Margaret Teresa Yvonne Reed
Martha Raye
Motion Pictures Category Star
- Ceremony was on February 8, 1960
Martha Raye
Television Category Star
- Ceremony was on February 8, 1960
Martha Raye
Autographed Matchbook
Martha Raye
78, dies after long illness
By JOHN HORN The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Martha Raye, the comedian whose cavernous mouth and exclamation "Oh boyyy!" became trademarks on Broadway, the silver screen, and wartime stages overseas, has died after a long illness. She was 78.
Miss Raye joined her parents' vaudeville act at age 3 and never quit entertaining. Most recently, she appeared as the "Big Mouth" pitch woman in television ads for a dental adhesive. "She represented the kind of talent that is rare today - the all-round entertainment pro, equally at home in movies, on TV, radio, and recording," said entertainer Sid Caesar.
"She was always bigger than life," said Bob Hope.
Miss Raye died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after being admitted on Monday. She had a stroke in 1990, and circulatory problems forced doctors to amputate her left leg below the knee a year ago.
She was one of the first Hollywood figures to entertain U.S troops overseas during World War II, and continued her service in Korea and Vietnam. Her many citations for those efforts included a special Academy Award in 1969 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year.
"She was more popular with the GI's than a weekend pass," said Hope, who shared many stages with her. "They loved her in Vietnam. She was a Florence Nightingale, Dear Abby, and the only singer who could be heard over the artillery fire."
Miss Raye's most notable film role was in the 1947 classic black comedy "Monsieur Verdoux," in which she played the indestructible mate of a wife-killer portrayed by Charles Chaplin.
Her television work included the 1950s variety series "The Martha Raye Show," "McMillan, "Alice" and innumerable variety show guest shots.
"I can still remember the first time I ever saw Martha," entertainer Steve Allen recalled Wednesday.
"It was long before she was a star. I guess I was about 14 and she was performing at a theater on the south side of Chicago. I remembered being impressed by her beauty, her talent as a singer, her talent as a dancer ... She was truly captivating - she obviously star quality."
Miss. Raye was born Margaret Teresa Yvonne Reed on Aug. 27, 1916, in the charity ward of a hospital in Butte, Mont., where her vaudevillian parents, Pete Reed and Betty Hooper, had been stranded.
At 16. Martha left the family song and dance act in Chicago, changed her name to Raye and began doing songs, comedy, and Broadway revues.
She was appearing at the Trocadero night club on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip in 1935 when she was spotted by a director and cast in a Bing Crosby musical, "Rhythm on the Range." Paramount Pictures signed her to a contract and she appeared in a string of musical comedies.
"Then they tried to make a glamor girl out of me," she recalled in 1955. "They tried to emphasize my legs. That was ridiculous. I was no glamor girl; I was a comedian."
She made wartime movies such as "Pinup Girl," "Hellzapoppin," and "Four Jills in a Jeep," then her film career declined. Her only important film after "Monsieur Verdoux" was the 1962 Doris Day musical "Jumbo."
She continued, however, to earn big salaries in television, Las Vegas casinos, and nightclubs. In 1967, she took over from Ginger Rogers in "Hello, Dolly" on Broadway, and in 1972 starred in "No, Nanette."
In 1991, she filed an unsuccessful lawsuit claiming that the Bette Midler film "For the Boys" wrongfully appropriated her life story.
She also battled with her estranged daughter, Melody Condos, who tried to gain control of Miss Raye's money after her stroke. A court eventually put her finances under the care of a conservator.
The entertainer was 75 and in a wheelchair when she married for the seventh time, to her 42-year-old manager, Mark Harris, in September 1991.
Her previous marriages were to makeup artist Buddy Westmore (six weeks), composer Dave Rose (three years), businessman Neal Lang (one year), dancer Nick Condos (five years), dancer Edward Begley (one year) and policeman Bob O'Shea (nine months).
