A Singer, A Curator, An Egyptologist & Me

Jane Morgan, Bonnie Bien and Colleen Darnell

September 19, 2022 

What are the odds, I’d receive a personal message from a renowned big band singer and Egyptologist, then see both on TV, and get a call from a New York fashion guru, all in the same week. Pretty good, it seems, in my world.

The story begins with a hat, picked up at a local thrift shop.

The Singer & The Hat

Jane Morgan is the singer and the hat is a pillbox from the 1950s. The performance was on Ed Sullivan, from a show that aired in the 1960s. How uncanny? Yet, this is my life. And, how interesting, I’d never heard of her until I looked up the hat’s label, Selected by Jane Morgan New York. 

This discovery was made because I was doing my usual thing – seeking out a designer’s history. But, wow! What a gal. Along with being a big band singer, she was a musical performer and had a radio show. Well, that’s me, on a smaller scale. She, was a hit maker with Fascination making the Billboard chart, performer on Broadway and had a radio show airing on NBC. Why did I not know this? I’ve been singing big band tunes my whole life, starting when I was a kid with my father’s band. So, you’d have thought I’d come across her before now.

Heck, I might’ve even worn her Hello, Dolly! costume when I was in high school. It’s possible. Our costumes came from a Broadway costume house. Her show ran on Broadway in the late 1960s and my production in the spring of 1970. And by the way, those costumes were outstanding! They were beautifully made and had labels that listed all who wore them. I don’t remember the names. I just thought that was so cool. And what a fun notion to ponder. That we wore the same dress. Also fun, for me, is knowing we’re linked by another show, the musical, Mame. I played Mame’s sidekick, Vera, in a semi-professional production when I was in my 40s, while she played Mame on Broadway when she was in her 40s. (That info comes from the Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Her info, not mine.

As for her band years, she sang with BIG, big bands like the house band at Manhattan’s Roseland Ballroom and those playing Vegas and Tahoe when she was a headliner. And her radio show, yes, as I mentioned, was a bit bigger than my own, which ran statewide. NBC broadcast nationally and she was backed by the network’s 50-piece symphony orchestra. Now that’s what I call a house band. It was the 1950s, what can I say? 

The more I get to know her, the more impressive, she becomes. She even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And, along with all that, she became a cross-over artist, moving into country in the late 1960s scoring a hit in 1970 with the song, A Girl Named Johnny Cash, which was written by Martin Mull. Now that name, I recognize. Too, funny. He wrote it, I learned, in response to Cash’s, A Boy Named Sue. No offense was taken, apparently, for she performed the song with Cash on his TV show in 1971.

So, again: Why, did I not know this? My only excuse is to say, it’s because my musical horizons weren’t broadened until the mid-1970s, when she’d already retired and faded from the TV and radio airwaves. But how cool is it that a hat made me seek her out, now, at this time, when I’ve shifted my focus to fashion? And, I still don’t even know if she’s connected to the hat label, though there is enough photographic evidence to say, she loved hats. At this point, after learning all this, I got both excited and sad -- excited about her as a person and sad because I never got an interview. 

Then, I realized, an interview isn’t completely out of the question. She’s still around, I discovered, and goes by her married name of Weintraub. She was married, I learned, to Jerry Weintraub who was, among other things, the producer of the 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts. (I just love being able to drop in those names.) And, she just had an exhibit earlier this year showcasing her gowns. Wow! But, darn, I missed it by only a few months. The show was at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine. Hopefully, though, all is not lost. I’ve already reached out to the museum, via email, hoping they can share some of the photos and information and maybe even put me in touch with her. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? 

It would be Awesome.! As Spicoli would say. Totally!

UPDATE/The Next Day (Sept. 20)

The Curator 

I did reach out to the curator, via email, in the evening after I wrote this article, and got a return message saying she’d pass my request on to the curator of the show. Okay, that’s great, I thought, half-way expecting my quest to dead-end there. So, imagine my surprise when the very next day, I got a call from the curator coming in from New York. I nearly didn’t pick up, thinking it probably a sales call. So surprised was I, in fact, that when the woman on the other end of the line introduced herself as Jane Morgan’s exhibit curator, I dropped my eyeglasses to the floor as I jumped from the couch and ran to the table to take notes. (My dog got my glasses, but that’s a story for another day.)

Back to the call. She tells me the exhibit did go on tour, but earlier this fall to New York for Fashion Week. (groan) I’d missed that opportunity, too. And an interview probably wouldn’t be in the cards, she told me, because Ms. Morgan is in her 90s. Again, I groan, but quickly recover to ask more about her background. She tells me her name is Bonnie Bien, the owner of La Presse PR in New York. Wow, I’m thinking, that’s amazing she took time out of her day to give me a call. She goes on to tell me this was her first go at creating an exhibit, which came about because she’s a personal friend of Ms. Morgan’s having been her assistant years ago. And it was on a recent visit to Ms. Morgan’s Blueberry Hill Farm when Bien discovered Morgan still had her gowns, stored in the barn of all places, that they hatched a plan for a display. (I love that little barn storage detail.) Then after she told me about the exhibit, she asked me about my background. So, I got a chance to tell her about my Flappers to Fringe exhibit. She seemed interested, and that always makes me perk up a bit. So, I was feeling pretty good after we hung up, like I did back in my journalism days when I’d snagged a good interview. But, I gotta tell ya, I was really flying high when I realized who I got to talk to after looking her up. 

Ye gads! Her public relations and marketing company specializes in the fashion and art industry and she’s done some pretty impressive things, like providing PR for New York Fashion Week and making documentaries. I also found out, through the company website, that she appreciates vintage clothing, like I do, for its historical reference. So, that explains why she found my project interesting. It’s all so very cool, but, I’m still not sure whether Selected by Jane Morgan hats are connected to Jane Morgan the singer. Bien wasn’t sure, but said she’d ask. Meanwhile, wouldn’t cha know, I found another Selected by Jane Morgan hat, which of course came home with me. And, now that the label is on my mind, I expect those Jane Morgan hats will just keep showin’ up. Because, that’s just how my life works. 

The Egyptologist

Now, as for the Egyptologist. This next connection happening in the same week really put the icing on the cake. I received a personal thanks from vintage Egyptologist Colleen Darnell. She’s the woman seen on TV shows about archeological digs in Egypt dressed in 1920s garb like those worn in the golden age of tomb discovery.

I’d received a thank you from her after I commented on one of her Instagram posts that her “ensemble, modeling, setting and photography” were “fabulous.” She responded back with a thank you note at the very moment I glanced up to see her on a TV show I was watching -- the Lost Treasures of Egypt: Secrets of Egypt’s Queens. So, I replied right back to let her know and she responded with a quick note. Now, that’s when social media is really cool. 

That’s a Wrap

And so, that’s it, for now. And that’s the story about — a singer, a curator, an Egyptologist and me.