Marsh, Audrey, 1911-

Audrey Marsh was born in New York City on March 18, 1911 (her birth name is Audrey Lois Zellman). Her father, Joseph B. Zellman had come to America from Russia in the 1880s. A bass-baritone, Joseph sang at the Czar’s last court and left Russia because of political (Anarchist) and religious (Jewish) affiliations. He also played violin and was able to travel to the United States with 2nd class accommodations after being awarded a scholarship from a music conservatory. After school, he settled in New York City and had a busy career as a singer and recitalist at churches, temples and concert halls such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall. He later opened his own music school, Zellman Conservatory of Music, on Lenox Avenue and 126th Street.

Audrey’s mother, Rose Kornicker, was a concert pianist who became Joseph Zellman’s accompanist. Born in Philadelphia in a German Jewish family, Rose concertized and taught piano at an early age. She continued to teach throughout Audrey’s childhood. Joseph Zellman and Rose Kornicker recorded an extensive repertoire of voice and piano duets on the early Thomas Edison cylinders.

Surrounded by music throughout her childhood, Audrey wanted to be an actress and attended the John Murray Anderson School of Drama for 6 months. Soon after graduating she was hired for the cast of Abie’s Irish Rose . In 1927, at the age of 16, she went on an American tour of the play for 9 months. Shortly after that, she was taken to CBS radio to audition as a singer. Someone had heard her sing at a cast party and was deeply impressed with her talent. She was brought to CBS by a song plugger who had heard her sing one song after she had accompanied a friend to a coaching session. The story goes that he was very impatient with the friend but after hearing her sing, he convinced her to let him bring her to audition at CBS. She was immediately given a contract and premiered on February 2, 1928 at the Brooklyn Paramount in an orchestral variety program. The cast included the Dorsey Brothers, Mark Warno and Freddie Rich, conductor.

After that performance, she became part of the regular cast of the Wickwire Spencer Steele Show, singing ballads and popular songs of the period (the cast of the show included Veronica Wiggins-contralto, Freddie Viertel-tenor, and Bernie Ocko-violinist). During the late 1920’s and 1930’s she became very well known as a radio singer and personality appearing on shows such as the US Steel Show, the Prudential Hour, Maxwell House Coffee Hour, Jack and Jill and the Harvester Cigar Show in which she played Esther to Jack Arthur’s Harvester. She worked for CBS, NBC, WOR and various advertising agencies, and performed with Rudy Vallee, Fred Allen, Arthur Godfrey, Shirley Booth and many more stars of that time.

In the 1940s and 1950s she also became a popular jingle singer. She sang commercials for DUZ Soap (she performed this commercial live every day on the soap opera The Road of Life . Bud Collier was the announcer); Muriel Cigars, Blue Bonnet Margarine, Royal Pudding, Schaeffer Beer, Robert Hall Clothes and Chevrolet. She appeared as a soloist on The Ford Show with the tenor James Melton. In the 1950s she began singing in groups such as The Mitch Miller Singers, The Ray Charles Singers and in Ray Bloch’s group. She also sang on the popular Sunday night show hosted by Tallulah Bankhead, The Big Show, appearing with stars such as Jimmy Durante, Ezio Pinza, Gary Cooper, Mary Martin, Meredith Willson, Gordon Mac Rae, Frank Sinatra, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Laurence Melchior and others.

During that period she was lead soloist on the RCA Victor show tune albums: Annie Get Your Gun, Finian’s Rainbow, Guys and Dolls, HMS Pinafore, and The Mikado . She was also in the cast of the television version of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin and Cyril Richard, and worked with Billy Taylor, Cy Oliver and Regis Philbin on the Model Tobacco Show .

A versatile singer and performer, Audrey Marsh also performed classical music recitals at Carl Fisher Hall and Steinway Hall in New York. She studied with Florence Ostrander and William Horne.

In her later years she was very active in the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) becoming an officer (Recording Secretary) and attending 30 conventions as a delegate. She also worked for the Bedside Network in VA hospitals in New York City and in Loma Linda, California.

In 1935, Audrey married Theodore Glenn Monk, a businessman who co-owned Square Lumber & Supply Company (Lumberville) at Westchester Square, Bronx, NY with two of his brothers. They had two children: Meredith (born 1942) and Tracy (born 1948). In 1949, the family moved from Forest Hills, New York to Stamford, Connecticut. In 1986, they moved to Rancho Mirage, California where Tedd died in 1998.

From the guide to the Audrey Marsh papers, 1871-1927, (The New York Public Library. Music Division.)

Audrey Marsh was a vocalist and actress who worked in radio and the recording studio. She was featured on musical radio programs including the Squibb Show, the Schaefer Revue, the Ford Summer hour, the Rudee Valle show, and the Fred Allen show, among others. She also worked in radio in Lima, Peru. She recorded with the Ray Charles Singers, the Ray Conniff Singers, and the Guild Choristers, and recorded commercial advertising jingles such as the D-U-Z song.

From the guide to the Audrey Marsh collection of sound recordings [sound recording], (The New York Public Library. Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound.)