Biografie

She became very famous in the 1920s and was popular throughout the 1930s, but she is not well-remembered today, except perhaps by musical theatre buffs. This is due partly to the fact that all her recordings date from the 1920s and 1930s and they are not often found in stores, but it is also partly due to the fact that her best and most often seen film, the 1936 version of Show Boat (1936), is not shown on television as often as it could be (the 1951 Technicolor remake, Mississippi-Melodie (1951), with Ava Gardner playing Ms. Morgan's role, has been frequently shown on TV, instead). Ms. Morgan's other films are very rarely -or never- seen, so relatively few film enthusiasts are acquainted with her work.

She was spoofed in the animated cartoon In der Bar zur Kokosnuss (1936). In it, her animated counterpart sings "The Little Things You Used to Do" while sitting atop a piano and weeping. Before long, everyone else in the club is weeping uncontrollably and the club is on its way to becoming flooded.

Made her talking picture debut (after uncredited appearances in two silent films) in the hastily put together prologue to the 1929 part-talking version of Das Komödiantenschiff (1929), in which she sang the songs she performed in the stage version, but did not actually play the role of Julie Laverne in the film. This was played by Alma Rubens. She finally got the chance to play Julie on-screen in the first all-talking film version of Show Boat (1936). Unfortunately, it was her last film. Alcoholism caused her death five years later.

Best remembered on screen as Julie in Show Boat (1936), repeating her 1927 Broadway role.

In Make a Wish (1937) an excited Basil Rathbone, declaring that he feels marvellous, lifts Donald Meek onto the piano. Asked how he feels, a sheepish-looking Meek replies: "I feel like Helen Morgan!".