Marilyn Maye

Marilyn Maye (born April 10, 1928) is an American cabaret singer and musical theatre actress. She began her career as a young child performing in Kansas in both live concerts and on the radio. After graduating from high school, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she drew the attention of Steve Allen, performing first on The Steve Allen Show and later The Tonight Show.

She holds the distinction of being the most frequently heard singer in the history of the latter program. She made numerous recordings with RCA during the 1960s, after which she has had a highly successful career as a cabaret artist, continuing to this day. She has also occasionally appeared on the stage in musicals.

Born Marilyn Maye McLaughlin in Wichita, Kansas, she began her career as a child, competing in amateur contests in Topeka, Kansas, where her father, a pharmacist, owned a drugstore. She was accompanied on piano by her mother, who had named her daughter for her own favorite entertainer, musical theater star Marilyn Miller.

She began her musical training with her mother at the age of 3. At the age of 9 she began taking voice lessons with Rosamond Nyman, a teacher of classical singing, in Topeka.

In 1942, after her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to Des Moines, Iowa.

At age 14, while attending Amos Hiatt Junior High School, she sang for songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and got her own 15-minute radio show on Des Moines station KRNT. Another source puts the 13-week show on Topeka station WIBW (580 AM), followed by a live broadcast from the Jayhawk Theater each Saturday morning for two years. She graduated from East High School. After moving to Chicago, she played "every Moose and Elks club in the state of Illinois".

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