Biography
Born in Scotland, actress and singer Ella Logan earned her chief acclaim by embodying the Irish role of Sharon McLonergan and delivering the song “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” inside the 1947 Broadway staging of Finian’s Rainbow. Up to that point, however, she had already devoted thirty years to live performances, radio work, recording sessions, and motion-picture appearances.
Ella Allan entered the world on March 6, 1913, inside a theatrical household in Glasgow, Scotland. At three she stepped onto the boards of the Grand Theater in Paisley, Scotland, to sing “The End of a Perfect Day.” Throughout the 1920s she drew notice as a band vocalist, working in England and journeying onward to Germany and Holland. In 1929 she joined the cast of Open Your Eyes, a Vernon Duke-scored musical that premiered in Edinburgh yet shuttered before reaching London. She nevertheless arrived in the British capital the next year and, just before turning seventeen, made her first recordings on February 26, 1930, supplying vocals for the Jack Hylton Orchestra on “Moanin’ Low” and “Can’t We Be Friends?” for HMV Records. That April she cut her initial sides issued under her own name—two numbers from the English adaptation of the Folies Bergerie revue De La Folie Pure, titled “Hold Your Glasses With Bottoms Up” and “Bigger and Better Than Ever.” Also in 1930 she debuted on the West End stage in the musical Darling! I Love You.
Logan crossed to the United States in the early 1930s, accompanied by her young niece, Annabelle McCauley Allan Short, who later performed in the Our Gang comedies, adopted the name Annie Ross, and matured into a prominent jazz singer. Logan herself sang with assorted orchestras; during 1933 and 1934 she recorded alongside Abe Lyman’s California Orchestra and Adrian’s Ramblers under Adrian Rollini. Her Broadway bow occurred in the revue Calling All Stars, which began its run on December 13, 1934, and closed after thirty-six performances on January 12, 1935. She next moved into radio, secured a film contract, and traveled to Hollywood, where she appeared in four pictures within a single year: Flying Hostess (December 1936), Top of the Town (March 1937), Woman Chases Man (June 1937), and 52nd Street (October 1937). Her subsequent screen assignment came in The Goldwyn Follies, the picture for which George Gershwin was composing material when he succumbed to a brain tumor on July 11, 1937. After Gershwin’s death the score and film were finished, and in anticipation of the February 1938 release Logan entered a Brunswick Records studio on December 30, 1937, to record the Gershwin numbers “I Was Doing All Right” and “Love Is Here to Stay,” together with “Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?” and “Jingle (Bingle) Bells.” The last two titles were coupled on a single, and “Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?” registered as a hit in February 1938. Additional Brunswick sessions followed, yielding further successes in 1938: “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” in August, “Come to the Fair” in October, and the duet “Two Sleepy People” with its composer, Hoagy Carmichael, in November.
Logan reappeared on Broadway in George White’s Scandals, which opened August 29, 1939, and completed 120 performances before closing December 9. Although original-cast albums had not yet become standard, she recorded four selections from the show—“Are You Havin’ Any Fun?,” “Waikiki,” “Goodnight, My Beautiful,” and “Something I Dreamed Last Night”—for Columbia Records (by then the owner of Brunswick) on September 26. While maintaining a nightclub schedule, she continued periodic Columbia sessions over the ensuing two years, one of which paired her with the Spirits of Rhythm on “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” In autumn 1940 she participated in the ultimately out-of-town musical Hi Ya, Gentlemen, which folded in Hartford, Connecticut; its co-librettist, Fred Finklehoffe, became her husband in 1942. The marriage endured twelve years, produced a daughter, and concluded in divorce in 1954.
Logan achieved another Broadway return in Sons o’ Fun, the Olsen and Johnson revue that opened December 1, 1941, and tallied 742 performances until August 9, 1943. She did not remain for the entire engagement; on September 16, 1942, she transferred to the revue Show Time, produced by Finklehoffe, whom she wed one week later. That production ran 342 performances, closing April 3, 1943.
Once Allied fortunes improved in World War II and travel to entertain troops became feasible, Logan enlisted with the USO and performed for service members in Africa and Italy. With her Columbia contract expired, she financed her own 1945 album accompanied by Frank DeVol and His Orchestra; the resulting Majestic Records release enjoyed minimal circulation. She otherwise sustained her club work until cast in Finian’s Rainbow, the fantasy and political satire bearing lyrics by E.Y. Harburg (who co-authored the book with Fred Saidy) and music by Burton Lane. Logan portrayed the daughter of an Irishman who, after purloining a pot of gold, arrives in America pursued by the leprechaun he robbed. She performed the bulk of the score—“How Are Things in Glocca Morra?,” “Look to the Rainbow,” “Old Devil Moon,” “Something Sort of Grandish,” “If This Isn’t Love,” “(That) Great Come-and-Get-It Day,” and “When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich.” The production opened January 10, 1947, completed 725 performances, and closed October 2, 1948. Columbia issued the original Broadway cast album, which Logan largely dominated.
Despite Finian’s Rainbow’s triumph, Logan never again appeared on the Broadway stage. During the 1950s she established herself as a leading international nightclub attraction, performing at such prominent American rooms as the Copacabana and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York as well as venues in London and Paris, and she also worked in television. In 1954 she was engaged for a projected animated adaptation of Finian’s Rainbow and re-recorded the score with Frank Sinatra and others; the film was ultimately abandoned, and the tracks remained unreleased until the 2002 box set Sinatra in Hollywood 1940-1964. She committed the show’s songs to disc a second time in 1954 for the Capitol Records LP Finian’s Rainbow issued the following year, her second solo album. In May 1956 she appeared in London alongside Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars. She continued occasional engagements in clubs, on television, and in stock productions into the 1960s. Logan died of cancer at fifty-six on May 1, 1969.
Ella Allan entered the world on March 6, 1913, inside a theatrical household in Glasgow, Scotland. At three she stepped onto the boards of the Grand Theater in Paisley, Scotland, to sing “The End of a Perfect Day.” Throughout the 1920s she drew notice as a band vocalist, working in England and journeying onward to Germany and Holland. In 1929 she joined the cast of Open Your Eyes, a Vernon Duke-scored musical that premiered in Edinburgh yet shuttered before reaching London. She nevertheless arrived in the British capital the next year and, just before turning seventeen, made her first recordings on February 26, 1930, supplying vocals for the Jack Hylton Orchestra on “Moanin’ Low” and “Can’t We Be Friends?” for HMV Records. That April she cut her initial sides issued under her own name—two numbers from the English adaptation of the Folies Bergerie revue De La Folie Pure, titled “Hold Your Glasses With Bottoms Up” and “Bigger and Better Than Ever.” Also in 1930 she debuted on the West End stage in the musical Darling! I Love You.
Logan crossed to the United States in the early 1930s, accompanied by her young niece, Annabelle McCauley Allan Short, who later performed in the Our Gang comedies, adopted the name Annie Ross, and matured into a prominent jazz singer. Logan herself sang with assorted orchestras; during 1933 and 1934 she recorded alongside Abe Lyman’s California Orchestra and Adrian’s Ramblers under Adrian Rollini. Her Broadway bow occurred in the revue Calling All Stars, which began its run on December 13, 1934, and closed after thirty-six performances on January 12, 1935. She next moved into radio, secured a film contract, and traveled to Hollywood, where she appeared in four pictures within a single year: Flying Hostess (December 1936), Top of the Town (March 1937), Woman Chases Man (June 1937), and 52nd Street (October 1937). Her subsequent screen assignment came in The Goldwyn Follies, the picture for which George Gershwin was composing material when he succumbed to a brain tumor on July 11, 1937. After Gershwin’s death the score and film were finished, and in anticipation of the February 1938 release Logan entered a Brunswick Records studio on December 30, 1937, to record the Gershwin numbers “I Was Doing All Right” and “Love Is Here to Stay,” together with “Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?” and “Jingle (Bingle) Bells.” The last two titles were coupled on a single, and “Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?” registered as a hit in February 1938. Additional Brunswick sessions followed, yielding further successes in 1938: “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” in August, “Come to the Fair” in October, and the duet “Two Sleepy People” with its composer, Hoagy Carmichael, in November.
Logan reappeared on Broadway in George White’s Scandals, which opened August 29, 1939, and completed 120 performances before closing December 9. Although original-cast albums had not yet become standard, she recorded four selections from the show—“Are You Havin’ Any Fun?,” “Waikiki,” “Goodnight, My Beautiful,” and “Something I Dreamed Last Night”—for Columbia Records (by then the owner of Brunswick) on September 26. While maintaining a nightclub schedule, she continued periodic Columbia sessions over the ensuing two years, one of which paired her with the Spirits of Rhythm on “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” In autumn 1940 she participated in the ultimately out-of-town musical Hi Ya, Gentlemen, which folded in Hartford, Connecticut; its co-librettist, Fred Finklehoffe, became her husband in 1942. The marriage endured twelve years, produced a daughter, and concluded in divorce in 1954.
Logan achieved another Broadway return in Sons o’ Fun, the Olsen and Johnson revue that opened December 1, 1941, and tallied 742 performances until August 9, 1943. She did not remain for the entire engagement; on September 16, 1942, she transferred to the revue Show Time, produced by Finklehoffe, whom she wed one week later. That production ran 342 performances, closing April 3, 1943.
Once Allied fortunes improved in World War II and travel to entertain troops became feasible, Logan enlisted with the USO and performed for service members in Africa and Italy. With her Columbia contract expired, she financed her own 1945 album accompanied by Frank DeVol and His Orchestra; the resulting Majestic Records release enjoyed minimal circulation. She otherwise sustained her club work until cast in Finian’s Rainbow, the fantasy and political satire bearing lyrics by E.Y. Harburg (who co-authored the book with Fred Saidy) and music by Burton Lane. Logan portrayed the daughter of an Irishman who, after purloining a pot of gold, arrives in America pursued by the leprechaun he robbed. She performed the bulk of the score—“How Are Things in Glocca Morra?,” “Look to the Rainbow,” “Old Devil Moon,” “Something Sort of Grandish,” “If This Isn’t Love,” “(That) Great Come-and-Get-It Day,” and “When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich.” The production opened January 10, 1947, completed 725 performances, and closed October 2, 1948. Columbia issued the original Broadway cast album, which Logan largely dominated.
Despite Finian’s Rainbow’s triumph, Logan never again appeared on the Broadway stage. During the 1950s she established herself as a leading international nightclub attraction, performing at such prominent American rooms as the Copacabana and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York as well as venues in London and Paris, and she also worked in television. In 1954 she was engaged for a projected animated adaptation of Finian’s Rainbow and re-recorded the score with Frank Sinatra and others; the film was ultimately abandoned, and the tracks remained unreleased until the 2002 box set Sinatra in Hollywood 1940-1964. She committed the show’s songs to disc a second time in 1954 for the Capitol Records LP Finian’s Rainbow issued the following year, her second solo album. In May 1956 she appeared in London alongside Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars. She continued occasional engagements in clubs, on television, and in stock productions into the 1960s. Logan died of cancer at fifty-six on May 1, 1969.
Albums
