{{Short description|American actress and singer (1907–1984)}} {{for|the painter|Frances Sally Day}} {{Use American English|date=July 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person |image = 200px|Frances Day, circa 1935. |caption = Frances Day, circa 1935 |birth_name = Frances Victoria Schenk |birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|12|16}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/interactive/7488/NYT715_4536-0062?pid=2006459253&backurl=https://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=kew30&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Frances%2520&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Schenk&gsln_x=0&msbdy=1908&msbpn__ftp=New%2520Jersey,%2520USA&msbpn=33&msdpn__ftp=%2520&mssng=Beaumont&mssns=Alexander&catbucket=rstp&MSAV=1&uidh=57k&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=2006459253&recoff=8%252010&dbid=7488&indiv=1&ml_rpos=2&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=kew30&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true|title=Ancestry Library Edition|website=ancestrylibrary.com|accessdate=February 5, 2018}}</ref> |birth_place = East Orange, New Jersey, U.S. |death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|4|29|1907|12|16}} |death_place = Windsor, Berkshire, England |occupation = Actress, singer |spouse = {{Marriage|Beaumont Alexander|1927|1938|end=divorced}} }}
'''Frances Day''' (born '''Frances Victoria Schenk'''; December 16, 1907{{spaced ndash}}April 29, 1984)<ref>[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/frances-day-mn0000154641 Profile], AllMusic.com; accessed February 4, 2018.</ref> was an American actress and singer who achieved great popularity in the UK in the 1930s.
Her career began as a nightclub cabaret singer in New York City and London. She made her London stage debut as a double act at the New Cross Empire with the dancer John Mills (later a distinguished actor), billed as "Mills and Day".<ref name=Dann>Dann, John (2017). ''Maud Coleno's Daughter: The Life of Dorothy Hartman, 1898–1957''. Kibworth: Matador. p. 125. {{ISBN|978-1-785899-71-3}}</ref> This led to a chorus role in the 1929 West End production of ''The Five O'Clock Girl'' at the Hippodrome, which toured the provinces in 1930. She married Beaumont Alexander, an Australian agent and publicist in London, in 1927.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=kew27&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Frances%20&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Schenck&gsln_x=0&msbpn__ftp=%20&msdpn__ftp=%20&mssng=Beaumont&mssns=Alexander&catbucket=rstp&MSAV=1&uidh=57k&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=62465778&dbid=8753&indiv=1&ml_rpos=1|title=Ancestry Library Edition}}</ref> He masterminded her early career as a dancer in West End nightclubs, where she created favourable notoriety by performing in a G-string with only an ostrich fan for cover. The couple divorced in 1938, and she never remarried.
==Later years== She acted regularly in films until 1941, and appeared on the London stage in musical revues like Cole Porter's ''Black Vanities'' (1941, in which she sang with Bud Flanagan). In the 1950s she made only four films but found a new career as a regular panelist on the British version of ''What's My Line?'', which ran from July 16, 1951, until May 13, 1963.<br>
She was also a close "theatrical" friend of the Mayfair heiress Dorothy Hartman, owner of Lendrum & Hartman Limited, the major distributor of Buick and Cadillac cars in London. She was a regular guest at her country home – Stumblehole Farm, Dean Oak Lane, near Leigh in Surrey.<ref>Dann, pp. 317–319.</ref>
==Death== She died of chronic myeloid leukemia, aged 76, in Windsor, Berkshire, after retreating into reclusion in Maidenhead when her career and public life ended. She left what remained of her estate to a young solicitor, Howard McBrien, in her handwritten will, which included the following directive:
<blockquote>[That] there be no notice or information of any kind of my death, except for and if a death certificate is obligatory. Any persons, private or Press, you shall simply say that I am no longer at this address. "Gone away. Destination unknown", and that is the truth.<ref>Dann, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Mf88DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA327 327].</ref></blockquote>
==Discography== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * "Ooh! That Kiss" (1932) * "Happy-Go-Lucky-You" (1932) * "Now You're Here" (1933) * "It's Best to Forget" (1933) * "Excuse Me" (1934) * "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" (1934) * "Let's Lay Our Heads Together" (1935) * "I'd Do the Most Extraordinary Things" (1935) * "Pardon My English" (1935) * "Dancing With a Ghost" (1935) * "Swing" (1936) * "Me and My Dog" (1936) * "A Little White Room" (1937) * "Artificial Flowers" (1937) * "Because You Are You" (1937) * "Midnight and Music" (1937) * "I've Got You Under My Skin" (1937) * "Easy to Love" (1937) * "Whispers in the Dark" (1937) * "I Will Pray" (1937) * "How Do You Do, Mr. Right?" (1938) * "It's D'Lovely" (1938) * "But in the Morning, No!" (1941) * "It's D'Lovely" (1941) * "Underneath the Arches" (1941) * "Do I Love You?" (1941) * "I L-L-Love You So" (1941) * "Much More Lovely" (1941) * "A Pair of Silver Wings" (1941) * "The Wheels of Love" (1955) * "Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?" (1955) * "Met Rock" (1956) * "Heartbreak Hotel" (1956) {{div col end}}
==Stage credits== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *''Out of the Bottle'' (1932) *''How D'You Do?'' (1933) *''Jill Darling'' (1934) *''Floodlight'' (1937) *''The Fleet's Lit Up'' (1938) *''Black and Blue'' (1939) *''Black Vanities'' (1941) *''DuBarry Was a Lady'' (1942) *''Evangeline'' (1946) *''Buoyant Billions'' (1949) *''Latin Quarter'' (1949) {{div col end}}
==Filmography== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * ''The Price of Divorce'' (1928) * ''Such Is the Law'' (1930) * ''Big Business'' (1930) * "O.K. Chief" (1931) – BIP short * ''The First Mrs. Fraser'' (1932) * ''The Girl from Maxim's'' (1933) * ''Two Hearts in Waltz Time'' (1934) * ''Temptation'' (1934) * ''Oh, Daddy!'' (1935) * ''You Must Get Married'' (1936) * ''Public Nuisance No. 1'' (1936) * ''Dreams Come True'' (1936) * ''Who's Your Lady Friend?'' (1937) * ''The Girl in the Taxi'' (1937) * ''Kicking the Moon Around'' (1938) * ''Room for Two'' (1940) * ''Fiddlers Three'' (1944) * ''Buoyant Billions'' (1949) – BBC TV movie, based on play<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/23a0a7b46a024aa0ace09e67da1b745a|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310132754/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/23a0a7b46a024aa0ace09e67da1b745a|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 10, 2024|title=Buoyant Billions|website=BBC Genome}}</ref> * ''Call It a Day'' (1950) – BBC TV special<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/885f0f878c6c43b1ac1600405b7578db|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310132755/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/885f0f878c6c43b1ac1600405b7578db|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 10, 2024|title=Call It a Day|website=BBC Genome}}</ref> * ''A Summer's Day'' (1950) – BBC TV special<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b7fa5aca6ebe4574a371555f77aa4ec5|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310132753/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b7fa5aca6ebe4574a371555f77aa4ec5|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 10, 2024|title=A Summer's Day|website=BBC Genome}}</ref> * ''Tread Softly'' (1952) * ''There's Always a Thursday'' (1957) * "The Witching Hour" (1958) – episode of ''Armchair Theatre'' {{div col end}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|0206402}} * [https://theatricalia.com/person/qjv/frances-day Frances Day] at Theatricalia * [https://www.abouttheartists.com/artists/764267-frances-day-1 Frances Day] at About the Artists * {{discogs artist}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-OYeiZer4 Frances Day in Burma] (1945) – British Pathé newsreel * "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI4qpQIc7Q8 You Bring Out the Savage in Me]" – ''Oh, Daddy!'' (1935) * "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPi1vl0U_uo The Life Of Your Party]" (c.1936) – with the Savoy Orpheans * {{NPG name}} * "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2RFRGAUMUQ I'm for You, a Hundred Percent]" (1932) – with the Savoy Orpheans * [https://mashable.com/feature/frances-day Frances Day: The Forgotten Bombshell of the 1930s] – Alex Q. Arbuckle * [https://guysterling.wordpress.com/2020/06/07/newark-golden-girl/ Frances Day: Biography of Newark's Golden Girl] – Guy Sterling
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Frances}} Category:1907 births Category:1984 deaths Category:American stage actresses Category:American film actresses Category:Actresses from East Orange, New Jersey Category:American expatriate actresses Category:American expatriates in England Category:Musicians from East Orange, New Jersey Category:Nightclub performers Category:20th-century American actresses Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century American singers Category:Deaths from chronic myeloid leukemia Category:Deaths from leukemia in England