Edythe Wright

Stunningly gorgeous and often described as "sultry," Edythe "Dee Dee" Wright was undoubtedly Tommy Dorsey's best vocalist from the autumn of 1935 to the autumn of 1939. During this time she was featured on Dorsey's live broadcasts. A capable but not very passionate ballad singer, Wright did her best work with upbeat novelty numbers, especially when backed by the Clambake Seven. Casually voicing cool and mannered encouragements as featured soloists like Bud Freeman took their instrumental breaks, Wright brought a much needed if patently borrowed hipness to the Dorsey band. Sometimes she was backed by the Three Esquires, a vocal trio made up of crooner Jack Leonard, arranger Axel Stordahl, and trumpeter Joe Bauer. At one point she was asked to write a couple of columns that were printed in the February 1939 issue of Bandstand magazine. One of these essays was entitled "The Female Viewpoint." Wright's temperament appears to have been every bit as fiery as Dorsey's, a fact that became evident whenever they would cuss each other out backstage. Her dignity eventually suffered as Wright was forced to perform silly routines based on corny material, sometimes in the company of Skeets Herfurt, whose tasteless knuckleheaded novelty vocals could be quite overbearing. After Wright left the band in late 1939 she was replaced with Connie Haines and Jo Stafford, who entered the picture as a member of the Pied Pipers. Even after breaking away from Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra, Wright seems to have maintained ties with its personnel. She is even said to have soured a developing friendship between Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra by deliberately sowing seeds of discord between the two notoriously egotistical young men. Very little has been divulged concerning Wright's life before and after...