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ALEXANDER GRAY was a Pennsylvania farmer
WHEN Alexander Gray was a boy in short trousers he lived on a farm nestled among the Pennsylvania hills. His uncle raised cows and pigs. One of Alex’s duties was to call the live stock to the feed trough. Many a wintry day the lad went out in the cold and sent his young voice down the valley. That practice undoubtedly gave him the power and resonance with which he now thrills us during Chesterfield periods.
A move to town brought him face to face with the question of what he wanted to do with his life. And he turned to mechanics. When he went to Pennsylvania State he studied engineering.
Those were rocky years for young Alexander Gray. Pie earned his way . . . stoked furnaces, washed dishes ; yes, he even sold aluminum kitchen utensils. But some¬ how he managed to find time to join his college glee club — and presently the healthy young baritone of the cow calling days was pouring itself all over the Penn State campus. He learned then that he enjoyed singing and — what is more important — he learned that other people enjoyed listening.
His big break came when he won the MidWestern
contest sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs for American trained singers. He knew then that he could do big things. One of those big things was to sing for Florenz Ziegfeld.
Such an audition is not easy to arrange. Ziegfeld is usually flitting around the country — California, New York, Florida. Somehow, Alex cornered him in the East and made him listen.
The result justified his faith in himself for Ziegfeld hired him on the spot.
Gray started playing in Ziegfeld shows. He appeared in several editions of the “Follies.” It was Gray who first sang that well-remembered song hit, “ ’Neath the South Sea Moon.” The musical comedy phase of his life finally ended with the two-year run of “The Desert Song.”
When musical pictures became the Hollywood vogue, he joined the gold rush westward. He played in several pictures for Warners. With interest in singing talkies waning, he had to make his way back to New York again. Vaudeville offered a pleasant route.
His chance in radio was of his own making. And as usual, he made good at it.
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