Raye began entertaining troops all over the world in 1942. Known as "Colonel Maggie," she would dress in fatigues, including combat boots, tie and Green Beret and raise morale with her singing and comedic talents. She traveled to and from Vietnam for nine years, sometimes performing services as a nurse as well as on stage. In the late '60s, she performed at the McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey for the Anniversary of Women in the Air Force, while starring in the musical play Hello Sucker. She received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1969 for her service to the troops in Vietnam. For her service to America, Raye also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993.
Former child performer who toured with her vaudevillian parents, self-dubbed 'Martha the Mouth' and 'The Big Mouth' first made a name for herself as a sophisticated jazz song stylist. After enjoying success onstage and in radio, Raye entered features films in 1936, where she gained a second following as a raucous, knockabout singing comedienne. She supplied broad comic relief in a number of Bing Crosby films and often got to sing in her peppy, surprisingly mellifluous voice, most notably in "Double or Nothing" (1937) and the film version of Rodgers and Hart hit, "Boys from Syracuse" (1940). In an offbeat bit of casting, Raye gave her finest film performance as the only wife to survive the murderous intentions of her Bluebeard-like bigamist husband Charlie Chaplin in his black and bleak comedy "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947). In the 1950s Raye, ever the manic, live wire singer and self-mocking entertainer, turned to TV where she hosted and guested on numerous variety programs. She later did occasional stage work as well, notably a turn as one of the replacement stars in the Broadway smash, "Hello, Dolly!". She received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award in 1969 mainly for her long years of volunteer service entertaining US troops in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. In 1991
The first far eastern country to permit kissing in films was China. The first oriental screen kiss was bestowed on Miss Mamie Lee in the movie "Two Women in the House" (China, 1926).
