Gertrude Niesen

Gertrude Niesen

Gertrude Niesen was an American torch singer, actress, comedian, and songwriter who achieved popular success in musicals and films in the 1930s and 1940s. Niesen began singing as a career in the early 1930s, first appearing (credited as Gertrude Nissen) with Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra and Artie Shaw in a Vitaphone short film, Yacht Party. On old-time radio, Niesen was the featured singer on The Ex-Lax Big Show and host of The Show Shop, on NBC-Blue. She recorded for Victor, Columbia, and Brunswick in the 1930s, and in 1933 was the first to record the song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach. She appeared in the Broadway musical Calling All Stars in 1934 and in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. Her Broadway credits also include Follow the Girls and Take a Chance. She also began to appear regularly in movies, including Top of the Town, Start Cheering, and A Night at Earl Carroll's, in which she sang a song that she co-wrote, "I Want to Make with the Happy Times". Her other films included Rookies on Parade), This Is the Army, He's My Guy, and The Babe Ruth Story. She co-starred with Jackie Gleason in the 1944 stage musical Follow the Girls, in which she sang "I Want to Get Married", one of her better-known songs. She recorded for Decca Records throughout the 1940s, and released a self-titled LP for the label in 1951.She also appeared on many radio shows and on TV in the early 1950s. In 1943, Niesen married Chicago nightclub owner Al Greenfield. The couple divorced but remarried in 1954, remaining married until Niesen’s death in Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Hollywood, California in 1975, aged 63, after a long illness.

  • Title: Gertrude Niesen
  • Popularity: 0.338
  • Known For: Acting
  • Birthday: 1911-07-08
  • Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As: Gertrude Nissen
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Gertrude Niesen Movies

  • 1943
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    This Is the Army

    This Is the Army

    5.7 1943 HD

    In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his...

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  • 1932
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    The Yacht Party

    The Yacht Party

    1 1932 HD

    On a set resembling a yacht, Roger Wolfe Kahn leads his orchestra in several popular tunes of the day. Billed and un-billed guest acts also perform....

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  • 1938
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    Start Cheering

    Start Cheering

    7 1938 HD

    After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.

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  • 1941
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    Rookies on Parade

    Rookies on Parade

    1 1941 HD

    The story details the misadventures of two itinerant songwriters named Duke (Crosby) and Cliff (Foy) as they try to survive Army boot camp. Intending...

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  • 1934
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    Keeps Rainin' All the Time

    Keeps Rainin' All the Time

    1 1934 HD

    Fleischer Studios giving "Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)" the 'Screen Song' bouncing ball treatment.

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  • 1937
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    Top of the Town

    Top of the Town

    5.2 1937 HD

    In this musical set in swingin' Manhattan, an heiress plans a ballet in the famous Moonbeam ballroom located atop a 100-story skyscraper....

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  • 1943
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    He's My Guy

    He's My Guy

    6 1943 HD

    The former members of a vaudeville team meet up again in a defense plant during WW II.

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  • 1948
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    The Babe Ruth Story

    The Babe Ruth Story

    5.8 1948 HD

    The baseball player goes from wayward youth to Boston Red Sox pitcher to New York Yankees home-run hero.

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