Photographer Unknown, “Frances Faye, circa 1940s, Vintage Studio Portrait, Collection of Tyler Alpern

Born in Brooklyn, New York in November of 1912, Frances Faye was an American cabaret and show-tune singer, recording artist, and pianist. She entertained audiences at sold-out shows in major nightclubs throughout the world over a career that spanned forty-five years. 

Born Frances Cohen to a working-class family in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Frances Faye attended Girls’ High School on Nostrand Avenue and planned to become a teacher. However at the age of fifteen, she was asked to fill in for a piano player who was scheduled for a banquet. A theatrical agent, who had attended the banquet, was impressed with Faye’s performance and signed her to a contract. Despite her parent’s entreaties, Faye was playing two months later in a Chicago nightclub at a salary of two hundred dollars a week.

Originally an accompanist on piano, Faye became a solo act while working in a popular nightclub in Detroit. She continued her professional career in New York City at the Club Richman, located near Carnegie Hall. Faye quickly developed a following of loyal fans at the Prohibition-era speakeasy Club Calais where she was booked solid for most of 1931. While still in her teens, Faye went from playing in New York City speakeasies to such venues as Harlem’s Cotton Club and La Martinique on West 57th Street. La Martinique launched the careers of many singers of the era and was the location for premiere parties  among which was Walt Disney’s 1941 party for the Broadway premiere of “Dumbo”.

As her popularity grew, Frances Faye began working forty-eight weeks in one year’s time. She incorporated all the popular songs of the era into her performances including “Singing in the Rain” and “Love for Sale”. Faye played the Showplace in Lynbrook, Long Island in 1929 and entertained the passengers onboard the transatlantic S.S. Belgenland of the Red Star Line in 1931. She shared billing with Bing Crosby in January of 1932 at New York City’s Paramount Theater. In 1933, Faye was performing at Chicago’s Chez Paree, known for its glamorous atmosphere, elaborate dance numbers and top entertainers.

By the middle of the 1930s, Faye was established as a New York entertainer. She sold out venues and captured the audiences with her song delivery and strong piano playing. Typically doing three shows an evening, Faye became known, according to newspaper and radio commentator Walter Winchell, as “The Syncopating Cyclone-Originator of Zaz-Zu-Zaz”. Her contracts kept being extended and her salary kept rising. In 1938 Faye played at Billy Rose’s Casa Manana, a large outdoor amphitheater and restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, known for its fountains and large revolving stage. Booked into London’s Paradise Club for a fortnight, Faye performed for over three months due to the demand. 

In 1936, Bing Crosby, who had a long-term contract with Decca Records,  brought Frances Faye to the company’s recording studio for her first record, a single containing “No Regrets” and “You’re Not the Kind of a Boy”. After she finished a performance in Chicago, she traveled to California to make an appearance in the Paramount 1937 comedy-romance “Double or Nothing”. Faye plays, with her usual energetic style, the musical number “After You” and scats in duets with Martha Raye and Bing Crosby. She stayed a few months in Los Angeles and performed nightly at its Famous Door nightclub. During one of her free times, Faye heard Bruz Fletcher sing his ballad “Drunk with Love” at the Sunset Strip’s Club Bali. This song would become one of her signature works.

During the 1940s, Faye transformed both herself and her style. After losing weight, she bought a new wardrobe and appeared in public dressed more elegantly. Latin rhythms, which characterized her later work, began appearing in her songs. The frenzied piano style of Faye’s work in the 1930s was replaced with a rich rhythmic accompaniment of guitar, bass and drums. Her 1946 album “Frances Faye” for International was more lyrical than her earlier works. Among the songs in this album was her first rendition of gay singer Bruz Fletcher’s “Drunk with Love”. Over her career, Faye included this song in her performances and on three separate albums. 

In the late 1940s, Frances Faye was still playing to big crowds but had already begun performing on the new medium of network television. She rarely toured at this time and preferred only shows in Las Vegas, Florida, and her home state of California.  Faye found a new source of income as a recording artist. She recorded for ten years with Capitol Records and then moved to Bethlehem Records, a major 1950s jazz label founded by Gus Wildi, For the four albums she recorded at Bethlehem, Faye worked with such musicians as Herbie Mann, Frank Rosolino, and Maynard Ferguson, as well as with conductor and arranger Russ Garcia. Some of the musicians were willing to record without credit due to contractual problems. 

Faye’s shows became a fixture at the Sunset Strip’s Interlude and later at the downstairs nightclub Crescendo where she would be booked for months in a row. Many celebrities came to see her performances including Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra, among others. While playing at the Hotel Riviera to capacity crowds, Faye tripped over a bath mat in her hotel room and broke her hip. For a period of eight years, she was in pain, had to endure three major operations and could not work for long periods of time. Faye used both crutches and cane to continue her performances. Due to the extent of her injury, she would appear already seated at her piano as the curtains parted. After a hip surgery alleviated her pain, Faye continued performing on tour into the early 1980s. 

In 1978, Frances Faye appeared in her second film, “Pretty Baby” directed by Louis Malle; she played the role of an elderly cocaine-sniffing madam and retired from entertainment in the early 1980s. After a series of strokes, Frances Faye died at the age of seventy-nine in November of 1991 in the home she shared with her long-term partner Teri Shepherd.

Notes:  Frances Faye had two brief marriages in the 1940s. The first was with Abe Frosch in January of 1942; the second was former football star Sam Farkas in October of 1944. At a nightclub in the late 1950s, Faye met the much younger, twenty-two year old woman named Teri Shepherd who became her life-long companion. Faye was very frank about her sexual orientation even as the press and her album covers referred to Shepherd as Faye’s secretary.

The majority of the information in this article was found in painter and educator Tyler Alpern’s extensive biography on Frances Faye, “Frances Faye: Let Me Hear It Now”. The article, the most complete of any of the sources I found on the internet, contains many anecdotes by friends and musicians who knew her. If you are interested in Faye’s accomplishments and life, this is the article to read. It is located at http://tyleralpern.com/Faye.html

I also recommend watching photographer Bruce Weber’s 2001 film journal “Chop Suey”. Narrated by Weber, this highly-pesonal, eclectic film looks back at Weber’s career, his subjects and the subtext of his work. Among the many archival film sections of the film are segments of Frances Faye performing aa well as segments in which Teri Shepherd discusses her life with Faye. The film is available on many venues including Tubi (free), Amazon Prime, and Apple TV

Top Insert Image: Maurice Seymour Studio, “Frances Faye”, Publicity Photo, Gelatin Silver Print

Second Insert Image: Frances Faye, “Relaxin’ with Frances Faye”, 1956, 33 i/3 Vinyl, Bethlehem Records

Third Insert Image: Theodore Reed, “Double or Nothing”, (Frances Faye and Martha Raye), 1937, Film Clip Photo, Cinematographer Karl Struss, Paramount Pictures

Fourth Insert Image: Frances Faye, “No Reservations”, 1955, 33 1/3 Vinyl, Mono, Capitol Records

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Frances Faye”, circa 1950s, Studio Portrait, Gelatin Silver Print