Buddy Clark: Movies & Box Office

Buddy Clark, born Samuel Goldberg on July 26, 1912 in Boston, Massachusetts, was a seminal American popular singer whose smooth baritone defined the Big Band era. Raised in a Jewish household—his mother Tillie Leibowitz emigrated from Romania and his father Nathan Goldberg from Russia—he first appeared on stage as a tenor with Gus Arnheim's orchestra in 1932, but it was his switch to baritone that earned him wider notice on Benny Goodman's "Let's Dance" radio program in 1934. Over the next several years Clark became a familiar voice on the hit‑parade‑style broadcast Your Hit Parade (1936‑1938) and recorded a modest top‑20 hit, "Spring Is Here," for Vocalion Records, while also dabbling in film appearances and dubbing other actors. After a wartime hiatus he returned to civilian life and signed with Columbia Records in 1946, launching a string of chart‑topping singles; the most iconic was "Linda," written for a six‑year‑old daughter of a show‑business lawyer and later connected to Paul McCartney’s wife. In 1947 Clark delivered a succession of successes such as "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?," "Peg O' My Heart," and "An Apple Blossom Wedding," and his duet with Doris Day, "Love Somebody," sold a million copies and topped the charts. The following year he added more hits, collaborated with Dinah Shore on "Baby, It's Cold Outside," and served as narrator for Disney’s 1948 musical anthology Melody Time. Tragically, on October 1, 1949, after a lively CBS Radio broadcast with The Andrews Sisters, Clark perished in a small‑plane crash on his way back to Los Angeles, leaving behind a widow, two children, and a legacy cemented by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and countless posthumous tributes.