Tony Martin worked his way through college as
a singer and saxophone player, and in the early thirties he
joined several dance bands to ply both skills. Discovered by
Hollywood in the mid-1930s, Martin made his film debut in an
R.K.O. short and then followed up with a bit part in Follow
the Fleet in 1936. Suspecting that his contract with the studio
was headed for a dead end, Martin took a job as a featured
singer at a posh Hollywood watering hole, the Trocadero, where
he drew the attention of 20th Century Fox studio head, Darryl
F. Zanuck, who signed him to another contract. Martin's film
career took off in Poor Little Rich Girl and Sing, Baby, Sing
(both in 1936), but he continued to perform in clubs and filled
a regular spot on the George Burns and Gracie Allen radio show
in the late 1930s. By the late 1950s, Martin drifted away from
films entirely to devote his attentions to recording and playing
club and concert dates.
