Nan Wynn

Nan Wynn
Wynn and pianist Alec Templeton in 1941.
Born	Marsha Vatz (1915-05-08)May 8, 1915 Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	March 21, 1971(1971-03-21) (aged 55) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Cancer
Occupation	Singer, actress
Years active	mid-1930s to mid-1950s
Spouse(s)	Cy Howard (1944–47, divorced) Thomas Baylek (1949-1952, divorced) John Small (1956–1971) (her death)
Children	Jane Baylek

Nan Wynn, born Marsha Vatz (May 8, 1915 - March 21, 1971) was an American big-band singer, and Broadway and film actress. She sang and recorded throughout the 1930s and 1940s with the Emery Deutsch, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Duchin, Richard Himber, Hal Kemp, Hudson-DeLange, Raymond Scott, Teddy Wilson and Freddie Rich orchestras. Wynn was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, where she attended high school, and sang in the school choir.

Wynn's father owned a department store in Wheeling, and traveled often to New York.

At the age of sixteen, while spending a weekend in New York City with her mother, her singing came to the attention of a retired producer who was guesting at the same establishment. He booked Wynn at a Peekskill vaudeville house, the owner of which engaged her to sing at his two other New York State properties, in Kingston and Newburgh. After working the vaudeville circuit, the late 1930s saw Wynn landing at radio station WNEW in New York for a thirteen show per week stint and honing her talent under the mentorship of Jimmy Rich, the singing coach to Dinah Shore, Bea Wain, and Barry Wood, among others. Radio show stints followed with Rudy Vallee's orchestra, and with Hal Kemp's orchestra on his "Time to Shine" radio show. Having earned the moniker "molten mama with the lava larynx", she caught the eye of a Warner Bros. movie scout while singing at Chicago's Pump House, leading to a role in Million Dollar Baby (1941).