Singer Jane Morgan celebrates 100th birthday in Ogunquit

Former Broadway actress and singer Jane Morgan at her Kennebunkport home on Thursday wearing two of the dresses she wore during her career. Morgan, who attributes her longevity to “wearing 30-pound dresses and 4-inch heels,” will celebrate her 100th birthday Monday night at the Ogunquit Playhouse. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

KENNEBUNKPORT — When singing star Jane Morgan was asked to reveal her secret to living to 100 years, she said it was mostly down to her fashion choices.

“I would say that the only thing that kept me alive was wearing 30-pound dresses and 4-inch heels,” said Morgan, who has sung on Broadway, in nightclubs, in front of six presidents and on television. “I had to walk around onstage all night in those heavy dresses. But I just kept working and working and working because I really enjoyed it.”

Morgan will share stories from her career Monday night during a celebration of her 100th birthday at the Ogunquit Playhouse, which is free and open to the public. She will be interviewed onstage by Brad Kenney, the theater’s artistic director. About 18 of her life-extending gowns will also be on display at the theater, some onstage and some in the lobby. Her gowns have been shown across the country in recent years as part of an exhibit called “Jane Morgan – In My Style,” including at New York Fashion Week and the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk.

Morgan says she enjoys telling stories from her career and talking about famous friends she’s made along the way, from singers Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to actor James Stewart and former President George HW Bush. But she stresses it wasn’t her idea.

Jane Morgan, in an undated photo, has sung for presidents on Broadway and on television. Photo courtesy of Jane Morgan – In My Style.

“Everyone was saying, ‘When is your 100th birthday? When is your 100th birthday?’ Obviously, that’s an event that people talk about. So I thought I’d better do something,” Morgan said Thursday at the dining room table of her Kennebunkport home. “But getting 500 people here wouldn’t be easy, so we’d have to do it somewhere else.”

Celebrating her milestone birthday on May 3 at the Ogunquit Playhouse will bring Morgan full circle. She began her career in show business as a child at the nearby Kennebunkport Playhouse, which her brother, Robert Currier, opened in the early 1930s. At first, she washed dishes and helped actresses dress. Eventually, she began singing and acting in productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse and returned from time to time, having launched her own successful singing career before the theater closed in 1971. However, because the Ogunquit Playhouse was a rival to her brother’s theater and competed for the same summer audience, she never performed there.

“So this is my first appearance,” Morgan said.

Staff at the Ogunquit Playhouse, which opened in 1933, often look for ways to connect audiences with the theater’s past and the “golden age” of musicals, said Deborah Warren, the theater’s executive director. A party and question-and-answer session with Morgan, who embodies that era and whose career began in Maine, is a great way to do that.

“People here have known her for a long time and know she is one of the jewels of our community,” Warren said.

Album cover of “The American Girl from Paris” by Jane Morgan. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Morgan has spent summers in Kennebunkport since childhood and also has a home in Naples, Florida. Born in the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts, Morgan attended the Juilliard School in New York City. While studying at the Juilliard School in the late 1940s, she sang in New York hotels and restaurants and was discovered by French music entrepreneur Bernard Hilda, who asked her to sing in his nightclub in Paris. She ended up staying there for five years and learned to sing in French. In Paris, she met Frank Sinatra – who thought she was French – and he helped her make contacts with people in the music and show business in New York.

Back in the US, she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s, which made her a star, and returned many times over the next two decades. Her biggest hit, “Fascination,” came out in 1957 and reached the top 10 of several record charts of the time. It became her signature song and helped her gain wider recognition. But the recording, says Morgan, was an accident.

It was an old song, written in 1905. Morgan was invited one day to watch a group called the Troubadours record the song.

“My friend who ran (the record company) said, ‘Maybe you should go into the studio and do some recordings, just for fun,'” Morgan recalled. “I didn’t know the song. I just read it off a piece of paper. They (the record company) liked it and the next day they released it.”



Morgan recorded a total of 42 albums and songs of all genres, including “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” in 1970, a response to country star Cash’s song “A Boy Named Sue,” which she sang on Cash’s television show the following year. She also played leading roles in many stage and Broadway musicals, including “Can-Can,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Mame.”

In the mid-1960s, she married film and television producer Jerry Weintraub. She lived in California and significantly reduced her performances in the early 1970s, mainly to care for the couple’s children.

While living near Hollywood, in Beverly Hills, Morgan and her husband became friends with many well-known artists. She was friends with singers Johnny Mathis and Dean Martin, among others, and appeared on Martin’s television show.

“He was the funniest of them all. He had a great sense of humor and was very lighthearted about his work,” Morgan said of Martin. “He never rehearsed. But he knew everything he had to do.”

Over the years, Morgan has performed for six presidents: John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush and George W. Bush. The list includes two Democrats and four Republicans, making Morgan a bipartisan entertainer.

“I was a performer. I didn’t care if you were a Democrat or a Republican,” Morgan said. “Although I was a Republican. Later, though, I switched sides.”

The elder Bush was a childhood friend. They both spent summers in Kennebunkport and were about the same age.

Two dresses Jane Morgan wore during her career at her home in Kennebunkport. She says performing in 30-pound dresses is one of the reasons for her long life. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

One of her longtime friends in Kennebunkport, Maine real estate developer Howard Goldenfarb, said Morgan is a “caring, kind, tough person who knows what she wants.” He said the fact that she agreed to speak onstage in front of a potential audience of 650 people shows how passionate Morgan is about musical theater and Maine.

“She loves theater and acting,” Goldenfarb said. “Her career started here in Kennebunkport, in the theater, and I think that’s something she wants to recognize.”

The event at the Ogunquit Playhouse is a partnership between the theater, the Weintraub Family Foundation, and Barbara and Howard Goldenfarb.

Although she hasn’t sung in public for a while, Morgan is thinking about singing again at some point. She sings in the pool at her home.

“A lot of the songs I sang are no longer popular. You know, people don’t sing those songs anymore,” Morgan said. “But I sometimes think about singing again. And I know I can sing. But I haven’t made it a part of my routine.”

No matter where she’s lived, Morgan says she makes it a point to return to Kennebunkport. She’s lived in the same house since 1957, and although she’s lived all over the world, she considers Maine home.

“I fell in love with Maine as a little girl and it has become my home,” Morgan said. “My husband and my kids all loved coming here and had a wonderful time. I love fly fishing. But I can also fish with worms.”

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