Johnny Desmonmd

Johnny was born Giovanni Alfredo de Simone in Detroit, November 14th, 1919, the son of Italian immigrants Peter and Lillian De Simone who originated from Sicily. He was the youngest of four children, two boys and two girls.

At the age of 11 he began singing in his parent's grocery store between doing his chores - sweeping the floor and stacking fruit. One day a customer heard him singing and told his parents that she thought his boy soprano voice would be perfect for him to appear on the local radio station. It was a program for talented children. He was so good that they signed him up straight after the audition. From then on he was to be known as Johnny Desmond. He was then featured on a show called Uncle Nick's. One day, when he was 15 years old (while he was singing 'I'm Laughing'), his voice changed! He became a baritone overnight and was very disappointed. He'd hoped to become a tenor!

Johnny then took special courses in dramatics, tap dancing and piano. After graduation from North Eastern High School in Detroit, he took singing lessons and studied for a year at The Detroit Conservatory of Music. At 17 he began looking for a job. He had very little luck and to get into radio he took juvenile parts on The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger shows.

A trial period as a song and dance man convinced him this wasn't to be his career. In 1939 he organized a quartet, named them The Downbeats. Johnny got them on WWJ. He was the only one who could read music, so he also did the group's arrangements. For extra money he sang with local bands.

His first break came in late 1940. Bob Crosby came to town, Johnny's group, the Downbeats auditioned and were hired. Crosby changed their name to The Bob-o-links. On the road two weeks their girl singer got homesick and went home. They auditioned girls in every town, finally settling on attractive, blue-eyed brunette Ruth Keddington. She later became Mrs. Desmond. The Bob-O-Links were Johnny Desmond, Tony Paris, Ruth Keddington and Eddie Levine

Shortly after Ruth joined them, Johnny decided he wanted to do solo work. He left Crosby and went to New York. He tramped the streets with no success. He says he was "the loneliest and brokest guy in N.Y."

His folks had faith in him and saw him through the dark days. Finally Johnny got a job with Gene Krupa replacing Howard Dulaney as the solo singer with Krupa's orchestra. Krupa was preparing to go into the N.Y. Paramount ('Dec.'41) when Johnny called Ruth and asked her to come to New York. With a steady income he could once again think about marriage.

Krupa was doing seven shows a day, but Johnny managed to get a marriage license between shows! He and Ruth were married after the last show, on January 3 1942.

In August '42 Johnny enlisted in the Air Corps and played cymbals in their band. When Johnny was with Gene Krupa he used to hear Glenn Miller's band, then when he was stationed in Oklahoma he read in a magazine that Glenn was looking for people from the Big Bands. He kept wishing that one day he could sing with the Miller band so he decided to write to Glenn to ask him if he would be of any use to him. He waited a long time until he finally received a letter from Mr Miller saying that he was interested in Johnny. Johnny was on a 10 day leave when he received a phone call at his father's grocery store saying that Glenn wanted him as the vocalist for his band.

September 1st. 1943, Johnny was then transferred to Chanute Field outside Chicago. While he was at Chanute Field he had a crew-cut but when he arrived at New Haven his hair had grown again. Glenn Miller was a strict disciplinarian and didn't like Johnny's long hair so he told him to get it cut. He ended up going back to the barber's three times in all until Glenn Miller was satisfied that his hair was short enough! When he saw the final cut he said to Johnny, Now thats a haircut and while youre in this band you keep it this way!

Before Johnny made his first appearance with the band it was thought that he was suffering from acute appendicitis, he was sent to hospital but eventually it was found to be a severe attack of nerves!

In June 1944, Glenn Miller's band was shipped over to England as a morale booster for the G.I.'s over here at that time. They sailed from New York on the Queen Elizabeth on the 21st of June and arrived at Gourock in Scotland six days later, catching an overnight troop train to London.

The band were originally billeted at the Sloane Court Hotel, Chelsea. The area was known as Buzz-Bomb Alley due to the number of German Doodle-Bugs or flying-bombs which landed in the area. On their first night in London, Johnny, together with Steve and Gene Steck and a couple of the other band members, put on their steel helmets and climbed up to the roof of their hotel to watch the rockets flying over. When the exhaust flame stopped and the engine was silent, the rocket would fall to earth with a tremendous explosion.

Johnny and the band left Sloane Square on Sunday 2nd July 1944, moving to Bedford. Luckily for them they all left when they did; the very next day a V-bomb fell where they had been staying, many people were killed.

The Miller band was known as The American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. Johnny became known as the 'G.I. Sinatra', and because of his lovely smooth sounding voice he was also named 'The Creamer' the French called him Le Cremaire which, roughly translated, meant the Love Song Balladeer.

While over in England, he played before millions of GI's in person and did 18 weekly radio shows. Johnny also had his own BBC radio series 'A Soldier and a Song' on a Sunday lunchtime. One show was a command performance for the British royal family. It was later reported that Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth became quite a Desmond fan and asked him to send her his records when he got back to America and made them. Even up to his death he got unbelievable quantities of mail from Europe from people who remembered the singing Sergeant.

When Johnny and the Glenn Miller Band were over in Paris, they were given a night off to see the sights and enjoy themselves. Johnny found himself in a small café where he heard a band playing C'est Si Bon. He enjoyed the tune so much that he took it back to America and recorded it. This was to become his first No.1 hit song.

Upon his discharge from service (Johnny was released from Ft. Dix, N.J. in November 1945) Johnny was in great demand for night club dates and radio; starring on The Teentimer's Club, Judy 'n' Jill 'n' Johnny and The Philip Morris Frolics. The last-named radio show also featured Herb Shriner and Margaret Whiting, who nicknamed Johnny 'Desmo'.

But success was short lived. As he explained, I was young, fresh out of the army, inexperienced, and most important of all, I didn't know how to handle my career.

The descent was meteoric; the comeback was slow. A big factor was the offer, in 1948, of a three month stint on Don McNeill's Breakfast Club that stretched into a six-year stand. Johnny did a stint as a disc jockey over MBS. Regaining confidence, he decided to widen his range to include acting. He was a hit in a straight role in the Danger series on the CBS-TV Network, then went on to do some comedy and straight dramatic roles. His exceptional work on shows like Philco Playhouse proved he had capabilities as a dramatic actor. His stint on The Breakfast Club made him a national favorite. Johnny also co-hosted the Glenn Miller Time in the early 1960s with Ray McKinley.

His first starring movie was Calypso Heat Wave and then he did a dramatic part in Escape from San Quentin. He made several films, including a co-starring role with Victor Mature in China Doll. Other films were Desert Hell, Hawk of the Caribbean and Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth

Of course, Johnny's outstanding work in Say Darling had the audiences applauding him at six evening and two matinee performances weekly at the ANTA Theater on Broadway. Johnny was grateful for the chance to work in the play and said, "I owe many thanks to Jule Styne and Abe Burrows for more or less taking a chance on a record singer in a Broadway show. They gave me a great part in a great show and also gave me the opportunity to prove myself in the theater, which gives me a well-rounded career. This was sort of the last frontier!"

Johnny, as you know, was already well established on radio and TV, records, night clubs and movies when he was offered the roll of Nicky Arnstein in Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand. This was to last for two years. Johnny jokingly said "I was the only Italian Jew on Broadway, parts like that were hard to come by."

Johnny had been due to record an album with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in late 1985 but very sadly he died before he was able to. He died of cancer at the age of 65 on September 6th. 1985 at the Cedars Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles.