Recently I had to do a computer repair for my friend Bryan and it got me thinking about a blahg I wrote in 2012 when I had to do my own computer repair and was given some bad advice from a computer salesperson. Needless to say, I didn’t take the salesperson’s advice and figured out for myself the repair, which he said couldn’t be done, and I was successful and got a blahg out of it. The original blahg was ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF. It was a blahg not only about the computer repair but celebrating the fact that I had turned 50 and that I could still think for myself with positive results. Next month, I will turn 59 and I’m still thinking for myself but my body has other ideas of it’s own when it comes to pain and arthritis. Too early to write about that stuff here.
Before I get too far off topic, or into the topic, let me talk about the repair I did on Bryan’s laptop. First, his laptop is a brick. It’s a few years old and large and heavy and running Windows 10. After a recent Windows update it would no longer load into Windows. Bryan just kept getting the spinning blue wheel of death. I know, I know, the image to the left is not a spinning blue wheel but it belongs to death so who am I to argue. Bryan got the spinning blue wheel of death and his laptop would no longer load into Windows. He asked for my help. In the past, when he had the same error he was able to fix it himself so I knew that this time would be a bit of a challenge.
I took his laptop home and tried to load it up but I too got the spinning blue wheel. I left it alone and eventually an error message similar to the one below was displayed:
That gave me a reference point to try and begin to fix the problem. By the way, clicking OK or CANCEL did nothing and the same error eventually came up again. Searching for different answers suggested trying to do a System Repair or a System Restore. Of course if you can’t load into Windows then how do you get to these options. There is another way.
What Windows doesn’t tell you is that getting into these extra options or even a Safe Mode of Windows is not like it used to be. I remember with Windows XP and I believe Windows 7 all you needed to do was tap F4, F8, or some Fn’ key (get the play on words) and you would get some other options to boot your computer. Pressing any of those keys didn’t help. What I found was you had to power on the laptop then turn it off once it started to load into Windows. Do this two times and on the third reboot, the Advanced Options loads. Choose “Troubleshoot” then “Reset This PC” if you want to Reset PC without repairing or choose “Advanced Options” after “Troubleshoot” to get to “System Restore” or “Startup Repair”. Unfortunately neither “System Restore” or “Startup Repair” worked for me.
It was at this point that some websites were suggesting getting into Safe Mode to try some other options. So getting into Safe Mode is another set of instructions I had to research. So, when you get into “Advanced Options” you have to choose “Startup Settings”, Windows 10 then will say that you can restart your device to change advanced boot options, including enable Safe Mode. Press Restart. After Windows 10 restarts one more time, you get a screen that lets you choose boot options. Select 4 or F4 to start in Safe Mode. Once I had Safe Mode, I was able to look at all of the options that other websites were suggesting.
The LogonUI.exe error message was very specific and some technical support sites were suggesting that I could rename the LogonUI.exe file to LogonUI.old and then copy a fresh version from a different directory and paste it into the Windows/System folder. You can research that for yourself but I’ll tell you right away that you can’t do any of that from Safe Mode. The suggestions tell you to enter Command Prompt in Safe Mode but these system files such as LogonUI.exe are protected. I couldn’t even run a “chkdsk” (this is actually CheckDisk that verifies the logical integrity of the file system) because it too won’t run in Safe Mode.
In my previous blahg, ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF, I talked about a disk called a Hirens Boot CD. It allows you to run a mini-version of Windows XP from the disk. I still had that Hirens CD from 2012 and I was able to boot into the mini version of Windows XP and rename the LogonUI.exe and copy a fresh version over from a different folder and put it in the Windows/System folder. Unfornately that didn’t change a thing. I still would get the LogonUI.exe error when I tried to boot into Windows 10. I even tried “chkdsk” while in the mini version of XP but that wouldn’t work either. It was at this point that I put the laptop away for the night.
I thought about the problem the next day and all of the suggestions I had tried and that failed. I had emailed Bryan and he told me not to bother further and he was just going to remove everything and reinstall Windows 10 fresh. I didn’t want to give up that easily. It meant that I had to accept defeat and, like 2012, I wasn’t prepared to throw in the towel. It was a battle of wits against the computer with the computer taunting me and me wondering what it would take to get this computer working properly again.
The solution to the problem was easier than I thought. I had eliminated all of the things that didn’t work and it was a matter of finding a method that would work. I was sure that running “chkdsk” was the answer because usually “chkdsk” would find errors and repair them. The problem was finding a way to get “chkdsk” to run in Safe Mode. The quick answer is you can’t do that. The error I was getting when trying to run “chkdsk” in Safe Mode was:
“A function call was made when the object was in an incorrect state for that function. A snapshot error occurred while scanning this drive. Run an offline fix.”
Before you begin reading all the posts on that Forum, let me just draw your attention to a post by a user by the name of “Jason Dale” dated July 2, 2017. His reply was almost four years after the Forum was created with the problem of trying to run “chkdsk” in Safe Mode. Here’s what he posted:
The /scan option might not be available in safe mode. Use chkdsk /f c: if a virtual disk (VM) or chkdsk /r c: if physical (if you don’t know, it’s probably physical). /r implies /f – /f fixes file system issues, /r repairs sectors.
I know this is 4 years old but all these BS answers are frustrating.
Focus on the direction to go into a Command Prompt in Safe Mode and type “chkdsk /f c:” (without the quotes). The problem is that your system is using C:, and “chkdsk” can’t repair things that are in use. You will get a message that looks like this:
Answer Y for Yes and then reboot your system. CHKDSK will run before Windows starts so it can repair the drive before Windows starts using it. That’s what I did. Bryan’s laptop restarted and started to run “chkdsk”. It was going to take some time so I walked away and watched television for an hour. When I walked past the laptop, I tapped a key to wake it up and was very surprised to find that it had booted into regular Windows 10. I shut it down and restarted it and it booted into Windows 10 again. Success!
So what did I learn from this? First, never give up, never surrender. That’s a reference to a line from the movie “Galaxy Quest” in case you were wondering. Second, stop overthinking. All of the suggestions I tried were other people’s suggestions and were sending me down the wrong rabbit hole. Third, think for yourself. When I started thinking about “chkdsk” and believing it was the key then all I had to do was find the way to run it. Then user “Jason Dale” may have offered me the right solution but I was the one who found it after placing my faith in the notion that there had to be a way run “chkdsk” outside of Safe Mode. Think For Yourself. I said 9 years ago and it’s still working for me today.
When I went back and re-read ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF, I discovered something else that I was recommending in that blahg besides thinking for yourself. I talked about a singer I had discovered by watching the television series ‘Stargate Universe.’ I wrote that “one of the great talents I have discovered from watching Stargate Universe is the singer, Deb Talan. In one episode, they used Deb Talan’s song ‘Comfort’… If you research Deb Talan you will learn she is a member of the group “The Weepies”. I didn’t know that and I don’t know who they are but I’ve listened to a few of their tracks and I enjoy them… As always, if you like a singer, especially an independent artist who doesn’t get the airtime like some of those others who should go back to street singing, in my humble opinion, then go out and buy their CDs or attend their concerts…I don’t know if she’s going to come to Canada anytime soon but if she does, you can bet I’ll be there.” Nine years later and I’m still listening to Deb Talan and I’m still listening to The Weepies. In that time, they have released the album “Sirens” and Deb released her solo CD “Lucky Girl.” They’ve also performed in Toronto twice and you can bet I was there.
On the album “Sirens” The Weepies did a cover of Tom Petty’s “Learnin’ To Fly.” I was skeptical when I heard they were doing a version but I think it works for them, the way they did it. Check it out:
It’s funny that Deb Talan would revisit the flying motif on her album “Lucky Girl.” Give a listen to “Losing My Fear Of Flying”:
I could go on an on about Deb Talan, Steven Tannen, and The Weepies but you need to think for yourself and see if they’re for you. Here’s another track to try and convince you. This is their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Back Streets” from the CD “Born To Uke.” This time Steve’s taking lead vocal:
The Weepies only did the one song for “Born To Uke” but if you like it, maybe you’ll like the entire CD. Check it out…or don’t. Think For Yourself. Never stop.
What do you write a blahg about when you’re not sure what to write about? Does that make sense? Here it is the first full week of July, 2021, in a heat-wave and I need a brain-wave. I’ve done the inspirational recently and looked at the world situation until I’m tired of looking at it. I got my second vaccine last week, Moderna, and had no reaction. So that story is put to bed. By the way, get a vaccine. So what do I want to talk about? Well you know me, it’s all about the music.
This blahg is going to be another of those, “gee, I haven’t even heard of them” blahgs. At the end of April I published “SOME FORGOTTEN BANDS…WITH A NOD TO LINDA KEENE” and brought to life some information and songs by some long lost bands. This time I thought I would look at some of the lost singers from around the big band era. Recently I was cleaning out an email folder and there was this email that I had sent myself with the subject “Kay Foster.” I don’t know when I sent it to myself or even why. That was probably the inspiration for this blahg so I’m going to start with her. This is her obituary from The Washington Post on April 20th, 2002:
Katherine Peterson
Big Band Singer
Katherine Peterson, 84, who as Kay Foster sang in the 1930s and 1940s with the big bands of Artie Shaw, Tony Pastor, Les Brown and Benny Goodman, died April 14 at her home in Madison Heights, Mich., after a heart attack.
Mrs. Peterson, a soprano, was married to Chuck Peterson, a trumpet player in bands led by Shaw, Pastor, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman and Benny Carter.
She made headlines in 1937 when Bruno of Hollywood, the photographer, told reporters Mrs. Peterson had “the best-looking legs of any girl band vocalist in America.”
If you look at Kay Foster’s Discogs entry, you get this:
I know this isn’t complete by any means because I found the following song, “It Never Entered My Mind” that Kay Foster did with Tony Pastor in 1940.
I wasn’t able to find a location to stream “Louisiana Purchase” or “On A Simmery Summery Day” which Kay Foster also recorded with Tony Pastor. Moving on to her recordings with Georgie Auld and staying with 1940, I was able to find “Angel”:
Here we’ll have to rely on a YouTube Audio Video:
The flip-side of “Angel” was “I Want My Mama”:
Here’s another one that Kay Foster also recorded with Georgie Auld, “Imagination”:
If you check the limited discography for Kay Foster from Discogs, listed above, “Imagination” is listed with the notation following “and 4 more.” As far as I can tell, the “4 more” were “With The Wind And The Rain In Your Hair” and “Shake Down The Stars.” In this case, the “4 more” also included “Angel” and “I Want My Mama.” So here are the two I haven’t covered from the “4 more”, “With The Wind And Rain In Your Hair” and “Shake Down The Stars”:
Apparently in 1943, Kay Foster was appearing with Jan Garber and His Orchestra because I found two songs she performed on the Treasury Star Parade radio program in 1943. They are both on YouTube and they are “May In Mexico” and “I Don’t Want Anybody At All”:
There isn’t much else I could find on Kay Foster and I couldn’t find a picture of Kay Foster showing off her famous legs. From her heyday, however, here’s a nice clipping of her from July of 1940 when she was appearing in Cleveland, Ohio:
Moving on to another forgotten songstress, next up is Ruth McCullough. Again, we find another obituary from the Washington Post but this time it’s June 18, 2001:
Ruth McCullough Dyer, 80
Ruth McCullough Dyer, 80, a Washington and former Hyattsville resident who under the name Ruth McCullough had been a singer with big bands in the 1940s, died of congestive heart failure June 15 at a hospital in San Diego. She had lived in San Diego since leaving the Washington area in 1995.
Mrs. Dyer, a graduate of Eastern High School and the Washington School for Secretaries, began singing professionally as a teenager. After singing with such local groups as the Rod Raffell band in the 1930s, she went to New York. There, she performed with the Sonny Dunham and Isham Jones bands as well as the Mitchellaires before joining the Tony Pastor Band.
Pastor, himself a novelty singer whose work often highlighted his Italian heritage, led a band until 1959. In the early and mid-1940s, Mrs. Dyer was a leading singer with the band, recording such hits as “Bell Bottom Trousers.” Other songs she recorded with the band included “I’m Beginning to See the Light” and “Walk a Little, Talk a Little.” Another song the band recorded featured Mrs. Dyer and her husband, Richard Dyer, on vocals. He was a singer and trumpet player with the band.
In addition to singing with the Pastor Band, Mrs. Dyer also had opened for her friends the Andrews Sisters on some of their singing engagements. When Mrs. Dyer left the Pastor Band in 1946 to raise a family, she was replaced by two Ohio sisters, Betty and Rosemary Clooney.
Mrs. Dyer was a member of St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Hyattsville.
Her husband, whom she married in 1944, died in 1989.
Survivors include two sons, James and Steven Dyer, both of San Diego; a daughter, Joan Marks of Spotsylvania, Va.; and four grandchildren.
Note that the obituary mentions Ruth McCullough was another singer who had recorded with Tony Pastor. The main song they mention is “Bell Bottom Trousers”:
“Bell Bottom Trousers” is the only entry that Discogs has for Ruth McCullough despite her obituary mentioning other recordings with Tony Pastor. The obituary does mention that Ruth McCullough recorded “I’m Beginning To See The Light” with Pastor but I could only find a live version that appeared on an album of live songs released on the Onwards To Yesterday Label. The album is “Tony Pastor And His Orchestra – (1945-49) Selections Never Before On Record”:
From that album comes “I’m Beginning To See The Light” with an air date of March 13, 1945:
Keeping with Tony Pastor, I found another recording of Ruth McCullough on “Walk A Little, Talk A Little”:
In 1944 Ruth McCullough was performing with Sonny Dunham and his Orchestra. I do not believe they made any recordings together but there exists a recording of a radio performance that Ruth did with Sonny Dunham from the Hollywood Palladium on August 17th, 1944. The song is “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” and appears on the album “One Night Stand With Sonny Dunham.” The majority of the album is devoted to Sonny Dunham’s appearance at the Hotel New Yorker on July 16th, 1945 but the last three tracks on the second side of the album are from the Palladium date. Here’s Ruth McCullough singing “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City”. Pay particular attention to that song title because it will surface again in this blahg.
I found another listing for the song “Shoo-Shoo Baby” which Ruth McCullough performed with Mitchell Ayres and His Fashions in Music. I don’t know the date of this performance, although it appears to be from a live radio show, and I could only find one release containing that version. It is a CD put out by the Collector’s Choice label appropriate titled “Spotlighting Mitchell Ayres and His Fashions In Music”:
The song can be heard on YouTube:
I could find no other songs related to Ruth McCullough but found this lovely picture of her when she was appearing with Tony Pastor in 1945:
I mentioned earlier in this blahg that Kay Foster recorded a song called “On A Simmery Summery Day” with Tony Pastor. I couldn’t find that recording but in my research I turned up a version sung by Sally Richards, the next artist to be featured in this blahg. Before we get into any information about Sally, here’s her recording of “On A Simmery Summery Day” with Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra from 1940:
Sally Richards recorded a number of sides with Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra. Below is what I could piece together as a discography of the tunes Richards and Reynolds recorded together. In this discography, vSR represents a vocal by Sally Richards.
From this discography we can see that Richards performed vocal on 13 songs during her time with Tommy Reynolds. From her first session, February 28th, 1940, here is “Whispering Grass”:
From her second session with Reynolds on April 17th, 1940, I’ll offer up “Sierra Sue” and “I Can’t Love You Any More”:
From the May 14th, 1940 session that brought “On A Simmery Summery Day” comes “I Love To Watch The Moonlight” followed by a YouTube Audio/Video of “The Sailor With The Navy Blue Eyes” from June 10th, 1940:
From her final session with the Tommy Reynolds Orchestra are her last two recordings. The first is a YouTube Audio/Video of “Stop Pretending” followed by the audio for “I’ll Tell It To The Breeze”
So, who was Sally Richards? Where did she come from? What happened to her? I can find very little information about her. Here’s a quote from a website entry on Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra: “Sally Richards had taken over as the band’s female vocalist, and Gene Sanders was hired as male singer that June; they were replaced by Mary Ann McCall and Ralph Young, respectively, no later than September.” I found references to her up in Boston in 1946 appearing at a couple of nightclubs but nothing substantive. I couldn’t find an obituary nor any photos when she was with Tommy Reynolds. There was a Sally Richards making the rounds in 1934 and 1935 as a blues singer. Check out the advertisement to the left from February 12th, 1934 in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Sally Richards, Blues Singer, was on the bill at the Breen Hotel Winter Gardens. If anyone knows anything else about Sally Richards, let me know. For now, we’ll have to leave off with Sally.
Dorothy Claire, my next entry, had more recognition than our previous songbirds. She even has a Wikpedia entry, although very limited:
Dorothy Claire (born Marietta Wright, January 5, 1925) is an American former singer on Broadway and with big bands.
Early years
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Wright, Claire was born in La Porte, Indiana. At age 4, she began singing, joining her sisters to form a trio that performed at parties and on WSBT radio in South Bend, Indiana. She later attended La Porte High School, where she was a cheerleader.[1] Career
Orchestra leader Ayars Lamar hired Claire as a singer when she was 16, changing her name from Marietta Wright to Dorothy Claire. Two of her sisters later adopted that last name for their own professional work. She debuted professionally when she appeared with Lamar’s orchestra in Indianapolis at the Indiana Roof. She went on to sing for notable band leaders including Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Sonny Dunham, and Bob Crosby. Her rendition of “Perfidia” with Miller’s orchestra sold more than 1 million records.
Breaking away from orchestras, Claire began singing in night clubs in Chicago, including Chez Paree and The Palmer House, then performed at the Copacabana in New York. She sang on Bing Crosby’s radio program and on Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club. She also had her own program on radio station WJZ in New York City and toured in vaudeville. Her work on television included appearances with Jack Carter and Paul Winchell.
On Broadway, Claire performed in Face the Music (1932), Finian’s Rainbow (1947) and Jimmy (1969).
Further research on the Bandchirps.com website added the following:
As the 1950s rolled around, Claire began billing herself as both a singer and a comedienne. She played heavily on the nightclub circuit and in 1950 also began appearing regularly on television’s The Paul Winchell Show. She made guest appearances on many other television programs as well. She continued performing into the 1970s, mainly in nightclubs, also appearing in two films, as a singing prostitute in Cat Ballou (1965) and in the low budget 1970 Lenny Bruce biopic Dirtymouth. Dorothy Claire passed away in 1982, age 62.
On another site there was information from a cousin who added “Dorothy moved back to LaPorte in the late 1970s and opened her own restaurant, “Dorothy Claire’s Place.” She passed away in the mid 1980s. ‘She was a great lady.’ “ The following is a discography that I found at https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/308658/Claire_Dorothy:
Recordings
Company
First Recording Date
Title
Primary Performer
Description
Role
Victor
2/19/1941
A little old church in England
Dorothy Claire ; Ray Eberle ; Glenn Miller Orchestra ; Modernaires
Jazz/dance band, with female-male vocal duet and male vocal quartet
vocalist
Victor
2/19/1941
Perfidia
Dorothy Claire ; Glenn Miller Orchestra ; Modernaires
Jazz/dance band, with female vocal solo and male vocal quartet
vocalist
Victor
2/20/1941
The air minded executive
Tex Beneke ; Dorothy Claire ; Glenn Miller Orchestra
Jazz/dance band, with female-male vocal duet
vocalist
Decca
12/14/1939
Two little doodle bugs
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
12/14/1939
How many times?
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
2/14/1940
Easy does it
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
2/14/1940
Busy as a bee
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
4/2/1940
‘Deed I do
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
4/2/1940
If I could be the dummy on your knee
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
4/2/1940
Slow freight
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
6/24/1940
Can’t get Indiana off my mind
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
6/24/1940
Stop pretending
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
7/19/1940
That’s for me
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
9/4/1940
Take care (of you for me)
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
4/29/1941
Nighty night
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
4/29/1941
I found a million-dollar baby
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
6/18/1941
You started something
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
6/18/1941
Down, down, down
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
Decca
7/18/1941
It’s you again
Bobby Byrne Orchestra
vocalist
The earliest entry in the discography is from December 14th, 1939 with the Bobby Byrne Orchestra when she recorded “Two Little Doodle Bugs” and “How Many Times.” Here they are:
Dorothy Claire continued to record with Bobby Byrne and His Orchestra in 1940 and 1941. I want to offer up some well known songs performed by Dorothy Claire. Here are ” ‘Deed I Do” and another version of “Stop Pretending” from YouTube which you can compare to the one I posted above recorded by Sally Richards.
Here are a couple of her 1941 recordings with Bobby Byrne. From April 29th, 1941 we have “I Found A Million Dollar Baby”, on which she duets with Stuart Wade, and her last recording with Byrne from July 18, 1941, “It’s You Again.”
Dorothy Claire’s obituary information mentions her time with Glenn Miller but the discography only details three recordings, “A Little Old Church In England,” “The Air Minded Executive,” and her million copy selling rendition of “Perfidia.” Here are the three recordings she did with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra.
There exists a radio recording of Dorothy Claire’s first live appearance with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra on January 11, 1941 from the Cafe Rouge of the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown Manhattan. In it, Dorothy Claire performs “Swingin’ at the Seance.” Here it is from YouTube:
I found the following photo of Dorothy Claire when she was a vocalist with Boyd Raeburn and his Orchestra. I believe that Dorothy was with Raeburn around 1944.
The only recording that I could find of Dorothy Claire with Boyd Raeburn and His Orchestra was a V-Disc she did with his outfit in 1944. Here’s a YouTube Audio/Video of the song “Who Started Love?” with Dorthy Claire and Boyd Raeburn as well as the flip-side featuring Harry James on “Crazy Rhythm.”
I could not find any other recordings of Dorothy Claire with Boyd Raeburn but I did find that she recorded at least 4 songs around 1947 with Emmett Carls and his Orchestra. Here are “Love Makes The World Go Round,” “The Coffee Song,” “Sooner Or Later,” and “Does Your Heart Beat For Me?”
Dorothy Claire also sang with Sonny Dunham’s band around 1943 and 1944 but the only recordings I could find were issued on a CD on the Circle label, shown at left. The two songs on the CD sung by Dorothy Claire are “Wo Ho” and “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City.” “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” was presented earlier in this blahg as a live radio transcription of Ruth McCullough singing it with Sonny Dunham. The band is the same this time but the vocal is by Dorothy Claire. Luckily someone has uploaded these to YouTube:
The only information I could find about these two recordings of Dorothy Claire with Sonny Dunham comes from the back of the CD: “Originally recorded for Lang – Worth Transcription in New York City December 21, 1943.” This means that Dorothy Claire sang “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” with Sonny Dunham almost eight months before Ruth McCullough warbled it live with Dunham at the Hollywood Palladium in August of 1944. Other versions of “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” have been recorded by Julie London and Peggy Lee. Julie London’s version makes you wonder why this blues song has all but disappeared. Dorothy Claire’s version of “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” is a good note to end off her entry here and move on to another by picking up a thread inspired by the same song.
When I was researching the song “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City,” I came across another version recorded by a singer by the name of “Frantic” Fay Thomas. Here again is another singer that seems to have been lost to time. Again, however, she is someone with a limited Wikipedia entry:
Fannie Crawford (September 14, 1922 – July 5, 1978), known as “Frantic” Fay Thomas, was an American pianist and vocalist. She recorded for Exclusive Records in the 1949.
As a teenager, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan. Her father Elijah Crawford and her brother Bayless Crawford were cooks. On March 12, 1940, she married George Thomas in Cleveland, Ohio.
Thomas began performing at Detroit’s Four Horsemen Club in 1940. She was discovered by Earl Carroll, who gave her the stage name “Frantic Fay.” Thomas was featured with Earl Carroll’s Vanities in the spring of 1944 and played eight months at Harry’s Show Bar in Detroit. She was managed by Delbridge & Gorrell. Thomas played piano by ear. Billboard magazine described her style as “individual, with a jive touch,” adding that “she is at her very best in an interpretation of the deep blues.” Through the 1940s, she had appearances at hotels and bars around the country.
In 1949, Thomas recorded four songs for Leon René’s Exclusive Records in Los Angeles: “I’m In Town,” “Waga-Waga,” “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey,” and “Lover Man.” Her first single “Waga-Waga” / “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey,” was released in June 1949. Reviewing the single, Billboard wrote: “New thrush-88er packs a dynamite live style with something of Rose Murphy and Nellie Lutcher and plenty of her own. Her piano work is of pro caliber, too. The record “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey” was Cash Box magazine’s Race Disk O’ The Week. They noted that track was a “surefire clickeroo if ever there was one. Jut listen to this gal skim thru the 88’s and gurgle, chuckle, giggle and sing, and make more sounds than you’ve heard in a month of Sundays.” The single did well in local markets, but it did not chart nationally. Her second single, “I’m In Town” / “Lover Man,” was released in September 1949. Later that year, Thomas had another session with Exclusive and recorded four more songs. The single “Thinking Of You” / “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City” was released in December. That month, Exclusive declared bankruptcy and ceased operations in January 1950. Thomas never released another record.
In the 1950s, Thomas performed gigs around California. She married Lonnie I. Riggs in 1954. By the 1960s, Thomas had relocated back to Detroit; she performed around the Midwest. She died in Detroit on July 5, 1978. Years after her death, Thomas’ songs were featured in the soundtracks of a few movies. “I’m In Town” was used in the films Men Of Honor (2000), Lonely Hearts (2006), and Trumbo (2015). One of her unreleased Exclusive tracks, “I Only Want You” was used in the films Lovelife (1997) and Second Skin (2000).
The author of the website, http://www.uncamarvy.com/FranticFayThomas/franticfaythomas.html, Marv Goldman, supplies a little more information about Fay Thomas but even admits there isn’t much out there to draw on. So, I’m going to focus on the music. Her Wikipedia entry states that in 1949, “Thomas recorded four songs for Leon René’s Exclusive Records in Los Angeles: “I’m In Town,” “Waga-Waga,” “I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey,” and “Lover Man.” Here are three of those songs:
Unfortunately I could not find a source from which to stream “Lover Man.” Her later 1940 session at Exclusive Records produced “Thinking of You” and the aforementioned “I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City.” Here are those two songs:
The Wikipedia entry for Fay Thomas also mentioned that “one of her unreleased Exclusive tracks, “I Only Want You” was used in the films Lovelife (1997) and Second Skin (2000).” Here is Faye Thomas’ rendition of “I Only Want You”:
There isn’t much else to say about Fay Thomas. Even Marv Goldman from his website ends with these words:
“I like Fay Thomas’s music; I wish she’d made more recordings (and I really wish she weren’t so difficult to research). There were relatively few documented appearances and sometimes huge amounts of time elapsed between them. (This is really strange because she never seemed to have gotten a negative review.) She must have been working somewhere, else how could she support herself? Frantic Fay Thomas: a true enigma.”
I guess I can’t add anything more.
Getting back to the female big band vocalists, I want to first offer up the following video. It is a Soundie that was filmed August 2nd, 1943:
The band in this short is Johnny Long and His Orchestra and the girl singer is Helen Young. She will be my final entry in this blahg. Here’s a nice photo of Helen Young when she was associated with Johnny Long:
The earliest listing here are for two sides she did with Ted Hanson and His Normandie Orchestra in 1934. Here are those two songs, “I Met My Waterloo” and “My Old Flame”:
It was difficult to find any biographical information on Helen Young. I had to start by searching old newspapers and I found an article from the Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Massachusetts, from December 4th, 1935 that provides some good information on the then young singer
Working ahead, I found the following information from the April 10, 1943 issue of Billboard:
DAVIES- YOUNG -Cpl. Ogden Davies, former member of Johnny Long’s ork, to Helen Young, vocalist with the same band, last year in New York, it was revealed last week.
Having now established that she was married to Ogden Davies, I was able to track down Helen Young’s obituary:
I found that obituary in the September 19, 1966 issue of “Broadcasting – The Business Weekly of Television and Radio.” Searching a little more, I found a full obituary published in the September 8th, 1966 edition of The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania:
It is sad that she died so young. Her longer obituary mentions her singing with the Raymond Scott Orchestra but I could not find any recordings that she did with that band. Raymond Scott did have a radio program in the fall of 1943 and I found reference to four shows where Helen sang the following songs: “In my arms,” “You’re Either Too Young or Too Old,” “Thank Your Lucky Stars,” and “Put Your arms Around Me.” Unfortunately I could not find anywhere to stream these programs.
Helen Young’s longest association with any band was with Johnny Long’s Orchestra from 1937 to 1942. The video I posted earlier in this blahg of Helen Young with Johnny Long’s Orchestra performing “My Girl Loves A Sailor” is only one of a few videos on YouTube attributed to Young and Long. Here’s another entitled “Daddy”:
This next video is audio only, another Soundie, this time from October of 1943, with Helen Young and Bob Huston singing “Let’s Get Away From It All” with Johnny Long and his Orchestra:
According to “The Soundies Book – A Revised and Expanded Guide to the ‘Music Videos’ of the 1940s” by Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda, Helen Young appeared in other Soundies with Johnny Long including “Johnny Peddler” March 1941, “Swingin’ at the Seance” from May of 1941 (yes, the same song that Dorothy Claire performed live with Glenn Miller in January of 1941), as well as the aforementioned “Let’s Get Away From It All” and “My Girl Loves A Sailor.” I could not find a place to stream “Johnny Peddler”or “Swingin’ at the Seance.”
The remainder of the selections I will offer up now are from Helen Young’s recording years with Johnny Long. From her first session with Long in 1940, here are “Stars Over The Campus” and “Swing Me Bach”:
From May of 1941 come two selections, “Miss Johnson Phoned Again Today” and “I Take To You”:
And finally two selections from July of 1942 before Helen Young left Johnny Long’s Orchestra. Here are “Constantly” and “Why Don’t You Fall In Love With Me?”:
Helen Young had a pleasant voice but if you look at the titles of her songs, they were mostly novelty tunes with hardly a standard among the songs she recorded with Johnny Long. There is one exception, her singing on the ballad song “I Give You My Word” of October of 1940 is beautiful. I just wish she had recorded more of these types of songs.
In case you’re wondering about the 1934 recordings that Helen Young did with Ted Hanson and His Normandie Orchestra, she would have had to have been 13 or 14 when she recorded those. Maybe she did or maybe it’s a different Helen Young. Take it all with a grain of salt.
I hope you enjoyed this blahg. I try to do my best to cobble together information from different sources to provide an enjoyable reading experience. I learned from my three blahgs on Linda Keene that there is information to be found if you dig for it. There’s also great music out there if you only look for it. Check out some of the other recordings of the great singers I’ve presented here. Time may have forgotten them but in this blahg, at least, I’ve heralded their return.
The inspiration for this blahg is two fold. I’ve been meaning to post a blahg about a certain jazz musician ever since my first blahg, THE BLAHG & THE MOST HAPPY SOUND. That was back in October of 2011. I mentioned in that first blahg the name of the artist and said a blahg dedicated to him was coming soon. I next referenced the band in a November 2013 blahg entitled ZOEY, FRANK, JUNE & ALL THAT JAZZ. I even promised in that blahg that I was going to dedicate a blahg very soon to the artist/band. The first inspiration for this blahg was when during this past week I pulled out some homemade CDs that someone sent me of the band many years ago and that got me thinking that I was overdue on dedicating a blahg to this artist/band.
The second inspiration is WHAT ON EARTH IS A SCOBEYFAN? which I derive from a recent video that was posted by my son on his Analog Resurgence YouTube page. I have mentioned my son, Noah, and his Analog Resurgence page in a previous blahg, 16 INCHES OF TROUBLE OR LIKE FATHER LIKE SON. Here’s what I had to say about him in that blahg:
So about now, you’re probably wondering about that alternate title to this blahg “Like Father, Like Son”. Well, recently my son Noah posted the first in his Youtube video series about Analog Resurgence. While I’m all about the old records and the technology to play them, Noah’s all about old cameras for filming and photography.
You can check out all of Noah’s videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9A6v7YSOOVXwCpao6Bszg. He makes money by the number of views so check out all of his videos and don’t skip through the ads because he makes more money if people view the ads as well. He also has a Patreon account where you can support him and get links for exclusive content. That’s also available through the above YouTube link.
Getting back to the second inspiration for this blahg, specifically with the title, I was inspired by one of Noah’s most recent videos:
About 49 seconds in Noah shows a clip of a 16mm film he had purchased at a thrift store. The film is “What On Earth And In The Sea”. There were a number of “What On Earth” shorts produced in the early 1970s and I remember seeing a few over the years. There’s a website, What on Earth… (partially lost animated shorts that is dedicated to the What On Earth series. Here’s some information from that website:
What on Earth… was a series of approximately 60 animated vignettes featuring postage stamps from around the world. The shorts were produced for Canadian television by Crawley Films in around 1970 and originally aired on CBC between programs. In the late 1980s, the series was repurposed as filler content for Canadian channels YTV and TVOntario.[1]
Concept:
In each 2-minute vignette, a narrator (possibly Chris Wiggins, according to some recollections) would recount a historic event or read through a poem over a musical background. The shorts were illustrated with postage stamps from around the world.
The vignettes’ production was sponsored by the Canada Post Corporation.
Apparently there are not many of these to view online so I’ve asked my son to do some sort of scan of the film and post it to YouTube. I think there are many fans of these shorts out there. I took the inspiration for this blahg from What On Earth and tipped it at the end to match the subject of this blahg. Here is one of the What On Earth films:
Okay okay, enough about the inspiration What On Earth Is Scobeyfan? I guess to be truthful, a third inspiration is the fact that the word Scobeyfan is my username on a number of websites. I have used Sinatrafan in the past but as the Internet has grown, there are more people using that one and I think I’m the only one that uses Scobeyfan. Nobody has ever asked me what it means but it’s a tribute to the late great trumpeter Bob Scobey. I don’t want to fill this blahg up with a full biography because that’s available elsewhere, which I will speak to in a little bit. Here’s an excerpt from Bob Scobey’s Wikipedia page:
Robert Alexander Scobey Jr. (December 9, 1916 – June 12, 1963) was an American jazz musician. He was born in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and died in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
He began his career playing in dance orchestras and nightclubs in the 1930s. In 1938, he worked as second trumpeter for Lu Watters in the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. By 1949, he was leading his own band under the name Bob Scobey’s Frisco Band. From 1950 the group continued to play a three-year residency at the Victor & Roxie’s, where their popularity grew. Clancy Hayes joined the band to sing, play banjo and had his own compositions such as “Huggin’ and a Chalkin'” recorded. The collaboration recorded over two hundred tracks until he left in 1959 to follow a solo career.
From 1954-57, African-American blues singer Lizzie Miles recorded and toured with the band.
In 1955, Scobey and his band played dates at San Quentin Prison and at the Rancho Grande in Lafayette, California—a sizable roadhouse with a dance floor. In 1957 he recorded for Verve Records and RCA Victor. An important and successful album for RCA was Bing with a Beat recorded with Bing Crosby in 1957. From early in 1956, he toured colleges and universities, and in 1958 he recorded many of the student favorites in New York, the album College Classics (RCA Victor LPM 1700).
In 1959 Scobey opened the Club Bourbon Street, Chicago.
Death:
Scobey died of cancer in 1963 in Montreal, Canada. His wife Jan produced a biography entitled “He Rambled!” and arranged for his band to form again and record some blues songs. She also saw to the reissuing of his albums.
I want to highlight two things from the Wikipedia entry, the album “Bing With A Beat” that Bob Scobey did with Bing Crosby and the biography “He Rambled!” written by his widow, Jan Scobey. The full title of the book is “He Rambled! ‘Til Cancer Cut Him Down.” It’s a beautiful hardcover book with a full discography, of LPs only, and chock full of great facts and photos. I’m not sure if you can still purchase this book. Jan Scobey once ran a mail-order Jazz company and I would receive catalogues like the one below from 2000:
I lost track or rather stopped communicating with Jan in the early 2000s but, at that time, she was still selling copies of the book. I’ll talk more about that later.
It’s an interesting but backwards story of how I became interested in Bob Scobey. I’ve always been a Bing Crosby fan as well and when I attended Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario in the early 1980s, I purchased a Bing LP at a local store called “Bing Crosby A Legendary Performer.” Below is a picture of the cover and some details from the inner sleeve:
If you click on the inner sleeve image you will get more details of the track listing. In case you can’t make it out, here are the tracks from both sides:
Side A:
Ol’ Man River Recorded January 11, 1928
Three Little Words Recorded August 26, 1930
It Must Be True Recorded October 29, 1930
Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams Recorded March 2, 1931
Just A Gigolo Recorded March 2, 1931
I’m through With Love Recorded September 2, 1931
Just One More Chance Recorded September 2, 1931
Side B:
Some Sunny Day Recorded February 19, 1957 in San Francisco with Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band
I’m Gonna Sit Right Down Recorded February 19, 1957 And Write Myself A Letter in San Francisco with Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band
Mack The Knife Recorded February 20, 1957 in San Francisco with Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band
Dream A Little Dream Of Me Recorded February 19, 1957 in San Francisco with Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band
Whispering Recorded February 20, 1957 in San Francisco with Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band
Down Among The Recorded February 20, 1957 Sheltering Palms in San Francisco with Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band
Now, I do like Bing’s earlier material but after hearing these tracks from 1957 with Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band, I was hooked. I found myself not just listening to Bing’s vocals by straining to just hear the band. Who was this band? I had never heard of Bob Scobey. This was 1982 or 1983 and there was no Internet (maybe the military had the Internet but they didn’t share it with me) so I couldn’t look up the band. I knew a guy that ran a local music store so I had him keep an eye out for a Bing Crosby album with Bob Scobey. I don’t think I even knew the title. Eventually the store owner located a copy of Bing With A Beat:
What a fantastic collaboration. It’s easily my favorite Bing Crosby album and definitely up there as one of my favourite Bob Scobey albums. Just give a listen to Bing and Bob on “Mack The Knife”:
It’s so difficult to offer up other tracks from this great album and totally neglect others. The whole album is an experience and I’m not doing justice by not referencing all of the songs. I decided I’d link to a YouTube video of the song “Whispering” because there’s a great interaction between Bing Crosby and Bob Scobey where Bing talks to Bob about his trumpet playing. Here’s a hint, search YouTube for Bing Crosby and Bob Scobey and you’ll find links to all of the songs on the album.
The rest of my story as it relates to discovering Bob Scobey is very vague after that. I might have acquired some of his other albums through my local record store but the details are a little fuzzy to me. Age will do that. With the advent of the Internet and Ebay, I’ve been able to acquire all of his albums and then some. I do remember somehow finding out that there was this great book about Bob Scobey, the one I referenced written by Jan Scobey, but I tried to borrow it from my local library to no avail. I was trying to use an inter-library loan where another library that has it lends it out to our local library who lends it to me. I was told that it was a new book and couldn’t be used for inter-library loan. I found that odd because the book was published in 1976. My library did provide information about the publisher so I contacted them and they forwarded my request on to Jan Scobey. Eventually, I would buy the book from her but not before I sent her a letter about my interest in Bob Scobey and she sent me back the following postcard in September of 1995:
As I have mentioned, Jan Scobey’s book is a wonderful resource on the life of Bob Scobey with a full discography of albums. Here are some cover shots of all of the albums associated with Bob Scobey. Click on any of them for a larger view.
Some of these albums have been issued on CD. The Good Time Jazz issues such as Scobey & Clancy (L-12009), Bob Scobey & His Frisco Band With Clancy Hayes (L-12006),
Scobey Story, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (12032 & 12033), and Direct From San Francisco (12023) have each received a CD issue. The Yerba Buena Jazz Band records are also available on CD as is the Bunk & Lu album and the three Jansco issues of Scobey and His Frisco Band! and the two volumes of The Great Bob Scobey. Scobey & Clancy Raid the Juke Box and Bing with a Beat are available on CD as is the Claire Austin album “When Your Lover Has Gone.” None of the other RCA releases or the three Verve albums have been reissued on CD. Of course the Sesac release and the Kraft album, Jelly ‘N Jam and Jazz are still only vinyl releases and the early tracks of Bob Scobey as Alexander’s Jazz Band have only been compiled on LP.
So, where does this blahg go from here? I was thinking about that and thought I would concentrate on the rarities. The CD issues are excellent albums and worth tracking down or many can be found on YouTube. I’m going to put up some tracks from the rare to find albums and some comments of my own. Before I do that, I want to offer up a couple of scans from the 2000 issue of Jan Scobey’s Hot Jazz that I previewed earlier in this blahg. These two pages reference Jan Scobey’s great book but give some historical context and insight into the legend of Bob Scobey. Make sure you click on both images for larger readable scans.
Here’s a collage of the handmade CDs that I’m going to use for some samples
Some of the earliest recordings on which Bob Scobey performed were with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. Here’s the very minor Wikipedia entry on the Yerba Buena Jazz Band:
Lu Watters & the Yerba Buena Jazz Band is the name of the Traditional Jazz revival band founded by Lu Watters. Notable members include singer and banjoist Clancy Hayes (from 1938 to 1940); clarinetist Bob Helm; trumpeter Bob Scobey; trombonist Turk Murphy; tubist/bassist Dick Lammi; and Watters himself.
I wanted to include some of the tracks from the homemade CDs but the volume on the Yerba Buena tracks is very low. Instead, I’ll post here a couple of YouTube videos of early Yerba Buena Jazz Band. First up is “High Society” that the group recorded on March 29, 1942. The ensemble consisted of Lu Watters – Coronet, Bob Scobey – Trumpet, Turk Murphy – Trombone, Ellis Horne – Clarinet, Wally Rose – Piano, Clancy Hayes and Russ Bennett on Banjos, Squire Girsback – Tuba, Bill Dart – Drums.
Here’s another Yerba Buena track with Bill Dart on drums, Bob Helm on Clarinet, Lu Watters and Bob Scobey on trumpets, Dick Lammi on Bass Guitar, Harry Mordecai on Banjo, Turk Murphy on Trombone and Wally Rose on Piano. This time it’s “Pastime Rag No. 5”:
For a while Bob Scobey appeared as a member of Turk Murphy’s Bay City Stompers with Turk Murphy on trombone, Bob Scobey on trumpet, Bob Helm on clarinet, Burt Bales on piano, and Harry Mordecai on banjo. In December 1947 the band recorded four songs that were issued on a pair of 78s on the Jazz Man label. Eventually Good Time Jazz put the four songs out on an EP (at left). The songs were “Shake That Thing”, “Brother Lowdown”, “Yellow Dog Blues”, and “Kansas City Man Blues”. From the December 1947 session, here are “Shake That Thing” and “Kansas City Man Blues”:
“Shake That Thing”:
“Kansas City Man Blues”:
Bob Scobey would play again with Turk Murphy’s Jazz Band in 1950 and all sides were issued on the Good Time Jazz label as Turk Murphy’s San Francisco Jazz. The entire album has also been released on CD. In addition to Turk Murphy, Bob Scobey, and Burt Bales, they were joined by Bill Napier on clarinet, Bill Newman on Banjo, Stan Ward on Drums and Squire Girsh on bass. Here’s a YouTube sample of the 1950 band on “Irish Black Bottom”:
I don’t really want to concentrate on the years Bob Scobey spent with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band or as a member of Turk Murphy’s Band because my fondness for his music comes from his fronting his own band. In 1948 Bob Scobey had a band called “Alexander’s Jazz Band” and he recorded a number of sides in 1947/1948 for the Trilon and Rag Time Records label. These have been compiled on a couple of LPs with the main one being the one below:
The line-up for the band consisted mainly of Bill Dart on drums, Bob Helm on Clarinet, Bob Scobey on trumpet, Squire Girsback on Bass, Harry Mordecai on Banjo, and Wally Rose on Piano. Here a couple of samples of the early Bob Scobey sound on “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Doin’ The Grizzly Bear”:
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band” with vocal by Bob Scobey:
“Doin’ the Grizzly Bear”:
Now here are a couple of live tracks of “Alexanders’ Ragtime Band” when they appeared at the Oakland Public Library in 1947. These are from the handmade CDs and the sound quality is not perfect. The band consisted of Bob Scobey on trumpet, Jack Buck on trombone, Jack Crook on clarinet, Burt Bales on piano, and Pat Patton on bass and banjo. Here are “Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me” and “Tin Roof Blues”:
“Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me”
“Tin Roof Blues”
I really think that Bob Scobey started to have a great sound in the 1950s when he was recording for Good Time Jazz. Those are all officially licensed recordings and I want to steer clear of violating any copyrights so I’m going to post a few live tracks here from around that time as well as some alternate takes from released material that is not available on CD. Here’s one of the unissued tracks from a 1950 Good Time Jazz session. The band now consists of Bob Scobey on trumpet, Jack Buck on trombone, George Probert on clarinet, Wally Rose on piano, Dick Lammi on bass, Clancy Hayes on banjo, and Fred Higuera on drums. Here’s “Long Gone” with Clancy Hayes on vocal:
“Long Gone”:
Here’s a sample of the live ensemble in 1951 at Jenny Lind Hall in Oakland California. Bob Scobey, Jack Buck, Clancy Hayes, and Fred Higuera are still in the band but Darnell Howard is on clarinet, Burt Bales is on piano, and Squire Girsback is on the bass. Here’s “Panama” and “Clarinet Marmalade”:
“Panama”:
“Clarinet Marmalade”:
The sound quality on some of these old live recordings vary so I’m going to move onto some recorded material that is very rare and in much better shape. A real treat is up next. In October of 1953 Bob Scobey was fronting a band that appeared at the 1953 Dixieland Jubilee in Los Angeles. Bob Scobey was joined on stage by the late great Sidney Bechet. Four songs from that appearance have been issued on three different EPs from the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden.
I own the one on the top left. After I purchased it, I contacted Jan Scobey because it had not been included in her discography. I mailed her a scan of the cover. She later wrote back and said she had been aware of the session but had never seen the EP. The songs were “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”, “Muskrat Ramble”, “Saint Louis Blues”, and “Summer Time.” I could not find a lot of details on the members of Scobey’s band at the time other than Bob Scobey, Clancy Hayes was on banjo, Jack Buck on trombone, Bob Hotaling on drums, Burt Bales on piano, and Ellis Horne on clarinet. We are lucky that someone has created videos of the four songs from the Dixileand Jubilee using photos from that date.
“On The Sunny Side Of The Street”
“Muskrat Ramble”:
“Saint Louis Blues”:
“Summer Time”:
I hadn’t listened to the Scobey/Bechet tracks in a while but last night when I heard “Summertime” again, I said out loud “It Doesn’t Get Better Than That!”
In 1957 Bob Scobey started recording for Verve. The three albums he produced for Verve were “Bob Scobey’s Band”, “The San Francisco Jazz of Bob Scobey”, and “Bourbon Street.” The ensemble changed a bit from album to album.
—“Bourbon Street” was Bob Scobey, Ralph Sutton on piano, Clancy Hayes on guitar and banjo, Bob Short on bass and tuba, and Fred Higuerea on drums. Jack Buck on trombone on some tracks and Bill Napier on clarinet. Vocals by Lizzie Miles
—“The San Francisco Jazz of Bob Scobey” was Bob Scobey, Clancy Hayes, Jesse “Tiny” Crump on piano, Bill Napier on clarinet, Jack Buck on trombone, Fred Higuera on drums, and Hal McCormick on bass
—“Bob Scobey’s Band” was Jack Buck, Will Sudmeirer & Jack Sudmeier on trombones, Frank Snow & Bob Scobey on trumpets, Bill Napier & Leon Ratsliff on clarinet, Jess “Tiny Crump on piano, Fred Higuera on drums, and Hal McCormick on bass, Bob Short on tuba, and Clancy Hayes on banjo, guitar, and vocals.
None of these records, to my knowledge have had CD releases. From “Bourbon Street” here are “On Revival Day” and “Deep Henderson” (not named after me):
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“On Revival Day”:
“Deep Henderson”:
From “The San Francisco Jazz of Bob Scobey” here are “Copenhagen” and “Getting My Boots” with a great Clancy Hayes vocal.
“Copenhagen”:
“Getting My Boots”:
The last of the Verve albums to present here is “Bob Scobey’s Band.” I’m not sure of the order in which the three Verve albums were released but I think the sound of the band is phenomenal on the Verve albums and really needs to rediscovered with CD pressings. From the album “Bob Scobey’s Band” here are “Dardanella” and a fantastic version of “Stardust” featuring Bob Scobey’s horn. I’m also going to throw in “Stars Fell On Alabama” because of Clancy Hayes’ vocal.
“Dardanella”:
“Stardust”:
“Stars Fell On Alabama”:
In 1955 Bob Scobey backed the vocalist Claire Austin on her album “When Your Lover Has Gone. The band included modern jazzmen Barney Kessel on guitar and Shelly Manne on drums, as well as studio/Dixieland musicians Stan Wrightsman on piano and Morty Corb on bass. It’s hard to listen for Bob Scobey on this album because Claire Austin’s vocals are so lush and draw your attention. Bob does have a nice solo though on “I’ll Never Be The Same” and the title track “When Your Lover Has Gone”. Both are very haunting.
Moving on to the RCA albums, which I mentioned have never had CD releases except “Bing With A Beat”, it’s a shame that there have been no CD releases of the other five albums. The remaining RCA releases are “Beauty And The Beat”(1957), “Between 18th And 19th On Any Street” (1957), “College Classics” (1958), “Something’s Always Happening On The River” (1959), and “Rompin’ And Stompin'” (1960). I really like these albums and Bob Scobey and Clancy Hayes are sensational together. I’ll present some songs from all five albums but I encourage anyone to track down the original vinyl releases.
First up is “Beauty And The Beat.” The band on this album is Bob Scobey and Mannie Klein on trumpets, Clancy Hayes on banjo and vocals, Abe Lincoln, Warren Smith, Elmer Schneider, Jack Buck on trombones, Matty Matlock, Bill Napier, and Wayne Songer on clarinet, Ralph Sutton on piano, Phil Stephens on bass, Bob Short on tuba, and Freddie Higuera on drums. Here are “Miss Annabelle Lee” and “Lulu’s Back in Town”:
“Miss Annabelle Lee”:
“Lulu’s Back in Town”:
“Swingin’ On The Golden Gate” was the second album released by Bob Scobey on RCA in 1957 . The band here is Bob Scobey and Dick Cathcart on trumpets, Matty Matlock on clarinet, Abe Lincoln, Warren Smith, and Jack Buck on trombones, Ralph Sutton on piano, Red Callender on bass, Bob Short on tuba, Sammy Goldstein on drums, and Clancy Hayes on gutiar, banjo and vocals. Again, another great RCA album and here are “New Orleans” with that great Scobey trumpet and “Let’s Dance The Ragtime, Darlin'” with Clancy’s great vocal:
“New Orleans”:
“Let’s Dance The Ragtime, Darlin’ “:
Next is an album that has a bit of a mystery to it. The album is “Between 18th And 19th On Any Street” released in 1958. The first time I came across this album was an EP (4 song 45rpm) that I picked up in the late 90s or early 2000s at a record store in Toronto. Here’s what the cover to that EP looks like:
Note the 4 tracks listed on the front cover. When I finally tracked down a copy of the full album, the song “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” was not on the album. I eventually bought another copy and the song was missing from that copy as well. I wrote to Jan Scobey about it because in her book, the discography mentions the full album but does not list “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It.” She replied to me saying that she was unaware that this extra song existed and all copies of the album that she had seen did not list the song. I eventually discovered that there were Stereo and Mono issues of the album and “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” is missing on all Stereo issues. I guess my EP was a mono release because the song is there but my two LP copies are both Stereo issues. So, the song “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” is a bit of a rarity so I’ll present it here along with “Bob’s Blues”. The band on this album is Bob Scobey on trumpet, Jack Buck and Doug Skinner on trombones, Pete Dovidio on clarinet, Clyde Pound on piano, Tom Beeson on bass, Dave Black on drums, and Clancy Hayes with banjo and vocals.
“My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It”:
“Bob’s Blues”:
The next 1958 release for Bob Scobey was “College Classics.” The album is reminiscent of 1920s college tunes at a tavern or sung by a college vocal group. The band consisted of the same musicians that appeared on “Between 18th And 19th On Any Street,” Bob Scobey on trumpet, Jack Buck and Doug Skinner on trombones, Pete Dovidio on clarinet, Clyde Pound on piano, Tom Beeson on bass, Dave Black on drums, and Clancy Hayes with banjo and vocals. Here are “I’ve Been Floating Down The Old Green River” and “Shine On Harvest Moon” with nice vocals by Clancy Hayes:
“I’ve Been Floating Down The Old Green River”:
“Shine On Harvest Moon”
The last 1958 album for Bob Scobey on RCA was “Something’s Always Happening On The River.” Bob Scobey is back of course on trumpet as well as Clancy Hayes on banjo and vocals. This time they’re joined by Rich Matteson on tuba and bass trumpet, George Duvivier on bass, Jim Beebe on trombone, Gene Schroeder on piano, Brian Shanely on clarinet, Dave Black on drums, and Toni Lee Scott along with Bob Scobey on other vocals. I really like the title track “Something’s Always Happening On The River” so I’m going to offer up that as well as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” which features vocals by Clancy Hayes, Toni Lee Scott, and Bob Scobey.
“Something’s Always Happening On The River”:
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band”:
The last RCA album was released in 1960 and was Jan Scobey’s favorite of the RCA albums. The album is “Rompin’ And Stompin’ ” and here’s what Jan Scobey had to say about it in her book:
“It features a wide library of ‘Jelly Roll Morton’ tunes, all fine classics of Dixieland Jazz. There are tremendous intricacies in the solo playing; as well as an outstanding ensemble performance. RCA has discontinued issuing this album. Sometimes they are available through jazz societies or record collectors. Perhaps with enough requests RCA may find it lucrative to re-issue.”
Yeah, RCA, why don’t you reissue it or better yet put out a box set of CDs of all of Bob Scobey’s records? The final RCA band was Bob Scobey, Rich Matteson on tuba, Brian Shanely on clarinet, Jim Beebe on trombone, Art Hodes on piano, Dave Black on drums, and Clancy Hayes on banjo and vocals. Here are “Kansas City Stomp” and “Fidgety Feet”:
“Kansas City Stomp”:
“Fidgety Feet”:
Before I move on to some other rare material, it would be a shame not mention another 1958 release but on the California Records label. The album was “Scobey & Clancy Raid The Juke Box.” It was an attempt to have Bob Scobey record some more contemporary, for the time, songs. Not all of the songs worked for Scobey and Clancy but there are a couple that I really enjoy. Here are the track listings:
Bye Bye Love
Singing the Blues
Yellow Dog Blues
Tammy
Round and Round
All Shook Up
Love Letters in the Sand
Marianne
C. C. Rider
So Rare
Blueberry Hill
Don’t Forbid Me
The band has some familiar player other than Bob Scobey and Clancy Hayes. Pud Brown is on clarinet, Jack Buck and Doug Skinner on trombones, Stan Wrightsman on piano, Bob Short on string bass and tuba, and Dave Black on drums. My favorite instrumental on this album is “Tammy.” Many may be familiar with Debbie Reynolds’ version on record and from the film. This time it’s Bob Scobey’s horn and the rest of the band joining in on their version of “Tammy.” I’ll have to rely on a YouTube link because this album has been issued on CD.
As for Clancy Hayes’ vocals on this album, I don’t think the contemporary songs of that time suited him. There is of course one exception for me and that’s Clancy’s version of “Round and Round.” This was a hit for Perry Como but I think Clancy does an excellent job with the vocals and the band does well backing him.
Keeping with 1960, when Bob Scobey’s last RCA album “Rompin’ And Stompin’ ” was released, I’m going to move on to the two rare albums that were released that year and were not distributed to the public at large. The first of these albums contains recordings that Bob Scobey did for Sesac in 1960. The album is “Bob Scobey and His Frisco Jazz Band Featuring Clancy Hayes.” Here is what Jan Scobey had to say about the Sesac recordings in her book:
“At a new high-water mark in Bob’s career, Sesac recorded Scobey’s band. In the recording industry they provided piped-in music for shopping centers, office buildings, dental offices, and everywhere that continuous, canned ‘musak’ is needed
Scobey’s recordings for the Sesac Transcribed Library (about 12 were issued) are rare since these selections were never recorded on any other label available to the buying public. Fortunately, every so often, on a jet over Kansas, leaning back in a barber’s chair, or having your teeth drilled at the dentist’s, you will suddenly, out of the blue, hear the Happy Sounds of Scobey’s dixieland music–‘Memories of Bunk’ or ‘Sudan’!”
The band on the Sesac recordings consisted of Bob Scobey on trumpet, Doug Skinner & Ralph Hutchinson on trombones, Jack McConnell on clarinet, Floyd Bean on piano, Clancy Hayes banjo and vocal, Bob Short on tuba and bass, and Dave Black on drums. From the Sesac album here are the two songs that Jan Scobey mentioned, “Memories of Bunk” and “Sudan”:
“Memories of Bunk”:
“Sudan”:
After I had purchased the 12″ Sesac record I later discovered that Sesac had issued a couple of EPs:
The one above on the left is “Frisco Jazz in Hi-FI” and contains 4 songs from the full album, “Frisco Jazz Parade”, “Too Much Mustard”, “Bourbon Street”, and “Sudan”. The second EP, “Shades of Blue” only contains the song “Hobo Blues.” I bought them from an ex-disc-jockey. They had been sent to the radio station where he worked and were tossed out so he fished them out of the garbage. Imagine, throwing out Bob Scobey! There was even one more Sesac EP released, that I later purchased on Ebay, that contained the song “My Heart’s In Dixie” by Bob Scobey. The EP was “Did You Say Dixie.” The front and back covers are below, followed by the song “My Heart’s In Dixie”:
“My Heart’s In Dixie”:
Until recently, in fact as of the writing of this blahg, I thought the 12 songs on the 12 inch Sesac record were all there were from the Sesac sessions. I discovered today that Sesac also issued a transcription record that contained some of the recordings from the 12 inch record and four additional songs. Here are images of the transcription record:
The four additional songs are “Southern Comfort”, “Clarinet Capers”, “While You Were Far Away”, “Along The Wabash” and here they are:
“Southern Comfort”:
“Clarinet Capers”:
“While You Were Far Away”:
“Along The Wabash”:
Now, I’ll move on to one of the last extremely rare albums also recorded and released in 1960. This wasn’t a record you could hear in an elevator or at the Dentist. This was a promotional record for Kraft Foods. Jan Scobey included it in her discography but provided no other details other than listing the musicians and the songs. The album is “Jelly ‘N’ Jam And All That Jazz.’ On side one of the record, Kraft’s spokesmen Perry Como and Ed Herlihy talk about what’s in store for advertising and sales promotion for Kraft Jellies and Preserves for the coming year. The second side is all Bob Scobey with Dave Black on drums, Buddy Lee on banjo, Tommy Smoot on piano, Connie Milano on bass, Bill Hanck on trombone, and Bill Napier on clarinet. The songs are “When The Saints Go Marching In” “Under The Double Eagle”, “Maple Leaf Rag”, “Georgia Camp Meeting” and “Peshtigo Court Stomp.” Here’s a scan of the information on the back cover. Click on the image to read from a larger version.
It would be a shame not to offer up all five songs from this album so here they are:
“When The Saints Go Marching In”:
“Under The Double Eagle”:
“Maple Leaf Rag”:
“Georgia Camp Meeting”:
“Peshtigo Court Stomp”:
You may have noticed that by the time of the Kraft album, Clancy Hayes was no longer performing with Bob Scobey. This was a shame because the Bob Scobey and Clancy Hayes sound fit well together. To explain what happened, we have to back up a little in 1960 to before the Kraft LP. From Jan Scobey’s book she cites the following:
“Bob decided early in his career to handle his own bookings because of mishaps with agents, in the past. Bob sold his band to the Marlboro cigarette people for a television commercial. His band was featured and the commercial was televised all over the world.”
At the time of the Marlboro cigarette commercial both Clancy Hayes and Toni Lee Scott were still performing with Bob Scobey. I am not sure if Toni Lee Scott is still alive, I think she is, but she has a YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4ESSEnQhcpZF8BrP0mrbBg where she hosts some videos of her performing and in 2017 she posted the Marlboro advertisement with herself, Clancy Hayes, and Bob Scobey and his band:
So why did Toni Lee Scott and Clancy Hayes part company with Bob Scobey? According to Jan Scobey’s book, Bob Scobey received more money for doing the commercial than the other performers. Jan argued that there was nothing shady about the deal but because it was Bob’s band and he did all of the organization and booking and performed then he was entitled to a larger share. Other members of the band disagreed and would eventually leave the band. Unfortunately, that was the end of the band that once featured Clancy Hayes and Toni Lee Scott.
While I’m on the subject of Bob Scobey on film or video, there exists other footage of Bob Scobey and his Band. Bob Scobey appeared on the “Playboy Penthouse” program in 1959/1960 and there are a couple of wonderful photos of Bob, Clancy, and the band appearing on the program:
Apparently Bob Scobey and his Frisco Jazz Band played “The Colonel Bogey March” and “The Black Bottom Stomp” and Clancy Hayes joined them and sang “Travellin’ Shoes” and “Ace in the Hole.” Unfortunately the video is not available to view.
There exists other footage of Bob Scobey and his 1961 band that is available to view. Bob and the band can be viewed performing at a party scene in the film “Living Venus”. The description of the film is that “Man and his partner, a photographer, start up a men’s magazine called “Pagan.” The magazine becomes a success, he leaves his fiancee, marries his star model, and complications ensue.” The first song that the band performs is appropriately titled “Pagan Party”:
The second video from the film is the title song “Living Venus”:
I’m not sure of the other musicians who performed with Bob Scobey in “Living Venus.” It might have been the same crew that appeared on the Kraft album. It may be the same band members that appeared on his last album he ever recorded.
In 1960 there would be one more album from Bob Scobey and his band. The album was “Scobey And His Frisco Band!” The album was recorded in 1960 and was issued on the Ragtime Label. Jan Scobey purchased it outright from Bob Scobey’s estate and the label changed to Jansco Records. The full album has not had a CD release but all the tracks were bonuses split over the two CDs of “The Great Bob Scobey and His Frisco Band, Volume 1 and Volume 2. Jan Scobey rated this as her favorite album. “This album is an instrumental. The sounds cover a wide range of feeling; from Misty, a mood tune, to the rip-roaring excitement of Bourbon St. Parade! I believe it successfully captures the entire range of Bob Scobey’s musical skills and types of playing.” Turning back to YouTube, here are the two songs that Jan mentions, “Misty” and “Bourbon St. Parade.” This was the last recorded album of Bob Scobey, although I don’t know if it follows or precedes the Kraft album, and the band features Bob Scobey on trumpet, Richard Nelson on trombone, Bill Napier on clarinet, Tommy Smoot on piano, Buddy Lee on banjo, Dickie Phillips on electric bass, and Dave Black on drums.
“Misty”:
“Bourbon St. Parade”:
Unfortunately, all great things come to an end. Bob Scobey would survive the breakup of his band after the Marlboro commercial arguments and would go on to form a new band. We have seen videos of that new band in “Living Venus” and heard them on the Kraft album and the last recorded album “Scobey and His Frisco band!” What Bob Scobey could not survive was cancer. He was in Montreal to try a new experimental drug when his heart gave out in the wee small hours of June 12, 1963. From 1961 to 1963 he continued to perform and even toured Europe in 1962. I have another postcard in my collection which I keep inside my copy of Jan Scobey’s book. Before I display it, I want to explain that Bob Scobey opened a club in Chicago in 1961 called “Bourbon Street”. It was to be a base of operation when he was not out on the road. Other bands would perform there when Bob Scobey was touring. In fact, when he toured Europe in 1962, Kenny Ball and his band subbed for Scobey. When Bob Scobey returned from his European tour he sent out postcards to fans about his return to Bourbon Street. My postcard is one of those he sent out to a fan in Canada:
I believe that is Bob Scobey’s signature on this July 19th, 1962 postcard. It is sad to think that he would be dead less than a year later.
I don’t want to end this blahg on doom and gloom. For me, it’s all about the music. The Bob Scobey sound with Clancy Hayes is so special and even the later bands without Clancy had an awesome sound. For me, it started with that “B” side of that Bing Crosby album that would lead me to a pursuit of Bob Scobey. The first song I offered up in this blahg was the version of “Mack The Knife” that Bob Scobey did with Bing Crosby. I’m going to end this blahg with a different version of “Mack The Knife” with Clancy Hayes on vocal. Jan Scobey, on her Jansco label would also issue two volume LPs called “The Great Bob Scobey.” These were recorded in 1956 at The Jenny Lind Hall in Oakland, California. This was the earlier band of Bob Scobey and Clancy Hayes with Bill Napier on clarinet, Jack Buck on trombone, Jesse “Tiny” Crump and Ralph Sutton on piano, Bob Short on tuba, Hal McCormack on bass, Freddie Higuera on drums, and other vocals by Lizzie Miles. From Volume 2 here is “Mack The Knife”:
By the way, the correct answer to “What On Earth Is Scobeyfan” should always be “I AM!”
It’s been three weeks since that little poke in the arm laid me out flat. You can read more about all of that in my previous blahg ASTRAZENECA VACCINE — MY CAUTIONARY TALE. I don’t want to revisit that but now that they’ve halted AstraZeneca, I’m not sure what will be my second dose. Hopefully, whatever it is, it won’t make me ill. I’m moving on.
Recently, I was contacted by a fellow Canadian, currently in England, who had read my AstraZeneca blahg as well as a previous blahg that I wrote in October of 2011 about Frank Sinatra at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in September of 1984. That previous blahg was SINATRA ALMOST GOT ME KILLED and you’ll really have to read that blahg in order to understand the title. The blahg was more about my experience with the concert and not Sinatra’s or Toronto’s experience. My Canadian colleague was doing some research on that concert and had emailed me about some articles from that time period. In responding, I realized there was really more of a back-story to the 1984 concert that had to be taken into consideration. So, I’ve decided that this blahg will be the chance to provide more insight into the 1984 concert and why Sinatra was behind the eight-ball before he even appeared on stage.
In the email, explaining about the back-story, I had only backed up to 1983 and explained some of the events leading up to the 1984 concert. To be fair, I need to back up as far as 1949 so I can provide true context. A quick note about 1940 and 1941 would provide even more insight. This is all about Sinatra in Toronto and his first appearance with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra was at the CNE in September of 1940. The band would play from September 4th-7th, 1940. Sinatra would not receive credit in any of the news clippings during his appearance at the CNE. Here’s one of the ads that ran in the Toronto Star on September 5, 1940. You can click on the advertisement to view a larger image.
A rare 15 minute radio transcription of Sinatra and Dorsey’s performance from September 5th, 1940, the same day as the above advertisement, has recently surfaced. Give it a listen:
The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Sinatra would return to the CNE again in August of 1941. That year, it was only for two days on August 22nd and 23rd, 1941. Again, Sinatra’s name would not appear in local media advertisements. The following ad appeared in the Globe and Mail, Toronto, August 21st, 1941.
By September of 1942, September 3rd, 1942 being his last day, Sinatra had left Dorsey and the band did not play the CNE in Toronto that year. Dorsey and Sinatra would only make one Canadian stop in 1942 and that was on May 6th at the Forum in Montreal.
Are you still wondering about 1949? Wait no longer. The explanation is that Sinatra’s first appearance as solo vocalist in Toronto was at the Mutual Arena on August 7th and 8th, 1949. It had been eight years since his last visit to Toronto at the CNE in August of 1941. Finally, Sinatra would make a two evening performance in the city.
Reviews for Sinatra at the Mutual Arena were good.
One article even mentioned Sinatra’s previous Toronto appearance with Dorsey in 1941:
Sinatra even got his picture in the Globe and Mail newspaper on July 8th, 1949 noting how he flew in to a local airport and was met by fans and still how it had been eight years since he was last in Toronto.
And you’re probably still asking, “what’s the significance about 1949?” Well, I’ll tell you. After the 1949 concert, Sinatra would not return to Toronto until 1975. Yes, 26 years would pass before Sinatra would perform again in Toronto. During those 26 years Sinatra had appeared from February 6th to 15th, 1953 at the Chez Paree in Montreal and gave two concerts at the Vancouver Forum in Vancouver on June 8th, 1957. The 1957 Vancouver concert would be issued on CD on the Acrobat label in 2010, mistaking the venue as the Orpheum, and is a splendid example of the 1950s swinging Sinatra. Toronto missed out on the swinging 1950s Sinatra and the 1960s Summit Sinatra with pals Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. When Sinatra retired in 1971, it probably left Sinatra fans thinking they would never see the great singer perform in their city again. It would be a new generation or maybe the old generation waiting for him to come back.
Jump to 1975 and on January 28th, the Toronto Star runs a two part article announcing Sinatra’s return to Toronto on May 10th. The first part would mention Sinatra’s 25 year absence from Toronto. The second part of the article would talk about the absence and some animosity towards Sinatra.
The Toronto Star ran a full-page spread on Sinatra on May 5th, 1975 and provided some details about the previous 1949 appearance in Toronto. You could tell by the article that some excitement was building regarding his appearance and that it was in part due to his long absence from the city.
The stage was set for an exciting evening.
So what went wrong? It started with an editorial by Gary Lautens in the Toronto Star on February 25th, 1975; less than a month after it had been announced that Sinatra would appear at Maple Leaf Gardens in May.
Mr. Lautens wanted to dig up the whole issue Sinatra had had with the press in the past.
Then there was the issue with tickets. Before tickets went on sale, most of the top seats were already gone:
But that issue was quickly solved by Sinatra agreeing to add another show on May 10th.
Of course there was that “50-cent service charge” added to tickets that made some people angry. It was the issues of service charges and ticket scarcity that made some angry but the press wasn’t finished with Mr. Sinatra.
On the day of the concert, May 10, 1975, an incident of violence was reported in The Toronto Star:
This was the type of press Sinatra didn’t need. Gary Lautens had already taken on Sinatra about violence towards reporters and now it was being alleged that Sinatra’s bodyguards were attacking media persons. So what was Sinatra to do? Well, he gave his concert that people paid to see and hear but he also took the opportunity to call out the media and suggest that the punching incident never happened.
The Canadian Press wire service even picked up the thread and published a picture and article of Sinatra holding a copy of the Toronto Star before ripping it up to cheers from the audience.
Of course, the media took shots at Sinatra as well in their reviews of the two concerts. The Globe and Mail said Sinatra was a “vocal has-been” but acknowledged that he still held sway with his fans:
Two days later, on May 12th, 1975 the Globe and Mail acknowledged even more so that Sinatra was no “has-been” to his fans:
On May 12th, the Toronto Star also finally got around to covering Sinatra’s appearance by publishing a full page with three articles and photos. The articles covered everything from the fan adoration, the press thinking Sinatra’s performance was lacking, and that punch or no punch incident.
Frank Sinatra would return to Toronto later in 1975 to perform at the CNE on August 21st. Just a few months after the May concert and none of the articles make reference to any of the issues that occurred while Sinatra had appeared at Maple Leaf Gardens.
There was no mention of the earlier 1975 concerts or the problems associated with Sinatra’s appearance at Maple Leaf Gardens. This was the first time that Sinatra had appeared at the CNE since his 1941 performances with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Even the reviews of Sinatra at the CNE in 1975 were better. The Toronto Star said this was the concert he should have performed at the Gardens earlier that year.
The Globe and Mail also praised Sinatra at the CNE:
Definitely, the CNE was a better venue for Sinatra in 1975.
Sinatra came back again to Maple Leaf Gardens on May 1st of 1976 with very little fanfare.
Reviews were mixed again for his 1976 engagement at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Notice that The Star felt Sinatra had given a better performance at the CNE the previous year. The CNE Grandstand was an open-air venue where the Gardens had been closed in. Was that the secret of his success? The Globe and Mail gave a similar review:
So now we get to what went wrong with the 1984 CNE concert. Sinatra had performed well and the reviews were good for his August 1975 concert at the CNE compared to the ones he performed at Maple Leaf Gardens. But 1984 is a considerable time after 1975 and 1976. Again, people were starting to wonder if Sinatra was ever coming back to Toronto. The rumour of his return started again in 1983 and concluded with a scheduled date in 1983. On June 3rd, 1983, Peter Goddard with the Toronto Star reported on rumours of Sinatra appearing at the CNE in 1983 although Sinatra’s office denied any plans of Sinatra returning to the CNE that year:
By June 30th, 1983, both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail reported that Sinatra was indeed appearing at the CNE in 1983 and the date had been set for August 27th:
On August 5th, however, it was announced that Sinatra had to cancel, or postpone, his performance at the CNE that year.
To be fair, Sinatra did not have another gig on August 27th of 1983. Sinatra’s last summer performance was at the Universal Amphitheatre on June 19, 1983 and he would not perform again until September 20th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. There was one exception and that was August 5th at the Sporting Club in Monte-Carlo, Monaco which was a benefit for the Red Cross and he performed with his pal, Sammy Davis Jr.
I have yet to find any other reason for Sinatra’s cancellation of the 1983 CNE appearance but his cancellation started to raise a furor in Toronto.
The first suggestion of any backlash over the cancellation of the 1983 concert started with an article in the Toronto Star on August 11th, 1983.
Bob Yuill the North York Controller was the one spouting off. Remember the name Bob Yuill because his voice will be heard again in 1984 when Sinatra returned again to the CNE. It should be noted that not everyone associated with the CNE was as angry as Bob Yuill. David Garrick, with the CNE Entertainment Committee, and the person who was responsible for booking Sinatra at the CNE in 1975, wrote a letter to the Toronto Star disagreeing with Bob Yuill’s position.
Garrick’s rebuttal of Yuill seemed to quiet things down because there was no further mention of Sinatra or even a Sinatra ban during the rest of 1983.
In April of 1984 the first rumour started that the CNE was looking to have Sinatra back in 1984. On April 11th, 1984 Sinatra’s name appeared briefly in a Toronto Star article reporting on possible acts for the 1984 CNE:
On July 18, 1984, the Toronto Star announced Sinatra’s appearance at the CNE that year to be official. The date was set for a September 2nd concert by Sinatra but the Toronto Star still had to drag out some of the press issues Sinatra had prior to the 1975 concert at Maple Leaf Gardens:
Ticket prices were much higher for Sinatra in 1984 with the top seats going for $75 compared to the top price of $25 when he last appeared in Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1976. Notice as well that Bob Yuill’s name popped again with Yuill doubting that Sinatra would follow through with his September concert. He was even waging money that Sinatra would not appear. The Toronto Star followed up with another article on July 19th dedicated to Yuill’s skepticism toward Sinatra’s concert at the CNE:
The wagering of money offered by Yuill was taken up by someone two days later as noted in an article in the Toronto Star on July 20th, 1984
This time, Frank Sinatra’s defender was Bill Ballard who was head of the Concert Productions International who had booked Sinatra into the CNE for 1984. Bill Ballard was also the son of Harold Ballard who was instrumental in booking Sinatra into Maple Leaf Gardens in 1975. Even fans came to Sinatra’s defence and asked that things be left to the past. The following letter to the Editor of the Toronto Star appeared on July 27th, 1984:
Tickets finally went on sale on on July 30th, 1984:
In my previous blahg about the 1984 concert, SINATRA ALMOST GOT ME KILLED, I detailed my ordeal to secure tickets to this concert. It’s a fun read and since I’ve mentioned that blahg and linked to it twice in this blahg, then you really should check it out. Despite my own issue with trying to obtain a ticket to the concert, the issues that plagued fans at previous concerts didn’t seem to occur in 1984. One fan was happy he only had to wait 4.5 hours to get his ticket. This article comes from the August 3rd, 1984 edition of the Toronto Star:
The remaining articles leading up to Sinatra’s appearance were relegated to advertisements and nothing critical from Bob Yuill nor anything more about his possible wager with Bill Ballard.
I don’t think I’ll detail much more than I’ve said about the actual concert. If you haven’t checked out my previous blahg, SINATRA ALMOST GOT ME KILLED, now plugging it for a third time, then I’ll re-post what I said then about the concert:
The concert was great despite what you can read in the reviews. Here was Sinatra, in the pouring rain, no protection, with lightning flashing all around, and him just singing as if this was all commonplace to him. I kept thinking “my god, he’s standing in a puddle, it’s pissing down rain, and he’s holding a metal stand, he’s going to get electrocuted.” If there’s anything to the old adage that the show must go on, Sinatra lived by it. It was as if nothing phased him. He sang some of the songs from his new album, “L.A. Is My Lady” and thrilled the audience with some great standards. I think the greatest thrills were when he sang songs that mentioned the rain. When he sang “Come Rain or Come Shine” and “Pennies From Heaven” with the opening line, ‘Every time it rains, it rains, pennies from heaven’, more cheers went up from the crowd than when he belted out “New York, New York.” The only thing that would have made it perfect was if he had performed “September in the Rain” or “Stormy Weather.”
The whole concert only lasted 46 minutes. Sinatra left the stage and within a minute, you could see his limo, followed by a police car, driving off to drier parts unknown. Many people were upset about the shortness of the concert but not me. I had almost died and I had gotten soaked by rain but those were the only downsides. In the plus column, I had lived, I had made it to the concert, I had sat beside a beautiful girl, and I had seen and heard Sinatra live in concert. I had no complaints.
I still don’t think I could have summed it up better than that. I mentioned that opening line of “Pennies From Heaven” and this is what it sounded like almost 37 years ago. This is actually Sinatra singing “Pennies From Heaven” at the CNE on September 2nd, 1984:
If you thought the storm on the night of the concert was bad enough, the storm of bad press that followed the concert took everything to the next level. The review from the Toronto Star on September 3rd, 1984 tried to be kind but hinted at the anger towards Sinatra:
The Toronto Star also devoted their front page of the September 3rd edition to the problems associated with the shortened concert and how fans felt:
The Globe & Mail’s coverage was very much like the Toronto Star’s leaning on the disappointment of the fans:
Notice that in the Globe & Mail article from September 3rd, that the North York Controller is mentioned but this time it’s Esther Shiner. Was there more than one North York Controller? The Globe & Mail at least published a defence of Sinatra by the CNE in the September 4th edition:
Risking his life in a thunderstorm by holding a microphone? Didn’t I say that? Of course the Globe & Mail had to add their two cents worth about that issue in the September 5th issue:
The United Press article from September 8th, 1984 was even less kind:
The Toronto Star, meanwhile, published an article on September 4th that highlighted the blame game of who was not taking responsibility for the problems with the concert, putting some of the blame on Sinatra, and even invoked Bob Yuill’s name again:
And what of Bob Yuill? He obviously lost his bet that Sinatra would not appear. In the same September 4th edition of the Toronto Star, Bob Yuill is heard from again and this time he’s proposing another ban on Sinatra:
Of course Bob Yuill did not get his ban. Personally, I can understand the anger of some fans but Bob Yuill had complimentary tickets so what did he have to complain about? Me? I was one fan who was happy. But what did other fans think of the concert? Here are some the letters to the Editor of the Toronto Star:
For the record, I think Roger Wyatt is mostly correct. In 1975 Sinatra was heralded for his appearance at the CNE but it didn’t rain then. If Sinatra had appeared indoors, maybe not Maple Leaf Gardens, then the story would have been quite different. Other fans continued to support Sinatra:
The question about whether Sinatra would be invited back or if Bob Yuill would have his way was finally answered in a Globe & Mail article on November 22, 1984:
There was one more article that dealt with some disgruntled fans who had organized a rally to try and get refunds. The following article from the Globe & Mail on September 24th sums up how that fizzled out:
So what have we learned from all of this? Toronto had a love/hate relationship with Sinatra. Certainly the press never made it easy for him. His long absence from Toronto between 1949 and 1975 was one strike against him. The attacks from the media because of Sinatra’s own love/hate relationship with the press was another strike. You’d think issues with ticket sales and venues would have been the third or more strikes against him. But this is Sinatra. He might have received three strikes but he never struck out. Would you have called out on Sinatra? The die-hard fans never did and to most he put on great shows. And he kept coming back.
Sinatra would return to Toronto again in 1989 with Liza Minnelli at the then Sky Dome and again in 1991 with Steve and Eydie at Maple Leaf Gardens. I’ve detailed about those in another blahg SINATRA:TORONTO, ROUND 2 or “DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?” so you can check that out and read also about his last Canadian concert in Hamilton in 1993. I’m lucky to have seen Sinatra three times in Toronto in 1984, 1989, and 1991. I also attended that Hamilton concert in 1993 and have copies of fan recorded versions of those concerts so I can relive the memories.
I started out once to detail information about all of Sinatra’s appearances in Canada and even finished part one. The first part provides information, clippings, and reviews starting with his very first appearance as part of “The Hoboken Four” with the Major Bowes touring group at the Capitol Theatre, Victoria, B.C., November 6th and 7th, 1935 and concluding with the famous June 8th, 1957 concert at the Vancouver Coliseum. The file also includes artwork for posters for concerts that were cancelled as well as extensive information on Sinatra’s USO tour with Phil Silvers when they spent ten days touring military bases throughout Newfoundland in May and June of 1945. I’m going to post the link here for the PDF of part one but in doing so, I noticed that I must have included some material for what would have been part two. The current file actually starts with the Victoria 1935 appearances and ends with his appearance at The Forum, Montreal, Quebec, May 9th, 1975. The link to read or download is http://falseducks.com/theblahg/images/SinatraInCanada(2021).pdf. Maybe I’ll get motivated and eventually finish part two which includes not only the Montreal Forum concert in 1975 and all of the Toronto concerts I’ve mentioned in this blahg but also other concerts in Montreal as well as Vancouver, Calgary, Hamilton, and a cancelled concert in Edmonton from 1991.
I hope you enjoyed the story behind the 1984 ill-fated CNE concert. Me, I think it was fine. I paid for my ticket and had nothing to complain about. I think Sinatra showed great class in going on that night. I wonder if Bob Yuill would have been happier if Sinatra had cancelled or if Mr Yuill would have been outraged by the cancellation. I don’t think Sinatra could have won either way. The real fans support his memory and I’ve said it before, “It’s Sinatra’s World, We Just Live In It.”
Here it is mid-may and I have a tale for you. I haven’t spoken much about Covid 19 and the vaccines but I finally have something to say. First let me say that I am pro-vaccine and I certainly encourage everyone to get whatever vaccine they can get. I’m not anti-mask or anti-vaccine and I believe we should all follow all of the safety precautions and do our social distancing and not gather when it’s not safe to do so. This isn’t rocket science folks. Do the right thing! Moving on.
I have been trying to get a vaccine for more than a month now. I live in a rural area but I’m very close to a populated city, Belleville, Ontario and I even work in Belleville. I’m 58 and I’ve been on numerous wait-lists and have signed up through our Health Unit and on a local pharmacy’s website. I was casting my lines but getting no nibbles. On April 27th, I happened to stop into one of the Shopper’s Drug Mart on my way to work to purchase stamps when I thought to stop by the pharmacy section to ask about the vaccine. It was just before 10am and they hadn’t started giving out their daily doses so they asked me if I wanted one then and there. Of course I jumped at it and even convinced them to schedule my wife for later that date. I was just in the right place at the right time.
I was informed that it was the AstraZeneca vaccine but I didn’t care. I know there’s been some people who have died of rare blood clots but the smart people were saying that was extremely rare and to get the first vaccine that is offered. We have to get that herd immunity. Like I said, I didn’t care. I was given the information about the vaccine and agreed to it and got the jab in my left arm. I even texted my wife and children and my employer stating that I was no longer a vaccine virgin. I was happy that I did it.
Jump to later in the day and my left arm is very sorry and I have a slight headache. That evening the headache got worse and I started to feel unwell. I knew this was a possibility and I didn’t worry. I went to bed feeling ill and woke up in the middle of the night with the chills and shaking vigorously. My wife had to share her body heat to keep me warm and to stop the shivering. It wasn’t foreplay. Luckily she only had a slight headache from her vaccine. I eventually got back to sleep and then awoke later in the morning just soaked from sweat. I had to lie in my underwear on top of the blankets to try and cool down. I know, that’s an image you’ll never get out of your head.
I had received my vaccine on a Tuesday and I didn’t have to work the next day. Good thing, too, because I felt like I had been hit by a truck and not the nice kind with an ice-cream cache inside. I still had the headaches but I generally felt like I had the flu. That night, the buzzing in my ears started. The next day I felt a little better and by Friday I was running at about 90% of my old self but still with the ear buzzing and a slight headache. Friday afternoon, on my way home from work, my nose started running strenuously for about 30 minutes then stopped. Then the headache increased with dizziness, blurred vision, and chills and sweats again. The next day, Saturday, I was run over again by the same truck.
In the afternoon on Saturday I thought maybe I should get a Covid test because it was possible I had been infected before my vaccination and the current symptoms were from that. I managed to get into a drive-through Covid testing site and the results were back the next day and they were negative. I was still not feeling well on the Monday, May 2nd so I called the pharmacy that gave me the vaccine and they said to call my Doctor. I called my Doctor and told them I had been sick since getting the vaccine but I also had a Covid test but it was negative. The receptionist at my Doctor’s office said I wasn’t supposed to call her but to call “them.” I said, “who’s them?” She said, “the Covid testing center.” I explained again that I didn’t have Covid but everything had happened since getting the AstraZeneca vaccine. She took a moment to consult with my Doctor and said my Doctor would call me on Thursday afternoon, May 6th.
Meanwhile, I felt awful. I had the never-ending headache, buzzing in the ears, I had no energy and I was tired all the time. There was no fever and no cough. By the time my Doctor called me on Thursday, there had been no improvement. The pharmacy had recommended either Tylenol or Ibuprofen but neither did anything for me. My Doctor listened to me explain my symptoms over the phone and then basically said it was a side-effect of the vaccine and that I would have to tough it out. Five minutes later she called me back and asked for more details about when certain symptoms had started and intensity. She said she would call me back. Five minutes later, her receptionist called me and said the Doctor wanted to see me in her office right away.
I live 30 minutes away from my Doctor’s office so the drive was a little stressful. In fact, I was already dizzy and probably shouldn’t have driven myself. My wife was at work and I texted her but when the Doctor tells you to come to her office when she’s not seeing anyone in person then you don’t delay. By the time I got to her office, my heart was pounding and I was exhausted. I had to sit in an exam room for 10 minutes and I fell asleep.
When my Doctor finally came in she could see I wasn’t well but she asked me why I had come in. Duh, you told me to. She then asked why I had waited until today to report my symptoms. I explained that I had actually called her office on Monday and was told she would call me back Thursday. She was surprised by that and said they had some things to learn in her office…yeah, at my expense. I’ve had this Doctor for almost thirty years. She should know that I don’t usually come in unless I’m really ill. The Doctor then took my blood pressure, temperature, and then had me do some hand-eye coordination tests. She also had me try to walk a straight line with heel to toe but I kept stumbling because I was dizzy. She then told me to sit down because she was going to call the hospital because she wanted me to get to the Emergency department and get blood work and an MRI or Cat Scan if possible. If I wasn’t feeling ill before, that news sent me into a spin.
After five minutes, the Doctor came back and said the Hospital didn’t want to see me. She said they felt it was probably a reaction to the vaccine and that I would have to tough it out. Wasn’t that what she had said on Monday? Why all the tests and causing my anxiety to max out? Apparently the hospital was sure I hadn’t had a stroke and didn’t have a blood clot. This was after no blood work or xrays or even seeing me and they could diagnose me second-hand through my Doctor. I wasn’t impressed. I was drained and the ride home wasn’t much better than the drive in. I was exhausted when I got home and went and lay down for two hours. Sheesh!
The next day, Friday May 7th was no better and I was even worse on the Saturday and had to spend a lot of time in bed. Sunday was Mother’s Day and the sun shone and our son came to visit. I felt better but tired. Monday I had a dentist appointment and rallied enough to attend that. The dizziness and headache were still there. Today is Tuesday and I still have the headache and ear-ringing but I’m toughing it out and came to work. I’m off now until Friday. I’d love to wake up without the headache and ear-ringing but hopefully that will fade too. Yesterday, my local pharmacy notified me that I could come get my AstraZeneca vaccine. I phoned and told them I had it already. I didn’t tell them what they could do with the one they were holding for me.
Nothing is ever simple with me. I kept telling people I was glad I got the vaccine but if I knew I’d have this kind of reaction, I’d have waited for Pfizer or Moderna. It’s been a tough two weeks. I think my Doctor has learned something or I hope she has. Still, there’s talk about discontinuing AstraZeneca in Ontario so I’m wondering what that means for my second shot. There’s also talk about mixing and matching. I didn’t think you’re supposed to do that with medicine. I know you’re not supposed to mix your drinks. Honestly, this is like the magician asking you to pick a card and you hope he guesses right. Again, I’m encouraging everyone to get a vaccine but maybe read my precautionary tale and then put yourself on every list and get the one that you feel the most comfortable receiving. When the magician asks you to take a card and put it back, hide an extra one up your sleeve and screw up the whole trick. Stay home. Stay safe. And get a vaccine…I’m just not going to say which one.
Well it’s the last part of April 2021 and it’s a snow day. That shouldn’t happen. Oh well, it will all melt in a few days. And to think I assembled a porch swing the other day and the next day cut my grass. You have to love Canada weather! If you have read my two previous blahgs, 12 MONTHS – 12 RECORDS – 12 SONGS & 12 MONTHS – 12 MORE RECORDS – 12 MORE SONGS, you would know that I’ve been having fun posting about some of the vinyl LPs I’ve purchased over the past year. I had a lot of fun assembling those two blahgs but I was busy at the same time looking ahead to this blahg.
I’ll mention three other blahgs I wrote last year that helped to inspire this current blahg. My three part Linda Keene series, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 1: THE FLORENCE SUTTLE YEARS, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 2: THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE,TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 3: ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD, was very labour intensive. I spent a great deal of time researching Linda Keene and perusing through old newspaper articles to assemble a narrative of Linda Keene’s career. One thing I learned, outside of all of the things I learned about Linda Keene, was that there were many big bands and orchestras in the mid and late 1930s and through the 1940s that we no longer remember. So, I thought I would look at some of those forgotten bands that specifically were associated in some way with Linda Keene. I’ll try to provide some information of these orchestras and some recordings where I can. This blahg will be an assemblage of information and recordings and images from various sources. I’ve done the research and now you get to enjoy reading it.
In part one of my Linda Keene series I detailed how she was born Florence McCrory in December of 1911 and later married Sturgeon Suttle in September of 1931. She performed under her married name of Florence Suttle in the early 1930s and toured with her husband who billed himself as “Frank Suttle.” The first reference I found for the couple performing with any orchestra was from the August 3, 1934 Detroit Times, below, where they were performing at the Oriole Terrace as part of a floor show including Bob Chester and His Music. It is not clear if Florence Suttle performed with Bob Chester and His Orchestra but for the purposes of this blahg, Bob Chester’s band will be the first forgotten band we’ll look at.
With some of the bands I’ve tracked, there is very little information about the orchestra or what might have happened to them. Not so with Bob Chester. There is even a Wikipedia entry for Bob Chester although there isn’t more than really a page of information”
Bob Chester (March 20, 1908 – June 14, 1977) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and tenor saxophonist.
Chester’s stepfather ran General Motors’s Fisher Body Works. He began his career as a sideman under Irving Aaronson, Ben Bernie, and Ben Pollack. He formed his own group in Detroit in 1939, with a Glenn Miller-influenced sound. This band was unsuccessful in local engagements and quickly dissolved. He then put together a new band on the East Coast under the direction of Tommy Dorsey and with arrangements by David Rose. This ensemble fared much better, recording for Bluebird Records.
Chester’s group, billed “The New Sensation of the Nation,” had its own radio show on CBS briefly in the fall of 1939. The twenty-five-minute program aired from the Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio late on Thursday nights (actually 12:30 am Friday morning, Eastern Time); the September 21, 1939 edition can be heard on the famous One Day In Radio tapes, archived by Washington D.C. station WJSV.
Chester’s Bluebird records have proved excellent sellers, both for retail dealers and coin phonograph operators such as “From Maine to California”; “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie”; “Madelaine”; and two songs from “Banjo Eyes” – “Not a Care in the World” and “A Nickel to My Name”. His only national hit was “With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair” (b/w “I Walk With Music”; Bluebird 10614), which featured Dolores O’Neill on vocals and went to #18 on the charts in April 1940.
Chester’s orchestra included trumpeters Alec Fila, Nick Travis, Lou Mucci, and Conrad Gozzo, saxophonists Herbie Steward and Peanuts Hucko, drummer Irv Kluger, and trombonist Bill Harris. His female singers included Dolores O’Neill, Kathleen Lane, and Betty Bradley; among his male singers were Gene Howard, Bill Darnell, Joe Harris, Stu Brayton, Hall Stewart, Peter Marshall, Bob Haymes, and Al Stuart.
The orchestra disbanded in the mid-1940s, due in part to the shrinking market for big band sound. After a stint as a disc jockey at WKMH radio, Chester assembled another band for a short time in the early 1950s, but after it failed he retired from music and returned to Detroit to work for the rest of his life in auto manufacturing.
Looking at this output from 1939-1942, Bob Chester recorded more than 110 songs onto 78 rpm records. Many of these have not been reissued on CD. Below is a discography, of sorts, of the recordings Bob Chester and his Orchestra made between 1939 and 1942. If you click on any of the images then you will be able to view a larger image of the listings.
This is a fairly significant output for an orchestra that we barely know. For my money, this was a fantastic orchestra with some great recorded songs. Luckily some collectors of original 78rpm records have compiled and posted many of Bob Chester’s early recordings. You can see the list and listen to the recordings here: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Bob+Chester+and+his+Orchestra%22. Choosing from the extensive selection is difficult so I’m going to offer up a few different recordings. Here’s their first recording, “Just For A Thrill”:
Next up is their only national hit, “With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair.” This time someone has posted the recording on Youtube:
Now for one from their middle years, “The Moon Won’t Talk:”
Here are two tracks from their last listed session of June 30, 1942, “By The Light Of The Silvery Moon” and “He’s My Guy.” Note that “He’s My Guy” is listed in the discography as “Yes My Guy” but “He’s My Guy” was the flip-side of “By The Light Of The Silvery Moon” from the same session.
The discography that I posted above stops at 1942 but from the Wikipedia article we know that “The orchestra disbanded in the mid-1940s…Chester assembled another band for a short time in the early 1950s.” We are lucky that some of the 1950 recordings were also posted on Archive.org. Here’s “Frenzy” and the flip side of that 78, “Mad About Love.” Both songs were recorded in March of 1950.
Before I finish with Bob Chester, I want to post some other exciting material by this band. In one of my Linda Keene blahgs, I wrote about the Soundies she did with Henry Levine and his band. In case you haven’t read that yet, here’s my explanation about Soundies:
“Soundies are three-minute American musical films, produced between 1940 and 1947, each containing a song, dance, and/or band or orchestral number. Produced professionally on 35mm black-and-white film, like theatrical motion pictures, they were printed in the more portable and economical 16mm gauge.
The films were shown in a coin-operated “movie jukebox” called the Panoram, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago. Each Panoram housed a 16mm RCA film projector, with eight Soundies films threaded in an endless-loop arrangement. A system of mirrors flashed the image from the lower half of the cabinet onto a front-facing screen in the top half. Each film cost 10 cents to play, and there was no choice of song; the patron saw whatever film was next in the queue. Panorams could be found in public amusement centers, nightclubs, taverns, restaurants, and factory lounges, and the films were changed weekly. The completed Soundies were generally made available within a few weeks of their filming, by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America.”
We are lucky that Bob Chester and His Orchestra filmed some Soundies. We are also lucky that someone has posted these on Youtube. The first is Bob Chester and the band performing “B-I-BI” which they recorded for Bluebird on September 10, 1941:
The second is a compilation of songs by Bob Chester and his Orchestra, “Octave Jump”, “On The Sunny Side of the Street”, “Deep River”, and “Chesterwoogie.” The orchestra recorded “Octave Jump” on March 4, 1940 but I don’t know if they recorded the other three songs.
Finally, I want to jump back to something else that was referenced in the Wikipedia article:
Chester’s group, billed “The New Sensation of the Nation,” had its own radio show on CBS briefly in the fall of 1939. The twenty-five-minute program aired from the Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio late on Thursday nights (actually 12:30 am Friday morning, Eastern Time); the September 21, 1939 edition can be heard on the famous One Day In Radio tapes, archived by Washington D.C. station WJSV.
The reference here is to the “One Day In Radio” which was broadcast by the WJSV radio station. Here’s another Wikipedia explanation:
On September 21, 1939 radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. made an audio recording of its entire 19-hour broadcast day. This undertaking was a collaboration between the station and the National Archives,
Bob Chester and his Orchestra were part of the schedule and a twenty-five minute program of their music was included in the “One Day In Radio” recordings. The entire 19 hours is also available on Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/001WakeUpMusic. Here’s the entire Bob Chester program as broadcast on September 21, 1939:
Moving on, the next major outfit that was associated with Florence Suttle was George Duffy and His Orchestra. Florence Suttle would tour with Duffy from April to December of 1935. Duffy and his band seemed to be a big deal in Ohio in the mid-1930s. Look at this article below from The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio), June 21, 1935 announcing the opening that evening of the George Duffy Orchestra at the Gibson Roof Garden:
It was a a fairly significant advertisement announcing George Duffy and His Orchestra. But what happened to George Duffy? It should be noted that there was also an Irish Show Band, the George Duffy Orchestra in the 1940s but it’s not the same organization. I could find very little about the American Duffy and his Orchestra. There is a website/blog dedicated to Duffy at http://georgeduffyandhisorchestra.blogspot.com/ with some wonderful photos but no real information. Here’s one of the photos of George Duffy and his Orchestra:
Unfortunately there are no other details about the photo or even a date for the image. I could not find a discography for George Duffy and His Orchestra but did find some sheet music images of songs that had been attributed to Duffy:
I could find nothing to suggest that George Duffy even recorded these songs. I scanned through old newspapers and found that Duffy continued to front an orchestra and was busy making public appearances from the mid-1930s to as late as the early 1960s. In fact, Duffy was still performing as late as 1962 as can be attested by this advertisement from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 3, 1962:
George Duffy passed away on March 29th, 1963:
As I have said, I cannot find a discography for George Duffy and His Orchestra but it is possible that the band made at least one recording. I have found images for a 78 rpm record on the Quaker label for George Duffy and His Orchestra. The record features the songs “Love Is Just Around The Corner” backed with “The Ice Cream Song”
Unfortunately I could not find any music files to offer of George Duffy and His Orchestra. I know they also performed a number of live radio remotes but I haven’t come across any of these either. George Duffy and His Orchestra did perform at the Cleveland Auto Show in November of 1935. The Cleveland Automobile Show ran for a week from November 23rd to November 30, 1935 and one of the big attractions was the appearance of George Burns and Gracie Allen in a stage show. Burns and Allen did broadcast from the Cleveland Automobile Show but I haven’t found a radio transcription of the show so I do not know if Duffy made an appearance on the Burns and Allen show.
The next band I wanted to explore was an Orchestra that Florence Suttle appeared with in January of 1936. The following advertisement is from the Cleveland Plain Dealer on January 25, 1936:
The name of the Orchestra is referred to as Pinkey Hunter and his Orchestra. This is another Orchestra that seemed to have roots in Ohio but again very little is known about them. In searching for a discography for Pinkey Hunter and his Orchestra, I could only find reference to Pinkey Hunter as a member of Emerson Gill and His Castle of Paris Orchestra. The following discography section notes Pinkey Hunter as a member of Gill’s Orchestra and that Hunter performed vocals on some of the recordings.
The last credited song for Pinkey Hunter with Gill’s Orchestra was “Ready For The River” from March 27th, 1928. This song is also available on Archive.org.
From the same March 27, 1928 session that produced “Ready For The River”, we have Emerson Gill & His Bamboo Garden Orchestra with “That’s What I Call Keen” with Pinkey Hunter doing vocal:
Someone has posted on Youtube the first Emerson Gill track that credits Pinkey Hunter on vocal. It’s “That’s My Girl ” from the February 17th, 1925 session.
Youtube also brings us two tracks from Emerson Gill’s March 1st, 1926 session that also have Pinkey Hunter vocals. They are “My Bundle of Love” and “The Roses Brought Me You”:
I could find no recordings for Pinkey Hunter and his Orchestra or any information that suggests that Pinkey Hunter recorded with his own Orchestra. One of the last news articles that I could find about Pinkey Hunter was from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 13, 1949 that shows an elderly Hunter:
In 1949 Pinkey Hunter was the program director at WHK in Cleveland, Ohio. I could not find an obituary for him.
Skipping ahead to 1936, we find the next reference to Florence Suttle was that she was appearing at the Mayfair Room of the Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit beginning on April 17th, 1936. This time she was with the Sam Jack Kaufman Orchestra. I’ll work backwards in that I found Sam Jack Kaufman’s obituary from the February 11th, 1990 Washington Post:
MUSICIAN S.J. KAUFMAN DIES AT 88
Sam Jack Kaufman, 88, president of the D.C. Federation of Musicians Local 161-710 from 1955 until he retired in 1985, died of cancer Feb. 7 at his home at Leisure World in Silver Spring.
Mr. Kaufman was born in Rochester, N.Y. He was a musician and bandleader in New York, Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere before moving to the Washington area in 1940.
He was the conductor and then the music director at Loew’s Capitol Theater from the time he came here until 1954, when the Capitol discontinued its vaudeville programs. Mr. Kaufman became head of the musicians union the next year.
His wife, Helen Kaufman, died in 1985.
Survivors include two children, Carol Chappelear of Landover and Noel Kaufman of Burke; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
So, what we know of Sam Jack Kaufman was that he was a bandleader up to 1940. Here’s a picture of him:
His obituary contains the most detailed information I could find on Sam Jack Kaufman. I could find no discography for the Sam Jack Kaufman Orchestra but Archive.org did offer up a 78 rpm of “Washington” sung by Jimmie Dodd and backed by Sam Jack Kauman and his Capitol Theater Orchestra.
Seeing as the band is billed as “Sam Jack Kaufman and his Capitol Theater Orchestra,” this recording would have to been made after 1940 when Kaufman relocated to Washington. Of course we should also take note of the fact that the song is the “Motorola Song for Washington Contest 1st Prize Winner.” There may be some earlier recordings of Sam Jack Kaufman because I did find the following 78 of “My Confession” backed with “My Love For You”:
I could not find any other information about these recordings nor when they were issued.
The last forgotten band that I want to look at associated with Florence Suttle is Coleman Sachs and his Orchestra. After Florence finished with Sam Jack Kaufman in the Mayfair Room in Detroit, she was next spotted in Birmingham, Alabama on May 22, 1936 at the Club Rex on the same bill with “Coleman Sachs and his 14-Star Band.”
Like Pinkey Hunter, most of the recordings I could find of Coleman Sachs were with another orchestra. In this case it was the Jack Linx Orchestra. There is a website of sorts, https://www.angelfire.com/ga/benningcobbrussel/coleman_sachs_orchestra.html, dedicated to the Coleman Sachs Orchestra but, like the one dedicated to George Duffy, it consists mainly of photos and old articles. This is another case of working backwards. Two of the articles were from later in life when he was retired from the music business. If the images are not very clear then click on them to open a larger and clearer image. The first apparently comes from 1956 because it has a handwritten notation of that year:
So, the big thing we learn is that the orchestra disbanded in 1944 and may not have got around to making any recordings. The second article doesn’t have a date but it references Coleman Sachs as being 74 years old. He died in 1985 at the age of 79 so this next article was either 1979 or 1980:
The only way we get to hear Coleman Sachs play is by listening to early recordings of Jack Linx and his Society Serenaders. This was the band that Sachs took over in 1930 and by 1932 he had hung up his trumpet to concentrate on leading the band. Before I get to the Jack Linx recordings, I want to post some pictures of Coleman Sachs and his Ochestra and one of the Jack Linx orchestra. These come from the website I mentioned earlier dedicated to Coleman Sachs. First, here’s Sachs and his band:
There is no date for that picture but it’s probably early 1930s. Here’s Jack Linx and his Society Serenaders (again no date):
I’ve been able to put together a small discography of Jack Linx recordings. I do not know if this is complete:
The very first recording listed is “How Come You Do Me Like You Do?” from August 28th, 1924 and we are lucky that is available to hear:
Someone has posted on YouTube, the other two tracks from that first session, “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo” & “Doodle Doo Doo””:
A year later in August of 1925, Jack Linx recorded “She’s My Sheba, I’m Her Sheik”:
And finally two songs from the March 13th, 1926 session, “Tie Me To Your Apron Strings” and “Fallen Arches” :
Somewhere in these almost 100 year old tracks is the long gone trumpet of Coleman Sachs. I may not have found any recordings for Coleman Sachs and His Orchestra but the Jack Linx Society Serenaders is essentially the same group of musicians but with Coleman Sachs on trumpet and Jack Linx conducting.
Our story as it relates to bands associated with Florence Suttle ends and then begins anew with a very small notice in the Birmingham News on December 4th, 1937. The article relates to Frank Suttle, her then husband, but there is a mention that his wife “Flo, is singing with Nye Mayhew’s Band in Boston under the name of Linda Keene.” Florence Suttle had finally made the transition to Linda Keene. The next few forgotten bands all came to my attention because of Linda Keene. To be accurate, Linda Keene had been appearing with Nye Mayhew since September 30th of 1937. The article to the left from The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), September 25th, 1937 states “Nye Mayhew and his orchestra will open at the Hotel Statler, Thursday evening,” which would make the opening on September 30th, 1937.
I wish someone had created a website dedicated to Nye Mayhew. The little that I could find in the way of a biography comes from old newspaper articles and from this excerpt from “”American Big Bands” by William F. Lee:
I know the excerpt is short on details but I found an interview that Mayhew gave in 1956 about his early career and association with Bix Beiderbecke. The article comes from the January 5th, 1956 edition of the Dallas Morning News.
We can piece together from this article and the excerpt from “American Big Bands” that Nye Mayhew started out with Paul Whiteman. In fact I found references of Nye Mayhew recording with the following bands:
–Hale Byers and His Orchestra February 25, 1926
–Paul Whiteman 1927
–Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals October 28, 1927
–Fred Rich and His Hotel Astor Orchestra, May 4, 1928
–The Dorsey Brothers’ Concert Orchestra July 16, 1928
–Carolina Club Orchestra March 27, 1929
Nye Mayhew’s Orchestra has a discography that starts on July 27th, 1933 as Nye Mayhew and his Westchester Biltmore Orchestra:
Note that the September 7th, 1933 session that produced “Thanks” and “The Day You Came Along” were issued under Will Osbourne and His Orchestra but supposedly Osbourne was only the vocalist with the accompaniment actually being Nye Mayhew’s Orchestra. Also, the January 19th, 1934 session produced recordings by Mayhew being issued under another Orchestra’s name.
For this blahg, I’m not going to offer recordings that Mayhew did with earlier orchestras. I want to stick to the above discography because quite a number of his recordings are available on Archive.org and YouTube. Someone has posted to Archive.org thirteen selections of Mayhew’s 78rpm output, https://archive.org/details/NyeMayhewOrchestra78rpmCollection. Mayhew had a nice sound in the 1930s. From the first listed session, July 27, 1933, here are “Blue Roses” and “It Isn’t Fair”:
Blue Roses:
It Isn’t Fair:
From the September 7, 1933 session here are the two recordings that were actually Nye Mayhew and His Orchestra issued as Will Osborne and His Orchestra. Here are “Thanks” and “The Day You Came Along”:
And finally, from the last session on April 9, 1934 here are “This Is Our Last Night Together” with a vocal by Douglas Newman and “Baby, Take A Bow!” which has a Russ Morgan vocal:
Nye Mayhew was still fronting an Orchestra under his name into the late 1950s. I do not know if Mayhew made any other recordings after his April 9th, 1934 session. There were some radio remotes of his Orchestra over the years which might have included Linda Keene as well but I have not come across any remotes by Mayhew. I could not find an obituary for Mayhew but I found references to him leading an orchestra well into the late 1950s.
I’m skipping ahead a little bit with Linda Keene’s association with big bands. In 1938 she had a short stint with Glenn Miller’s Orchestra and then Bobby Hackett’s Dixieland Orchestra. Seeing as these are relatively known bands, I want to stick to the forgotten orchestras that had some association with Linda Keene. Just before Christmas in 1938 Linda Keene landed in Bermuda for a stint at the Silver Grill, in the Hotel Bermudiana. The band she was appearing with was Scott Fisher and His Orchestra.
Here’s another band for which there is very little information. I had to really search for any information on Scott Fisher and His Orchestra. The following information comes from the website https://jazzagemusic.blogspot.com/2020_06_15_archive.html:
1905
‘Bud’ Fisher, Leader
aka: “Scott Fisher and his Orch.”
b. New York, NY, USA
York, NY, USA.
d. August 2, 1972, Flemington, NJ, USA
Winfield Scott (“Bud”) Fisher was born in the Bronx, New York on June 16, 1905. He moved to Bogota, Bergen County, New Jersey at age 13. He and younger brother William Hardy “Billy” Fisher, known in 1923 as “The Musical Fishers,” made one of their earliest appearances at “The Sphinx Club” in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel on the same bill with the legendary Will Rogers. Scott was only 17, while Billy was just 9.
Using a foundation of himself on piano and kid brother Billy on sax and clarinet (and later handling orchestrations), Scott organized his first band as a teenager. Eventually, they became known in the New York/New Jersey area as “Bud Fisher & His Commodores.”
Into the early 1930s, Scott’s orchestra became known throughout New York and New Jersey, playing numerous dates on area radio stations like WABC, WEAF, WAAT, WJZ, and WADA. Scott, Billy, and company also performed at New Jersey’s legendary “Rustic Cabin” for two years, among their numerous other club appearances. “Bud Fisher & His Commodores” were regulars on Cunard Line cruise ships, performing on runs to Cuba and Bermuda, and were winter mainstays at Bermuda’s “Bermudiana Hotel.” The band also recorded several commercial pressings, and performed at the famous Coconut Grove Room at New York’s Park Central Hotel.
Around 1935, the band went on several two-month tours, only to return to the New York area without a gig. As a result, the orchestra split up. Had they been able to survive that period, the Fisher band may well have become one of the top names in the business as the movement of individual band members shortly after the breakup illustrates:
Harold Mooney, the piano player, went on to arrange for Hal Kemp; Gordon Griffin found a place for his horn with Benny Goodman; “Toots” Camarata became Jimmy Dorsey’s arranger; the third trumpet player (name unknown) joined up with Casa Loma; while Billy Fisher became sax/clarinet man and arranger for Russ Morgan. (Billy later filled a similar role for Al Donahue, before becoming Ray Bloch’s “right-hand man” for roughly 35 years, the bandleader for whom he arranged the music of “The Ed Sullivan Show” for all 24 seasons.)
Scott Fisher later became Head Copiest for Ray Bloch. He also worked in this capacity for numerous Broadway shows including “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Golden Boy,” “The Apple Tree,” “My Fair Lady,” and “The Music Man,” mostly under the direction of Elliot Lawrence. He died on August 2, 1972 in Flemington, New Jersey at age 67. Billy Fisher died in Greenwich, Connecticut on April 24, 1972.
I was able to find a small discography for the 1935 Scott Fisher and His Orchestra:
I apologize for the image above but it was presented that way at the source although I was able to enhance the January 10, 1935 session. A handful of the Scott Fisher and His Orchestra recordings are available on Archive.org at https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Scott+Fisher+and+his+Orchestra%22. What is noteworthy about the Archive.org available recordings is that some are from the 1935 sessions and there are later ones from 1949. I cannot find a discography for Scott Fisher in 1949 but we can assume this is the same Scott Fisher from 1935 but probably fronting a new orchestra.
Now, I’ll offer the remaining tracks from the January 10, 1935 session. Here we have “In A Blue And Pensive Mood”, “Just A Fair-Weather Friend”, and “Haunting Me”. The vocals on the three songs are all performed by Lee Johnson. These tracks also come from the Soundcloud.com source.
The 1949 tracks of Scott Fisher and His Orchestra are also available on Archive.org. Of course, by 1949 the sound of the Scott Fisher Orchestra is quite different.
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Again, I have no proof that the 1949 Scott Fisher and His Orchestra is the same as the 1935 band. Here’s another mystery to add to the Scott Fisher Orchestra from the later years. Betty Clooney, sister of Rosemary Clooney, apparently recorded the song “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” with Scott Fisher and His Orchestra, also for the Hi-Tone label in 1953
Unfortunately I was not able to find a source from which to download or listen to this track.
Here is Scott Fisher’s obituary from August 2nd, 1972:
After leaving Scott Fisher and His Orchestra in Bermuda, Linda Keene returned to America to do some recordings and touring with Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra. Teagarden and his band are famous enough that I don’t need to include them here. Linda Keene was with Teagarden from May to July 1939 but by August she had moved on to touring with Willie Farmer and His Orchestra.
Like some of the other bands detailed in this blahg, I had never heard of Willie Farmer and His Orchestra until I started researching Linda Keene. I will again start with the obituary to try and provide some information about Willie Farmer. This is from the April 7th, 1990 edition of The Morning Call out of Lehigh Valley and Allentown, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM FARMER, 84; HAD 65-YEAR MUSICAL CAREER THE MORNING CALL
William “Willie” Farmer, 84, formerly of 1622 Liberty St., Allentown, a musician for more than 65 years, died Thursday at the Leader Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Bethlehem. He was the husband of Hilda (Solomon) Farmer. They observed their 60th wedding anniversary last October.
Farmer began his career at the age of 13 as a drummer with the Carl Fenton Orchestra. He later played with many of the big bands, including Glen Gray and the Casa Luma Band, Red Nichols and Tommy Dorsey. In 1932 he took over the Larry Siry Band at the Simplon Club, New York City, and the band was known thereafter as Willie Farmer and the Farmer-in-the-Dell Orchestra.
Born in New York City, he was a son of the late Abraham and Celia (Dorsky) Farberman.
During the 1930s, Farmer’s orchestra toured throughout the East and Midwest and made more than 30 recordings, mainly for the Bluebird/Victor label. The band was well-known in New York night spots, including The El Murrocco, Tavern-on-the Green and Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.
They also played locally at the former Castle Gardens at Dorney Park, the former Mealey’s Auditorium, Allentown, and Flagstaff, Jim Thorpe. The band also performed for many early radio broadcasts of the era.
Farmer moved to Florida in 1975 and continued to work as a musician until retiring in 1985.
He was a past board member of Associated Musicians Local 802.
Survivors: Wife; son, Dr. H. Stephen of Princeton, N.J.; daughter Judith, wife of Morton Miller of Allentown, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Graveside services: 2 p.m. Sunday, Beth Israel Cemetery, U.S. 1, Woodbridge, N.J. Arrangements, David J. Boyko Funeral Home, Macungie.
The takeaway information from the obituary is that Farmer’s orchestra “made more than 30 recordings” and that “the band also performed for many early radio broadcasts of the era.” Unfortunately I cannot find any live remotes for Willie Farmer and His Orchestra but from two different sources I was able to assemble the following discography:
I apologize again for some of the images for the 1937 and 1938 discography as they were cropped at the source. Note that in 1933 the Orchestra was known as Willie Farmer and His Simplon Club Orchestra. We are indebted again to people who have posted some of the 78 rpm records of Willie Farmer to Archive.org. You can listen to many of them through this link: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Willie+Farmer+and+his+Orchestra%22. Willie Farmer and His Orchestra also had a nice sound on their recordings. None of the 1933 tracks are available on Archive.org so we will have to rely on YouTube. Here are two songs from that first session, “Love Is Love, Anywhere” and “Let’s Fall In Love”
Love Is Love, Anywhere
Let’s Fall In Love
From the Archive.org postings are two tracks from the June 11, 1937 session, “Stop! You’re Breaking My Heart” and “Scattin’ At The Kit-Kat”:
The following selections are simply because I like the titles. From September 9, 1937 comes “Midnight In The Madhouse” followed by “Tarzan” from July 15, 1938.
I’ll finish off with this band’s 1930s output by offering two tracks from their last session on September 1st, 1938. Here are “A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow” and “Yes Ma’am I’m The Guy”:
As with some other artists, like Scott Fisher, Willie Farmer appeared to have fronted another Orchestra in the 1940s. I have found listings for at least three songs that Willie Farmer and His Orchestra released on Jubilee in 1947, “I Found Gold”, “Louisa Learned The Roomba From Her Goomba”, and “Why Do They Fall In Fallsburg”. All three songs had vocals by Lee Tully. Luckily, someone has posted the last two songs on Archive.org:
In 2016 a digital album of Willie Farmer and His Orchestra, “Perfect Jazz For Dancing” was released to digital platforms. None of the tracks match the 1930s discography so we have to assume these might have been from the late 1940s or later or quite possibly this is some other Willie Farmer and His Orchestra.
At last, we come to the final Forgotten Band for this blahg. After Willie Farmer and his Orchestra, Linda Keene was next spotted with Lennie Hayton and His Orchestra. At some point in November 1939, Linda took up with Lennie Hayton and his Orchestra and was appearing with him at Loew’s State theatre in New York starting November 24th. Billboard magazine reviewed Hayton at Loew’s State on November 24th and ran their review in the December 2, 1939 issue.
Now, I know some might say that Lennie Hayton is a very recognizable name. That is true. He has a good entry on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennie_Hayton. He started out with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra and then joined the Charles Previn Orchestra for a time. Hayton in his history as a band leader recorded two numbers as a leader in 1928 and then led a big band that recorded from 1937-40. When the band broke up in 1940, Hayton settled in Hollywood, where he worked for MGM as an arranger, conductor and musical director. He married the singer Lena Horne in 1947 and thereafter served as her pianist, arranger and musical director. Between 1937 and 1940, the Hayton band, booked by Mills Artists Incorporated, toured coast-to-coast, playing one-nighters and extended stay locations with a lineup that ranged from 12 to as many as 20 musicians.
As mentioned, Lennie Hayton’s Orchestra recorded 24 tracks between 1937 and 1940. None of these tracks have been reissued on CD to my knowledge. It is that forgotten band that I want to focus on here. Here is the discography for the 1937-1940 Lennie Hayton and His Orchestra:
Carelessly (Chas. & Nick Kenny ‑ Norman Ellis). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1248‑A (62144‑A). NY, 4/22/1937. E. Sid Stoneburn, clarinet solo. 3:10
It Looks Like Rain In Cherry Blossom Lane (Edgar Leslie‑Joe Burke). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1248‑B (62145‑A). NY, 4/22/1937. E. 3:13
The Lady Who Couldn’t Be Kissed (from the Warner Bros. production “The Singing Marine”) (Harry Warren‑Al Dubin). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1268‑B (62146‑A). NY, 4/22/1937.(Seems as if Hayton recorded practically the entire score of “The Singing Marine”, a musical that starred Kenny Baker. I’ve seen it on TCM). E+ 3:05
Night Over Shanghai (from the Warner Bros. production “The Singing Marine”) (Harry Warren‑Johnny Mercer). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1268‑A (62147‑A). NY, 4/22/1937. E+. 3:19
I Know Now (from the Warner Bros. production “The Singing Marine”) (Harry Warren‑Al Dubin). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1267‑A (62148‑A). NY, 4/22/1937. E+. 3:12
You Can’t Run Away From Love Tonight (from the Warner Bros. Production “The Singing Marine”) (Harry Warren‑Al Dubin). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1267‑B (62149‑A). NY, 4/22/1937. E. 3:03
Gone With the Wind (Allie Wrubel‑Herb Magidson). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1341‑A (62320‑A). NY, 7/1/1937. E. 3:05
What A Beautiful Beginning (from the 20th Century‑Fox production “Sing And Be Happy”) (Harry Akst‑Sidney Clare). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1341‑B (62321‑A). NY, 7/1/1937. Looks rough, plays E (especially after restoration). 2:38
Can I Forget You (from the Paramount picture “High, Wide And Handsome”) (Jerome Kern- Oscar Hammerstein II). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1348‑A (62324‑A). NY, 7/1/1937. N‑. 3:13
The Folks Who Live On the Hill (from the Paramount picture “High, Wide And Handsome”) (Jerome Kern‑Oscar Hammerstein II). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1348‑B (62325‑B). NY, 7/1/1937. E+ to N‑. 3:05
That Old Feeling (from the Walter Wanger production “Vogues of 1938”) (Lew Brown‑Sammy Fain). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1354‑A (62326‑A). NY, 7/1/1937. Superb side; solos from Sid Stoneburn‑clarinet, and either Ralph Muzzilo or Red Hymie‑trumpet. E to E+. 2:54
Lovely One (from the Walter Wanger production “Vogues of 1938”) (Manning Sherwin‑Frank Loesser). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1354‑B (62327‑A). NY, 7/1/1937. E+ 3:06
Once In A While (Michael Edwards‑Bud Green). Vocal by Paul Barry. (American) Decca 1443‑A (62582‑A). NY, 9/8/1937. E. 3:00
Once In A While (Edwards‑Green). Vocal by Paul Barry. (Canadian) Decca 1443‑A (62582‑B). NY, 9/8/1937. This record looks E‑ to E, but has rim chip 2 grooves in (ends before music starts) and 1 1/2″ hairline crack. It has excellent quality shellac, so all defects are unnoticeable after restoration. E . 3:02
15. The Morning After (Dorsey‑Jaffe‑Boland). Vocal by Paul Barry. (American) Decca 1443‑B (62583‑B; an”X” has been stamped through take “A”, with the “B” take stamped next to it !!). NY, 9/8/1937. E. 3:01
So Many Memories (Harry Woods). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1437‑B (62584‑A). NY, 9/8/1937. E+. Sid Stoneburn‑clarinet; ? Ralph Muzzilo‑trumpet. 3:07
Make A Wish (from the Principal Production “Make A Wish”) (Straus‑Alter‑Webster). Vocal by Paul Barry. Decca 1437‑A (62585‑A). NY, 9/8/1937. E+. 2:45
At the Balalaika (from “Balalaika”). Vocal by Linda Keene. Varsity 8125 (US‑1130‑1) NY, c. 12/7/1939. E. 3:15
The Starlit Hour (Parish‑DeRose). Vocal by Linda Keene. Varsity 8125 (US‑1131‑1; as above). NY, c. 12/7/1939. E (slight scuff removed by restoration). 2:53
Peg O’ My Heart (Bryan‑Fisher). Varsity 8134 (US‑1132‑2). NY, c. 12/7/1939. Slats Long ‑ clarinet. N-. 3:00
As Long As I Live (Koehler‑Arlen). Varsity 8134 (US‑1133‑2). NY, c. 12/7/1939. N‑. 3:20
I Love You Much Too Much (Olshey‑Raye‑Towber). Vocal by Linda Keene. Vocalion 5421 (W‑26541‑A). NY, 2/20/1940. E. 3:00
Times Square Scuttle (Hayton). Vocalion 5471 (W‑26542‑A). NY, 2/20/1940. That trumpet sounds like Yank Lawson to me, but wasn’t he still with Crosby at this time??? or not??? N‑. 2:32
One Cigarette For Two (Metzger‑Dougherty‑Ryan). Vocal by Linda Keene. Vocalion 5421 (W‑26543‑A). NY, 2/20/1940. E. 2:56
Note that 13 and 14 are the same song but it appears that number 14, a Canadian issue of “Once In A While” appears to be an alternate take. Not all of the 24 songs are available on Archive.org. Certainly, the Canadian issue of “One In A While” is not there and remains a rarity but the American release is available. The four tracks that had vocals by Linda Keene from late 1939 and early 1940 are also not there. Those I have included in a previous blahg, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 2: THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE. Of the remaining tracks, I was unable to find a listening source for “Peg O’ My Heart” and “As Long As I Live”. One of his last recordings, “Times Square Scuttle” will be presented as a YouTube post.
From the April 27th, 1937 session, here are “Carelessly” and “You Can’t Run Away From Love Tonight” with vocals by Paul Barry:
From July 1st, 1937 are two songs that I’ve particularly enjoyed by other artists as well, “The Folks Who Live On The Hill” and “That Old Feeling” with Paul Barry again providing the vocals:
Here are two tracks from the September 8, 1937 session, the aforementioned American release of “Once In A While” and “Make A Wish” with Paul Barry vocals:
I won’t present anything from the December 7th, 1939 session because “Peg O’ My Heart” and “As Long As I Live”are not available and I have already posted “At The Balalaika” and “The Starlit Hour” in my previous blahg, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 2: THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE so you can head over there to listen to those two songs. I am going to present three tracks from the last session on February 20th, 1940. Linda Keene also did vocals at that session and I will repost one of those tracks because I think it’s one of the most haunting vocals that she performed with Hayton. Here are “AC-DC Current”, which the Angelfire website claimed was a Magnificent side, probably Hayton’s best! Following that is Linda Keene doing the vocal on “I Love You Much Too Much” and a Youtube post of “Times Square Scuttle.”
That’s it. I hope you’ve enjoyed these Forgotten Bands. There’s some good music here and I hope you take some time to follow the links and listen to some of the other recordings by these bands that are almost lost to time.
Well it’s April and we’re in another lockdown/stay at home situation here in Ontario. I’m not complaining. Covid-19 cases are on the rise again and we need to do this to bring the case numbers down. What a perfect time to enjoy some more music that I’ve collected over the past year. In my previous blahg, 12 MONTHS – 12 RECORDS – 12 SONGS, I offered up samples from some albums I had purchased over the past 12 months either at local thrift stores or purchased over the Internet. I’m talking about LPs. Vinyl! The good stuff! I have another batch of 12 albums that I purchased over the past month so I’m basically doing a part two with these new to me albums. Sit back and enjoy some good music
As I’ve said before, many of these records have not had CD releases so they’re a bit on the rare side. I’ve done another good job of scanning the covers so if you click on the rear covers then you get full images with all of the great jacket notes. I’ve tried to clean the audio and remove any clicks and crackle sounds. I think you might just find something interesting this time around. Wait, I didn’t mean the last batch of 12 records were not any good but I’m just saying I’m continuing with the vinyl and there’s bound to be something here that’s enjoyable. There was only one album in the batch that wasn’t as good as the rest. You’ll have to read on to find out more.
The first up is an album called “Vic Lewis Featuring Tubby Hayes – In Concert.” This was released in 1978 on the Hep Records label.
There’s an interesting documentary about Tubby Hayes from 2015. I haven’t seen it yet but here’s the official trailer:
From the album “Vic Lewis Featuring Tubby Hayes – In Concert, here’s “Moonlight In Vermont”:
Next up is another album by The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band. In my last blahg, I featured a track from the 1965 album “Now Hear Our Meanin’ ” by the same group. This time the album is “Live At Ronnie’s, Album 2, Rue Chaptal” by The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band on the Polydor label from 1969. This is a gate-fold album so the middle two pictures are what you see when you open up the album jacket.
The interesting track here is “The Girl & The Turk”:
The next album is probably my most recent purchase before stores shut down again this spring due to the pandemic. I had never heard of Bernadine Read but the first track that caught my eye was “Rhode Island Is Famous For You.” I knew this song from the late great Blossom Dearie but did not know anyone else had recorded a version. The album is “Bernadine” on the Epic label from 1958
Here’s Bernadine Read’s version of “Rhode Island Is Famous For You”:
I think the following album was another thrift store find from earlier this year. It’s the great Lionel Hampton and “Hamp’s Big Band.” This is on the Audio Fidelity label from 1959
This album really swings and it was tough to choose just one track. Some of the tracks are quite lengthy so I chose one of the shorter ones coming in at 3:37. It’s Hamp and the band with “Red Top”
The selections up to now in this blahg were thrift store purchases but I confess that the next album was ordered after I downloaded and listened to the second album by this group. I read online somewhere about a jazz album with a very interesting cover, “Music To Lure Pigeons By” by the Night Pastor And Seven Friends. Luckily someone had posted the whole album on Youtube:
I think I came across it because I was researching Dave Remmington. In my previous blahg I had offered a selection from “Dixie On The Rocks” by Dave Remington and The Dixie Six. Dave Remmington was also a member of the Night Pastor’s Seven Friends. After hearing “Music To Lure Pigeons By”, I had to order the first album which is “The Night Pastor And Seven Friends Play Chicago Jazz.”
The track I have selected here is the first track on side one because the Night Pastor does a spoken intro and explains a little about himself and a little about the album. The song is “Beale St. Blues.”
The next album was just another whim purchase from a thrift store. The album is “TV Action Jazz!” by Mundell Lowe and His All Stars. It’s on the RCA Camden label from 1959.
My selection from this album is one of the most iconic instrumental theme songs to any TV show. It’s Mundell Lowe and His All Stars with their interpretation of “Peter Gunn”:
I think this next album might have been another thrift store purchase as well. When you see a compilation album with the title “Jazz Hall Of Fame, Volume II” then you know you’re getting something good. Of course, it’s a sampler album and you get tracks by bands led by Charlie Shavers, Jack Teagarden, Charles Mingus, Al Haig, Osie Johnson, Josh White, Ralph Burns, Django Reinhardt, and Big Bill Broonzy. This is on the Design label from 1959.
The track I have selected is “Osie’s Oasis” by Osie Johnson And His Orchestra.
Now we get back to another vocal performance. This is another female vocalist (I swear I also listen to males) with the same initials as Bernadine Read. This time it’s Betty Reilly and her “The Explosive Betty Reilly” album on the Golden Tone label from 1960. Neither the front cover nor the rear cover are very exciting…unless the cannon goes off.
I had mixed emotions about this album. The first track was “The Saga Of Elvis Presley” which almost turned me off to the album. I think Betty Reilly performs best when she sticks to the standards, so I’ve chosen an old chestnut, “When The World Was Young”
Returning to Dixieland Jazz, it’s Phil Napoleon’s Emperors of Jazz with their Emarcy label 1955 album “Dixieland Classics Volume 1”
Give a listen to a great version of “Never Be The Same.”
It’s time for another Dixieland sampler. This time it’s “Jubilee Dixieland Sampler” on the Jubilee label. I couldn’t find a release year but the album features such great bands as the Salt City Five, Conrad Janis And His Tailgate Jazz Band, Stan Rubin And His Tigertown Five, David Bee, The Spring Street Stompers, and the College All Stars.
There were lots of great artists and tracks to choose from but I think I purchased this album because I’m a huge fan of the Salt City Five. The band later became the Salt City Six. There’s a great website dedicated to the group where you can listen to some of their material and live performances: http://www.saltcity56.com/. I decided to offer up “Baby, Won’t You Come Home” by the Salt City Five.
The next album intrigued me because I’m a fan of the musical “My Fair Lady.” The late great Nat King Cole put out an album with his take on the songs from the musical so I thought this next album would be another delight. I wasn’t disappointed. The album is “Modern Jazz Performances Of Songs From My Fair Lady ” by Shelly Manne & His Friends. To be clear, the friends consist of Andre Previn on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass, and of course Shelly Manne on drums. Shelly Manne and friends also put out albums of music from “L’il Abner” and “The Bells Are Ringing”
Here’s Shelly Manne & His Friends with their version of “Get Me To The Church On Time”:
Would you believe I have another Jazz Sampler to offer up? Believe it! This time it’s a live album featuring Billy Butterfield and his band. I bought “College Jazz Sampler” at a local DVD store that also sells used records. It contains live performances from the colleges listed on the cover. On the REO label from 1956, this album turned me on to Billy Butterfield and I’ve been listening to a lot of his music over the past year.
To close out the last of the 12 albums I selected “Willow Weep For Me”. Listen to that Butterfield horn!
Before I close this blahg, I want to offer up a bonus. To prove that I don’t always buy Jazz or Vocal albums, I recently picked up the following at a thrift store:
This album has the original voice talent from the cartoon. I really like Quick Draw McGraw and have the funko pop figures of Quick Draw and Baba Looey and the Vnyl two pack figures. They look like this:
I also have the Funko release of Quick Draw’s secret identity El Kabong:
I have a couple of plush Quick Draw figures as well but I won’t post those here. I don’t want to come across as a fanatic. I was going to post the audio here but I found that someone had posted it to Youtube. Here it is:
That’s it for this time. I hope you have enjoyed some of these selections. I have a few more but I’ll save those for another time. Stay safe and stay home and listen to the music.
This is the blahg that I intended to publish last time. I got a little side-tracked with my mental health and trying to be upbeat. Mental health is a big thing and for me, music is very important. I don’t play any instruments but listening to good music is a great tonic. Over the past 12 months we’ve have a couple of different lock-downs with this pandemic and I’ve spent a great deal of time working from home. When stores were open I usually hit up local thrift shops and scanned through the record section. This blahg is devoted to some of my acquisitions over the past year. Most of these came from thrift stores with the odd one ordered online or picked up at a local DVD store that also sells some used records.
Many of the albums mentioned in this blahg have not had CD releases so many will be new to you as they were to me. Album covers usually attract my attention first and I thought it would be important to include those covers here. More important, is the back covers because you can usually find out more information about the artists by reading the liner notes. I’ve included good sized photos of the back covers where you can make out full details of the information on the rear covers. Click on each photo to view larger sized images.
The first up is an album called “Clarinet Gumbo” by Barney Bigard And His Orchestra. This was released in 1976 on the RCA label
Here’s the title track, “Clarinet Gumbo”:
Next up is the album “Dixie On The Rocks” by Dave Remington and The Dixie Six. This album came out on the Vee Jay label in 1960. The group looked like they were having a lot of fun so I decided to purchase the album
The fun track here is “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”:
The previous two albums were thrift store finds and here’s another one from one of the same stores. It’s The Kenny Clarke Francy Boland Big Band with their 1965 album “Now Hear Our Meanin’ ” released in North America on the Columbia Label.
This track is a real swinger. It’s “Johnny One Note”:
I think I acquired most of these records at the same time as I remember the following record was purchased at the same time and location as the above albums. This album is a 1962 reissue on the Trip Jazz label of the 1959 original release of “Buddy Johnson Wails”. The original issue had been on the Mercury label.
The track I chose from this album is “Please Mr. Johnson”. From the album jacket, “His sister, Ella, another unaffected singer, was always a major attraction, and she was responsible for several of the band’s biggest hits, among them “Please Mr. Johnson”, which she recorded for the first time at the age of fourteen while still in high school…”Please Mr. Johnson” is recreated here, with sister Ella on hand to sing it.”
Here’s a real oddity. This is the 1977 album “The Pucker And Valve Society Band”. This album is like listening to the best of or strange songs by a marching band. It’s fun nonetheless.
The track I have selected here is “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Bat Man”.
In a previous blahg, THE RAMBLE UNPACKED, I wrote about an album I picked up before Christmas by Jonah Jones, with the title “and now in person Jonah Jones.” That was a live album but many months before purchasing that album, I picked up “Jumpin’ With Jonah” by the same artist.
The song I have selected from this album is the first track on side one of the album. The song is “No Moon At All” which is a song I’ve enjoyed by singers such as Doris Day and Mel Torme.
I cannot for the life of me remember what inspired me to purchase the following album. I know I had to order it from a reseller on the www.discogs.com website but it’s enjoyable. This album, “Fireworks” was released by the Weatherbird Jazzband in 1982.
The track I have selected is the title track “Fireworks.”
Now we get back to a vocal performance. This is from an artist I did not know but when I saw the album I thought I would give the album a chance. The artist is Betty Roché and the album is “Singin’ & Swingin’ ” from 1961.
There are quite a few standards on this album so the selection to offer here was a tough choice. I decided to go with a song that I have enjoyed by Frank Sinatra from his “L.A. Is My Lady” album. The song is “Until The Real Thing Comes Along” but it’s all Betty Roché.
The next group is a Canadian band. In fact this album was recorded live, November 14, 1975 at Olivet United Church, in Hamilton, Ontario. The band is The Washingtons and the album is “50 Years Together”.
The album had quite a few scuffs and skipped in a couple of places but I was able to clean it and get a nice recording from it. Again, here’s another title track with The Washingtons performing “Fifty Years Together”.
It’s time for another vocal selection. Here we have the great and talented Pat Suzuki. The album is “Pat Suzuki’s Broadway ’59”
Again, the selection was tough. Pat Suzuki performs song great tunes from such great Broadway shows as Flower Drum Song, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Bells Are Ringing, and The Music Man. I decided to go with a song from a Broadway show with which I wasn’t familiar. The Broadway show is “First Impressions” and the song is “I Feel Sorry For The Boy”
It’s back to the jazz again with another thrift store purchase. I didn’t know this artist either but I seem to have good luck taking a chance on these purchases. The album is “The Don Elliott Quintet” by The Don Elliott Quintet from 1954. I know the album title isn’t very original.
There were some nice tracks to choose from but I selected the second track this time from the first side. Here’s the The Don Elliott Quintet with “Five O’Clock Whistle”:
The last album is one I really enjoy. It’s got a nice swing to it and the artist was again unknown to me. The artist is Harold Betters and the album is “Out Of Sight & Sound”
I chose the song “Sweetheart” from this album because right from the get-go it grabbed me. Another great thrift store find.
That’s the twelve records for this time. Do yourself a favour and seek out some of these artists or take a chance on some unknown artists when you find their records in a thrift store bin. You might just be surprised! Stay tuned. I have another batch of records from the past year featuring some more great artists. Lucky you. Lucky me.
This blahg will probably not make any sense unless you have seen/read my previous blahgTHE FALSE DUCKS VIDEO BLAHG #4: OH, DIDN’T I RAMBLE. In that blahg, I rambled about a number of things that I wanted to talk about this year. This blahg will unpack some of those topics and will show how I’m doing this year with some of my projects. There will be images, videos, and music, so I’d stick around if I were you. That wasn’t meant to be a threat but hey, what are you going to do about it? No, not you, I’m talking to the person standing behind you. Made you look!
In case you skipped reading the aforementioned blahg, here’s the video so you can see what I’m talking about:
At one point in that video I show the cuckoo clock that my mother gave me about five or six years ago which means it’s probably closer to 7 years ago. It has been in a box by my desk since then and I decided to finally tackle the project of restoring the clock. Here’s a front image of the clock before I began working on it:
Notice that the door is missing at the top, the wooden balcony is missing below the dancers, and the Fraulein on the right at the bottom is also missing. I had all of those parts but they still needed to be attached. Here’s a shot of the inside of the clock:
The picture of the inside was taken after I had removed the inside mechanism and cleaned it up and then replaced everything. I had not removed the bellows but you can see that the top parts of the bellows are missing. Below are some pictures of one of the bellows removed, the clockworks after it had been removed, as well as a shot of the clock housing when the mechanism was removed:
These were the only photos I took of the restoration. Luckily, I did video document the repairs and you can see in the video below the complete restoration.
In the video, I mention two companies where I purchased parts for the clock. If you want to purchase parts in Canada, try: https://perrinwatchparts.com and in the United States try https://www.clockworks.com/. There are some very good videos about cuckoo clock repair and one in particular that I found helpful was the one below:
Moving on…In my ramble I also mentioned some books that I want to read. I detailed how I had ordered a book called “How To Be Topp.” Let me back up a bit and detail something else that I explained in the video. Every Christmas I read from a book called “Happy Christmas.” It is a book compiled by William Kean Seymour and John Smith. From the dust-jacket: “The contents have been drawn from English prose and poetry, from Elizabethan times to the present day.” The “present day” being 1968 when it was first printed or 1978 when it was reprinted. I would check out this book every year from the Picton library until one year my wife found it in the school library where she was working. Either they were getting rid of it or she liberated it. Regardless, I’m glad to own it.
There are several stories and poems that I enjoy reading from the collection and some are excerpts from books that I’ve never read or never known existed. One of the entries that always intrigued me was “Ding-Dong Farely Merily For Xmas” from Geoffrey Willans’ “How to be Topp.” The excerpt on the right, which will enlarge if you click on it, is the first page of the teaser. The teaser being that the short excerpt is only three pages. I’ve always wondered what the entire book would be like. This year, I decided to steam full ahead and ordered a paperback copy of “How to be Topp.” Both the hardcover and paperback are out of print but the a used copy of the book was a lot less than the hardcover and easier to obtain. The images below are of the front cover and explanations on the inside from the editor and the author:
I haven’t got around to reading it yet but it’s on my list to read after the current book I am reading which was also mentioned in my ramble.
Back in 1990 I started reading a short story published in either Canadian Author and Bookman or Canadian Forum. I don’t know if I ever finished reading the story but because it was a library copy, and I couldn’t check it out, they allowed me to photocopy the pages. I have kept those pages and over the years thought often about trying to find the novel from which the story was an excerpt. Somewhere along the way, I lost one of the pages of the story and this past Christmas I decided to pull out what I had in an effort to track down the original novel. Below are images of the two pages I photocopied back in December of 1990. Again, click on each for a larger image.
I finally ordered a hardcover copy of the book “Roses Are Difficult Here” by W.O. Mitchell.
It’s the story of a small prairie town in Canada through the eyes of the editor of the local paper. I’m about 100 pages in, without having encountered the excerpts from above, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the book. It’s well written with small town humour and quirky characters. I highly recommend it even though I haven’t finished it yet.
Next up I want to go back to some of the albums I mentioned in my ramble video. Over this past year it has been a treat to get out to thrift shops when they’ve been open. I find myself always pouring through their used records and I’ve picked up quite a few jazz albums over the past year. I’ll have to create another blahg just to talk about some of those acquisitions but right now I’m just going to address those featured in the ramble.
“Lance (Easton) Harrison, saxophonist, clarinetist, banjoist, singer, entertainer (born 23 June 1915 in Vancouver, BC; died 26 November 2000 in Langley, BC).
Lance (Easton) Harrison, saxophonist, clarinetist, banjoist, singer, entertainer (born 23 June 1915 in Vancouver, BC; died 26 November 2000 in Langley, BC). At first a banjoist and guitarist, Harrison switched to saxophone in his teens and played in the Vancouver dance bands of Trevor Page, Sandy DeSantis, and Dal Richards. After service during World War II in RCAF dance and show bands, he was a sideman for over 20 years in Vancouver pit, dance, and hotel orchestras.
In 1950 he also began leading his own dixieland band, which was heard on the CBC, both in variety series – eg, ‘Hotel Downbeat’ (radio), ‘The Twenties Roar’ (radio), ‘Some of Those Days’ (TV, summers 1961-6) – and on jazz programs. It also performed in Vancouver clubs (eg, Pillar and Post), on the Vancouver Island ferries, and, during the 1980s, at Troller’s Pub, Horseshoe Bay. Members of the band included the trumpeters Stew Barnett or Don Clark, the trombonist Jack Fulton, the pianist Bud Henderson, and the bassist Stan Johnson. It made several CBC broadcast recordings, including The Lance Harrison Dixieland Band (1965, RCI 263), as well as two commercial LPs, The Vancouver Scene (1965, RCA PCS-1043) and Happy Jazz (1972, Water St 1636).
Harrison was a convincing exponent of the dixieland and swing styles; his tenor saxophone style reflected the particular influence of Eddie Miller. Although Harrison rarely performed outside the Vancouver area, he was featured in the CBC TV special ‘A Visit to New Orleans,’ filmed during a trip to the birthplace of jazz in 1971, and he appeared with the US cornetist ‘Wild Bill’ Davison during club engagements made in Toronto and Ottawa in 1983. His band performed occasionally during the 1990s, and Harrison in 1994 joined the ensemble Red Beans and Rice, with Rice Honeywell, with whom he recorded the CD Runnin’ Wild in 1996. Harrison was a member of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame.”
Here’s a partial scan of the back cover:
If you click on the image you will get a much larger scan of the cover and can read the cover notes and the track listings. I don’t mind posting a couple of tracks here because this album is not on CD and this gives you a chance to sample the LP in case you’re thinking about tracking it down. First up is “Ya Gotta Know How To Love”:
I believe that’s Lance Harrison on vocals on “Ya Gotta Know How To Love”. Regarding the song, Lance Harrison mentions in the jacket notes that he first heard that song performed by the Denza Dance Band and that he still owns the Gene Austin 78rpm record of that song. For the record, sorry about that pun, here’s a Youtube video/audio of Gene Austin’s version from 1926
The second track I’ll present from “The Vancouver Scene” is a swinging version of “At The Jazz Band Ball”:
If anyone is interested in hearing more tracks from this fabulous album then let me know and I’ll post some tracks.
The second album that I mention in my ramble video is “and now in person Jonah Jones.” This album is from 1966 and was “Recorded Live at the Crescendo On Hollywood’s Fabulous Sunset Strip” This is another LP that I don’t believe has had a CD release. Jonah Jones and his Quartet swing some great songs on this album with Jonah doing some vocals. Here’s a scan of the back cover. Remember to click on the image to see a larger scan.
The first track I have chosen from the album is “From This Moment On”. The band is really swinging on this one.
I really like Jonah Jones and his quartet. I have a couple of their other albums that I’ll have to dig out. Finishing, up with this album, I’ve chosen another track from the first side of the album. This time it’s the old chestnut “I Can’t Get Started.”
The third album that I mention in the video is “Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – B Sides and Bonus Songs”. Here are shots of the front and back covers:
I haven’t listened to this album yet but I wouldn’t post tracks here because this is a new album and I don’t want to violate any copyrights. I did get to see Nathaniel Rateliff in concert in Toronto last year with my son and NR was great. He appeared this past weekend, February 13th as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live so I’ll link to two videos of his performances. The first is the song “Redemption” which is a new song featured in the film “Palmer”:
The second is “A Little Honey” and it’s Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats:
“A Little Honey” is off the 2018 album “Tearing At The Seams”. Check out everything you can by Nathaniel Rateliff. He’s a talented artist and his solo album from 2020 “And It’s Still Alright” is a gem I particularly enjoy the song “Rush On” from that album. Here’s the video for “Rush On”:
Stepping back to jazz, I’m going to talk about an album that I didn’t mention in my ramble. This album was either one I had ordered and was expecting in the mail or was ordered after I recorded my ramble video. I’m a fan of another jazz trumpeter, Billy Butterfield. Back in December of 1978 Billy Butterfield appeared at the Manassas Jazz Festival in Manassas, Virginia. The label, Fat Cat’s Jazz, released an album called “Swinging At The Elks’, Billy Butterfield and his World Class Jazz Band”. I received the album a couple of weeks ago and was very excited to listen to it. Here’s a scan of the back cover:
Researching a little further, I found that there was another Youtube video from the Manassas Jazz Festival on December 3rd, 1978 featuring the songs SOMEDAY SWEETHEART / STARDUST / COTTON TAIL / & SINGIN’ THE BLUES. Here’s that video:
So where did that leave me with the album “Swinging At The Elks'”? Well, if you read the back cover, there is one song on the album from December 2nd, 1978 with the following musicians: Billy Butterfield, Mason Thomas (clt), Spencer Clark (bass sax), Bill Allred (tbn), Larry Eanet (piano), Paul Langosch (str. bass), Cliff Leeman (drs). That song is “Carolina In The Morning”:
I don’t know if Billy Butterfield played any other songs on December 2nd, 1978 at the Manassas Jazz Festival but with the two videos above and the one track from the album, we are treated to 11 songs from Billy Butterfield at the Festival. I guess the album purchase was worth it for that one song from December 2nd, 1978.
Before I conclude this blahg, I want to comment on one of the Blu-Rays featured in the ramble and one that was not. I won’t comment on “Fedora” directed by Billy Wilder. I haven’t watched it yet but friend Bryan has and he really enjoyed it. I want to, however, comment on two ClassicFlix releases. The one featured in my ramble video was the Blu-Ray release of “Africa Screams” with Abbott and Costello. This film has never looked so good and the extras include some sketches from their appearances on the Colgate Comedy Hour as well a radio show from May 5, 1948 with Bela Lugosi, and an Abbott and Costello 3-D comic (on screen) and a pair of 3D glasses. There are other nice extras but you’ll have to purchase it to find out more.
ClassicFlix also released another film on DVD and Blu-Ray that I did not mention in my ramble. For a long time I have had a gap in my Laurel and Hardy collection and my Harry Langdon collection. That one film is Zenobia from 1939. For what it’s worth, here’s the information from Wikipedia:
Zenobia is one of the few films after the teaming of Laurel and Hardy that features Hardy without Stan Laurel, the result of a contract dispute between Laurel and producer Hal Roach, who maintained separate contracts for each performer, rather than a team contract, which would have offered them more control over their careers. Zenobia was Roach’s attempt to create a new comedic pair without Laurel, and a series of films with Hardy and Langdon was planned. The dispute was short-lived, however, and Laurel and Hardy were reunited shortly thereafter.
The film was issued in 1997 by Video Treasures on VHS as part of the Laurel & Hardy Classic Collection. I owned all of the Laurel & Hardy VHS issues in that series and gradually disposed of them one by one as they became released on DVD. The exception was, of course, Zenobia, which I held onto until ClassicFlix released the film on DVD & Blu-Ray in November of last year. I had ordered it and forgot about it until it arrived after my ramble video. The only extras on the film are a Restoration Comparison and some other ClassicFlix trailers. The film itself is the gem here. I have never seen it look so good and it’s a cute little film with both stars. I highly recommend it.
Finally, I want to give another shout out to the people who restored “Africa Screams.” I mention in my ramble video that they’re working on restoring “Jack and the Beanstalk” with Abbott and Costello. I’ve already donated to it but if you really want to support a worthwhile project, check out their Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dfilmarchive/help-restore-abbott-and-costellos-jack-and-the-beanstalk. They’ve already reached their goal but with extra money they can always include extra content. “Jack and the Beanstalk” has been in public domain with so many bad image DVD releases. This is the chance to see this film restored to how those two great comics would have wanted us to see it.
So there’s the ramble unpacked. I’ve addressed most of everything I mentioned in the video as well as a few other things. I think I’ve also rambled enough for this blahg. Until next time…Scott out.
Well, here we go with the third and final in a series of blahgs where I try to trace musical star Linda Keene through the media. If you haven’t read the first two parts, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 1: THE FLORENCE SUTTLE YEARS or TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 2: THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE then do yourself a favour and stop now and check out those two blahgs. If you’ve arrived here or returned here after reading the first two parts then you know I’m trying to trace the life of the great but forgotten singer Linda Keene through her notices, reviews, advertisements, and photos in the media. This post will have a great surprise at the end and if you want to skip ahead to check it out, I wouldn’t blame you but I’m hoping you stick it through from the beginning. This blahg will pick up where the last one left off but a quick word about the title. I can’t tell you that right now but when you get to the end, and the big reveal, you will understand the title. I think it’s a more respectful title to end this final blahg on tracing Linda Keene.
1946
When I last left off, Linda Keene was finishing up 1945 at the Village Vanguard in New York. In February of 1945 she had also recorded the last of her official recordings supervised by her good friend Leonard Feather with a group of musicians including Charlie Shavers on trumpet and Red Norvo on vibes. Linda had once toured with Norvo and was at Kelly’s Stable in 1944 with Charlie Shavers. The sum total of her official recordings were 21 songs starting with her first recording of “Blue and Disillusioned” with Bobby Hackett’s band in November of 1938 through recordings with Jack Teagarden in 1939, Lennie Hayton also in late 1939 and again in early 1940, a single with Tony Pastor in 1941, a 78rpm album containing six vocals from Linda with Henry Levine and his band in February of 1942, then two recordings with Joe Marsala in November 1944, followed by the last recordings in 1945 with Charlie Shavers, Red Norvo, and group. There were also three Soundies with Levine in 1942; which you will understand if you checked out part two of this blahg series. There were no further orchestra or band affiliations by the end of 1945 and all of Linda’s future appearances would be club dates.
I’m not sure when her engagement at the Village Vanguard came to an end. Billboard reviewed her there on December 19th, also see part two of my Linda Keene series, and mentioned she went into the Village Vanguard on the 18th. Variety failed to mention her in the Variety Bills section for the whole month of December. The last listing for the Village Vanguard in the December 26, 1945 issue of Variety looked liked this:
The January 2nd issue of Variety had the following billing for the Village Vanguard for the week of January 3rd:
Variety would carry the same billing well into February with only a slight change-up in their February 27th issue for the week of the 28th:
The last Village Vanguard billing listed in Variety that carried Linda Keene’s name was in the March 13th, 1946 issue for the week of March 14th:
It looked like a very long engagement for Linda Keene at the Village Vanguard from December 18th, 1945 to mid-March 1946.
The first newspaper notice for Linda Keene in 1946 appeared in the Daily News (New York, New York) on January 20, 1946:
This was a radio listing for an appearance for Linda Keene on a radio program called “Battle of Music.” Further research turned up an article in The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) also on January 20th:
That article from The Times Dispatch explains a little of the format of Classical vs. Pop tunes. We also learn that Linda Keene, misspelled here as Linda Keane, sang “My Guy’s Come Back” and “Blues in the Night” backed by Ken Delmar. A similar article would appear in the Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, on January 26th:
I checked the radio listings for January 26th in Indianapolis and the show aired from 6 to 6:30pm on WIRE 1430. This means that if the show aired six days after the initial airing on January 20th then there must have been a transcription recording of the program to air on the later dates. I have yet to find a transcription for the program. I have also found this program listed as the “RCA Show”, “RCA Victor Show”, and “RCA Victor Program”. Of the two songs sung by Linda Keene, “Blues In The Night” is the more famous of the two, having been written in 1942 with an excellent recording in the same year by Dinah Shore. “My Guy’s Come Back” was written in 1945 by Ray McKinley and Mel Powell with three recordings of the song made in the same year. Liza Morrow recorded it with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, while another recording was of Helen Forrest with Mannie Klein’s Orchestra, and Dinah Shore also recorded this one with Russ Case and his Orchestra. You can view/hear all three recordings on YouTube:
“My Guy’s Come Back” is an interesting swing tune so I wonder what Linda Keene would have done with it. “Blues In The Night” certainly would have been more suited to her.
A very small but interesting article appeared in the New York Daily News on January 29th, 1946 shortly after Linda Keene’s appearance on “Battle of Music.” It seems that Linda Keene, who was credited at being at the Village Vanguard, was being considered for Dick Kollmar’s new musical, “Windy City.” Unfortunately, Linda was either busy or was not offered a part. The musical would play at the Shubert Theater in late April 1946 in Philadelphia and would be reviewed in the May 6th edition of Billboard:
It is probably a good thing that Linda Keene stayed on at the Village Vanguard. According to the website, http://operetta-research-center.org/world-premiere-recording-walter-jurmanns-windy-city/, “Windy City opened in New Haven on April 18, 1946, in Philadelphia on April 23, in Boston on April 30, and in Chicago on May 16. Per usual during this out-of-town tryout period, the book was tweaked and songs were added, subtracted, and shifted around. The 12-day gap between the May 4 closing in Boston and the Chicago opening was necessitated by a major overhaul of the script and the attendant extra rehearsal time.” Apparently the musical play was not well received and didn’t last long in Chicago. From the same website, the poster below is from the play’s run at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut on April 18, 1946. I guess there was more than one Shubert Theatre where this play ran.
If we assume that Linda Keene finished at the Village Vanguard sometime during the middle of March then the next big announcement for her came about a week later. The Hanover Evening Sun, Hanover, PA on March 23rd carried a small article about some upcoming changes due for Kelly’s Stable in New York. Kelly’s Stable had undergone some changes to expand seating and would reopen on April 4th, 1946 with Linda Keene in the lineup. A week later on March 30th, the Hanover Evening Sunaffirmed that the reopening with Linda Keene was still set for April 4th adding the names of Nan Blackstone, The Osmund Sisters, and Nellie Hill. Despite the two articles stating that Linda Keene would take part in the reopening of Kelly’s Stable, Variety did not list her among the first week performers.
Billboard published a review of the reopening in the April 13th edition but Linda Keene is not mentioned. Nan Blackstone gets a good nod and Nellie Hill, who wasn’t listed in the Variety roster for the first week of April also is reviewed. Variety did include Linda Keene’s name in their performer list for Kelly’s Stable for the week of April 11th.
Billboard also published another review of Kelly’s Stable in their April 27th edition and specifically singled out Linda Keene; even if they did misspell her last name as “Kean.”
Variety would continue to list Linda Keene among the performers at Kelly’s Stable in the May 1st, 8th, and 15th editions. Gone was Nan Blackstone but Rex Stewart’s Orchestra had been added. Linda Keene’s name was also appearing in ads for Kelly’s Stable published in the Princeton Daily Princetonian, Princeton, New Jersey on May 3rd and May 10th:
However, by the time of the May 22nd, 1946 edition of Variety, Linda Keene was not in their review of Kelly’s Stable and Rex Stewart’s Orchestra had moved on as well.
Neither Variety or Billboard would carry any club reviews or route information for Linda Keene for the rest of 1946. At some point, however, Linda was at the Little Casino in New York’s Greenwich Village in June of that year. Down Beat made a mention of it in their June 3rd edition.
Nothing is noted of Linda Keene after that until a small notice appears in The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) on August 9th. Linda Keene opened at the Blackamoor Room in Miami for two weeks, closing on August 22nd. Linda had last made an appearance in Florida on April 27th, 1942 with Tony Pastor and His Orchestra. Linda would receive some good press throughout her engagement at the Blackamoor but the advertisement that ran in Miami newspapers would not mention her appearance.
Linda Keene’s run at the Blackamoor, as mentioned, generated some generally good press with at least one featuring her picture:
The Miami News (Miami, Florida), August 10, 1946
There were some good reviews as well of Linda at the Blackamoor. On August 14th, The Miami Herald praised her singing:
It’s interesting that the reviewer mentions Linda Keene’s recordings of “Unlucky Woman” and “Blow-Top Blues” both on the Victor label. This was wrong on two accounts. First, “Unlucky Woman” was recorded by Linda Keene with Joe Marsala and His Orchestra on November 29th, 1944 for the Black & White label. Second, Linda did not record “Blow-Top Blues.” It was a tune written by her friend Leonard Feather and Linda had been singing it for a while, including during her engagement at the Village Vanguard in New York in December of 1945 which was reviewed in Billboard and included in my last blahg TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 2: THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE. I could add third, Linda had not recorded for the Victor label since February of 1942 with Henry Levine. Note that the Miami News article from August 10th, with Linda’s picture, also mentioned “she has new recordings set for the market.” I can find no other recordings for Linda that had been produced in 1946.
Other reviews of Linda at the Blackamoor also praised her singing and mentioned songs she was performing. The one on the left from the Miami News on August 16th mentions her singing “Somebody Loves Me” and “Someone To Watch Over Me” which were two of the six tunes she recorded with Henry Levine in February of 1942. I’m not sure what the song “Hold Me Close” refers to. It could be the song “La Vie En Rose” which was written in 1945 and was popular throughout 1946 and well associated with Édith Piaf. It contains the lyrics “Hold me close and hold me fast. The magic spell you cast This is la vie en rose.” I’m not familiar with the song “I Just Can’t Help Myself.” This too, could be a misquoted title where the lyrics contained the phrase “I Just Can’t Help Myself.” It’s odd that the Miami News gave a positive nod to Bernie Bennett’s accompaniment of Linda Keene but the August 21st Miami Herald didn’t care for Bennett’s Orchestra.
While performing at the Blackamoor, Linda Keene was also called upon to make a personal appearance with Bernie Bennett at a local hospital:That article appeared in the August 18th, Miami Herald. The last significant article mentioning Linda Keene appeared in The Miami News on August 21st. Billy Lowe was the male singer talent at the Blackamoor while Linda Keene was appearing there. The article mentions that “Billy Lowe met Linda Keene five years ago in Erie, Pa.,” where she had been singing at a local club and Lowe was appearing with Frankie Masters’ Orchestra. I tried to trace the exact time that Billy Lowe and Linda Keene might have appeared five years earlier at separate venues in Erie, Pennsylvania. Frankie Masters’ Orchestra was appearing at venues in Pennsylvania in July of 1941 but none of the advertisements or articles mentioned Billy Lowe. Most articles suggested that Lowe didn’t join up with Masters until the summer/fall of 1941. I did find an advertisement from the Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) from October 30th, 1942 that put Masters and Lowe in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the end of October 1942:
Linda Keene was not in Pennsylvania at that time. Linda was in Cincinnati, Ohio at The Patio for two weeks opening on October 19th and closing on November 1st. Billy Lowe’s memory might have been faulty on the year or it might have been another city or a different month in 1942 or possibly 1943. Starting January 18th, 1943 Linda was featured at the Tropical Room of the Hotel Bolton in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, ending on January 24th. I could find no recordings of Lowe with Masters but Phyllis Myles who also appeared with Frankie Masters was married to Masters. Here’s a nice recording of Myles with Masters on their March 31st, 1947 version of “If This Isn’t Love”:
Linda Keene’s last notice in Floridas was from the August 23rd Miami Herald when it was announced that Marcia Carroll was replacing her that night at the Blackamoor.
Just over two weeks after Linda Keene finished at the Blackamoor in Miami, she headed north and crossed into Canada to Gatineau, Quebec. On Saturday, September 7th, the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, ran an advertisement for the Gatineau Club noting that Linda Keene would start on the Monday, September 9th. Gatineau is directly across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Ontario about ten kilometres or six miles away. On September 10th, the Ottawa Citizen ran a nice picture and article of Linda Keene at the Gatineau Club:
I’m not sure where the Ottawa Citizen obtained the information that Linda Keene was primarily remembered as a vocalist with Artie Shaw. In my previous blahg I posted the article to the right as a wire service article from February of 1942 that stated that Linda Keene had turned down an offer from Artie Shaw. At least The Ottawa Citizen was correct about her appearance on the “Strictly From Dixie” program.
A similar advertisement with picture appeared in the Citizen on September 11th and 12th.
This certainly was a better ongoing advertisement than the one that appeared during her time at the Blackamoor. Linda’s initial run at the Gatineau Club was for a week but was extended. On September 19th the Ottawa Citizen noted in the new ad for the Gatineau Club that everyone had been held over. Her two week engagement likely ended on September 23rd, which coincidentally is my Birthday, as new shows generally started on Mondays and she would have closed on the Sunday the 23rd.
Before I move on to Linda Keene’s next appearance in 1946, I want to post a Soundies review from the September 9th, 1946 Billboard.
“Soundies are three-minute American musical films, produced between 1940 and 1947, each containing a song, dance, and/or band or orchestral number. Produced professionally on 35mm black-and-white film, like theatrical motion pictures, they were printed in the more portable and economical 16mm gauge.
The films were shown in a coin-operated “movie jukebox” called the Panoram, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago. Each Panoram housed a 16mm RCA film projector, with eight Soundies films threaded in an endless-loop arrangement. A system of mirrors flashed the image from the lower half of the cabinet onto a front-facing screen in the top half. Each film cost 10 cents to play, and there was no choice of song; the patron saw whatever film was next in the queue. Panorams could be found in public amusement centers, nightclubs, taverns, restaurants, and factory lounges, and the films were changed weekly. The completed Soundies were generally made available within a few weeks of their filming, by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America.”
Linda Keene made three Soundies with Henry Levine and his Jazz Band in the spring of 1942, “Ja-Da”, “Frankie and Johnny”, and “When My Sugar Walks Down The Street.” The Billboard review above gives us the program of Soundies that included “When My Sugar Walks Down The Street”. If you wanted to see that particular one, you had to watch all of the ones that preceded it in the program and the one that followed. I thought it would be interesting to recreate that Soundie program by posting each here for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately I could not find the Soundie for “I Left My Heart In Texas” by Chuck Foster but I did find a video of a live remote (audio only) of that song by Foster:
Unfortunately, I could not find “Dinty McGinty” featuring Johnny Woods with the Bailey Axton Trio. If anyone can locate it, please let me know.
After “Dinty McGinty” of course was “When My Sugar Walks Down The Street” with Linda Keene and Henry Levine.
After Linda Keene came Dorothy Drew dancing to the accompaniment of Dardanelle and her Boys on “Happy Cat”. The version here appears to be abridged:
Following “Happy Cat” came Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra” playing “Smiles” while Sunnie O’Dea danced:
Finally, if you got through all of those then you were treated to “We’re The Village Fire Brigade” by the Music Mixers. Alas, that Soundie is also not available for viewing. Program 1244 of Soundies was probably a repackaging because Linda Keene’s effort was from 1942 as was “I’d Love To Know You Beter” and “Smiles”, “I Left My Heart In Texas” was from 1945, while “Dingty McGinty”, “Happy Cat” and “The Village Fire Brigade” were relatively new for 1946. As always, “The Soundies Book” by Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda is a great resource. Clearly by 1946, Soundies were coming to an end and repackaging of the new with the old was a way to keep things going. According to MacGillivray and Okuda:
“Soundies’ flurry of activity in 1946 was not sufficient to keep the company solvent, and the Soundies Distributing Corporation discontinued operations. William Forest Crouch tried to keep the brand name going himself, doing business as Soundies Films, Inc. and applying for Soundies copyrights in 1947. His last few Soundies, released in March 1947 were cobbled together from cutting-room film clips.”
In October of 1946, Linda Keene’s name appeared in The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) on October 14th. The advertisement was a novelty advertisement for the Club Charles using all of the letters of that name to spell out reasons to attend performances at the Club. “B” was for Breath-taking Linda Keene sings. The highlight of the show was of course Billy Vine, comic, who featured prominently in the advertisement in The Evening Sun on October 15th when the show opened:
Billy Vine would be featured in other Club Charles advertisements until he closed on October 28th. Linda was not mentioned in any other advertisements but it’s possible she was only there for the two weeks. Linda had last appeared at the Club Charles in January of 1945 and before that in mid-June of 1943. Down Beat made note of her appearance in their October 21st issue and the fact that her hair color had changed. As for Billy Vine, he would die of a heart attack in 1958 at the age of 44.
Media references for Linda Keene were difficult to find over the next year. I could find nothing for her for the remainder of 1946 and it was well into 1947 before I could find her name in print again.
1947
By 1947, Linda Keene’s fame was on the decline. She may have been playing club dates but the media coverage of her appearances were difficult to locate. She had not made a recording since February of 1945 and her radio appearances had dwindled as well. The only radio appearances I could document prior to 1947 had been her appearance in January of 1946 on “Battle of Music” and before that her last guest spot had been on “Everything For The Girls” back in December of 1944. Her screen-test in 1944 had not produced a film career, Soundies were fading fast and she hadn’t made a new one of those since 1942, and her consideration for musicals such as “Windy City” failed to produce results. The remainder of Linda Keene’s career that produced any media coverage was her club work.
The next notice for Linda Keene was not until July of 1947. The only print that Linda Keene would receive from Billboard magazine in 1947 was the one from July 26th when they mentioned her as part of the program at the Susie Q club. What Billboard failed to mention was that the Susie Q was on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Linda Keene was back on the west coast for the first time since early of 1944 where she was playing at the Little Club in Hollywood. The same day, July 26th, that Billboard had the notice for Linda at the Susie Q, an advertisement for her appearance ran in The Los Angeles Times. This same advertisement was published in the August 2nd edition of the Los Angeles Times suggesting another two week engagement.
Why was Linda Keene back on the West Coast in July of 1947? The major clue comes from Opal L. Nations’ article “Unlucky Woman – The Story of Linda Keene.”
“A later report in Down Beat announced that Keene had married Burleigh Smith in Shreveport, Louisiana on February 12th, 1947 and that they had both settled down in Los Angeles. Smith was a long-established radio announcer. They found a new manager named Stillman Pond who worked tirelessly on Keene’s behalf. The entertainment business was changing. A film short called “Bitter Street” and a feature film with Bob Crosby with the working title ‘Champagne for Everybody’ fizzled out at the last moment. Her second marriage lasted only a year.”
The article mentions a marriage to Burleigh Smith in Shreveport Louisiana on February 12th, 1947 but a search of the Shreveport newspapers from that time failed to produce any results. This was, of course, not her second marriage because her first had been to Spurgeon Suttle in September of 1931 and there was a second marriage that lasted four days in September of 1944. Opal Nations’ article does clarify that Linda and Burleigh had taken up residence in Los Angeles which explains why Linda Keene was appearing at the Susie Q. Down Beat would also post a photo and article of Linda Keene in their August 27th, 1947 edition, noting that Linda was out of the Suzie Q and waiting for her next engagement:
Down Beat would report in their September 10th issue on some problems at the Suzie Q and why Linda Keene was no longer there:
Opal Nations’ made reference to Linda’s new manager, Stillman Pond and a short film to star Linda called “Bitter Street”. On September 11th, 1947, the California Eagle (Los Angeles, California) published an article about a party recently held by Stillman Pond with Linda Keene as guest of honor. The article mentions “Bitter Street” and some other projects being considered for Linda Keene:
Of course, we already know that “Bitter Street” was never made but it’s interesting to note that Linda Keene was being considered for a feature entitled “My Old Flame” and another short called “Black Night and Fog”. Sam Coslow, who accompanied Linda Keene when she sang “My Old Flame” at the party, was co-author of the song with Arthur Johnston. The song was first recorded by Mae West in 1934 and was obviously still getting traction in 1947. Charlie Barnet, with whom Linda had been linked to in 1941, actually released a version in 1947 with Jean Louise doing the vocals:
“My Old Flame” was a great ballad and I think Linda Keene would have performed a great version of the standard. There was no film produced with the title of “My Old Flame” nor a short with a title “Black Night And Fog.” There was a song from around that time with the title “Black Night And Fog” attributed to Boyd Raeburn and his Orchestra. There exists a radio transcription of “Black Night And Fog” from 1946 by Boyd Raeburn and his Orchestra with vocal by David Allyn:
It is an interesting blues type ballad which might have suited Linda Keene but there is no evidence she ever sang it in any of her club appearances. It seems that the only thing that resulted from Stillman Pond’s party was the news article above and the following photo that appeared in the California Eagle (Los Angeles, California) on September 18th, 1947:
Down Beat would also cover the party in their September 24th, 1947 issue:
The notices for Linda Keene at the Susie Q were the last notices for 1947 that I could find for her with the exception of an article in the September 3rd edition of Variety. The article was primarily about vocalist Bob Davey and his upcoming radio program, “The Blues and Bob.” It was going to have a format similar to the “Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street” and would include Linda Keene on the program. I searched extensively but could find no reference to Bob Davey and certainly listings for “The Blues and Bob” on old time radio sites failed to turn up anything. Another potential project for Linda Keene that failed to materialize.
1948
Again, the notices for Linda Keene were sparser and sparser. She may have been working but she certainly wasn’t getting the coverage she would get in previous years. Her first media coverage in 1948 was probably one she really didn’t want. On March 6th, 1948, wire services were carrying notices that Linda Keene was divorcing Burleigh Smith. Down Beat from April 21st, 1948 made reference in two articles to the divorce and that Linda had travelled to New York. Following that announcement, Linda Keene is located the following month back on the East Coast playing at Bob Feldman’s Jazz Club in the Hotel Diplomat in New York. The advertisement to the right is from the Daily News (New York, New York) April 9th, 1948. Down Beat also ran an article about Linda’s appearance at the Diplomat in their April 21st, 1948 edition. The article to the left mentioned Linda as headliner on the previous Friday. It was probably referencing the Friday before that being April 9th which is when the advertisement above noted she was there. The following flyer card of her appearance at the Hotel Diplomat confirms the opening as April 9th, 1948:
The April 21st, 1948 edition of Down Beat also noted in their Band Routes section that Linda was also at the Club James at some point in April 1948:
Referring back to Opal Nations’ article he had this to say about Linda Keene after her marriage to Burleigh Smith came to an end:
“A final trip was made to New York. Work for Keene’s type of act was close to non-existent. She found one gig in Akron, Ohio after which she returned home to Los Angeles.”
The “gig in Akron” was at Senior’s Yankee Inn where she opened on June 14th, 1948. The article to the left and the advertisement for the opening night both come from the Akron Beacon Journal on June 14th. The advertisement prominently featured her name and stated that she had just come from the Blue Angel in New York.
I checked the New York papers as well as Billboard and Variety for the first six months of 1948 and Linda Keene was not listed in any of the advertisements or talent rosters for the Blue Angel. Other advertisements for Linda Keene at the Yankee Inn appeared in the Akron Beacon Journal on June 18th
and on June 23rd:
On June 25th the advertisement for the Yankee Inn had a new performer starting on the Monday, June 27th.
This was another two week engagement for Linda. She had played Akron before, both times at the Summit Beach Park. In September of 1935 she had appeared there with George Duffy and his Orchestra under her married name Florence Suttle and returned as Linda Keene in June of 1941 with Muggsy Spanier’s Orchestra. Both had been single night performances. It was no doubt better for her to have a two week run in Akron than having to pack up and change venues in different cities every night.
1949
It would be over a year after her Akron engagement at the Yankee Inn before I could trace Linda Keene again in the media. By July of 1949, she was back on the West Coast, in Los Angeles, and she was settling in for a two month stay at Larry Potter’s Supper Club. The advertisement below from the July 2nd, 1949 Los Angeles Times notes Linda Keene as a special added attraction opening July 5th .Linda Keene’s engagement at Larry Potter’s received notices from the July 5th opening to her September 5th closing. Below are some of the other advertisements that appeared during those two months:
The Los Angeles Times, August 20, 1949
The Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1949
The Los Angeles Times, September 3rd, 1949
On July 9th, 1949 Linda Keene made an appearance on KECA, a radio station in Los Angeles. The article on the right is from the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News (Hollywood, California) on July 9th and mentions her appearance along with Sidney Miller. When I checked the radio listings for KECA at 9pm on July 9th, the listing indicated the program was called “Buzz Adlam’s Playroom”. I could find no other information about her appearance or what songs she might have performed. Down Beat mentioned the Playroom appearance in their August 12th edition but also stated she had made a TV appearance as well with Don Otis. The article to the left is for the Don Otis appearance on June 21st, 1949 and appeared in that day’s Los Angeles Evening Citizen News.
On July 9th, the same day as Linda appeared on “Buzz Adlam’s Playroom”, Larry Potter’s ran the following advertisement in the Mirror News (Los Angeles, California):
The Mirror News (Los Angeles, California) also printed the following article to highlight Linda’s appearance at Larry Potter’s Supper Club:
Linda was still getting traction from her appearance with Glenn Miller more than a decade before. Of course her career had not started with Glenn Miller but Miller’s name was big enough that associating Linda Keene’s name with him was probably good for business.
During the latter half of her engagement at Larry Potter’s Supper Club, and sometimes after the engagement had concluded, a small wire service article would mention Linda Keene. I found this article appearing as late as September 18th in the Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, North Carolina), almost two weeks after Linda had left Larry Potter’s. I have tried to find some information on the song “Ingrid Couldn’t Help It” or a song that included those words in the lyrics but could find nothing. It’s interesting that Linda Keene was getting such odd press for her appearance at Larry Potter’s in Los Angeles in papers as far away as North Carolina. Was the significance the song or the singer?
It’s interesting to note that Linda Keene was mentioned in advertisements for Larry Potter’s in Los Angeles from July 5th to September 5th 1949 yet she was also advertised as appearing in Las Vegas in July at the Club Bingo. The following advertisement from the Las Vegas Review Journal, July 22nd, 1949, indicated that Linda Keene opened at the Club Bingo on July 22nd:
On July 25th, the Las Vegas Review Journal published a positive review for Linda Keene at the Club Bingo:
The only other reference for Linda at the Club Bingo was in the August 26th, 1949 issue of Down Beat and they once again focus on her hair color.
Another oddity, I will also throw in here was another wire service article making the rounds in mid-October. Arnold Ross was a jazz pianist living in California in the late 1940s. From 1944 to 1947 he worked with Harry James; around the same time he played with Harry Edison, Charlie Ventura, and Charlie Parker. He moved to California in 1947, working with Lena Horne, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Crosby, and Billy Eckstine, in addition to leading his own small group. I could find nothing else about the relationship between Linda Keene and Arnold Ross and whether the relationship was professional or personal.
On November 25, 1949, the Greensburg Daily News (Greensburg, Indiana), published a small article that Linda Keene was opening at The Blue Angel in San Francisco on December 1st. It seems that the Blue Angel used to be the Club Cortez. Down Beat, in the January 13, 1950 issue would explain that the Blue Angel opening was actually delayed by three weeks with Linda opening on December 23rd. Down Beat also mentioned her closing at the Blue Angel, ending her run on January 5th of 1950, with a small article in the February 10, 1950 issue. The reference to Reno is curious because I could find nothing else to suggest another marriage at that time.
1950
A new decade and Linda Keene was still out there trying. She was 38 years old by the end of 1949 and in a couple of years she would be 40. By 1950 she was on her own again without a husband, a movie career, new recordings, or a radio program. Television was in its infancy and offered lots of opportunity with variety show programming but there is no information that suggests Linda even tried television. Speaking of radio, her next media notice, and the first that I could find for 1950, was an odd article from the Broken Hill Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia on February 10, 1950. It was a notice for a radio program called “Ladies First” on which Linda Keene, Gracie Fields, and Vera Lynn would be heard. I could find no other information about the program and whether these were live performances or a disc-jockey spinning records by these three great ladies.
The same day that the Broken Hill Barrier Miner notice appeared on February 10, 1950, the Los Angeles Times reported that Linda Keene was back at Larry Potter’s Supper Club:
Linda had been at Larry Potter’s the previous year for a two month engagement from July 5th to September 5th, 1949. This time, she was only at at Larry Potter’s for two weeks from February 10th to 23rd. Linda would receive a good review from the Valley Times (North Hollywood, California), on the right, in their February 17th edition. As before, when she had performed at Larry Potter’s in 1949, small notices appeared again about a new song she was singing.Again, I have no idea what the song “Billy! Let Me Go!” refers to. As in 1949, this wire service notice ran during her engagement and into March, like the above notice from the Stephens Star, Stephens, Arkansas that appeared March 1st, 1950.
In April of 1950 Linda Keene was back in the newspaper again but not for any appearances. Linda Keene’s picture appeared in the The Los Angeles Times on April 29th along with her friend, comedienne Mable Todd. Linda was a witness who provided testimony in the divorce proceedings of Mable Todd against her husband Matthew Santino. Jumping ahead a bit, Mabel Todd and Linda Keene were linked again in a wire service article that ran in newspapers the week of June 10th. The article mentions a four week tour of hospital shows in Montana starring Keene and Todd. It’s odd that this article appeared in June but notes that Todd’s divorce wouldn’t be final until April. Was that the April that just passed or was she referring to April of 1951? Even odder is that Linda Keene was performing in Montana but it was in May of 1950 before this article appeared; suggesting the June article should have appeared in March or April of 1950.
Linda’s appearance in Montana was at the Legion Club in Great Falls, Montana.
Linda’s engagement at the Legion Club began on May 16th, as referenced in the advertisement above from the Great Falls Tribune (Great Falls, Montana) on that date. It’s interesting to note from the advertisement that she had appeared at “Cafe Society Uptown, Village Barn in New York, the Paddock Club and Bar of Music in Miami.” We know of course about her appearance at the Cafe Society Uptown in July of 1941 but nothing of the other venues. Perhaps the Village Barn is a reference to the Village Vanguard where she appeared in December of 1945. The advertisement also notes that she “comes directly from the Blue Angel in San Francisco” but that might have referred to her December 1949 engagement there. It’s also interesting that the advertisement makes reference to her USO work and that she received the Legion of Merit from the President. I can find no reference to her Legion of Merit but it’s possible. Linda’s appearance at the Legion Club was likely only for a week as there were no other advertisements after this one that appeared in the Great Falls Tribune on May 20th:
Linda and Mabel Todd did appear in Montana later in 1950 over the Labor Day Weekend. The following article appeared in The Western News from Libby, Montana, on September 7, 1950.
I had to cobble the article together from an article that was spread across three pages. Linda’s appearance in the stage show at the High School auditorium was summed up as “Linda Keene in the second spot earned some wolf calls as a sophisticated blues singer.” I could find no other information about the event or of any other appearance of Mabel Todd and Linda Keene in 1950.
1951
The next notice for Linda Keene wasn’t until well into 1951. In August of 1951 she was out in Colorado. The Greeley Daily Tribune out of Greeley, Colorado ran an advertisement on August 31st for the Rosedale Inn where Linda Keene’s name was spotted among the talent. The Greeley Daily Tribune would offer up this advertisement the next day on September 1st: Linda only appeared at the Rosedale Inn for a week from August 31st to September 6th. The Greeley Daily Tribune ran this advertisement on September 7th: For the record, the advertisement on September 8th, 1951 clarified that the “talented new artist” appearing on the bill with Paul Motley was Lou Lockwell, ‘spectacular performer on roller skates.’
The only other notice for 1951 appeared in the October 19th, 1951 issue of Down Beat. Apparently Linda was in Chicago and looking for club work. I could find no references to her club work in Chicago in the fall of 1951.
1953
After the October 1951 notice in Down Beat, I could find no other media notices for Linda Keene until the summer of 1953. I have searched through the back catalogue of available newspapers as well as issues of Billboard, Variety, and Down Beat for this period but found nothing for Linda Keene. At this point, her career was waning and she was relegated to club work where she was not the headliner in some cases. Sometimes she appeared in Canada, like the time she appeared at the Gatineau Club in Quebec. Just because I could find no notices for her from fall of 1951 to summer of 1953 doesn’t mean she wasn’t working. Her name just might not have been prominent but she was still receiving some notices. Referring back to Professor Eves Raja’s article, “Linda Keene, Her Elusive Fame”, he had this to say about this time period in her life:
Her manager Stillman Pond could not get her a break with the Hollywood studio establishment. Linda’s final entry in Down Beat came on Oct. 19, 1951…”Linda, after several years on the West Coast blew into Chicago and plans to stick around doing club work….Despite the positive reviews form her many admirers Linda’s career petered out in the early 1950s.”
Opal Nations’ article, ” ‘Unlucky Woman’ – The Story of Linda Keene”, concurred with Professor Raja regarding Linda’s 1950s work:
“…Down Beat Magazine reported the odd engagement Keene played in San Francisco and Las Vegas…Keene had moved to Chicago and was looking for work. She wound up living in Hollywood.”
By July of 1953, Linda Keene was once more on the East Coast, appearing this time at the Musi-Club in Troy, New York: I believe the opening date for Linda’s engagement at the Musi-Club was Friday, July 3rd, 1953 and the engagement ran well into August. By August 7th the line-up of talent had changed but Linda Keene was still in the mix: The same advertisement as the one above from the Troy Times Record, Troy, New York, would run up to Saturday, August 15th. It is likely that the engagement concluded on Thursday, August 27th.
The following month, September, Linda was still on the East Coast, appearing at the Hollywood Restaurant in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The advertisement below appeared in the The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) on September 21st.According to the advertisement, Linda opened on Monday, September 21st and appeared through Saturday, September 26th. All other advertisements for the Hollywood Restaurant for that week were the same as the one above. On September 28th, the Hollywood Restaurant advertisement still featured Jack Rossello but the vocalist spot had been replaced by Marsha Carrol.
In October of 1953 Linda was up in Providence, Rhode Island at the Hi-Way Casino. The following advertisement appeared in the Providence Journal on October 24th, 1953: Notice that Linda Keene was now being billed as Decca’s Great Blues Star. There is no evidence that Linda Keene ever recorded for the Decca label. I checked through all of the editions of the Providence Journal for the week preceding and the week following the above advertisement from October 24th but found no other advertisements for the Hi-Way Casino. Assuming that “Coming Monday”, which would have been Monday, October 26th, from the above advertisement suggests that the program changed on Mondays. From that, it is safe to assume that Linda Keene likely appeared at the Hi-Way Casino from October 19th to October 25th. By the way, Jack Soo, who started on the 26th, would go on to play the very funny character of Detective Sergeant Nick Yemana from 1975 to 1982 on the hilarious “Barney Miller” television show.
An an interesting article appeared in the The Oneonta Star (Oneonta, New York), on December 12th, 1953. Before commenting on Linda Keene at the Windsor, I want to highlight the statement “Linda is just back from the Copa in Montreal.” Given that the engagement at the Hi-Way Casino in Providence, Rhode Island ended on October 26th, I searched through English and French language newspapers in Montreal for any notices of Linda Keene’s appearance at the Copa. I could find nothing from the end of October through the first week of December. She might have been in Montreal but her run at the Copa failed to generate any noticeable press. I also checked all of the advertisements for Linda Keene at the Windsor Hotel in Oneonta, New York for the month of December but her name is not mentioned. Linda Keene’s name does appear in advertisements for the Windsor Hotel but not until January of 1954.
1954
The first advertisement for Linda Keene at the Windsor Hotel appeared in The Oneonta Star on January 2nd, 1954.
Other advertisements for the New Windsor Hotel noted that the program usually changed on a Friday. The Friday before the January 2nd, 1954 advertisement appeared was New Year’s Eve, December 31st, 1953. Here is the advertisement that appeared in the Oneonta Star on December 31st:
Note that Linda Keene’s name does not appear. The following day, Saturday, January 1st, 1954 was a holiday and the New Windsor Hotel was probably closed; making January 2nd, 1954, Linda Keene’s debut at the Hotel. Other advertisements that were published during Linda’s engagement at the New Windsor Hotel would prominently feature her name and picture:
Linda Keene appeared at the New Windsor Hotel from January 2nd to January 14th, with her last press appearing in the Troy Times Record, Troy, New York on January 11th. Despite a promise to revisit the issue of Blues music in a subsequent issue, I could find nothing for the remainder of January where the Troy Times Record revisited the subject.
After her January appearance at the New Windsor Hotel in Oneonta, New York, Linda Keene’s name is absent from any media I could find until late May of 1954. The Newburgh News on May 28, 1954 had her appearing at the Crystal Lake Restaurant in Newburgh, New York:
Linda had last played Newburgh for a one night only appearance at the Ritz Theatre on February 24th, 1942. The Crystal Lake Restaurant appearance likely began on May 28th, 1954 because it was a Friday evening. The Newburgh News was still advertising Linda at the Crystal Lake Restaurant as late as June 11th, 1954, suggesting a 2 or possible 3 week run in Newburgh:
The next news of Linda Keene was until August of 1954. On August 6th, the New York Daily News reported that Linda Keene was opening at the Blue Angel in New York. Linda Keene was supposedly last at the Blue Angel in May or June of 1948 but I could not find any media for that engagement. Linda’s return to the Blue Angel, and indeed New York, was so significant that the New York Daily News played it up in their August 14th edition and also included her picture:It might have been significant to the New York Daily News that Linda Keene was back in New York at the Blue Angel but neither Billboard or Variety would make any reference to her. Variety’s list of performers at the Blue Angel for August failed to mention Linda Keene at all. Linda’s engagement at the Blue Angel was likely for two weeks, ending on August 19th.
Linda continued working on the East Coast in the last half of 1954. She returned to Pittsfield, Massachusetts in November of 1954 at Frankie and Johnnie’s. The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) ran the advertisement below on November 1st, 1954:
When Linda performed in September of 1953 in Pittsfield, she was at the Hollywood Restaurant. In November of 1954 she was at Frankie and Johnnie’s which ironically was the name of one of the Soundies she filmed in 1942. This was a one week engagement ending on November 7th, 1954. On November 8th, the vocalist Lisa Mansfield would open at Frankie and Johnnie’s.
The night after closing at Frankie and Johnnie’s in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Linda was over in Utica, New York on November 8th opening at The Silver Rail.
The Utica Observer Dispatch made use of the New York Daily News August 14th edition that highlighted Linda Keene’s appearance at the Blue Angel. The same advertisement would appear in the Utica Observer Dispatch for Linda’s one week engagement that closed on November 14th, 1954.
1955
After Utica, New York in November of 1954, Linda was still performing in New York State in January of 1955. On January 24th, 1955 the Syracuse Herald Journal published an advertisement for Andre’s Tic-Toc Club in Syracuse, New York. Linda had last performed in Syracuse twenty years earlier in 1935, under her married name Florence Suttle, with George Duffy and his Orchestra at the Hotel Syracuse. Her engagement at Andre’s Tic-Toc Club would be for a week from January 24th to January 30th. Linda Keene would return again to the Tic-Toc Club but it wouldn’t be for another three years.
1958
Linda Keene’s career was most definitely slowing down. After the Tic-Toc Club appearance in Syracuse in January of 1955, I could not track her again until three years later when she was back on the West Coast. She was back at Larry Potter’s Supper Club in Los Angeles. It had been eight years since the last advertisement featuring Linda Keene at Larry Potter’s in 1950. Opening on March 7th, 1958, Linda Keene would appear through to March 27th. The above advertisement would appear every Friday from March 7th to March 21st in the Valley Times (North Hollywood, California). This would be Linda’s last advertisement that I could find on the West Coast.
Finally, Linda Keene returned to Andre’s Tic-Toc Club in Syracuse, New York. Three years had passed since her January 1955 appearance at the Tic-Toc Club. Her return engagement was for a week opening on April 28th, 1958.
This was not only Linda Keene’s last appearance on the East Coast that I could track, it was the last known advertisement or notice for Linda Keene anywhere. Essentially, after the 1958 Tic-Toc Club appearance, she disappeared from the media altogether.
It was inevitable that the the last media notice for Linda Keene would be her obituary. The November 7th, 1981 issue of Billboard mentioned her passing on October 23rd of that year. It is sad that it was so brief and also contained inaccuracies. Linda Keene was born Florence McCrory on December 1st, 1911 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This would have made her 69 years old at the time of her passing. Of course, according to Professor Raja, ““When Linda Keene arrived in Boston in the fall of 1937, she had convinced all those in the entertainment circles that she was 19 when her true age was actually 25.” Those five or six years that she shaved off her real age apparently never caught up to her even when she died. The other obvious error in the obituary was the misspelling of Bobby Hackett’s name as “Jackett.”
When I looked at that obituary there wasn’t a sense of completion that I had finally reached the end of my three part blahg series. What I felt was a sense of sadness. I thought I could write a better obituary than that. In fact, with this blahg series, I have. I traced Florence McCrory from her first notice regarding her High School graduation in 1929 through her marriage to Frank Suttle in September of 1931 and on to the beginnings of her career in Jackson, Mississippi in 1933. I followed her up to Detroit in 1934 and through 1935 and 1936 as she appeared throughout Ohio with her husband and bands lead by such people as Danny Rousseau, Bob Chester, George Duffy, Pinkey Hunter, Johnny Joyce, and Sam Jack Kaufman. I traced her back down to Birmingham, Alabama in May of 1936 where she appeared for two months at the Rex with Coleman Sachs and his Orchestra and then over to Atlanta, Georgia for an engagement at the Casa Loma with Buddy Fisher and his Swing Orchestra that was cut short after two weeks when the club was raided and shut down. At the end of 1936 Florence was in Philadephia at the 20th Century Club with Barney Zeeman and his Orchestra. Florence Suttle disappeared after that, only to reappear as Linda Keene with Nye Mayhew and his Orchestra at the Hotel Statler in the fall of 1937.
Tracing Linda Keene became much easier. Her career was on the rise with connections to such greats as Glenn Miller and Bobby Hackett in 1938. Linda even waxed her first recording with Hackett in November of 1938 on “Blue and Disillusioned.” This would be the first of 21 recordings from 1938 to 1945 with big names such as Jack Teagarden, Lennie Hayton, Tony Pastor, Henry Levine, Joe Marsala, and Charlie Shavers. She toured extensively with most of those bands and spent time as well fronting for orchestras and bands led by Scott Fisher, Red Nichols, Willie Farmer, Red Norvo, Muggsy Spanier, and supposedly Charlie Barnet. She took time out as well to appear in USO shows and had a successful nightclub career in the mid-1940s through the late 1950s on both the East and West Coasts of the USA and points in-between and up into Canada as well. Add to that, her three Soundies appearances with Henry Levine and radio appearances on “Strictly From Dixie” and “Club Matinee” then the sum or her career was more than could be noted in any obituary. As I said, these three blahgs are the best obituary I could write for Linda Keene.
I didn’t want to end this blahg on a sad note. Yes, it’s sad that Linda Keene didn’t have the fame she deserved but for a time, she was famous and continued to work and earn respect. I wish that I could find some of the radio programs she appeared on or any of the live remotes she did while touring with most of the bands I listed. I’ll keep looking. Both Professor Raja and Opal Nations alluded to some recordings that Linda Keene made in 1942 that were never released. Opal Nations states that “shortly before Petrillo’s AFM recording ban on July 31st, 1942, Keene managed to cut four sides with her Backroom Boys for Bob Thiele’s Signature label. This would have been at the very onset of the label’s existence. However, financial problems cancelled out the project that included a blues rendering of the Koehler-Moll-Barris song Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams.” Professor Raja also reported on the recordings but maintained it was in 1943. “In 1943 she waxed Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams and three blues for Bob Thiele’s Signature Records. Masters were apparently made but they never made it to the factory floor.” The August 1st, 1943 issue of Down Beat confirms it was 1943 stating the release would be around September 1st of that year. I wonder if any of these could be located?
Failing to locate any of her radio appearances or remotes or the lost 1942/43 recordings for Signature Records, I still have something else that is phenomenal with which to end this blahg. In a previous blahg, DOWN A RABBIT HOLE WITH LINDA KEENE, I wrote about a listing on Ebay of an “Audition 78” of Linda Keene singing “Muddy Waters”. This was the picture published with the item description:
The listing description stated the following: “Linda Keene Audition Vinyl “Muddy Waters” on Gold Star 78RPM 10″ Single Sided ” I had no idea what to expect. Was this “the” Linda Keene? What was this an audition for? What was the song “Muddy Waters?” I took a chance and negotiated a price with the seller. The seller was in California and all he could tell me was that he bought it at a yard sale or flea market but no other details. Finally the record arrived and I was able to play it. Here’s what I heard:
I have not made any attempt to clean it up as I thought it would take away from the recording. If there are others more adept at cleaning audio files then I invite you to try. Needless to say, I was more than pleased and surprised to hear that this was indeed Linda Keene. It still left the mystery as to the recording but more on that in a bit. The song Muddy Water was written by Peter DeRose, Harry Richman, and Jo Trent in 1926. Here’s the sheet music for it that was published in 1926:
Bessie Smith record it in 1927 as did a young Bing Crosby with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra in 1927. Bing would re-record the song with the Buddy Cole Trio in 1954. Part of the lyrics contain the following:
Dixie moonlight, Swanee shore Headin’ homebound just once more To my Mississippi delta home
Here was Linda Keene, Mississippi born, singing about her home state in what I believed was a 1950s recording.
I did not know anything about the Gold Star recording label or studio. I did some research and found a Facebook group dedicated to the Gold Star recording studio. I explained about the 78 audition record and they replied with the following:
“There was a Gold Star Recording Studio in Texas. Without seeing the label of your disc, it’s possible that it may have been cut there. Ms. Keene was a big band vocalist in the 1940’s so if she did anything at Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood, it would have been after 1950 when the studio opened its doors.”
I explained that Linda was living in Hollywood in the 1950s so I suspect it was done there. I also sent them a scan of the label. Here was their reply:
“That is indeed a Gold Star Recording Studios (Hollywood) disc. That was an early 1950s label design.”
The group also sent me a link regarding the three acetate label designs utilized at Gold Star during it’s thirty-three years of operation between 1950 and 1983. Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world. Founded by David S. Gold and Stan Ross and opened in October 1950, Gold Star Recording Studios was located at 6252 Santa Monica Boulevard near the corner of Vine Street in Hollywood, the studio name was a combination of the names of the two owners — (Dave) GOLD and STA(n) R(oss). The studio was renowned for its unique custom-designed recording equipment and many big bands and orchestras recorded on Gold Star. The particular label of this Linda Keene audition 78 was used up to the mid-1950s. That doesn’t narrow down the recording date but we can assume it may have been recorded when Linda Keene was on the West Coast between 1950 and 1953. I can find no other information about the recording and who performed with Linda Keene on that date.
Finding a lost or unknown Linda Keene recording is significant enough but what comes next is truly amazing. After playing the recording I was showing off the 78 to my daughter when I noticed that the flip-side of the record had what looked like residual glue marks where another label might have been. We both also noted that the flip-side appeared to have grooves. I own some one-sided 78 records and usually the unrecorded side is flat and smooth. I had to take a chance and see if the second side was playable. It was. Here’s what I heard:
Again, I haven’t cleaned up the track. What an amazing surprise! Here was a mature Linda Keene singing the ultimate saloon blues song. The song doesn’t need an explanation. “One For My Baby” was written in 1943 and was recorded by many artists but became associated with Frank Sinatra who would record the song a few times and would sing it as a standard in his concert performances. But for Linda Keene fans, this is an outstanding swan song for her career. I swear that discovering this track as an unknown track on a supposed one-sided 78 is the truth. I knew after hearing it, that it would be the closer for my last blahg entry on Linda Keene and the title of the blahg itself. It’s so fantastic a story that I couldn’t possibly make this up.
That’s it. I don’t think there’s much else to say. I don’t know if there are any other copies of this recording in existence. I also don’t know if Linda Keene recorded any other songs that day at the Gold Star studios. It was lost until it ended up in the hands of the Ebay seller from California and then was shipped out to me here in Canada. Did this once belong in Linda Keene’s own collection? She was living in California, too, at the time of her death. Did she handle this with her own two hands? We will never know. Two lost tracks that summed up her career. “Muddy Water” was a look back to her Mississippi beginnings and “One For My Baby” is a swan song of an artist who was waiting to be rediscovered and one more recording to be found…One More For The Road.
Recently I had to do a computer repair for my friend Bryan and it got me thinking about a blahg I wrote in 2012 when I had to do my own computer repair and was given some bad advice from a computer salesperson. Needless to say, I didn’t take the salesperson’s advice and figured out for myself the repair, which he said couldn’t be done, and I was successful and got a blahg out of it. The original blahg was ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF. It was a blahg not only about the computer repair but celebrating the fact that I had turned 50 and that I could still think for myself with positive results. Next month, I will turn 59 and I’m still thinking for myself but my body has other ideas of it’s own when it comes to pain and arthritis. Too early to write about that stuff here. 
After a recent Windows update it would no longer load into Windows. Bryan just kept getting the spinning blue wheel of death. I know, I know, the image to the left is not a spinning blue wheel but it belongs to death so who am I to argue. Bryan got the spinning blue wheel of death and his laptop would no longer load into Windows. He asked for my help. In the past, when he had the same error he was able to fix it himself so I knew that this time would be a bit of a challenge. 
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We have to get that herd immunity. Like I said, I didn’t care. I was given the information about the vaccine and agreed to it and got the jab in my left arm. I even texted my wife and children and my employer stating that I was no longer a vaccine virgin. I was happy that I did it. 
Good thing, too, because I felt like I had been hit by a truck 
In fact, I was already dizzy and probably shouldn’t have driven myself. My wife was at work and I texted her but when the Doctor tells you to come to her office when she’s not seeing anyone in person then you don’t delay. By the time I got to her office, my heart was pounding and I was exhausted. I had to sit in an exam room for 10 minutes and I fell asleep. 
I didn’t think you’re supposed to do that with medicine. I know you’re not supposed to mix your drinks. Honestly, this is like the magician asking you to pick a card and you hope he guesses right. Again, I’m encouraging everyone to get a vaccine but maybe read my precautionary tale and then put yourself on every list and get the one that you feel the most comfortable receiving. When the magician asks you to take a card and put it back, hide an extra one up your sleeve and screw up the whole trick. Stay home. Stay safe. And get a vaccine…I’m just not going to say which one.
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which I held onto until ClassicFlix released the film on DVD & Blu-Ray in November of last year. I had ordered it and forgot about it until it arrived after my ramble video. The only extras on the film are a Restoration Comparison and some other ClassicFlix trailers. The film itself is the gem here. I have never seen it look so good and it’s a cute little film with both stars. I highly recommend it. 
