Lina Romay in 1945. His films included “Bathing Beauty” (1944) with Esther Williams, “adventure” (1945) with Clark Gable and “Love laughs at Andy Hardy” (1946) with Mickey Rooney. (MGM)Lina Romay, whose role as a singer with Xavier Cugat Orchestra in the 1940s led to a career in films and a passing decades later, a radio host in Spanish language for Hollywood Park died. She was 91.
Romay died December 17 from natural causes at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, said his son, Jay Gould IV.
As popularized Cugat Latin music in North America, it is assured that he had “beautiful ladies who could sing giving her group,” including Romay – pronounced “Rome-eye” – “A Warbler surprising depth and range”, Newsday reported in 1997.
Romay playing with Cugat two years was so perfect, he “was like put a glove on a helping hand”, told the Times in 1980.
Spotted on stage with Group Cugat at the Astoria Waldorf Hotel in New York, she soon signed a seven year contract with MGM about 1943.
Over the next decade, she has made 15 films – and Hollywood has been a large part of her Latin heritage.
Porfirio Romay, his father was a diplomat born in Mexico, who had served in several Mexican consulates in the U.S., including Los Angeles. His mother, former Walstead Lillian, was Irish and Norwegian.
1945 Times article began: “Lina Romay can be actress – and songbirds – to a new State of permanent type of the Latin America in images.”
His films included “Bathing Beauty” (1944) with Esther Williams, “adventure” (1945) with Clark Gable and “Love laughs at Andy Hardy” (1946) with Mickey Rooney.
A parade in Brentwood, Romay met Jay Gould III, grandson of the baron railroad. After their marriage in 1953, she stopped running and raised three children of Bel-Air. Gould died in 1987.
In 1980, his career was resurrected when Hollywood Park was hired to provide reports of horse racing in Spanish to local radio stations.
“This is an exciting job,” she said in 1980 in the Times, noting that she had “a flair for the announcement of those results.”
She was born Maria Elena Romay on January 16, 1919, in New York.
As recent high school graduate, she sang at a Pan-American event honoring his father, which led to a 15-minute weekly radio show in Detroit. When Cugat heard on the radio, he organised a hearing.
“It was the life of all parties, the center of attention to what she did,” said his son. “Even end of her life, she sang in restaurants or at the wedding.” You just could not keep. ยป
In 1992, she married Robert O’Brien, writer for Lucille Ball watch television. He died in 2005.
In addition to his son, Jay, Romay is survived by a daughter, Gloria Gould Gunter; and two grandchildren. A daughter, Anne, died in 1991.
Valerie.Nelson@LAtimes.com
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