Marion Hutton (born Marion Thornburg; March 10, 1919 – January 10, 1987) was an American singer and actress. She is best remembered for her singing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1938 to 1942. She was the sister of actress and singer Betty Hutton.
Hutton was born as Marion Thornburg in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the elder sister of actress Betty Hutton. They were raised in Battle Creek, Michigan. The sisters' father abandoned the family when they were both young; he later committed suicide. Their mother worked a variety of jobs to support the family until she became a successful bootlegger.[1] Both sisters sang with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra.[2]
Hutton was discovered by Glenn Miller and was invited to join the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1938. "I was only seventeen then [...] and so Glenn and Helen [Miller] became my legal guardians. He was like a father because I never had a father I remembered."[3] Miller wanted Hutton to appear as an all-American girl, so on her first few performances, he introduced her as "Sissy Jones." The pseudonym was not used beyond those first performances.[4]
Hutton was too young to sing legally on her own in nightclubs. Miller and his wife Helen officially became her foster parents, allowing them to serve as Hutton's chaperone while performing in these venues.[citation needed]
Hutton considered herself more an entertainer than a singer,[5] and became an important part of the Miller band.[6] She remained with Miller on and off until the orchestra disbanded when Miller joined the army in 1942.[citation needed]
Film historian Jeanine Basinger asserts in her 2007 book on the Hollywood studios system The Star Machine that in the early forties Marion Hutton was more popular than her sister Betty.[citation needed]
Marion had a small role in the film Orchestra Wives (1942; Twentieth Century Fox), in which the Glenn Miller Orchestra starred. After Miller joined the Army in 1942, she went with fellow Miller performers Tex Beneke and the Modernaires on a theater tour.[7]
The next important event in her entertainment career was a role in In Society with Abbott and Costello in 1944. Marion appeared with the Desi Arnaz orchestra in October 1947 at the Radio City Theatre in Minneapolis.[8] As the 1940s wound down, so did Marion's career.[9] Her last film role was in 1949, acting in the Marx Brothers' Love Happy.
Hutton was married three times. She married publicist and television producer Jack Philbin in 1940. They had two sons. Her next marriage, to writer Jack Douglas, produced a third son. Her last and longest marriage was in 1954 to Vic Schoen, an arranger for the Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby, among other artists in the 1940s. The couple remained married until her death in 1987.[11] Looking back on her first marriage, in 1974 she told George T. Simon, "[W]hat I wanted most of all was to be a wife and mother. I had no drive for a career."[12]
In 1965 according to the New York Times, Hutton sought treatment for various addictions. Hutton went back to school in her late fifties. Starting in 1972, she went on to receive a bachelors in psychology and a masters in family counseling, then found work at a local hospital.[13] During the 1960s and 1970s, Hutton and Schoen lived in Laguna Beach but later moved due to increasing financial problems.[14] In 1981, Hutton and Schoen moved from Irvine, California, to Kirkland, Washington, and founded Residence XII, a drug addiction center to help alcoholics and addicts. She was the executive director.[citation needed]
Schoen arranged music for the PBS production "Glenn Miller - A Moonlight Serenade" commemorating the Miller band’s breakthrough performance at the Glen Island Casino. Produced to recognize the 40th anniversary of Miller's death, it starred Beneke, Johnny Desmond, and Hutton.[15]
1939 "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead", with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Bluebird (recorded July 12, 1939)
1942 "That's Sabotage" with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Victor (recorded June 17, 1942)
1940 "The Rhumba Jumps" vocal with Tex Beneke, with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Bluebird (recorded January 26, 1940)
1940 "Say 'Si Si'" with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Bluebird 10622 (recorded January 26, 1940)
1942."(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo" vocal with Tex Beneke and the Modernaires, with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Victor 27934-A (recorded May 20, 1942)
