LAKELAND — Ferguson Addison first became aware of Frances Langford through a family connection.
Addison, who grew up in Southwest Florida, had a cousin who played piano in the 1920s at WDAE, a radio station in Tampa. Langford, a Lakeland resident, appeared on a weekly show on WDAE, singing in front of a band.That was Langford’s first step in a long career as a singer and movie actress. Addison followed news about her life in the decades that followed, even after she had retired from performing, until her death at age 92 in 2005.
The longtime fan has paid tribute to Langford with a short biography, “Florida’s Thrush: Frances Langford.”
Addison, a retired bank executive living in West Palm Beach, said he collected newspaper articles about Langford throughout her life and after her death. He drew upon those sources for the 32-page book.
Langford’s name might be familiar even to Lakeland residents born long after her career ended.
Her name graces one of the city’s main landmarks, the Frances Langford Promenade, on the west side of Lake Mirror.
Addison, 94, said distant family connections also fueled his curiosity about Langford, a 5-foot-1 pixie with a contralto voice. He said one of his mother’s cousins married Langford’s paternal uncle.
“There was kind of a family tie, but we weren’t blood relatives,” Addison said.
Langford, born in Citrus County in 1913, grew up in Lakeland and won an American Legion talent show in the 1920s, leading to her regular role with the Tampa radio station.
In 1930, her mother — a former concert pianist — took the young Langford to Miami for a performance by Rudy Vallee, one of the era’s most popular singers. As Addison relates, Langford managed to get an audition with Vallee, who promptly invited her to perform on his radio show.
Addison said he saw Langford perform in person only once, when she headlined a show at the Olympia Theater in Miami.
“I went to hear her, and of course she was wonderful,” Addison said. “She was trying to walk off, and the audience wouldn’t let her. They cried out, ‘More! More! More!’ ”
Known variously as the “Southern songstress” and “Florida thrush,” Langford parlayed a regular spot on Vallee’s show into her own New York-based program at age 17. She performed on Broadway throughout the 1930s while continuing to sing on radio broadcasts, and had a national hit song with her recording “I’m In the Mood for Love.”
Langford’s stature rose when Bob Hope gave her a slot on “The Pepsodent Show,” his weekly radio broadcast. Addison, then in the Navy and stationed in Lake City, said he listened every week to hear Langford sing at least one number.
Hope invited Langford to join him on a series of traveling shows for American troops at U.S. bases and in Europe and the Pacific Ocean during World War II. Addison details some of the frightening moments Langford endured on flights near combat zones.
Addison admiringly quotes Langford as saying she traveled more than a million miles while entertaining troops on USO tours in World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Langford made her film debut in 1935 in “Every Night at Eight” and continued working in musicals and comedies into the 1950s. She appeared onscreen with the likes of James Cagney, Robert Mitchum and Ronald Reagan.
Addison briefly covers Langford’s three marriages, the first to actor Jon Hall in 1938. The couple bought a property in Jensen Beach on Florida’s southeast coast that Langford kept for the rest of her life.
Having divorced Hall in 1955, Langford soon married Ralph Evinrude, scion of the family known for producing boat engines. Addison reports the couple entertained such figures as Jackie Gleason, Perry Como and Bob Hope at their Jensen Beach home.
“Of course, he (Evinrude) had a lot of money,” Addison said, “but actually all this land over here she had already acquired, so apparently she was a good businesswoman.”
Addison describes the Chanticleer, an 118-foot yacht on which Langford often sailed in her later years.
In the 1960s, Langford and Evinrude built a waterfront restaurant, The Outrigger, near their home in Jensen Beach, and Langford gave it a Polynesian feel inspired by her visits to Hawaii during her USO tours.
Addison said he never dined at Langford’s restaurant, though he did stop in the gift shop once and bought some of her records. Langford eventually sold the restaurant, now known as the Dolphin Bar & Shrimp House, and memorabilia displayed there wound up at the Elliott Museum in nearby Stuart, which has a permanent collection devoted to Langford.
The exhibit includes clothing, jewelry, movie posters, photos and a rolling video covering Langford’s life and philanthropic activity.
Evinrude died in 1986, and eight years later Langford married Harold Cutliff Stuart, a retired Air Force colonel.
After decades of admiring Langford from afar, Addison took action in helping her receive recognition. He said he nominated her for the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame, and she was inducted in 2002, though she was too infirm at that point to make the trip to Tallahassee for the ceremony.
Addison’s slender book has value, said James M. Denham, a professor of history and director of the Lawton Chiles Center for Florida History at Florida Southern College.
“Ferguson Addison has gifted us with a vivid portrayal of Lakelander Frances Langford, whose golden voice graced the radio waves, the big screen, and hundreds of faraway places where she entertained U.S. troops with Bob Hope,” Denham said by email. “ ‘The Sweetheart of the Fighting Fronts’ never lost her love and connection to Lakeland.
“Anyone who wants to learn about the lady the city of Lakeland honored not once but twice by naming the Lake Mirror Promenade for her, should read this brief but full account of her life.”
— Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. He blogs about tourism at http://tourism.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.