Liz Tilton

aka Elizabeth Tilton

Photo of Liz Tilton

Vo­cal­ist Liz Tilton worked with a num­ber of or­ches­tras dur­ing the big band era. Though never as pop­u­lar as her older sis­ter, Martha, she had a suc­cess­ful ca­reer from the late 1930s until the mid-​1940s when she re­tired to mar­ried life. She briefly re­turned to singing in the early 1950s.

Tilton was born in 1918 in the small town of Bartlett, Kansas, where her fa­ther worked as a cashier in a bank. By 1930, the fam­ily had re­lo­cated to Los An­ge­les, where her fa­ther again worked as a bank teller and later as a cut­ter in whole­sale fur­nish­ings. Tilton fol­lowed her older sis­ter’s foot­steps into show busi­ness, be­gin­ning her singing ca­reer while still in high school, work­ing with many of the bet­ter West Coast swing bands over the next sev­eral years.

Tilton sang with Gil Evans’s or­ches­tra in late 1936. In June 1938, she was with Kenny Baker, but by No­vem­ber she had joined Buddy Rogers. She stayed with Rogers until spring 1939 when his man­age­ment agency forced him to give up his swing band in favor of form­ing a new sweet or­ches­tra. She then re-​joined Baker that sum­mer but stayed only briefly. By late Au­gust she was with Ray Noble, where she re­mained until early 1940. She made a solo soundie, “Aber­crom­bie Had a Zom­bie,” in 1941 with RCM. The song, de­scribed by Bill­board as “zany,” also fea­tured “ec­cen­tric dancer” Lee Mur­ray.[1]

Tilton joined Bob Crosby’s band in April 1941, re­plac­ing Bon­nie King. She re­mained with Crosby until at least April 1942. After leav­ing Crosby, Tilton kept busy with radio ap­pear­ances on CBS. She also ded­i­cated time to the war ef­fort, singing at USO shows and work­ing at the Hol­ly­wood Can­teen. In ad­di­tion, she sang the title song in the pa­tri­otic Bugs Bunny short “Any Bonds Today?”

In sum­mer 1942, Tilton toured with the Billy Mills or­ches­tra. She per­formed with fel­low CBS star Gor­don Jenk­ins and his or­ches­tra in a No­vem­ber 1942 show in Long Beach, Cal­i­for­nia. The show also fea­tured Spike Jones. Tilton again re­turned to Long Beach for New Year’s Eve, singing with Muzzy Mar­cellino’s or­ches­tra, with Jones again part of the show. Tilton also worked with Vido Musso’s or­ches­tra at some point and with Ozzie Nel­son’s band in early 1943.

Tilton joined Tommy Dorsey’s or­ches­tra in April 1943, re­plac­ing Bar­bara Can­vin. She stayed only two months, leav­ing in late June, re­port­edly ei­ther to go solo or due to health rea­sons. By late July, she’d joined Jan Gar­ber’s new swing band, where she proved pop­u­lar with au­di­ences and crit­ics. Tilton was gone from Gar­ber in Sep­tem­ber, per­haps due to ill­ness, as Kay Fos­ter recorded with the band and ap­peared with them in a mu­si­cal short that month. Tilton was soon back, how­ever, and aside from a brief ab­sence due to ill­ness in early 1944 she re­mained with Gar­ber until July of that year when she re­tired from show busi­ness to be­come a “full-​time house­wife.”[2] She was back on the stage briefly in Jan­u­ary 1946, for a short stay with Gene Krupa’s or­ches­tra, sub­bing for a de­parted Anita O’Day. In De­cem­ber 1949, she gave birth to a daugh­ter, Holly.

Tilton re­turned to singing in 1952, record­ing with both Clyde McCoy’s or­ches­tra and Billy May that year. She and sis­ter Martha also sang to­gether on Coral Records as The Liltin’ Tiltons in 1952 and 1953. Tilton then re­tired from show busi­ness per­ma­nently.

Liz Tilton passed away in 2003 at the age of 84.

Notes

  1. The “zom­bie” in ques­tion was the name of a pop­u­lar al­co­holic drink. This was well be­fore the word came to have its mod­ern mean­ing. Zom­bies in the 1940s were not the brain-​eating un­dead crea­tures as we know them today. That image be­came the norm after the 1960s, in­flu­enced by di­rec­tor Roger Cor­man’s Liv­ing Dead films. The term zom­bie in the 1940s meant some­one who was still alive but under the con­trol of an­other per­son by hyp­no­tism or drugs. ↩︎

  2. Tilton mar­ried Bruce Hoffine at some point be­fore Oc­to­ber 1946. Hoffine ran a whole­sale lum­ber busi­ness in 1950. They re­mained to­gether until her death in 2003. ↩︎

Sources

  1. Simon, George T. The Big Bands. 4th ed. New York: Schirmer, 1981.
  2. The Online Discographical Project. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.
  3. “Valencia Ballroom Reopens Saturday.” Santa Ana Daily Register [Santa Ana, California] 2 Oct. 1936: 26.
  4. “Noted Orchestra At Casa del Rey.” The San Mateo Times and Daily News Leader [San Mateo, California] 17 Jun. 1938: 14.
  5. “Walt Disney Is Host to 1500 Studio Employees, Friends at Norconian over Weekend.” Corona Daily Independent [Corona, California] 4 Jun. 1938: 1.
  6. “The Reviewing Stand: Buddy Rogers.” Billboard 12 Nov. 1938: 13.
  7. “Rogers Junks Jazz Band.” Down Beat May 1939: 2.
  8. Hyltone, David. “'Lizabeth Tilton Joins Baker.” Down Beat Aug. 1939: 27.
  9. “3d Casa Show Slow Despite Raye, Noble Band, Good Acts.” Billboard 1 Aug. 1942: 63.
  10. “Radio Log.” Charleston Gazette [Charleston, West Virginia] 23 Mar. 1941: 15.
  11. “Bonnie King on St. Louis Radio.” Down Beat 1 May 1941: 7.
  12. “D'Amico out as Crosby Band Lands Ale Show.” Down Beat 1 Aug. 1941: 3.
  13. “Vaudeville Reviews: Paramount, Los Angeles.” Down Beat 4 Oct. 1941: 22.
  14. “Crosby Band Great on Air, But Records Disappoint.” Down Beat 1 Nov. 1941: 14.
  15. “Radio Programs.” Dubuque Telegraph Herald [Dubuque, Iowa] 29 Dec. 1941: 9.
  16. “Vaudeville Reviews: Orpheum, Los Angeles.” Down Beat 25 Apr. 1942: 16.
  17. “Movie Machine Review: Program 1079.” Billboard 1 Aug. 1942: 63.
  18. “On the Air: With Billy Mills.” Circleville Herald [Circleville, Ohio] 19 Aug. 1942: 5.
  19. “Auditorium Dancing Tomorrow With Jones and Jenkins Bands.” Long Beach Independent [Long Beach, California] 24 Nov. 1942: 14.
  20. “Program Notes: Liz Tilton.” Dubuque Telegraph-Herald [Dubuque, Iowa] 14 Dec. 1942: 7.
  21. “Spike Jones to Play Auditorium.” Long Beach Independent [Long Beach, California] 27 Dec. 1942: 19.
  22. “Liz Tilton Is With TD Band.” Down Beat 15 May 1943: 1.
  23. “On the Stand: Tommy Dorsey.” Billboard 29 May 1943: 29.
  24. “Betty Brewer Newest T. Dorsey Thrush.” Billboard 26 Jun. 1943: 24.
  25. “TD Back on Lot, Has New Chirp.” Down Beat 1 Jul. 1943: 11.
  26. “On the Stand: Jan Garber.” Billboard 25 Sep. 1943: 14.
  27. “I'm After the Big Boys!—Garber.” Down Beat 1 Oct. 1943: 4.
  28. “On the Stand: Jan Garber.” Billboard 27 Nov. 1943: 15.
  29. “Garber Band On Road Tour.” Down Beat 15 Mar. 1944: 1.
  30. “Vaudeville Reviews: Chicago, Chicago.” Billboard 25 Mar. 1944: 26.
  31. “Liz Tilton Back With Jan Garber.” Down Beat 1 Apr. 1944: 1.
  32. “Music Grapevine.” Billboard 8 Jul. 1944: 19.
  33. Thomas, Bob. “Hollywood Today.” The Lowell Sun [Lowell, Massachusetts] 31 Jan. 1946: 13.
  34. “Birds Fleeing Cages at fast Clip -- Subs Fill.” Billboard 9 Feb. 1946: 16.
  35. “Record Reviews: Billy May.” Down Beat 7 Mar. 1952: 14.
  36. “Record Reviews: Clyde McCoy.” Down Beat 21 May 1952: 10.
  37. “United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K4H-YWYB : 11 February 2023), Elizabeth Ann Tilton.
  38. “United States Census, 1920,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MF6V-TB4 : Fri May 03 16:05:50 UTC 2024), Entry for Fred S Telton and Frances E Telton, 1920.
  39. “United States Census, 1930,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCV3-HSN : Sun Mar 10 16:21:52 UTC 2024), Entry for Fred S Tilton and Frances Tilton, 1930.
  40. “United States Census, 1940,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9C2-HH3 : Fri Mar 08 01:13:41 UTC 2024), Entry for Frederick S Tilton and Frances E Tilton, 1940.
  41. “United States Census, 1950,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XGS-ZD2P : Fri Oct 06 04:15:30 UTC 2023), Entry for Bruce E Hoffine and Elizabeth A Hoffine, 12 April 1950.