Mabel Wayne was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1904. She studied voice and piano in Switzerland and then attended the New York School of Music. In her early career, she performed as a pianist and concert singer as well as a dancer in vaudeville acts. In the 1920's. She composed a wide range of well-known standards and songs. The song presented here was first heard in the 1935 British musical "Music Hath Charm", featuring Hildegarde (although uncredited) and Henry Hall (this feature film is not to be confused with two homonymous American short subjects dating from 1917 and 1929). Wayne also contributed songs to film scores including The King of Jazz. Hildegarde (1906-2005), née Hildegarde Loretta Sell, was an American singer, raised in New Holstein, Wisconsin, in a family of German extraction. Sell worked in vaudeville and traveling shows throughout her career, appearing across the United States and Europe. She was known for 70 years as "The Incomparable Hildegarde," a title bestowed on her by columnist Walter Winchell. She trained at Marquette University's College of Music in the 1920s. During the peak of her popularity in the 30's and 40's, she was booked in cabarets and supper clubs at least 45 weeks a year. Henry Hall (1898-1989) was a British bandleader, who played from the 20's to the 50's. In 1932 he recorded the song "Teddy Bears' Picnic" with his BBC Orchestra. The record gained enormous popularity and has sold over a million copies. The BBC took him in 1932 as successor to Jack Payne as leader of the BBC Dance Orchestra, As for this wonderful record, it was made for Columbia in 1935.
