The slinky voice of Dolores Gray would be the perfect soundtrack to a midnight skinny dip or an evening trapped in a snowed-in cabin. It also soothes the beastly rage brought about by Los Angeles morning gridlock or your internet service provider being totally ineffective at diagnosing your connection issues, not that I would know.

Dolores Gray was an actress and singer who won a Tony award for her performance in the Broadway musical version of the 1936 French film Carnival in Flanders. The stage show, backed by Bing Crosby was generally hated and ran only six nights.  But Gray’s performance in the show still managed to win her the Tony Award in 1953 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical, which makes her the record-holder for shortest run of any actress to win the award. Take a listen below and find out why.

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Gray was singing in supper clubs in her early teens when she was discovered by Rudy Vallee, who made her a fixture on his radio program. From there, Gray sparked up the stage performing in, among others, 42nd Street, Annie Get Your Gun, Destry Rides Again, and Two on the Aisle. On screen, she appeared with Gene Kelly in It’s Always Fair Weather, and Howard Keel in Kismet (both 1955), the film that brought us the song, “Baubles, Bangles and Beads.” Dolores passed away in 2002 in Manhattan. The cause of death was a heart attack. She was 78 years old.