Jeri Sullavan

Jeri Sullavan (1919–2003) was an American singer who performed on radio and in personal appearances. She was featured in cover stories in the national magazines Radio Mirror and Tune In. in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1919 and moved with her family to Bremerton, Washington, when she was a teenager. Her academic classes included shorthand and typing. While there she was a member of the Glee Club, sang in school plays, and wrote the class song for the 1936 graduates. and Glen Gray.

Sullavan's radio career began at WSM in Nashville, After a network executive heard her singing there, he sent recordings to New York. and within a year she had become a regular singer on CBS. In August 1944, Radio Mirror magazine called her "one of that company's coming stars". It ended on November 17, 1944. She sang on the Jack Pepper Show, which was a summer replacement radio program in 1944. In May 1945 she became the featured singer on The Durante-Moore Show on CBS. She joined Bob Crosby as his regular singing partner on his Wednesday night CBS radio program in May 1946.

During World War II, Sullavan frequently entertained American military personnel at Army and Navy camps and canteens. The men stationed at the Maritime Naval Training Station at Sheepshead Bay presented her with a scroll in recognition of her having performed there more than any other entertainer. In behind-the-scenes film work, she was a ghost singer, including dubbing for Jean Peters in Love That Brute and for Virginia Mayo in A Song Is Born.

In 1944 Sullavan was in the cast of At Home, an experimental variety television program that was broadcast on CBS. She was the subject in one part of a CBS test of color TV in 1946, the first public demonstration of color TV by CBS that used live talent.

Sullavan, Morey Amsterdam, and Paul Baron were credited with authorship of the song "Rum and Coca-Cola", but they lost two lawsuits for copyright infringement of the song's lyrics and music. As a result of the suits, the three retained copyrights but had to pay Mohamed Khan for use of the lyrics and, with regard to the music, had to pay Maurice Baron, who had the copyright to a song with the same tune. The review commented that she focused more on singing into the microphone than on paying attention to the audience but added that she could change her approach.