Hildegarde, whose career as an international cabaret chanteuse spanned almost seven decades and who was credited with starting the single-name vogue among entertainers, died on Friday at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital. She was 99.
Her death was confirmed yesterday by her longtime friend and manager, Don Dellair.
A regal figure in couturier gowns, jeweled glasses, glittering earrings and, in her later years, a curly platinum wig, Hildegarde influenced a number of other performers. She accompanied herself on the piano, always in her trademark long white gloves, and, fluttering a lace handkerchief, chatted between numbers, often poking fun at herself.
"Hildegarde was perhaps the most famous supper-club entertainer who ever lived," Liberace once said. "I used to absorb all the things she was doing, all the showmanship she created. It was marvelous to watch her, wearing elegant gowns, surrounded with roses and playing with white gloves on. They used to literally roll out the red carpet for her."
Although Liberace said he was careful not to imitate her, he did take a single stage name and used "I'll Be Seeing You," one of her best-known numbers, as his own theme song.
Usually billed as the Incomparable Hildegarde, an orchid bestowed on her by Walter Winchell, she was at the peak of her popularity in the 1930's and 40's, when she was booked in plush hotel cabaret rooms and supper clubs at least 45 weeks a year. At one engagement in 1946, she was paid $17,500 a week and 50 percent of the gross over $80,000. She was on the cover of Life magazine in 1939, had a top 10 radio show and traveled with her own orchestra and several dozen pieces of luggage.
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.
Hildegarde's admirers ranged from enlisted men and officers during World War II to King Gustaf of Sweden and the Duke of Windsor. In 1961 she was the guest of honor at a gala at which Eleanor Roosevelt presented her with an award naming her First Lady of the Supper Clubs.
From the 1950's through the 70's, in addition to her cabaret appearances and record albums, she appeared in a number of television specials and toured with the national company of the Stephen Sondheim musical "Follies." Her autobiography, "Over 50 ... So What!" was published by Doubleday in 1961. In 1980, she was in a revival of the 1927 musical "The Five O'Clock Girl" at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., and took part in a tour of "The Big Broadcast of 1944," which recreated radio programs of that year. She also did a number of lecture tours at universities and auditoriums, singing, playing, chatting and answering questions.
Born Hildegarde Loretta Sell in Adell, Wis., to German immigrant parents, she began her career in Milwaukee at the age of 16 when, as a music student at Marquette University, she played the piano in a silent movie house. In 1928 she joined a vaudeville troupe, toured for two seasons and then spent a year as an accompanist to various performers. She arrived in New York by way of Camden, N.J., where she struck up a friendship with Anna Sosenko, her landlady's daughter and a budding songwriter, who became the architect of her career.
"Anna was determined to be a songwriter," Hildegarde recalled. "She made me go with her to New York to sing her work to publishers." For a time, Hildegarde took a job as a song plugger for Irving Berlin. She emerged as the one-name Hildegarde after an audition with Gus Edwards, the impresario, who suggested she lose her surname. Ms. Sosenko became her business manager and the two traveled, lived and collected art together for 23 years.
Ms. Sosenko wrote "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup," which became Hildegarde's signature song, and was the singer's partner until 1955, when the relationship dissolved. The friendship resumed two decades later.
Although most of her career was in the United States, Hildegarde was engaged to appear at the Café de Paris in London when she was in her early 20's. She was not a great success, but the experience led her and Ms. Sosenko to take off for Paris to learn the art of cabaret.
They remained there for three years. Ms. Sosenko helped her perfect her technique, and she acquired an international flavor by learning to sing in French, Russian, Italian and Swedish. She also developed the precise diction that made every word clear and reduced her slight German accent.
Her name became synonymous with the best clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1934, she sang at the Ritz Hotel in London during the Duke of Kent's wedding festivities. The next year she was back for King George V's jubilee, and she returned in 1937 for King George VI's coronation. She also appeared in several British movies and stage revues.
During the zenith of her career in the 40's, Hildegarde's name appeared on best-dressed lists, and people were stunned when she said she spent $10,000 a year on clothes. By the 60's, the sum had risen to $30,000.
"I rarely look back, " she said as she approached 90. "That's part of the secret of staying young."
She leaves no immediate survivors, her manager, Mr. Dellair, said.
During a 1993 performance at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel, Hildegarde said: "Wrinkle, wrinkle, leave me alone. Go and sliver Sharon Stone."
"I can't imagine myself not performing," she said in 1995. "I like to be in harness. I'm good, I know I'm good, and I'm ready."
Another cabaret legend, Bobby Short, who died this year at 80, once said, "Hers was the slickest nightclub act of all time."
