Hildegarde

 ( 1906 Births ) 

She was once referred to as a "luscious, hazel-eyed Milwaukee blonde who sings the way Greta Garbo looks". During the peak of Hildegarde's popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, she was booked in cabarets and at least 45 weeks a year. Her recordings sold in the hundreds of thousands, and her admirers ranged from soldiers during World War II to King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and the Duke of Windsor. On some of her recordings, she was accompanied by band leader Carroll Gibbons. During most of the 1940s she appeared on Raleigh Room, an NBC Radio program.

She wore elegant gowns and long gloves: "Miss Piggy stole the gloves idea from me", she once said. A noted flirt, Hildegarde told risqué anecdotes while giving long-stemmed roses to men in the audience. During one performance, she waltzed with a U.S. senator. She is credited with starting a single-name vogue among entertainers. Investments and work in ads for a bottled-water company, barley vitamins and a bathtub device gave her a comfortable income through the rock era.

She sang a presidential nomination campaign song for Margaret Chase Smith's unsuccessful 1964 campaign for president; the song was called "Leave It to the Girls", and was written by Gladys Shelley.🖉