Aileen Carlyle Biography

Just as the pompous Margaret Dumont served as a foil for the Marx Brothers, actress and singer Aileen Carlyle served a similar role in the live shows and recordings of Spike Jones and the City Slickers. A hefty soprano, Carlyle’s main feature within the lunacy of the Jones show was to attempt to make it all the way through the song “Glow Worm” while musical assassins from the band such as Red Ingles created every conceivable kind of pandemonium. She was born Aileen Bauer and made her debut on both stage and film in the same year at the age of only 20. She must have gravitated toward Jones and his cohorts for a change of pace, as by the time he brought her on-stage, she had already appeared in a few films including The Virginian, The Country Doctor, and Strangers Return. She was replaced in the Jones band by opera singer Ina Souez in the late ’40s, and it was said that Carlyle was tired of having doves shot out of her hat. She settled back into a career in films and television, hovering somewhere in the status between character actor and bit player. Her later roles included parts in Mrs. Miniver and Harvey and in television on Mr. Showbiz, How to Marry a Millionaire, and many other shows. Most important as a musical cross reference would be her appearance on episode number 31 of The Monkees. Somehow Davy Jones and the lads don’t seem to be treating her with the same amount of respect that old Spike Jones did.