Jane Pickens
{{Short description|American singer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jane Pickens
| image = Jane Pickens.JPG
| alt =
| caption = Jane Pickens circa
1940s to early 1950s
| birth_name =
| birth_date = August 10, 1907
| birth_place = Macon, Georgia
| death_date = {{death date and age|1992|2|21|1907|8|10}}
| death_place = Newport, Rhode Island
| nationality = American
| other_names = Jane Pickens Langley
Jane Pickens Hoving
| occupation =
| alma_mater =
| spouse = Russell A. Clark or Clarke (1928 - ?)
William C. Langley
Walter Hoving (1977-1989, his death)
| children =
| parents =
| known_for =
}}
Jane Pickens Hoving (10 August 1907 – 21 February 1992)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-2834-2}}. P. 216-217. was an American singer on Broadway, radio and television for 20 years and later an organizer in numerous philanthropic and society events. She was the musical leader of the Pickens Sisters, a trio born on a Georgia plantation that reached national stardom in the 1930s with its own radio show, concert tours, and records.
Pickens Sisters
The daughters of Mr. and Mrs. P.M. Pickens, the Pickens sisters, Grace, Jane, Helen (1910–1984), and Patti (1914–1995), were born in Macon, Georgia, and grew up there and in Atlanta. Beginning when the girls were ages 4, 6 and 8, their parents taught them to harmonize. Their father, a cotton broker, played the piano and their mother sang.{{cite book |last1=Hannan |first1=Caryn |title=Georgia Biographical Dictionary |date=1999 |publisher=State History Publications |isbn=9781878592422 |page=416 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8QGF2QH5K0C&q=%22Jane+Pickens%22&pg=PA416 |accessdate=23 July 2018 |language=en}}
At first the sisters sang for friends, then at churches and schools. The family moved to Park Avenue in Manhattan in 1932, and a test recording for Victor made such an impression with radio executives that they hired the sisters unseen. Promoted as "Three Little Maids From Dixie", they appeared in Thumbs Up on Broadway and in the movie Sitting Pretty.
Signed to Victor as Victor's answer to the popular Brunswick recording artists the Boswell Sisters, they recorded 25 sides for Victor from early 1932 until late 1934. Their records had a much more novel quality than the harder jazz-styled Boswell Sisters' records. Also, as 1932 Victor records had two- and three-part harmonizers, the Three X Sisters, with experimental sweet/swingy tunes, were among the most noted harmonizers of their day.
The Pickens group earned $1 million in five years but dissolved when two sisters left to get married and a fourth, Grace, who was the group's manager, also departed. Grace married U.S. District Attorney John T. Cahill.{{Cite web|last=Gaver|first=Jack|author-link=|title=For Jane Pickens On Radio |publisher=Lubbock Evening Journal|date=April 29, 1953 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/6276102/ |accessdate=March 21, 2018|quote=Grace is married to John T. Cahill of New York, a former U. S. District Attorney, and they have four children}} Patti married radio actor Bob Simmons.
Education
Of the sisters Jane Pickens, who arranged the group's numbers, was the most serious about music. She studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Fontainebleau in France and won fellowships at the Juilliard School where she studied voice with Anna Eugénie Schoen-René.{{cite news|title=Jane Pickens Picked Role; Tomorrow She Will Sing It|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6128594/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|date=October 30, 1949|location=New York, Brooklyn|page=27|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2016}} {{Open access}} She studied for two years with Marcella Sembrich, a Polish coloratura soprano.{{cite news |title=Incognito Debut |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22128071/jane_pickens/ |work=Orlando Evening Star |agency=Associated Press |date=May 11, 1928 |location=Florida, Orlando |page=9|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = July 23, 2018}} {{Open access}}
Career
She sang in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 in a cast that included Fanny Brice and Gypsy Rose Lee. In 1940 she played opposite Ed Wynn in Boys and Girls Together on Broadway. Brooks Atkinson's review said she had "a most attractive voice."Juilliard Archives Anna E. Schoen-René Scrapbook
Pickens' other Broadway credits included Music in the Air (1951).{{cite web |title=Jane Pickens |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jane-pickens-56162 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |accessdate=23 July 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723190616/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jane-pickens-56162 |archivedate=23 July 2018}}
Pickens pursued her music career alone and had wide-ranging success, from musical comedy to opera and nightclub engagements. She had the American Melody Hour on CBS radio and the Jane Pickens Show on NBC radio, as well as a program on ABC television.
In 1954, Pickens appeared in a 15-minute ABC television musical series, The Jane Pickens Show, which was replaced in the spring by The Martha Wright Show.Earle Marsh and Tim Brooks, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Programs, 1946-Present, p. 744.
She frequently performed benefits for charitable causes, including events for orphans, hospitals, youths, veterans and the disabled. When her career tapered off in the late 1950s, she turned to running hundreds of fund-raising affairs. Among her favorite causes were the Salvation Army and research into heart disease and cerebral palsy, a condition that afflicted her daughter.
Personal
On June 6, 1928, at the age of 20, Pickens married Russell A. Clark{{cite news |title=Miss Jane Pickens Weds Russell Clark |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22129984/jane_pickens/ |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=June 9, 1928 |location=Georgia, Atlanta |page=13|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = July 23, 2018}} {{Open access}} (or Clarke).{{cite news |title=(photo caption) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22130072/jane_pickens/ |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=September 9, 1928 |location=Georgia, Atlanta |page=13|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = July 23, 2018}} {{Open access}} The marriage ended in divorce.
She became a noted figure at balls and other society events in New York City, Long Island and Newport. After her career peaked she was married twice to prominent businessmen. First was William C. Langley, a Wall Street broker. After he died, she married Walter Hoving, who had owned Tiffany & Company and Bonwit Teller.{{Citation needed |date=August 2022}}
In 1972 she ran as the Republican-Conservative challenger to United States Representative Edward I. Koch in the Silk Stocking district on the East Side of Manhattan.{{Citation needed |date=August 2022}}
Pickens also painted. Flowers were her favorite subject, roses in particular. She exhibited in galleries and sold dozens of paintings for charity.{{Citation needed |date=August 2022}}
She was 84 years old when she died of heart failure in Newport, Rhode Island, on February 21, 1992. She also had a home on Park Avenue in Manhattan. She was survived by her daughter, Marcella Clark McCormack of Newport and Manhattan, and a sister, Patti Shreve of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.{{Citation needed |date=August 2022}}
The Jane Pickens Theater, a one-screen arthouse cinema that is the only remaining movie theater in Newport, was renamed after her in 1974. Pickens and her sister Patti performed at the dedication ceremony.{{cite web|title=Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center {{!}} About the JPT|url=http://janepickens.com/about|website=janepickens.com|accessdate=20 November 2017|language=en}}
References
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Category:New York (state) Republicans
Category:Singers from New York City
Category:Musicians from Macon, Georgia
Category:Musicians from Newport, Rhode Island