Biography
Born as Aldo Sigismondi, Alan Dale once ranked among America’s foremost vocalists. His baritone appeared on Pérez Prado’s million-selling 1955 single “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White,” and his own recording “Sweet and Gentle” first brought the cha-cha to North American listeners. He finished second behind Frank Sinatra in the 1948 radio poll Battle of the Baritones and captured nearly half the votes for best male singer in a Make Believe Ballroom popularity survey. He also took part in the early days of rock & roll by appearing in Alan Freed’s film Don’t Knock the Rock.
The son of an Italian-American theater comedian who had left the Abruzzi region of Italy, Dale first sang on his father’s radio program. At sixteen, after quarreling with a teacher, he quit school and tried several jobs before attempting a stage career. An audition at a Coney Island Casino led to a singing engagement that earned him seven encores on opening night.
Although he joined the Carmen Cavallaro Orchestra in 1944, constant touring soon became unbearable. Homesick and physically unwell, he tried in vain to end the seven-year contract. The agreement ended when Cavallaro accepted a film assignment and the band broke up. Dale returned to Brooklyn and kept a low profile. He spent three years with saxophonist George Paxton’s progressive jazz dance band, but fell ill again when the group began one-night stands in early 1947.
He began working independently in summer 1947, avoiding the road and concentrating on radio and television. His second solo single, “Oh Marie,” sold nearly a million copies. After hosting his own Dumont network program, he became the star of CBS Radio’s musical quiz show Sing It Again in spring 1948 and soon added a Mutual Radio Network series. The following year he hosted a five-nights-a-week television program. Paramount Pictures sent a scout to consider offering him a film role.
His prospects seemed assured until he collapsed on a live broadcast. Rushed to the hospital with a bleeding ulcer, he underwent abdominal surgery and spent much of 1951 moving in and out of medical care. During his recovery his career lost its early momentum. Mitch Miller had taken charge at Columbia and was concentrating on novelty and singalong releases. Perry Como inherited his television slot, and Sing It Again ended after three seasons. When his Columbia contract expired in November 1951, he signed with Decca and reunited with Coral producer Bob Thiele, who had previously collaborated with talent agent Lou Perry and Sing It Again music director Ray Bloch on such hits as “My Thrill (My Paloma)” and “I’m Sorry.”
Setbacks continued. After leaving a May 1958 benefit concert, he was thrown down a flight of stairs into a Plexiglas window. The October 1958 issue of Confidential Magazine stated that he had been “black-listed.” In his 1995 autobiography What a Wonderful World: A Lifetime of Recordings, Thiele suggested that Dale’s refusal to allow the Mafia to become involved in his career might have led to the assault.
Unaccountably barred from The Ed Sullivan Show for eleven years, Dale returned on Sunday, January 17, 1960, as the guest of Jackie Gleason, who filled in after Sullivan suffered a bleeding ulcer during rehearsals and was hospitalized. He continued performing in New York with little public attention until his death in 2002 at the age of seventy-six.
The son of an Italian-American theater comedian who had left the Abruzzi region of Italy, Dale first sang on his father’s radio program. At sixteen, after quarreling with a teacher, he quit school and tried several jobs before attempting a stage career. An audition at a Coney Island Casino led to a singing engagement that earned him seven encores on opening night.
Although he joined the Carmen Cavallaro Orchestra in 1944, constant touring soon became unbearable. Homesick and physically unwell, he tried in vain to end the seven-year contract. The agreement ended when Cavallaro accepted a film assignment and the band broke up. Dale returned to Brooklyn and kept a low profile. He spent three years with saxophonist George Paxton’s progressive jazz dance band, but fell ill again when the group began one-night stands in early 1947.
He began working independently in summer 1947, avoiding the road and concentrating on radio and television. His second solo single, “Oh Marie,” sold nearly a million copies. After hosting his own Dumont network program, he became the star of CBS Radio’s musical quiz show Sing It Again in spring 1948 and soon added a Mutual Radio Network series. The following year he hosted a five-nights-a-week television program. Paramount Pictures sent a scout to consider offering him a film role.
His prospects seemed assured until he collapsed on a live broadcast. Rushed to the hospital with a bleeding ulcer, he underwent abdominal surgery and spent much of 1951 moving in and out of medical care. During his recovery his career lost its early momentum. Mitch Miller had taken charge at Columbia and was concentrating on novelty and singalong releases. Perry Como inherited his television slot, and Sing It Again ended after three seasons. When his Columbia contract expired in November 1951, he signed with Decca and reunited with Coral producer Bob Thiele, who had previously collaborated with talent agent Lou Perry and Sing It Again music director Ray Bloch on such hits as “My Thrill (My Paloma)” and “I’m Sorry.”
Setbacks continued. After leaving a May 1958 benefit concert, he was thrown down a flight of stairs into a Plexiglas window. The October 1958 issue of Confidential Magazine stated that he had been “black-listed.” In his 1995 autobiography What a Wonderful World: A Lifetime of Recordings, Thiele suggested that Dale’s refusal to allow the Mafia to become involved in his career might have led to the assault.
Unaccountably barred from The Ed Sullivan Show for eleven years, Dale returned on Sunday, January 17, 1960, as the guest of Jackie Gleason, who filled in after Sullivan suffered a bleeding ulcer during rehearsals and was hospitalized. He continued performing in New York with little public attention until his death in 2002 at the age of seventy-six.