Eileen Barton, Actress & singer ( "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake")
deb...@comcast.net
Tuesday, June 27, 2006. The multi-talented entertainer was born to
vaudevillians, Benny and Elsie Barton, and spent her infancy in a
drawer of an H&M theatrical trunk in dressing rooms while her parents
were on stage. At two and a one half she broke into her parents' act
singing "Ain't Misbehaven." Six months later she opened at the famed
Palace Theatre on Broadway doing Two-A-Day. She was a smash at three
and went on to be a successful child star, working with Milton Berle
when she was seven, on his coast-to-coast radio show on CBS, using the
name of the sponsor's daughter, Jolly Gillette. At 14, she became an
understudy to Nancy Walker in "Best Foot Forward" and played that role
extensively on Broadway. She then opened in "Angel in The Wings" with
Elaine Stritch. This was now under her own name. The precocious young
lady eventually graduated to being Frank Sinatra's teenage protege and
co-starred with him on his CBS show for two years. Frank never played
the Paramount Theatre without taking Eileen with him. They played there
fifteen times. She performed on her own, and later with Nat King Cole,
Count Basie and Danny Kaye. Soon she had her own show, "Teen Timers",
and later the "Eileen Barton Show" on NBC. In late 1949, Eileen cut a
song titled "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake" and
introduced it on the "Breakfast Club" radio program. The record was an
instant sensation. It became one of the highest selling records on an
independent label in music business history. It remained on the best
seller charts over four months, and was number one in the country for
twelve straight weeks. Her success led to many more recordings and she
became a Headliner at such famous night clubs as the New York
Copacabana, The Fountainbleau, Eden Roc, Cal-Neva, Mocambo, the
Fairmont, the Flamingo, the Dunes and Caesar's Palace. Over the years,
besides being in motion pictures, she appeared regularly on numerous
television programs. A Memorial service will be held on Saturday, July
1st at 2:00 p.m. Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park.
Donations may be made to the Actors' Fund of America 5757 Wilshire
Blvd., L.A., CA 90036.
Published in the Los Angeles Times from 6/30/2006 - 7/1/2006.
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Bianca
Okay, I'm feeling pretty old right now. I loved her on "Video Village."
That was Monty Hall's TV game show before "Let's Make a Deal."
Eileen was the sidekick and sand the theme song.
Brad Ferguson
> Okay, I'm feeling pretty old right now. I loved her on "Video Village."
> That was Monty Hall's TV game show before "Let's Make a Deal."
> Eileen was the sidekick and sand the theme song.
I recall her singing a song every day about the Video Village Bus --
actually a golf cart, I think. Contestants rode in it from the end of
the game board back to the beginning, or something like that.
There was also a Saturday morning version of the show for kids, "Video
Village, Jr." The announcer -- Kenny Williams, later the announcer for
the old "Hollywood Squares" -- dressed as a Keystone Kop and (I guess)
kept the kid contestants in line.
Monty Hall had been hosting a NYC show called "Bingo at Lunch" on
Channel 5, the Dumont station (later Metromedia, later Fox). I think
it was his first U.S. job.
Yeah, we're old. But Monty's a hell of a lot older.
BTW, "Baked a Cake" was used as the theme for the series the Upright
Citizens Brigade (a Seattle-based comedy group) did a few years ago on
Comedy Central.