The Inanimate Hildegarde

Legendary cabaret singer Hildegarde whose career spanned 7 decades and 2 continents has died at the age of 99. Dubbed the Incomparable Hildegarde by Walter Winchell, she cut a regal figure in couturier gowns, jeweled glasses, glittering earrings, long white gloves, a lace handkerchief and a curly platinum wig. Hildegarde influenced a number of other performers, including, not surprisingly, Liberace, who duplicated her one-name stage persona and used "I'll Be Seeing You," one of her best-known numbers, as his own theme song. At her peak in the 1930s and ‘40s, she was booked in plush hotel cabaret rooms and supper clubs at least 45 weeks a year. Her recordings of such songs as "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup," "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and "Lili Marlene" became worldwide hits. Revlon introduced a Hildegarde shade of lipstick and nail polish, a nursery named a rose for her, and a linen company, picking up on the way she signed her autograph, introduced a "Bless You" handkerchief.