Danford, Charles

Montreal-based singer and songwriter Charles Danford was popular during the late 1940s and 1950s. He had a strong singing voice sometimes described as tenor, and sometimes as baritone. He launched his own song show on weekly radio in 1947 on WWRL in Woodside, New York. After he won the Arthur Godfrey Talent Quest, he was in demand to sing at events in the Montreal region, such as a gala held by the local Dorion newspaper “La presqu’ile.” The biggest night club in Montreal, the Bellevue Casino, hired him as their “house singer.” Although most of his songs were popular classics, he sang selections from George Bizet’s opera “Carmen” in 1952. He was also asked to sing the lead in Franz Lehar’s operetta “The Merry Widow” (La veuve Joyeuse) on a television series of operettas produced in Quebec by Roger Racine in 1954. He recorded several songs for the Montreal Vedettes Record label, including “Dites-lui.” He also composed some songs; popular Montreal singer Roger Doucet had manuscripts of three of his songs: “The Logger,” “My Song is Done,” and “Dans tes yeux.”