Beatrice Kay


Beatrice Kay was an American singer, vaudevillian, music hall performer, and stage and film actress. She died in North Hollywood, California, aged 79.

Background

Born as Hannah Beatrice Kuper, Kay performed as Honey Kuper and Honey Day for part of her career in vaudeville, radio, motion pictures, sound recordings, night clubs, and television. Her career began at the age of six as "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in stock theater in Louisville, Kentucky. She went on to become a headliner at Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub in New York. She was on The Mercury Theatre on the Air, and eventually hosted a radio show, The Beatrice Kay Show, in 1946. Also on radio, she sang regularly on Gaslight Gaieties and Gay Nineties Revue.
On Broadway, Kay appeared in Tell Me Pretty Maiden, Provincetown Follies, Jarnegan, and Secrets.
She appeared at top nightclubs, including San Francisco's 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.
In 1961-62, Kay provided the voice of Sue in the ABC-TV cartoon series Calvin and the Colonel.
She appeared with Cliff Robertson in 1961's Underworld U.S.A. and in 1969's A Time for Dying, with Victor Jory and Audie Murphy. In 1974, she had a bit part in the film Ginger in the Morning.
Songs which she helped popularize include "A Bird in a Gilded Cage", "No! No! A Thousand Times No!!", "The Band Played On", "Mention My Name In Sheboygan", and "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay".
Kay toured on the road in 1972 with The Big Show Of 1936, which played major concert venues including New York's Madison Square Garden.
She retired to operate a holiday resort dude ranch but returned to show business after a devastating fire which destroyed her home. She headlined a month-long booking opening Milt Larsen's Mayfair Music Hall in Santa Monica, California, with Bernard Fox and Larry "Seymour" Vincent.
She died in 1986, aged 79, having been in poor health after suffering a series of strokes.

Film and Television appearances

Over her career, Kay appeared in more than a dozen television shows, including: