
Ironside (with Raymond Burr)
Adam-12
Night Gallery

Kay also toured on the road in 1972 with "The Big Show Of 1936" (which also starred Ben Blue, Jackie Coogan, the Ink Spots, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger and the Weire Brothers.)

She retired to operate a holiday resort dude ranch, but returned to show business following a devastating fire which destroyed her home. She headlined a month-long booking opening Milt Larsen's celebrated Mayfair Music Hall in Santa Monica, California, with Bernard Fox and Larry "Seymour" Vincent.