Tony Martin

Alvin Morris known professionally as Tony Martin was an American actor and popular singer His career spanned over seven decades and he scored dozens of hits between the late1930s and mid1950s with songs such as Walk Hand in Hand Stranger in Paradise and I Get Ideas He was married to actress and dancer Cyd Charisse for 60 years from 1948 until her death in 2008 In his grammar school glee club he became an instrumentalist and singer He formed his first band named The Red Peppers when he was in high school After college he went to Hollywood to try films It was at that time that he adopted the stage name of Tony Martin On radio Martin sang and was master of ceremonies on TuneUp Time with Andre Kostelanetz on CBS in the early 1940s NBC broadcast The Tony Martin Show a 15minute variety program One of his guests was Dinah Shore He was also a featured vocalist on the George Burns and Gracie Allen radio program In films Martin was first cast in a number of bit parts including a role as a sailor in Follow the Fleet He eventually signed with 20th CenturyFox and then MetroGoldwynMayer in which he starred in a number of musicals Between 1938 and 1942 he made a number of hit records for Decca In 1941 Martin received equal billing with the Marx Brothers in their final film for MGM The Big Store Martin joined the United States Navy in 1942 as a chief specialist the equivalent of a chief petty officer He was dismissed from the service that year for unfitness after he testified at the court martial of a Naval procurement officer He enlisted as a specialist after the officer twice failed to obtain a commission for him Martin said that he had given the officer an auto worth 950 to facilitate his enlistment At the time of his dismissal the Navy said that removal for unfitness was not equivalent to a dishonorable discharge and does not carry degradation After the war Martin signed with Mercury Records then a small independent label run out of Chicago Illinois He cut 25 records in 1946 and 1947 for Mercury including a 1946 recording of To Each His Own which became a millionseller It was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA This prompted RCA Victor to offer him a record contract which he signed in 1947 after satisfying his contract obligations to Mercury He continued to appear in film musicals during the 1940s and 1950s His rendition of Lover Come Back to Me with Joan Weldon in Deep in My Heart based on the music of Sigmund Romberg and starring José Ferrer was one of the highlights of that film He also starred as Gaylord Ravenal in the Show Boat segment from the 1946 film Till the Clouds Roll By In 1958 he became the highest paid performer in Las Vegas signing a fiveyear deal at the Desert Inn earning 25000 a week In an unlikely pairing Martin recorded for the Motown Records label in the mid1960s scoring a minor hit with the record Talkin To Your Picture Martin was a stockholder in the ParvinDohrmann Corporation a hotel and casino company that owned the Flamingo Las Vegas