Alice Joy
Born
Frances Holcombe
NationalityAmerican
OccupationSinger
SpouseE. Robert Burns
Children2

Alice Joy (born Frances Holcombe)[1] was an American contralto[2] singer in vaudeville and on radio.

Early years

Joy's father was a rural mail carrier in Streator, Illinois. By age 9, she was singing in Chautauqua sessions as part of a trio with her older sisters.[3]

Career

When she was 18,[3] billed under her birth name, Joy performed in vaudeville[4] as a member of Will J. Ward's Five Piano Girls.[3] An item in the trade publication The Billboard noted, "Miss Holcombe has a wonderful voice and has been well received ..." as she performed with Ward's group.[5]

By 1930, described as "radio's latest 'find'", she was singing on NBC radio[6] on the Chase and Sanborn program.[2] In 1931, she was singing with the Paul Van Yoan orchestra on a five-nights-a-week program and using her stage name.[7] Also in 1931, she was dubbed the "Prince Albert Dream Girl" when she sang on a network program sponsored by Prince Albert pipe tobacco.[3] The 15-minute Alice Joy, the Dream Singer show was broadcast from 1931 to 1932 on NBC, from 1932 to 1934 on the Blue Network, and in January and February 1938 on NBC.[8] An article in Time magazine described her voice as having "a saxophone quality so deep that it might be a man's."[3]

Personal life

Joy married Captain E. Robert Burns, a press agent, and they had two children.[3] She had met Burns in Canada during a Liberty Loan drive tour while he was a British pilot and recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Stars of the Radio (PDF). San Francisco: Broadcast Weekly Publishing Co. 1932. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "(radio listing)". The Morning News. Delaware, Wilmington. April 12, 1930. p. 9. Retrieved December 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Pipe Dream Girl" (PDF). Time. November 23, 1931. p. 36. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 19, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Vaudeville Star Who Appears At Colonial". The Akron Beacon Journal. Ohio, Akron. May 14, 1921. p. 3. Retrieved December 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Vaudeville notes". The Billboard. June 23, 1917. p. 24. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  6. ↑ "A radio 'find'". The Morning Call. Pennsylvania, Allentown. April 6, 1930. p. 15. Retrieved December 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Damai, Paul K. (November 7, 1931). "Radio Short Circuits". The Times. Indiana, Munster. p. 7. Retrieved December 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  9. ↑ Radio Album. New York, New York: Syndicate Publishing Company, Inc. 1932. p. 40. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
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