Billy Murray

Billy Murray

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Billy Murray
Name	Billy Murray William Thomas Murray
Audio:	Billy Murray as Bimbo:
Audio:	Billy Murray as Tommy Cat:
Audio:	Billy Murray as Lulu Belle:

Billy Murray (May 25, 1877 - August 17, 1954) was a popular singer in the early 1900s. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the music from his early days was considered nostalgic (the modern term would be "oldies") and Murray was in demand again. He did voices for animated cartoons, especially the popular "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along cartoons and was one of several voices the character Bimbo. Murray portrayed Bimbo from 1930 to 1931. His last role as Bimbo was in Silly Scandals, Claude Reese later took over the full-time voice role of Bimbo. Murray was intrigued by the theater and in 1893 entered a troupe of traveling vaudeville. Early in his career, he also appeared in minstrel shows. In 1897, for Peter Bacigalupi, owner of a San Francisco phonograph company, Murray made his first recordings. None of Murray's cylinder records was known to have survived with Bacigalupi as of 2010. He began recording frequently in New York City and New Jersey area in 1903, where he focused major record labels in the U.S. as well as the music industry in the Tin Pan Alley. Murray, dubbed "The Denver Nightingale," had a strong tenor voice with outstanding enunciation and conversational delivery compared to the era's bel canto singers. He also sang slightly flat on comic songs, which he felt improved the comic effect. While he occasionally performed well-selling romantic numbers and ballads. Billy Murray also discovered Margie Hines, as he had found in her voice exactly what the Fleischers had been seeking for Betty Boop.

Role(s) 

	Character(s)
1930-1931		Bimbo	Dizzy Dishes
1931		Tommy Cat	Any Little Girl That's a Nice Little Girl
1931		Lulu Belle	Any Little Girl That's a Nice Little Girl

Death 

• He died of a heart attack in 1954 at the age of 77.

Filmography 

1929:

• Oh, You Beautiful Doll
• I've Got Rings On My Fingers

1930:

• Dizzy Dishes
• Barnacle Bill
• Mysterious Mose
• The Bum Bandit
• Accordion Joe
• In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree
• The Prisoner’s Song
• Come Take A Trip In My Airship
• In the Good Old Summer Time
• Mariutch
• Bedelia
• I'm Afraid To Come Home In The Dark

1931:

• I'd Climb The Highest Mountain
• My Wife's Gone to the Country
• Step On It
• In My Merry Oldsmobile
• Any Little Girl That's a Nice Little Girl
• Silly Scandals

Trivia 

• He was often teamed up with Walter Scanlan, they both worked, together and separately, for the Fleischer Studios during 1929 and 1931. Scanlan was also able to impersonate Murray to perfection.
• "Okay Colonel" was one of the quotes that Murray often used when he portrayed Bimbo the dog in the earlier Fleischer Brothers cartoons. 
• He married three times, his first two marriages ended in divorce.
• Some of the songs he performed in the Fleischer Studios cartoons, had been also recorded by him on record.

See Also 

• The Official Website of Billy Murray: The Legendary Denver Nightingale
• The Billy Murray Pages: Articles, Photographs and Discographies
• Biography with sound samples
• Billy Murray recording of "The Grand Old Rag" (later retitled "The Grand Old Flag")
• Billy Murray recording of "He'd Have to Get Out and Get Under to Fix up His Automobile"
• Billy Murray cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Discography of Billy Murray on Victor Records from the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR)
• List of best-selling recordings with chart entries
• Billy Murray, Anthology: The Denver Nightingale (Archeophone Records 5501)
• Works by Billy Murray at Project Gutenberg (recordings)
• Billy Murray at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Murray (singer) at Find a Grave

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