Donald Novis | en

Donald Novis, (born 3 March 1906 in Hastings, England - Died 23 July 1966, California, USA) was a singer who worked for Disney and most notably performed on the Bambi soundtrack.

He sang with many big bands in the 1930’s and appeared in several films, such as Bulldog Drummond (1929), One Hour with You (1932) and the Big Broadcast of 1932, and on radio shows such as “Fibber McGee and Molly.” From 1932-34 he led his own orchestra which recorded for the Brunswick label.

He starred with Gloria Grafton, Jimmy Durante and others in the Billy Rose extravaganza, Jumbo (1935), at the Hippodrome. Part circus, part vaudeville, and part Broadway, with music by Rodgers and Hart, it was a huge success. In it Novis and Grafton sang “My Romance” and “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.”

In the 1940’s Novis began working for Disney and sang “Looking for Romance” and the Academy Award nominated song, “Love Is a Song,” for Bambi (1942). In 1955 he and Wally Boag created the script for the long-running “Golden Horseshoe Revue” performed until 1986 at Disney’s Frontierland. Novis starred in the revue until 1964.
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