Pat Friday
{{Short description|American singer}}
{{About|the singer Pat Friday|the Kansas City Athletics general manager|Pat Friday (baseball executive)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Pat Friday
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Helen Patricia Freiday
| birth_date = August 4, 1921
| birth_place = Jefferson County, Idaho
| death_date = June 21, 2016 (age 94)
| death_place = Fredericksburg, Texas
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Singer
| alma_mater =
| spouse = David Berwick Vinson Jr.
| children = 1 son
1 daughter
| parents =
| known_for =
}}
Pat Friday (born Helen Patricia Freiday; August 4, 1921 – June 21, 2016){{cite magazine|last1=Wagner|first1=Laura|title=Pat Friday|magazine=Classic Images|date=January 2017|issue=499|page=40}} was an American singer who worked with Glenn Miller on his films in the early 1940s.
Early years
Friday was born in Jefferson County, Idaho, the daughter of France Everett Freiday and Helen Katherine Abbott.{{cite web|title=Mrs. Helen Patricia Freiday Vinson|url=http://www.schaetter.com/home/index.cfm/obituaries/view/id/3760847|website=Schaetter Funeral Home|access-date=28 December 2016}}
She was discovered by Bing Crosby when he heard her sing during an amateur night at the Victor Hugo cafe in Hollywood. She was performing there at the urging of her sorority sisters at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was studying home economics.{{cite magazine|last1=Baskette|first1=Kirtley|title=Bing's Girl Friday|magazine=Radio and Television Mirror|date=October 1939|volume=12|issue=6|pages=21, 66–67|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Mirror/39/Mirror-1939-Oct.pdf|access-date=28 December 2016}} Crosby was so impressed that he arranged to have her on his Kraft Music Hall show on May 25, 1939, where she sang “Begin the Beguine” and “Sing a Song of Sunbeams”.{{cite web|last1=Pairpoint|first1=Lionel|title=And Here's Bing|url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/kmhfourth_season.htm|website=BING magazine|publisher=International Club Crosby|access-date=January 30, 2016}} She continued on the show through the summer of 1939 with Variety commenting "As for the vocal department the program is well set for Bing Crosby's 13-week absence. The interim should do much to build Pat Friday, a schoolgirl, into major favor with the fans. Her voice is clear, lyrical and likeable, while the Music Maids, rhythm trio, contribute the right amount of salt and pepper to the show's vocal casserole".{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=(untitled brief)|url=https://archive.org/details/variety134-1939-06/page/n197/mode/2up?q=%22build+pat+friday%22|date=June 28, 1939|page=38}} After that summer season, Friday returned to college.
Film
Friday was a "ghost singer" who dubbed songs for Lynn Bari and was never credited.{{Citation needed |date=May 2023}} She sang "I Know Why (And So Do You)", the original vocal version of "At Last", and "Serenade in Blue" in the Glenn Miller movies Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives.{{cite book|last1=Hagen|first1=Ray|last2=Wagner|first2=Laura|title=Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786480739|page=24|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W63KwX1QtBAC&dq=%22Pat+Friday%22+singer&pg=PA24|access-date=28 December 2016|language=en}} She also was heard as a singer on the radio in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945).{{cite book|last1=Eagan|first1=Daniel|title=America's Film Legacy, 2009-2010: A Viewer's Guide to the 50 Landmark Movies Added To The National Film Registry in 2009-10|date=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=9781441120021|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxMWDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Pat+Friday%22+singer&pg=PT102|access-date=28 December 2016|language=en}}
Radio
While still a student at UCLA, Friday was a singer on The Old Gold Don Ameche Show on the NBC Red radio network in 1940. A contemporary magazine article noted, "In order to attend rehearsals she has to cut Friday afternoon classes ... but she makes up by spending all the time she can in a corner of the studio, carefully doing her homework."{{cite journal|title=Friday's Highlights|magazine=Radio and Television Mirror|date=July 1940|volume=14|issue=3|page=52|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Mirror/40/Mirror-1940-Jul.pdf|access-date=6 March 2015}}{{cite news|title=Ameche Has Fine Cast For New Variety Program|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8037668/the_fresno_bee_the_republican/|work=The Fresno Bee The Republican|date=March 24, 1940|location=California, Fresno|page=20|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = December 27, 2016}} {{Open access}}
Later, after a short retirement following her marriage, Friday was a singer on The Roy Rogers Show,Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-4513-4}}. P. 292. in the 1944–45 season although she did not care for that style of music.[http://www.bigbandbuddies.co.uk/Pat-friday.htm Big Band Buddies interview]
She also sang on the Armed Forces Radio Service programs G.I. Journal{{cite book|last1=Bakish|first1=David|title=Jimmy Durante: His Show Business Career, with an Annotated Filmography and Discography|date=1995|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780899509686|page=215|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=McVxRCJEbPcC&dq=%22Pat+Friday%22+singer&pg=PA215|access-date=28 December 2016|language=en}} and Personal Album.{{cite book|last1=Mackenzie|first1=Harry|title=The Directory of the Armed Forces Radio Service Series|date=1999|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313308123|pages=12–13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3WyZ9A4_XEC&dq=%22Pat+Friday%22+singer&pg=PA12|access-date=28 December 2016|language=en}}
Recording
Friday was a recording artist with Decca Records{{cite magazine|last1=Orodenker|first1=M.H.|title=Review of Records|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Billboard-IDX/IDX/40s/1940/Billboard-1940-04-27-OCR-Page-0013.pdf|access-date=28 December 2016|magazine=Billboard|date=April 27, 1940|page=13}} and Enterprise Records.{{cite magazine|title=Music--as Written|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Pat+Friday%22+singer&pg=PT19|access-date=28 December 2016|magazine=Billboard|date=November 23, 1946|page=20}}
Personal life
On December 28, 1940, Friday married David Berwick Vinson Jr.{{cite news|title=(untitled brief)|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8038734/the_nebraska_state_journal/|work=The Nebraska State Journal|date=December 15, 1940|location=Nebraska, Lincoln|page=43}} in Beverly Wilshire Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California. They had a son and a daughter.
Death
Friday died June 21, 2016, at her home in Fredericksburg, Texas.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0294867}}
- [https://archive.org/details/PatFriday7Songs Recordings by Pat Friday on the Internet Archive]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friday, Pat}}
Category:American radio personalities
Category:20th-century American women singers
Category:20th-century American singers