Tendance Carte 3X5 signée à la main "The Irish Rossignale" Morton Downey

Up for auction "The Irish Nightingale" Morton Downey Hand Signed 3X5 Card.

ES-3115

John Morton Downey

(November 14, 1901 – October 25, 1985) was an American singer and entertainer

popular in the United States of America in the first half

of the 20th century, enjoying his greatest success in the late 1920s and early

1930s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale". John Morton Downey was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the fourth of

six children of James A. and Bessie (Cox) Downey, a well-known family in both

Wallingford and Waterbury, Connecticut.The grandson of Irish immigrants, he was always known by his middle name

since so many of his near relatives were also named John. His father was the

chief of the Wallingford Fire Department until a near fatal automobile accident

necessitated his retirement. Downey began his singing career as a member of the

choir of Most tendance Holy Trinity Church in Wallingford. Downey's signature sound was a very

creamy and very high-timbred Irish tenor which an uninformed listener can easily mistake for a

female voice. The popularity of such highly artificial and "heady"

male pop vocals peaked in the late 1920s and early 1930s. By the mid-1930s the

style was out of fashion, so Downey toned down some of his broader mannerisms

and made a transition to a somewhat more "chesty" vocal timbre. For a

time in the 1920s, Downey sang with Paul Whiteman's

Orchestra. He first recorded in 1923 for Edison

Records under the pseudonym Morton James; the following year he recorded

for Victor with the S.S.

Leviathan Orchestra. In 1925 he began four years of recording for Brunswick

Records. In 1926 he had a hit in the show Palm Beach Nights. Downey toured London,

Paris,

Berlin,

New York City

and Hollywood.

He also began appearing in motion

pictures, including Syncopation (1929), the first film

released by RKO Radio Pictures. Downey was also a songwriter

whose most successful numbers include "All I Need is Someone Like

You", "California Skies", "In the Valley of the

Roses", "Now You're in My Arms", "Sweeten Up Your

Smile", "That's How I Spell Ireland", "There's Nothing

New", and "Wabash Moon". He joined ASCAP in 1949. The famous tenor vocalist Bill Kenny grew up idolizing Downey and it is

believed that he was Kenny's biggest influence. The similarities in style can

be heard in Kenny's earliest recordings with The Ink Spots.