Aileen Stanley

Aileen Stanley, born Maude Elsie Aileen Muggeridge (b. 1897 in Chicago, Illinois - March 24, 1982 in Los Angeles, California), was a popular American singer.

Stanley on the cover of 1922 sheet music for "Carolina in the Morning".

Early life

As a child, Stanley, born as Maude Elsie Aileen Muggeridge, with her older brother Stanley sang and danced in vaudeville as Stanley and Aileen with the encouragement of their widowed mother. After her brother left the act, Aileen started performing solo, forming her stage name by reversing the name of the old family billing.

Early records

Stanley performed in vaudeville and cabarets. In 1920 she was a hit in New York City in the review show Silks And Satins and made the first of her numerous recordings the same year. The majority of her records in the '20s were for the Victor Talking Machine Company, but she also recorded with other labels with recording studios in the New York City area, including Edison, Pathe, Okeh, Brunswick, Vocalion, Gennett and others. Many of her records sold well at the time.

Stanley also recorded for Black Swan Records, a label purportedly devoted only to African-American artists, under the pseudonym "Mamie Jones". Her handling of blues material was similar to that of some of the northern black vaudeville singers of the time. Her stage appearances billed her as "The Phonograph Girl" and "The Girl With The Personality." In later life she was overheard to say that the song "I'll Get By" was written for her.

Victor records

One of Stanley's 1925 Victor recordings, "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street", in which she shared the vocal with newcomer Gene Austin, helped launch Austin's illustrious career.^[1][2]

She recorded J. Russel Robinson and Con Conrad's 1920 jazz standard "Singin' the Blues" by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band composed by and released it as Victor 18703. She recorded the Paul Whiteman and Fred Rose composition "Flamin' Mamie" on October 5, 1925 and released it as Victor 19828-A accompanied on ukulele by Billy "Uke" Carpenter who provided "jazz effects". In the late '20s Victor Records produced a popular series of records pairing Stanley with singer Billy Murray.

Later life

Stanley was said to have invested heavily in the stock market and was one of the many who lost most of their life's savings in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Around 1931 Stanley moved to London, where she made more records for HMV from 1934 through 1937, and once confided "strictly entre nous" that she unwittingly ended her own romance when she introduced Wallace Simpson to Edward, the Prince of Wales, at the home of Thelma, Lady Furness. In her later years she worked as a singing teacher and vocal coach.

References

1. ^ Shilkret, Nathaniel, ed. Niel Shell and Barbara Shilkret, Nathaniel Shilkret: Sixty Years in the Music Business, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2005, pp. 73--74. ISBN 0-8108-5128-8
2. ^ Lornell, Kip; Laird, Tracey E.W. (2008). Shreveport sounds in black and white. University Press of Mississippi. p. 242. ISBN 1-934110-42-6. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PzbYj-kKjXIC&pg=PA242&dq=When+My+Sugar+Walks+Down+the+Street#v=onepage&q=When%20My%20Sugar%20Walks%20Down%20the%20Street&f=false. 

External links

• .ram audio clips of two of her records on vintage-recordings.com

Persondata
Name	Stanley, Aileen
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1897
Place of birth
Date of death	March 24, 1982
Place of death