Biography for
Ginny Simms More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

25 May 1915, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Date of Death

4 April 1994, Palm Springs, California, USA (heart attack)

Birth Name

Virginia Ellen Simms

Height

5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography

War-era songstress Ginny Simms was born Virginia Simms in Texas but raised in California, which accounts for her lack of a Southern accent in her speaking/singing voice. Though she studied piano as a child, it was her vocal gifts that launched her career, which started when she formed a singing trio while studying at Fresno State Teachers College. Ginny was performing at a club in San Francisco when she was heard by bandleader Kay Kyser. She became his featured singer and the big attraction of Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, a comedy revue done in the style of a quiz show with music. In addition to radio, she kept busy recording swing and pop albums.

Ginny also broke into films as a guest vocalist in three of Kyser's films for RKO--That's Right - You're Wrong (1939), You'll Find Out (1940) and Playmates (1941). After five years she decided to abandon touring altogether in the early 1940s and went solo to seek her own fame and fortune. She earned her own popular radio show and involved herself deeply in the war effort, earning praise for her tireless work. Some of her well-known recordings with and without Kyser include "Deep Purple," "Indian Summer," "I'd Like to Set You to Music," "I Can't Get Started," "I Love Paris," and "Stormy Weather." A spectacularly beautiful woman with a dazzling smile and high cheekbones, Ginny seemed made for the screen. She co-starred with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in one of their earlier and funniest comedies, Hit the Ice (1943), and scored some important second-lead roles over at MGM with Broadway Rhythm (1944) with George Murphy and Gloria DeHaven, in which she played a movie star who sang "All the Things You Are," and the Cole Porter biopic Night and Day (1946) starring Cary Grant and Alexis Smith, in which she sang some of Porter's best loved standards ("I've Got You Under My Skin," "Just One of Those Things," "I Get A Kick Out of You" and "You're the Top"), but her career lost momentum rather quickly (the story at the time was that she had turned down a marriage proposal by newly divorced MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who retaliated by immediately dropping her contract at the studio).

Ginny left Hollywood altogether in 1951 and her recording career ended not long after. She subsequently retired and ran a travel agency for a time while developing an interest in interior decorating (her first husband, Hyatt Dehn, was the man who started the Hyatt Hotel chain, for which she did much of the interior decorating). She also was involved in real estate with third husband Donald Eastvold. The mother of two sons from her first marriage, Ginny died of a heart attack in 1994 at age 78.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Don Eastvold	(22 June 1962 - 4 April 1994) (her death)
Bob Calhoun	(1951 - 1952) (divorced)
Hyatt vonDehn	(1945 - 1951) (divorced) 2 children

Trivia

Frequent escort of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer after his divorce.

Buried at Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City, California, USA

Her first son, David Martin Dehn, was born in 1946.

Related to dancer/choreographer Daren Eastwold and Vanessa Eastwold.

Related to actress Cassandra Eastwold.

Had two sons from her first marriage to Hyatt von Dehn, David and Conrad.

She earned distinction during WWII and was given several citations. She had a B-17 Flying Fortress named after her.

Was romantically involved with Kay Kyser at one point but they eventually broke up. She left the band and was replaced by Georgia Carroll, who subsequently became Mrs. Kay Kyser.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 6408 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.