UPDATE: GRAVE MARKER FOR HELEN FORREST

Congratulations and a thank you are in order for Don Romano. He organized a campaign to raise money for a tombstone for big band singer in Helen Forrest. His campaign was successful and became a reality finally!

Helen Forrest was one of the most popular female singers in the United States in the 1940's. She was known as "the voice of the name bands" and was the girl singer for the bands of Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Harry James. She is regarded by some as the best female vocalist of the swing era.

July 11, 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of her passing. She is interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, in Los Angeles. Her only surviving son, Michael, passed away on May 1, 2014. At her plot right now is this pitiful twenty-year-old temporary marker.

Here is what Don Ramano had to say:

"Friends, I have some great news. Earlier this year, I started a GoFundMe campaign to put a marker at Helen Forrest's burial site at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California. A temporary marker had been placed at the site since her passing in 1999. Today, on the twentieth anniversary of her passing, I am happy to report she has been memorialized with a beautiful granite marker. The marker was just set on Monday July 8, 2019. None of this would have been possible without your donations, shares, and support. The sentiment on Helen's marker was not only a #1 hit for her and Artie Shaw's band in 1939 (written by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon) but also reflects our gratitude for Helen's work. And to all of you who supported me in this mission, I say, 'Thanks for Ev'rything'!"

Thanks for everything Don Ramano! And thank you for helping Helen Forrest get the memorial that she deserves...

HELEN FORREST: TOMBSTONE FUND

Many people have asked me how we can go about getting a cemetery marker for big band singer Helen Forrest. There is now a go fund me page for getting that stone for legendary singer Helen Forrest. The link is here...

Helen Forrest was one of the most popular female singers in the United States in the 1940's. She was known as "the voice of the name bands" and was the girl singer for the bands of Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Harry James. She is regarded by some as the best female vocalist of the swing era.

July 11, 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of her passing. She is interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, in Los Angeles. Her only surviving son, Michael, passed away on May 1, 2014. At her plot right now is this pitiful twenty-year-old temporary marker.

This needs to change this year.

I have consulted the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery and am working to get Ms. Forrest the marker she deserves. I could use the support of her fans to solidify her memory in a granite stone. I was quoted at approximately $1,500.00 for the cost of the stone with her name, years of life, and perhaps a tasteful epitaph. Please feel free to share a potential inscription and consider making a monetary donation in honor of her memory! I hope to have this project completed by July 11, 2019.

About Me: My name is Donald Romano. I am host of the radio program Don's American Songbook, where I feature, among other singers of the 1940's, Helen Forrest's music. My mission is to keep this music and these legacies alive...

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DICK HAYMES AT 100

There was a time when the name Dick Haymes meant more to the record buying audience than Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby. However, September 13th marks what would have been Haymes 100th birthday. Many people will not remember this crooner with one of the best voices in the business. Dick Haymes was most popular in the 1940s but early on he worked with several bandleaders before beginning a solo career that took him to Hollywood stardom. His brother, Bob, was a successful songwriter. (Bob Haymes wrote the standard "That's All").

In 1937, the family briefly settled in California, where Dick’s mother hobnobbed with movie stars, before returning to New York. Both brothers set their sights on singing. Many auditions later, Haymes landed a spot with Bunny Berigan’s orchestra in 1939 but left after only a few dates. Berigan’s band was in serious decline at that point, and Haymes had other ambitions.

Haymes found sporadic work singing on the radio and decided to try his hand as a songwriter. After pitching his work to bandleader Harry James, he ended up being hired as a vocalist. His deep baritone voice quickly won over both the critics and the public. He remained with James until the end of 1941 when, expecting his first child, he left for greener pastures.

In January 1942, Haymes signed with CBS for his own three times weekly radio series, and in May, he organized his own band in which he was to play piano as well as sing. The endeavor quickly fell victim to the draft, and he joined Benny Goodman as vocalist. He left Goodman at the end of 1942, finding a new home with Tommy Dorsey.

Haymes stayed with Dorsey for only a few months, going solo in May 1943. He signed a recording contract with Decca and in August signed a film contract with Twentieth Century Fox, beginning what would be a very successful screen career. He starred in many of the top Fox musicals of the era, including Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe and State Fair. He hosted his own new CBS radio program from 1944 to 1948, teamed up with singer Helen Forrest in the first two years. The pair often recorded together. Haymes also appeared on various other radio programs in the 1940s and 1950s.

Near the end of the war, Haymes faced the prospect of being drafted, and he registered as a resident alien, waiving his right to citizenship in order to avoid being called to duty. He claimed he only did so due to a family crisis which needed his attention. He later volunteered for the service but was refused on medical grounds, so he became one of the USO’s most ardent volunteers instead.

In 1947, when his Fox contract ran out, Haymes signed with Universal for two pictures. His records still sold well but a troubled home life began to take its toll. Problems with drinking and his handling of money caused his career to suffer. During the early 1950s, he appeared in several B movies and starred in an action/adventure radio series on ABC. His contract with Decca ended in 1952.

He made a few outstand recordings for Capitol in the late 1950s before moving to Ireland in 1961, where he spent the decade cleaning up his life. When he did manage to make records, they are all wonderful and shows a crooner in great voice. He began to make a comeback in the 1970s and returned to the U.S. in 1972, but his chance at good fortune was short-​lived. Dick Haymes died in 1980 after losing a fight with lung cancer. Dick Haymes deserves to be remembered especially now on his century birthday...

HELEN FORREST AND HER SAD RESTING PLACE

My grandfather introduced me to the big bands at a young age, and to this day I can lose myself for hours listening to the great recordings and arrangements. One of my favorite vocalists was the great Helen Forrest. She made a ton of recordings with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Harry James in the 1930s and 1940s and continued to perform well into the 1980s. Forrest died on died on July 11, 1999 at the age of 81. You would think that a singer with the talent of Forrest would have a proper resting place. However, that is not the case.

In 1934, at seventeen years of age, Forrest got her first job at WNEW, New York, singing commercials. During this time, she sang under anonymous names such as Helen, Hilee, Madlene, and Arlene. When she sang for WCBS, she became “Bonnie Blue” and “The Blue Lady of Song.” When her brother Ed, whose band was playing in Washington, D.C., called her to let her know that there was an opening for a vocalist in the Washington Madrillon Club, Forrest auditioned and soon after began singing in the popular supper club.

While performing at the Madrillon, she gained a reputation for her singing, and bandleader Artie Shaw came to see her. Shaw’s singer Billie Holiday was planning to leave the band, and in 1958 Shaw asked Forrest to go on tour. During the fifteen months she sang with Artie Shaw, his band recorded forty-one sides for RCA Victor’s Bluebird record label. In 1939, while still on the road with Artie Shaw’s band, Forrest married drummer Al Spieldock in Baltimore. Her husband remained in Baltimore, and Forrest resumed her tour. When Shaw dissolved his band, she went back to Baltimore but was soon asked to join Benny Goodman’s band. During her two-year tenure with Goodman, she recorded fifty-three sides. In 1941, she joined the Harry James band. The musical alliance of featuring Forrest’s vocals with the band as accompaniment proved very successful.

Traveling with the band, Forrest was the only woman among eighteen or more band members. She fell in love with Harry James, maintaining a sporadic love affair until James married actor Betty Grable. In 1943, a few months after James’s marriage, Forrest left the band and appeared in clubs around the country. Her husband divorced her about the same time. Forrest’s agent teamed her up with vocalist Dick Haymes, and together they appeared on their own very popular radio program, running from 1944 to 1947.

Around 1945, Forrest met Paul Hogan, an aspiring actor, at a party. The two began living together and married in 1947. They later separated and divorced in 1956. In the late 1950s, she met businessman Charlie Feinman and married him in 1959. The couple had a son, Michael, in 1960, but the marriage was dissolved in 1961. She continued to perform in major supper clubs around the country, sometimes singing for movie sound tracks as well as performing in “big band nostalgia” tours. She continued to record, achieving several hits as a soloist and several hits singing duets with Dick Haymes. Forrest recorded approximately seventy-four songs as a solo vocalist—twenty-two for Decca Records, forty for MGM, and twelve for Bell Records. In addition, she recorded for Capitol in 1955–1956, singing the hits she had sung with Harry James. From 1969 to 1974, she rerecorded some of her hits for Reader’s Digest and Time-Life as well. During various periods of “big band nostalgia,” radio broadcasts and shorts were rereleased of Helen Forrest with Artie Shaw’s band, Benny Goodman’s band, Harry James’s band, and Dick Haymes.

After Forrest's death, her only survivor was her son Michael Forrest Feinman. Feinman contacted many fans of Helen Forrest and fans of her peer Dick Haymes personally to ask them for money in exchange for momentos from Helen's private collection. Many people sent Michael money to have nothing sent back. Sadly the lack of money has resulted in no headstone for Helen Forrest. It is now over well over ten years after her death, and still nothing. I am not blaming her son, but how can an icon of the big band era not have a proper resting place is beyond me. I have tried to get in touch again with Michael Feinman, but I have had no luck.

However, Michael did address this on a another website on September 10, 2010:


"Hello all, My name is Michael Forrest Feinman, and I am the son of Helen Forrest. There is a very good reason why there is NO marker on my mothers grave. That reason is that Mt. Sinai where she is buried, played a horrible trick on me and gave me false and erroneous information. I was beside myself when my mother passed. She had been very sick for many years, and only 5 hours after her passing I had the misfortune of having a sales rep at Mt.Sinai tell me that I should start a fund for my mother who had passed. Well having no experience with this type of issue I made the horrible mistake of listening to John Freare who is a sales rep and he gave me legal advise, which unfortuately I listened to. Well to make a long story short, because of my deep grief at that time and not thinking clearly I was slaughtered in the community and with all of her friends and anyone who was close to her. It is a long story but it has been a very long fight to have Mt. Sinai do the right thing after over 11 years."

I am not sure what Michael Feinman does for a living, but I know that if my mother did not have a headstone after ten years I would make sure she had something. I have talked with people in the Helen Forrest community, and they are unsure of Michael's story. I am not coming down hard on him because I have not heard his side of the story, but it is a crime and shame that a talent of the caliber of Helen Forrest is not remembered and respected more after her death. She deserves better...

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TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE HELEN FORREST TOMBSTONE FUND, PLEASE CLICK HERE...