Johnny Downs

b. John Morey Downs, 10 October 1913, New York City, New York, USA, d. 6 June 1994, Coronado, California, USA. An old-styled song and dance man, Downs’ contributions to the screen as a dancer and singer may not have stolen the headlines, but in their entirety they added up to a worthy body of work. The son of a navy lieutenant, Downs’ family relocated to San Diego when he was eight. Encouraged by his mother to attend film auditions, he made his debut in a silent comedy alongside Charley Chase, before beginning a sequence of Our Gang silent movies for Hal Roach. His first grounding in stage work came on the east coast, however, opposite Jimmy Durante in Strike Me Pink. Back with Roach, he took a small role in the Laurel And Hardy production of the stage musical hit, Babes In Toyland. His subsequent musical films of the 30s (often dubbed teen operas or college musicals) included College Scandal (1935 - remade as Sweater Girl in 1942), College Holiday and Pigskin Parade (both 1936), Turn Off The Moon (1937), and Hold That Co-Ed (1938). Afterwards he switched to Universal for a further series of low-budget musical films. These began with Swing, Sister, Swing (1939, which saw him sing ‘The Baltimore Rumble’, an intended US answer to ‘The Lambeth Walk’), then Hawaiian Nights (1939). I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby from the following year saw him sing the title-song, before he moved to Republic for Melody And Moonlight. Another of Downs’ most famous numbers, ‘The Aloha Lowdown’, was premiered on the cut and paste Moonlight And Hawaii soundtrack. The movies that Downs appeared in during the 40s included, Mad Monster (1942), Harvest Melody (1943), Campus Rhythm, Trocadero, and Twilight On The Prairie (all 1944), Rhapsody In Blue (1945), The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), and Square Dance Jubilee (1949). Downs spent the early 50s in Broadway productions such as Here Come The Girls and Are You With It? He returned to Hollywood in 1953 for his last major role in Cruisin’ Down The River, before returning to his adopted San Diego home, appearing regularly on television as a host of children’s programmes for nearly two decades.