This will be a quick blahg with exciting news. My novel, “Pippa’s Passing” is finally ready to order from Amazon. I started writing the book in February 2022 and now, two years on, it’s been edited and fine tuned and ready for readers to take it on.
When I first started writing it, I published a blahg, PIPPA’S PASSING about two months into the writing process. And in mid-June of 2022 in the blahg, SOME THINGS TO CELEBRATE…TEN YEARS ON I commented how I had finished writing my book. Here’s what I said:
I have been meaning to write this novel for ten years and finally started it in February of this year. It’s a hard process to describe. Once I had started, the characters began to speak to me and told me what to write. I had no conceived notions where the book was going at times but when I sat down each day, the words were there and formed the story. I’ve always had the beginning and ending over the last decade but I had not idea what direction it would take. I’m happy with it. Now I have to send it out to see if I can get it published.
I did send it out to a few publishers over the past couple of years but with no success. The publishing market is probably flood every year with submissions and I guess I didn’t do a good enough job of promoting it to them. So, I decided to go the Amazon route and have spent the last couple of months working on the format for both the Kindle electronic version and the paperback version.
The cover design for my book has always been based on my daughter Abbie’s artwork. This is how the Kindle cover version will be displayed:
When it came to the paperback version, Abbie and I consulted and thought a wrap around cover might look better. We had to consider the spine and what text would be on the back. The initial layout, as designed by Abbie, looked like this:
You can’t really read the back cover text but below are the front and back covers broken out and you can click on them to view a larger version.
The proof copy of my book arrived last weekend. Here’s what it looked like:
It took me all week to read through it at 385 pages. I had to check every word and line. Some of the software I used caused some formatting issues and of course I may have missed a quotation mark or odd comma or period. I made no major changes but managed to tweak a little to make it even stronger. Here’s a photo of me that Jeanette took when I first received the proof:
I also made the bold decision to update my Facebook page with my real name and posted about my book being available through Amazon. I’ve never had a public Facebook page before but if I want to promote my book then I have to get on with it.
What’s left to say? Oh, I know, PLEASE BUY MY BOOK! Here’s the link:
Parts of this blahg may be wholly unbelievable but are nonetheless the truth. It’s probably best to get into the current topics without too much preamble. So here goes.
The easiest thing to start off with is this year’s Christmas Tree Launch. In a blahg last year about the 2023 Christmas Tree Launch, HOW WAS YOUR CHRISTMAS? I recalled how I had written a blahg in 2019 called MEATS AND CHEESES AND BABY JESUS and described my tradition of launching my Christmas Tree in the creek at the bottom of my property:
I should add that I also have a tradition of disposing of the Christmas tree. At the bottom of our property is a creek that runs fast and deep in the spring after the snow melts. Our annual live Christmas tree, after its stint in the house, rests out behind our garage until I can get to the creek in the spring and chuck it in. It’s swept up in the current and disappears. I tried following a tree one year and got about half a kilometre before the creek took a bend through a farmer’s field and was carried out of sight. In my imagination there is a Valhalla for our Christmas trees down where the creek ends or maybe it manages to make its way to the sea. More likely there’s a dam of trees somewhere along the creek route overflowing and flooding the farmer’s fields or perhaps the basement of his farmhouse.
So now it’s 2024 and time for me to post the video of this year’s Christmas Tree Launch. To be clear, the tree was from Christmas of 2023 but it’s being launched in 2024. Here’s a picture of what it looked like last week as it lay on my deck waiting to be rediscovered:
Well, the snow melted and I was able to get at the tree. Here’s the 2024 Launch:
The next launch that I want to discuss is the launch of my book “Pippa’s Passing.” I have posted before that I finished the book in the summer of 2022. I had published a blahg, PIPPA’S PASSING when I was part way finished writing it. It’s a good place to start when trying to find out what the book is about. I’m currently looking to launch it on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats. My daughter Abbie designed the book cover. Here is her original version of that cover:
I am quite happy with the cover but a colleague pointed out that the child on the cover has no mouth. Last night, Abbie and I were toying around with possible book cover designs and I mentioned possibly adding a mouth. Here’s what she sent me:
You’ll have to click on the image to see a larger version. The truth is, I don’t think adding a mouth adds anything to the cover. In fact, when I thought about it, I thought not having a mouth was better. The novel is a fictional memoir of Jeff Carter who tells the story of the relationship he once had with the title character, Pippa. At the beginning we learn that Pippa has died and so it’s up to Jeff to tell her story. The cover represents a mural described later in the book that Jeff wonders if it is a representation of a young Pippa. The fact that Abbie’s interpretation displays the girl without a mouth could mean that Pippa is no longer able to tell her own story. Clever, right? At least that’s my interpretation of Abbie’s interpretation.
One of the layout versions for the book is a wraparound version and would look something like this:
This is a screen capture from the Kindle/Amazon program. Abbie likes the wraparound layout but she’s not keen on the text placement on front, spine, and back. She’s going to play around with it in another program and come up with something a little better. I’m still wordsmithing the text on the back but this is what I have so far:
I thought I would never write this down. It wasn’t that I thought I might write this down but had no faith in myself that I would get the task accomplished. No, I believed I would never write this down because I had convinced myself that I shouldn’t write this down even though I had promised someone once that I would write her story.
“If you ever become I writer I want you to write my story. Write our story. Write about everything. Write about how I am now and how you and I got here. It’s important. Promise me you’ll write my story.”
It had been eleven years since that last night together. I never saw her again. There were no phone calls or letters or even cards. The last notice was the one I held in my hand in my mother’s kitchen telling me she was gone.
This was the end of a story I thought I would never tell. Pippa was gone. Her obituary had been very short on details. It was a sad culmination of a life that had once been entwined deeply with mine. Sitting there re-reading the summary of Pippa’s passing, I realized she deserved better. I knew then I had to fulfill my promise and write her story.
So begins “Pippa’s Passing”, the fictional memoir of 44 year old Jeff Carter who learns that an old love, Pippa Bailey, has died. He relates their story together from their first meeting in high-school up to eleven years before her death when he last saw her. The bulk of the story begins with their first meeting in the fall of 1977 and details their relationship up to their last encounter in 1993. In the telling, mysteries are revealed and Jeff‘s memories recall an intense relationship between the two. Although the novel starts with Jeff learning of Pippa’s passing, his subsequent recollections bring her to life. Secrets are revealed in the final chapter and it is almost impossible not to feel sad at the ending but also hopeful.
Actually, it’s much shorter than that. My wife and daughter both thought I was giving to much away and suggest I shorten it to the following:
Pippa once said to me “If you ever become I writer I want you to write my story. Write our story. Write about everything. Write about how I am now and how you and I got here. It’s important. Promise me you’ll write my story.”
So begins “Pippa’s Passing”, the fictional memoir of 44 year old Jeff Carter who learns that an old love, Pippa Bailey, has died. He relates their story together from their first meeting in high-school up to eleven years before her death when he last saw her. The bulk of the story begins with their first meeting in the fall of 1977 and details their relationship up to their last encounter in 1993. In the telling, mysteries are revealed and Jeff‘s memories recall an intense relationship between the two. Although the novel starts with Jeff learning of Pippa’s passing, his subsequent recollections bring her to life. Secrets are revealed in the final chapter and it is almost impossible not to feel sad at the ending but also hopeful.
I’m still not entirely keen on it and that last paragraph needs some work. Hopefully in the next week or so the book will be finished to the satisfaction of both Abbie and myself and will be available for purchase. Keep reading my blahgs and I’ll announce it.
Okay, now for the really bizarre and unbelievable bit. This is the ‘relaunch’ part of this blahg. I am 61 years old and I’ve written a few blahgs about who I am such as WHO I AM, WHAT IS 60?, and WHEN A GOOD MAN GOES MISSING. I gave details of my life and what I’ve done over the past six decades. The problem is that this was all based on a lie…or rather a mistake.
Let me explain. I was born on September 23rd, 1962. At least that’s what my mother has always told me and I’ve always celebrated it on the 23rd. The problem has been that my Health Card and Birth Certificate have always recorded me as September 22nd. I’ve just chosen to live with it. Add to that the fact that my Driver’s License has my birthday as September 23rd and all my Revenue Canada information also has me down as the 23rd. That’s crazy right? Recently, on a hospital trip, detailed in the blahg UNPACKING THE 2024 FALSE DUCKS NEW YEAR’S DAY VIDEO RAMBLE., I was encouraged to try and sort out the discrepancy issue with my Health Card. Here’s where things get strange.
I went into our local Service Ontario branch where you go to try and sort these things out. Unfortunately the person I spoke to said she didn’t know how to handle this and gave me a phone number to call for more advice. The telephone number was for the Service Ontario call centre. After my quick explanation, and a considerable silence on the other end, I was told they would mail me a package of information to fill out to make the changes to my birth certificate and health card. It took almost ten days to get the material and after reading through it, it said I had to provide proof I was actually born on September 23rd! I guess my word or the word of my mother who was there, or so she tells me but hey it was the 60s and there were probably drugs, wasn’t good enough for the Ontario government. Acceptable proof could be a baptismal certificate, which I don’t have, publication of the birth in the newspaper stating I was born on the 23rd, which never happened because by then I was the third child of my parents’ union and the excitement and need to proclaim my birth to the world had probably waned, or I could provide a letter from Belleville General Hospital stating I was born on the 23rd. This last option seemed the best avenue.
I reached out to the hospital and, shorter story here, a nice woman went down and pulled the September log of births for 1962 and discovered that my birth was written down as occurring on September 22nd! They had my mother’s name correct and the address where we were living at the time. There was no mistake…wait, yes there was, there was the mistake that I had been erroneously celebrating my birthday wrong all this time! I was flabbergasted to say the least and I even jokingly asked if the log book made any notation of me being adopted. Nope.
There is an old phrase, “a day late and a dollar short” which is another way to say too little too late. Unfortunately, I’m not a day late, I’m a day earlier. There’s no phrase for that. Maybe there should be. “A Day Earlier But Not A Day Wiser…Or Richer…Or What Have You. This too, is something I’m wordsmithing. How did this happen? When I asked my mother about it she said the hospital is wrong and they can go rub salt. This is my mother’s fallback slur but she’s never clear where or why people should rub salt or if the salt should be kosher, sea, table, or road. If she did tell me, she’d probably get that wrong…LIKE MY BIRTHDAY!!!
So now I’m relaunching. I’ve known for about a week that I’ve been celebrating the wrong day. I think that makes me only a week old because I had to relaunch myself again and start the count over. By the way, I tried to explain to my wife that our marriage is probably invalidated because I signed the marriage certificate using my 23rd birth date but she just said, “no, we’re married.” I also tried to hit my children up for birthday gifts backdated to the year they were born. Emily was born in 1990 so I thought she should give me 29 or 30 gifts back to that year because her gifts to me had been given on the wrong day. My son weighed in, first saying no then highlighting that his birthday is next month and he’ll be 30 and all my focus should be on him. Nice. Can’t I get a moment of pity?
I’m going to sidetrack for a moment and give some positive news. I finally finished all 30 Cool and Lam books. In my previous blahg, UNPACKING THE 2024 FALSE DUCKS NEW YEAR’S DAY VIDEO RAMBLE., I detailed how I had about four to read. This is a detective series by Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of “Perry Mason”) using the pen name of A. A. Fair. There were 30 books and I finally finished “All Grass Isn’t Green” this past weekend. So that’s something off my to do list for 2024.
Getting back to my birthday. I’ve decided after some soul-searching to continue to celebrate my birthday on September 23rd. I’m used to it now. It’s the same birthday as Bruce Springsteen and I’d prefer to say I share it with “The Boss” rather than the second-raters who were born on September 22nd…no offence to those born on September 22nd but Springsteen is pretty cool and who wouldn’t want to be somehow associated with him.
I wanted to close with something inspirational about having an incorrect birthday all these years but nothing sprang to mine. I did, however find a short song called “It’s Not My Birthday” by the band “They Might Be Giants” that’s fun. Here are the lyrics:
… Well the rain falls down without my help I’m afraid And my lawn gets wet though I’ve withheld my consent When this grey world crumbles like a cake I’ll be hanging from the hope That I’ll never see that recipe again
… As I walk, I think about a new way to walk As I think, I’m using up the time left to think And this train keeps rolling off the track Trying to act like something else Trying to go where it’s been uninvited
… It’s not my birthday It’s not today It’s not my birthday, so why do you lunge out at me? When the word comes down “Never more will be around” Thought I’ll wish we were there, I was less than we could bear And I’m not the only dust my mother raised
… So, I’m rattling the bars around this drink tank Discreetly I should pour through the keyhole or evaporate completely But there’d be no percentage, and there’d be no proof And the sound upon the roof is only water
… And the rain falls down without my help I’m afraid And my lawn gets wet though I’ve withheld my consent When this grey world crumbles like a cake I’ll be hanging from the hope That I’ll never see that recipe again
… It’s not my birthday It’s not today It’s not my birthday, so why do you lunge out at me? When the word comes down “Never more will be around” Thought I’ll wish we were there, I was less than we could bear And I’m not the only dust my mother raised I am not the only dust my mother raised
Here’s the video:
You know, I used to say to people I didn’t want any more friends because I had no vacancies but if anyone wanted to leave their name and number, I’d get back to them if something opened up. Well, all my friendships were based on the 23rd and I have no friends for the 22nd. I guess I’m taking applications!
I’m finally getting around to unpacking my 2024 False Ducks Video Ramble. I posted that video in my blahg from earlier this month, 2024 FALSE DUCKS NEW YEAR’S DAY VIDEO RAMBLE. In that blahg, I rambled about a number of things that I wanted to talk about this year. I try to always talk separately about the things I speak about in these rambles but time passes and I don’t always get on with it as quickly as I’d like. You’ll soon find out why.
One of the hopes I had for this year was for good health. Unfortunately I didn’t start out well with that. I became sick again. In another previous blahg, “THE CHRISTMAS MAYONNAISE” I mentioned how I got Covid at the beginning of December and then how I felt generally unwell going into the holidays with my Christmas Malaise or the Christmas Mayonnaise as I call it. During the first week of January I started to have a very sore back. It was the area at the top of my buttocks and spread across from right to left. On one particular day, I also experienced a very sore right testicle. I know, too much information, but if it hadn’t been for that soreness in my testicle, I wouldn’t have known what was wrong. You see, I had this about ten or more years ago. It was the testicle thing that sent me to the Doctor at that time and I had to go on a ten day treatment of antibiotics. So, on January 7th I went to the hospital in Picton and described my symptoms and the on-call Doctor diagnosed me with Epididymitis. I believe this is what I had way back when but I didn’t remember the term. Here’s a description of symptoms:
It is most commonly caused by a bacterial infection but can also result from a virus. Symptoms typically include testicular swelling and pain on one side, which may start out as dull but can become more intense or sharp. In some cases, pain may also be felt in the abdomen, pelvis, or low back.
Yep, that was me. I wasn’t sleeping well because the back pain was intense at night. From December 24th and for the next two weeks I was up for at least an hour each night trying to deal with the pain. I finished my course of antibiotics yesterday and you’ll be happy to know I feel better and won’t talk about my testicle again in this blahg.
So, now to unpacking the Ramble. First, let me re-post the Video Ramble:
I already addressed the health issue so let’s hope I don’t have to address that again. The next thing I make reference to is the “Cool and Lam” books. Wikipedia describes Cool and Lam this way:
Cool and Lam is a fictional American private detective firm that is the center of a series of thirty detective novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of “Perry Mason”) using the pen name of A. A. Fair.
I started commenting on the Cool and Lam series in a blahg from 2021, called THIS IS 100, PART ONE. Here’s what I said then when I talked about books I had recently read:
Instead, I’ll mention two that I recently read, “The Bigger They Come” and “The Knife Slipped” by Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A.A. Fair. Gardner is famous for creating and writing about Perry Mason. Cool and Lam is a fictional American private detective firm run by Bertha Cool with Donald Lam as her main operative. Gardner published 29 books in the series from 1939 to 1970. I first became interested in the Cool and Lam series due to my interest in Frank Sinatra. The second book in the series “Turn On the Heat” was adapted for the June 23, 1946, broadcast of Hour of Mystery with Frank Sinatra as the first actor to portray Donald Lam. Unfortunately that broadcast does not appear to circulate. I always thought about reading the book from the series, “Turn On The Heat”, that the broadcast was based on. That meant starting with the first book “The Bigger They Come.” I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s the late 1930s into the 1940s gritty detective novel.
I was then going to turn my attention to “Turn On The Heat” which was the second published book in the series. I discovered, however, that this wasn’t the second book written in the series because Gardner had written “The Knife Slipped” after “The Bigger They Come.” Here’s what Wikipedia says about it: “Originally written to be the second book in the Cool and Lam series but rejected by Gardner’s publisher, The Knife Slipped was found among Gardner’s papers and published for the first time in 2016.” Hard Case Crime published “The Knife Slipped” and after reading it, and enjoying it even more than “The Bigger They Come”, I was drawn back in again to that gritty thirties Los Angeles noir. Hard Case Crime also republished “Turn On The Heat” and that’s the copy I have to read next.
Well, my goal was to read all thirty in the series. When I recorded the Video Ramble I mentioned I had still to read four more: “Cut Thin To Win (1965), Widows Wear Weeds (1966), Traps Need Fresh Bait (1967), and “All Grass Isn’t Green (1970). Well, I’m happy to say that since the Video Ramble I have read three of those and now only have “All Grass Isn’t Green” to read. I hope to read it this weekend. I highly recommend the series.
The next two topics from the Ramble were the Polar Dip and the Christmas Malaise. I’ve already linked above to the Christmas Mayonnaise blahg but I’ll re-post here the video of my Polar Dip on January 1st:
There’s not much to say on that. It was cold and it was wet and I survived. Next stop, an ocean!
Next up was mention of the Christmas Tree launch. I’ll just re-post (I’ve used that term three times now and it’s as good a word as any) what I have said before about my annual Christmas Tree launch:
I should add that I also have a tradition of disposing of the Christmas tree. At the bottom of our property is a creek that runs fast and deep in the spring after the snow melts. Our annual live Christmas tree, after its stint in the house, rests out behind our garage until I can get to the creek in the spring and chuck it in. It’s swept up in the current and disappears. I tried following a tree one year and got about half a kilometer before the creek took a bend through a farmer’s field and was carried out of sight. In my imagination there is a Valhalla for our Christmas trees down where the creek ends or maybe it manages to make its way to the sea. More likely there’s a dam of trees somewhere along the creek route overflowing and flooding the farmer’s fields or perhaps the basement of his farmhouse.
Here is the video of the 2022 Christmas Tree launch attempt.
This year’s tree is still sitting on my deck and is now covered in snow.
I gave mention in the Ramble to my Jerry Mathers autograph. I can’t believe I didn’t post about that here. In June last year, I went down to a convention in Niagara Falls, Canada and got Jerry Mathers’ autograph on a still I found of Bob Hope and Mathers from the movie “That Certain Feeling.” That’s one of my favourite Bob Hope movies. Most people remember Jerry Mathers as ‘Beaver’ from “Leave It To Beaver.” Jerry Mathers was very nice and had fond memories of Bob Hope. Here’s that photo with Mathers’ autograph.
I found a nice video on YouTube of an interview Mathers did when he was in Niagara Falls last June:
Today is the anniversary of my Dad’s death in 2019. Wow, five years gone. I don’t want to dwell on my Dad’s death. Here’s the photo again of my Dad that I mentioned in the Ramble. I found it recently. It’s from December of 1966. My mother says it was taken at my Aunt Muriel’s house and she thinks it’s one of my older brothers in the picture
One last thing I want to pick out of the Ramble is that this year is a Leap Year. There’s an extra day to enjoy and I suggest making the whole year one to enjoy and to discover new things. The last Leap Year was in 2020 and I wrote a blahg about it, sort of, HOW I MET MY WIFE OR BEST LEAP DAY EVER! The point is, take the year and treat it like it’s a gift or an extra and find things to do that make you happy. Discover new things. In these Blahgs I am constantly talking about new things and people I’ve discovered. I’ve written blahgs on Linda Keene, Dottie Reid, Marie Carroll and about different things associated with Frank Sinatra. I’ve mentioned before that I send out daily posts about what Sinatra was doing on a particular day. For example, here’s one of the entries for yesterday, January 18th:
Television
1958 Club Oasis
Saturday Evening
Network: NBC
Time: 9:00 – 9:30 P.M.
Sponsor: Club Oasis Cigarettes
Host: Frank Sinatra
Guests: Pat Suzuki, Stan Freberg, Hy Gardner
SONGS:
I’ve Got The World On A String
All The Way
Just One Of Those Things P. Suzuki
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore P. Suzuki
Tell Her You Love Her
Come Fly With Me
That television show is not in circulation but yesterday I discovered that someone had posted the audio on YouTube for all of Sinatra’s songs. I had never heard these performances before:
Well, I’ve probably rambled enough about the False Ducks 2024 Video Ramble. I’ll leave you with some words of wisdom, ala Sinatra’s songs from that 1958 Club Oasis appearance. It’s a Leap Year and you get an extra day. Say to yourself, “I’ve Got The World On A String” and try to seize every moment and don’t do it half-heartedly but try and do it “All The Way”. If there’s someone special in your life “Tell Her You Love Her” or him or them every day. I’ll catch you in the next blahg when I invite you to “Come Fly With Me” and we’ll make some new memories for the upcoming year.
It’s January 1st, 2024 and time for my 2024 False Ducks New Year’s Day Video Ramble. I recorded the ramble this afternoon after getting back from North Beach on Lake Ontario where I did the following Polar Dip:
I ramble quite a bit in this year’s 2024 video ramble and I’ll unpack details on it in another blahg. Right now, I want to get this posted so it looks like I accomplished something on this first day of 2024:
I reference a couple of things in this video that I will post now and talk about later. Here’s the photo of my Father, George Henderson, that I found earlier today. It says December 1966 on it and I was only four so I don’t think it’s me with him in the photo but rather my older brother Tim or Todd:
I also mention the song “Joy” by Scott Mulvahill. Here’s the music video for it on YouTube:
That’s it for me on this first day of 2024. All the best to everyone and let’s find that peace in the world, peace among ourselves, and peace in our self we all desperately need. Happy New Year!
I think I’m over my Christmas Malaise. I decided to write this short blahg on Boxing Day to say that I’m okay. I had a great Christmas with my wife and children and son-in-law and I wasn’t anxious or depressed once. I managed to even write a short new Christmas story on Christmas day which I will debut here. My wife and son both described it as “cute” and Noah even went on to say it was “sweet.” I’ll accept that. More about the story in a bit.
Here’s a wonderful photo taken today before Emily, Charlie and Noah had to head back to Toronto:
From left to right are Abbie, Emily, Charlie and Noah. You can tell it was around Christmas because the tree is partially visible on the right. In 2022 it snowed so much that Emily, Charlie and Noah couldn’t get to our home until Boxing Day. What a difference a day makes.
On Christmas Eve I lay in bed and the germ of a story was floating around in my head. I hadn’t planned on writing anything and this was my first Christmas story since “The Stolen Christmas” which I penned over the first month and half in 2021 and I debuted in my blahg, A LATE CHRISTMAS STORY…OR AN EARLY ONE. At least this one was written in time for Christmas of 2023. I fell asleep thinking of the story and awoke in the middle of the night not remembering most of it. Luckily, by mid-morning on Christmas Day it had come back to me. A little polishing and by early evening I was happy with it. The original title was “Carnival Barker” but I thought that was a giveaway and certainly didn’t suggest the story had anything to do with Christmas. I gave it the new title of “A Very Quiet Christmas Plan”. Here it is:
A Very Quiet Christmas Plan
by
Scott Henderson
Philip decided he was going to have a very quiet Christmas. That was his plan. It hadn’t been planned if you went back several months but the current plan seemed suitable.
Margo had left after Labor Day. She hadn’t been happy for a while and she told Philip she was leaving to find herself. Philip found himself…alone…after Margo left and took Carnival Barker with her. Carnival Barker was their dog. Really, Carnival Barker was Philip’s dog because it followed him home one day. It barked after him the whole way from the park and it sat in the street and barked continuously until Philip came down from his second floor apartment in an effort to make peace with the dog and his neighbours for the continuous barking.
“You should be a Carnival Barker the way you carry on,” Philip said to the dog. The name stuck and, anyhow, Carnival Barker didn’t object.
Margo objected.
“You don’t know where the dog’s been or who he might have belonged to,” she explained to Philip. “Either he goes or I go.”
In the end both of them went but not before Carnival Barker stayed and Margo stayed but she always referred to him as ‘Barker” although Philip slipped in the full ‘Carnival Barker’ whenever he and the dog were alone; which was often because Margo had been trying to find herself for quite a while and that meant she was always out trying something different which didn’t always include Philip or even Carnival Barker.
“Why did she have to take Carnival Barker if she was trying to find herself?” Philip had said this aloud numerous times since Margo left when he wondered about her which was less often than when he wondered about Carnival Barker. His little joke to himself was that maybe Carnival Barker was a guide dog and was helping her find her way. He fantasized often that the dog came back and Margo stayed wherever it was she found herself. He still held that fantasy as it got closer to Christmas and imagined that he’d wake Christmas morning to the sound of Carnival Barker extolling the virtues of his name down in the street until his neighbours pounded on his door and told him to “quiet that hound.” After all, wasn’t that the exact phrase they’d shouted when Carnival Barker had first followed him home.
Philip wondered what it had been about him that made anyone or anything want to follow him home. There had been Carnival Barker but before that there had been Margo.
Margo had followed him home from another walk in the park. He hadn’t noticed her at first until she eventually piped up and said “if you hadn’t noticed, I’m following you. I don’t usually do this but I’m in this whole seize the moment stage and I saw your face and thought I should just follow this guy home and see what develops.”
What developed was a six month relationship where Margo moved in and Philip let her. He liked Margo. She was take charge or forward ho or a number of catch phrases that challenged her to do something different like following someone home and building a relationship.
There was no courtship with Margo. Philip had been alone and then there was Margo. She saw him every day. She talked incessantly but she asked numerous questions about him and that seemed appealing. No one had ever asked him so much about himself in so short a time and no one had ever followed him home from the park just to see what developed. It was nice.
Philip did not think he loved Margo. In fact, he knew he did not love her or loved her less when she left and loved her even more less or lesser when she left and took Carnival Barker.
No one ever claimed Carnival Barker; except Margo in the end. Philip had put up posters and read the papers but there were no lost dog inquiries that matched the description of Carnival Barker. His main feature was his bark which had been incessant when he wanted Philip to invite him into his home and ceased after he’d gained entry.
This was akin to how Margo stopped her incessant talking and personal questioning of Philip after she too had moved in. No one claimed her either. He never met her family, if she had one, and her only friends seemed to be Philip and Carnival Barker or anyone involved in her finding herself activities when she went out and left man and dog alone.
Philip missed that dog. He missed the padding of his feet or how Carnival Barker would stare at him when Margo was out and Philip could just imagine the dog saying it was another evening in for the boys and Philip would stare back and then tell Carnival Barker that an evening alone with him without Margo was more than worthwhile. The dog hadn’t been large or small and not exactly somewhere in the middle. He was the size he was which was right for him and besides his bark, his other distinguishable feature was his colouring. Margo would use flowery descriptions of autumnal shadings of leaves or beach sands after receding tides when Philip clearly thought Carnival Barker reminded him of the colour of turkey gravy from a can. It was little things like that widening the gap between Margo and Philip that eventually led to her leaving. She’d left a note that was a panoramic description of the chasm developing between them as she sought to find meaning while Philip seemed to be rather happy in the status quo.
Philip liked the status quo. Margo was gone and so was Carnival Barker. It was Christmas now and he moved through it as he liked and the current plan of a quiet Christmas was enough. At least it should have been.
It started with the turkey. This had not factored into Philip’s plans. A quiet Christmas meant to Philip no fuss or bother or commitment to any holiday plans other than a quiet Christmas. The turkey changed everything. He’d won it in a holiday raffle at work. He wasn’t even sure what the proceeds of the raffle went to support. He’d been cajoled into buying a ticket and just assumed the proceeds would go to pay for the cost of the turkey that would be won by some poor sucker.
Philip was that poor sucker. And it was a fresh turkey, and not frozen, and given out two days before Christmas so he’d have to plan something for it and upset his plan for no real plan for Christmas.
Of course if you have a turkey and you have to cook it, which is a plan far better than throwing it away or trying to fawn it off on someone else who had even less plans than Philip, then you have to build on that and soon there’s potatoes and stuffing and cranberries and pie and gravy and of course that would remind Philip completely of Carnival Barker. And if you have all that and you’re suffering melancholia for a dog who followed you home from the park and not the woman who had tried that trick before the dog then you have to alter all plans and invite others in to share in your newly best laid plans that altered your regular plan in the first place. And if you’re all in on the meal and inviting others then you have to plan for decorations and a tree and lifting your spirits without artificial spirits so no one knows the melancholia was about all you could stomach without the turkey and the decorations and the whole Christmas with trimmings.
In the end, Philip was alone. No one came. No one was available and yet all the plans had been made and he had committed himself to those plans and when the plan of a quiet Christmas did materialize despite Philip’s best efforts to expand the raffle turkey into an extravaganza evening, he was a little disappointed to find himself alone on Christmas Eve with the thought that the next day was Christmas and he still had all that cooking to do with the raffle turkey and no one to share it with and slip turkey to under the festooned table.
On Christmas Eve, Philip did nothing. He stared at the tree he’d been obliged to include in his failed plans and the lights dancing on the tree lulled him to sleep. He dreamed fitfully.
In his dreams Philip was back at the park and there was Margo and Carnival Barker and they were chasing him and he was trying to avoid being caught by hiding behind various trees but secretly relishing in the notion that Carnival Barker could sniff him out but that Margo would have no such talent and might eventually give up and go on with her life. Ultimately Carnival Barker’s bark would betray him and Margo would hone in and find him as if she’d had some talent after all and not give credit to the dog she simply referred to as Barker.
Margo would pull Philip close and kiss his face and tell him he’d been found and he’d laugh and wonder how it easy it had been that she had found him, with Carnival Barker’s help, yet she had a difficult time finding herself.
Philip woke up Christmas morning and could still feel Margo’s wet dream kisses upon his cheek. It wasn’t though. It was dog slobber. It was Carnival Barker.
“Carnival Barker, how can you be here?” he said aloud to the dog.
Of course it wasn’t the dog who replied, it was Margo, standing in the doorway looking no more found than she had when he had last seen her in September.
“Barker and I thought you might be a little lost without us and I know a thing or two about lost and found and we found ourselves alone and determined that you should not be and so here we are and I’m famished.” She’d not even stopped to take a breath. Typical Margo. She was gone and then she was back. Philip recalled how she had never left her key behind after she left. Philip didn’t care. Carnival Barker was back.
There was nothing for it after that and Philip had to cook the Christmas dinner and spend it with Margo talking about her travels over the past few months and her enlightenment and not once mentioning how Carnival Barker had factored into any of it and all the while Philip grinned and slipped the dog pieces of dark meat and marveled at how much his coat really did resemble tinned turkey gravy.
Margo moved back in and then shortly after New Year moved out again after following someone else home from the park and calling up Philip and saying she’d found her soulmate, as if he’d been lost to her until then, and that she’d call for Barker but not sounding convincing at all…about retrieving the dog and not the bit about the soulmate. The soulmate was just some poor sucker who probably deserved Margo as much as Philip had deserved a fresh not frozen turkey that upset his plans for a quiet Christmas.
Philip didn’t care. Carnival Barker was back and he was determined to change his locks and that nothing planned or unplanned would take Carnival Barker from him again.
As it so often does, Philip’s plans did change, though. He eventually met someone else and he married and there were children and there was still Carnival Barker. And there were great Christmases and Philip would often think back on that one extraordinary Christmas. Not the one where he had won the turkey and Margo had come back but the following year when he cooked a turkey again and it was just him and Carnival Barker and Philip set a place for the gravy coloured dog at the table.
The End
I hope you enjoyed that and I hope the remainder of your holiday season for 2023 and into 2024 is everything you hoped for.
My friend Bryan used to talk about his Christmas Malaise. It seemed to be an all encompassing thing that he would trot out around this time of year. I thought it was just him being impatient with everyone and having to stand in lines and not really having a family of his own with whom he could celebrate his Holiday season. (See how I used “whom” in a sentence? The English major in me comes out sometimes.) I used to refer to Bryan’s malaise as his “Christmas Mayonnaise” as he would bring it out and spread it over everything joyful during the yuletide and sometimes I thought he was laying it on a little thick. Once, I thought about writing a humorous story about his Christmas Mayonnaise but, in the end, I thought I was making too much of it…until it happened to me.
I looked up the word “malaise” today and was struck by the definition provided:
A general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify.
Yep, that was me yesterday. If I’m being truthful, that’s been how I’ve felt for the past week or so. Back up to the end of last month and it starts to fall into place. At the end of last month, November 30th, I got sick. My wife had been home for two days with a bad cold. I tried to avoid it and even slept in another part of the house. That didn’t help. On Friday November 30th, I woke up with the head cold and aches and a headache. I stayed home from work because the next day I was going to Toronto and nothing was going to stop me.
Jump back even further to my birthday on September 23rd of this year. I was in Toronto that day as well. I had gone up to Toronto to be taken out to lunch by my daughter Emily. Her husband Charlie, my wife Jeanette, and my son Noah were there. Abbie was still in Britain at the time. We all had lunch at a nice deli that served Reuben sandwiches because that’s what I wanted. Here’s a nice photo of Emily and Charlie from that lunch:
Here’s Noah from the same lunch:
Sorry, I don’t have a picture of my sandwich. I’m not one of those people who takes photos of their meals to try and impress everyone. My story should be enough. Emily and Charlie paid for the lunch so that was their gift to me. Noah surprised me by announcing he had purchased tickets for both of us to go see Martin Short and Steve Martin on December 1st.
So that brings you up to speed. I was sick on November 30th but I had to make it to Toronto for Steve Martin and Martin Short on December 1st.
I wont detail the evening with those two great comedians. It was awesome. I was full of medication and felt okay. I had taken the train from Belleville to Toronto on Saturday afternoon and stayed over at a hotel near downtown Toronto. I didn’t sleep well after the concert because I found the city too noisy and the head cold was taking hold again. The next day I did some shopping before taking a mid-afternoon train back to Belleville. By the time I got home, I was extremely sick. The head cold, the aches and pains, the headache, and tiredness had knocked me down. I did a Covid test and I tested positive. It was my first time getting Covid. This was after me getting my most recent booster a week before. My wife did a test and she tested positive as well. I stayed home for the next three days. I pushed myself to try and get back to work because there were some things happening that I felt I needed to be there for. I didn’t do myself any favours. I was weakened but I pushed through it.
Last week I tried to be on top of everything but felt I wasn’t getting ahead. I was planning for our own Christmas, trying to help my aging Mother with her diabetes, and trying to prepare for a Christmas lunch at work to feed around fifty people. By this past Saturday afternoon, I was sick again. I had felt better in the morning and late in the afternoon my wife and I went to do some shopping at the Belleville Walmart. I started feeling dizzy and while browsing the bedding aisle I felt weak enough that I had to sit down on the floor. Then I was lying on my side on the floor. I’m not sure what my wife was thinking but she was concerned and asked if she should call an ambulance. I said no and managed to get up and go outside to our car. The fresh air helped but I wasn’t feeling well for the rest of the night or the next morning. By Sunday afternoon I felt better but I had a twinge in my lower back that hurt and wouldn’t subside.
Skip to yesterday. Another busy week with lots happening at work and me at another building yesterday for yet another big Christmas lunch. Later, I had to go back to work and then find time to go out and look for a turkey for own Christmas dinner. I had been to three other grocery stores and hadn’t found anything I liked. I finally managed to find one at Walmart, where I managed to stay upright for the time I was there, and did some Christmas shopping for my wife. Unfortunately I found out later that I had bought something in the wrong size and it would require another trip back to exchange the item. On the way home I had to go out of my way and stop off at a fishing depot and pick something up for my son-in-law for Christmas. Driving home, I started to feel worse with a neck pain, headache, and that lower back twinge was increasing. Add to all of that, earlier in the afternoon my Doctor’s office called to say the result of my blood test from the previous day showed that my fasting sugars were too high.
When I got home I was tired and sick and pretty well angry with everything. In short I had a general feeling of discomfort, illness, and uneasiness whose exact cause was difficult to identify. I was suffering Bryan’s Christmas Malaise. I didn’t realize it then but when I went back to Walmart to exchange the item I mentioned earlier, I began to remember that this was just how Bryan had felt and the Mayonnaise was spreading over me rather thickly. It was time to start taking better care of myself. I had to lay down on the bed and I just started crying, uttered a few profanities, and just grumbled to my wife. She wanted me to stay home from work the next day but I couldn’t do that. I was determined to push through it and try to get back on track. When I finally realized it was the Malaise, I was able to step back and say to myself that I needed to slow down and just enjoy the rest of the holiday season.
My house has been festooned for Christmas for a few weeks so one thing I did was to take some photos of our decorations inside and my display outside. It helped me to focus on why I love this time of year. Here are some photos of our mantle display, our nutcrackers and our Christmas tree as well as a light-up angel we like to put out.
The outdoor display has been a bit of struggle. I had an inflatable snowman but the motor recently died and my inflatable moose had to be taken in because he wasn’t inflating fully. I had put a new motor in the moose so I think it needs to be adjusted. I also had a plastic caroller set of three children and their dog that finally had to be retired because it was cracked and broken. Here’s what my outdoor display currently looks like:
Of course it all looks nice with a little bit of snow on the ground but I’ve heard it will all be gone by December 24th. Compare that to last year when we had so much snow on Christmas day that they closed the roads in my area and my children from Toronto couldn’t get home until the 26th. You can read all about that in my blahg, HOW WAS YOUR CHRISTMAS? By the way, the pictures below show the snowman, the carollers and the moose from previous years.
One other thing that bothered me this year was related to Sinatra and Ireland. I have this app on my Ipod that plays Christmas classics. For some reason, in the past two weeks, the announcers or disk jockeys have an Irish accent and the sponsors seem to be located in Ireland. Last weekend they had a dedicated Sinatra weekend and they kept making announcements about the next song in the rotation and would give a big buildup to Sinatra. Unfortunately, it was never Sinatra. Sometimes it was Bing Crosby or Andy Williams or Nat King Cole. It got to the point where I started to believe that people in Ireland didn’t really know who Sinatra was. One of the songs they introduced was “The First Noel” and it turned out to be by Nat King Cole. If you want to view a nice rendition of Sinatra singing this song from a 1980 special, “The Most Joyful Mystery”, check this out:
A number of years ago I put together a collection of Sinatra Christmas Rarities. These were rare versions of Christmas songs from Sinatra radio and TV shows ranging from 1943 to 1985. I thought about shipping it to Ireland but just sending a CD to the entire population of Ireland seemed a bit much. Instead I’ll post some tracks here and hope that Ireland is listening. The very first is a version of White Christmas that Sinatra sang on his Songs By Sinatra radio program from December 19, 1943:
In the middle of the compilation is a beautiful version of “Let It Snow” from another Songs By Sinatra program on December 25, 1946:
There’s also a very funny version of Sinatra singing “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” from the “Your Hit Parade” radio broadcast of January 1st, 1949:
There’s also a funny parody of “Jingle Bells” with Sinatra and Bob Hope from the radio broadcast of The Bob Hope Show, December 24th, 1953
I’ll close with another video of Sinatra singing but this time it’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” from a TV Special from 1985, “All-Star Party for ‘Dutch’ Reagan. That’s former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in case you didn’t know.
If that doesn’t lift your Christmas Mayonnaise then nothing will.
This is going to be one of those short update blahgs. In my last blahg, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MISS REGINA HASSOCK OF 1947? I mentioned some live remotes that Marie Carroll did with Bob Strong and his orchestra that were available on a CD released by Circle Records with the title “Bob Strong And His Orchestra, 1944-1945”:
In that previous blahg, I said that I thought these were live remotes. I also said I didn’t believe that Marie Carroll went into the studio and recorded any vocals with Bob Strong or any other orchestra with whom she had been associated over the years. This updated blahg will correct that information.
When I wrote the last blahg, I had the above CD on order and had not yet received it. Now that it’s in my possession, I can correct some of my information with some of the information from the liner notes. Here’s what was said in the liner notes about these songs:
The Bob Strong bands on this disc, in exceptional repro quality, are from two dates: The first is but two and a half months after their Glen Island debut; The Second, almost nine months later…The popular ballads of the day are also accounted for in fine style. Five of them are handled by Marie Carroll, whose vocal versatility was exceeded only by her physical attributes. (MGM was constantly reported to be waiting at her door, along with many others.) She’s June Christy Kittenish on “This Is It” and “You Was Right, Baby”, plaintive on Johnny Mercer’s “Out Of This World”; moody on the ’45 Academy Award nominee, “Love Letters”; romantic on “I Wish I Knew”, which made the ‘Your Hit Parade’s’ top-ten for eleven weeks.
The other important information from this CD is that all tracks were recorded for Lang-Worth on October 25, 1944 at Columbia Studios in New York or on August 13th, 1945 at Columbia Studios in Chicago. All of Marie Carroll’s tracks are attributed to the August 13th, 1945 recording sessions. Here’s a description of the Lang-Worth Transcriptions from the website https://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=SCD-44/45:
Lang Worth transcription discs. Lang Worth transcriptions were sold in a subscription series to independent radio stations that sought access to top-tier artists, on a dime-store budget. That enabled small stations, for example to provide the same high-quality programming their larger competitors offered. In this way, transcription discs helped to somewhat level the playing field during radio’s early years.
In this case, the Lang-Worth transcriptions for Bob Strong and His Orchestra were on 16 inch 33/3 rpm records. If you want to know more about 16 inch records, then check out my earlier blahg, 16 INCHES OF TROUBLE OR LIKE FATHER LIKE SON. The following 16 inch Lang-Worth record contains eight songs with only one on one side featuring Bob Strong and His Orchestra with one vocal by Marie Carroll who is referenced as Marion Carroll:
So I was mistaken, a much better word than saying wrong, when I said I didn’t think Marie Carroll went into the studio and recorded any vocals with Bob Strong or any other orchestra. Clearly the Lang-Worth sessions were recorded, as mentioned, in the Columbia Studios in Chicago on August 13, 1945. I’m not aware of any other studio sessions with Marie Carroll but then I wasn’t aware of these. If you want to listen to any of Marie/Marion Carroll’s tracks with Bob Strong then please check out my previous blahg, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MISS REGINA HASSOCK OF 1947? There are links to YouTube where you can listen to the five songs that appear on the Circle Records CD.
For the remainder of this blahg, I thought I would link to some of the YouTube videos for the Bob Strong tracks from the Circle Records CD that did not feature Marie/Marion Carroll. The CD liner provides some interesting notes about some of the tracks that make it worthwhile to post here.
The music they put forth is a potpourri of unique arrangements of a broad array of mostly familiar melodies. You’ll here a pretty, easy listening adapatation from “Tannhauser”, Evening Star, featuring smooth reed work that may remind you of Glenn Miller; A swinging Coquette, whose booting sax and gutty trombone solos would have shaken one of its composers, Carmen Lombardo.
Here are “Evening Star” and “Coquette”:
After a mention of Marie Carroll’s tracks, the liner notes speak about some of the other vocals on the CD:
The only other ballad, Always, also enjoyed nine weeks of acclaim on the Hit Parade some twenty years after Irving Berlin penned it in 1925. Terry Ferris’ Ballad singing wanders a little, but is followed by a surprising up-tempo change-of-pace chorus where his second swing at the vocal fares much better. Tony Feola gives a lust reading of Judy Garland’s hit train song On The Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe.
Here are those two tracks:
There are two damaged tracks on the CD that receive a decent write-up:
Tom Eldridge clearly has the best voice of the male creamers but these tracks unfortunately have some permanent groove damage from old man time…however, I would not have dropped these two tracks from the compact disc. They certainly are not unbearable.
Those two tracks are “You Belong To My Heart” & “Waiting”:
I’ll keep researching Marie Carroll but I’m happy at least I was able to correct some of my information. Hey, I make mistakes…just don’t tell my wife that.
I’m writing this blahg which will be incomplete. I’ve been trying to find more information about the subject but my research has come up short. Be forewarned, this is yet another blahg inspired by continued interest and research on Frank Sinatra. This harkens back to 1939 and forward in time but I can’t find an end date. Confused? So am I.
Yes, the topic at hand today is Miss Regina Hassock of 1947 but her true name is Marie Carroll or Margie Carroll or Marion Carroll depending on what you read and when you read it. I’ll get into a bit of an explanation soon enough but after almost two months of research here are the bullet points I’ve managed to put together:
Marie Carroll (aka Marion Carroll and Margie Carroll)
from Charleston, WV
sang with Jan Savitt, Johnny Long, Bob Strong, Bob Chester
March 1939 torch singer
1939 limited time with Harry James
December 3, 1943 married Jack Cancelmi – she was with Art Farrar Orchestra
March 1944 with Maurice Spitalny’s Orchestra & married to Jack Cancelmi (drummer in Brad Hunt’s band) but separated by June 1944
March 14, 1944 Marie Carroll no longer with Spitalny but article on March 21, 1944 said they had patched up differences and were together again
June 1944 no longer with Spitalny
October 1944 solo
December 1944 with Bob Strong
January 1945 with Bob Strong – Victory Spotlight of Bands
April 1946 still with Bob Strong
March 1947 voted Miss Regina Hassock
So, how did I get onto Marie Carroll? Part of it starts with a photo. This photo:
That photo is really just an illustrated version of this photo:
(At right: Frank Sinatra sings on a James broadcast from Roseland Ballroom in New York – July 1939. The girl seated on the bandstand is vocalist Margie Carroll.) (2)
Note the (2) after the description. Here’s what that references:
(2) Identification of the girl singer, Margie Carroll, who is also in the picture with James and Sinatra from Roseland Ballroom comes from George T. Simon’s review of the James band at Roseland in Manhattan in the summer of 1939. That review appeared in the September 1939 issue of Metronome. Bernice Byers, sang with the James band before Ms. Carroll, and Connie Haines, who joined the James band in early May of 1939, performed in that role after that. Ms. Carroll was evidently subbing for Ms. Haines at the time this photo was taken.
George T. Simon had referred to her again as “Margie” Carroll. The following excerpt is from the book “Simon Says The Sights And Sounds Of The Swing Era 1935-1955″ The Best Writing of George T. Simon”:
MONDAY – Interesting visitors at the office today. Guy Smith and Jimmy Campbell of Jan Savitt’s band dropped in to say hello. Then came Terry Allen, who’s now singing with Clinton, with a very pretty Miss Parker. Romance Dept.? Wonderful guy, modest as they come, that Allen! Just before closing Bud Elliot and Dave Faulkner of the Modem Rhythm Corp. stepped in with some ideas anent a radio show. Sounds good. Discussions of records, etc., on small stations. . . . Then supper and to a preview of Columbia Record Corp. radio show. Harry James featured. Some good ideas. Johnny Hammond supposed to m. c., but he was on coast making Goodman records. Afterwards a whole bunch of us went to Roseland to catch more of Harry. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a gal got up on the stand and started to sing with the band. Sounded fine. Everybody impressed. Found out her name was Margie Carroll; she’d been singing with Paul Martel at the Arcadia. Wouldn’t be surprised if Harry took her. That Harry Gomez name, by the way, is beginning to stick! . . . Before going to bed I dropped in at the New Yorker to see Seger Ellis and wife (Irene Taylor) and band, there on a one-nighter. That Choir of Brass idea is fine. Banifs rhythm section was weak, but Seger was already looking for a new drummer and pianist.
The fact that Simon referred to her as Margie Carroll doesn’t help us. I wanted to learn more about Marie or Margie Carroll but information is very sparse. I tried turning to the BandChirps website, https://bandchirps.com/, but they have no entry for Marie Carroll. The only mention of Marie Carroll on the BarndChips site is in the entry on Harry James, https://bandchirps.com/band/harry-james/:
James and his new orchestra debuted in February 1939 at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia. Bernice Byres served as its first female vocalist. Byres remained with the band until at least early April, with Connie Haines having taken over by June. James had heard Haines rehearsing at a music publishing office and hired her. He soon became dissatisfied with Haines, however, and she was gone by September, replaced by Marie Carroll, who herself was gone by the end of that month. James didn’t immediately hire anyone to replace Carroll, telling Down Beat magazine “we do not use a girl singer because everyone we’ve had yet has been unsatisfactory, and until we find one who stacks up as strong as the band, we won’t worry.”
So who was Marie Carroll? Where did she come from? What happened to her? Those are questions that remain to be answered. All of the bullet points I listed earlier come from newspaper and magazine articles. We know she was with Harry James in the summer of 1939 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York and for a short period of time with James at the New York World’s Fair in August of 1939. The only listing I could find for her prior to being with Harry James in 1939 was an entry in The Miami Herald from February 15, 1939 where she was appearing at the Sweepstakes Club and being billed as a “Torch Singer”:
I’m assuming that the Torch Singer is the same Marie Carroll. There was also an actress and a dancer around that time with the same name but are definitely not the same person. I couldn’t find any other entry for Marie Carroll for 1939 or even before that year.
Details such as her having sung with Jan Savitt, Johnny Long, Bob Strong came from later articles in 1943, 1944 and 1946. The following article references an appearance of Marie Carroll with King Cole’s Orchestra in Shamokin, Pennsylvania in March of 1946. It mentions some of the other bands she has been with before that :
I had to work backwards from this article and try to pick up even earlier threads. From March of 1944, I found a reference to Marie Carroll getting married:
So she was married and was with the Maurice Spitalny Orchestra. I worked back a little more and found reference to the marriage and a few more details:
The above article was from December 2, 1943 and at that time she was with Art Farrar’s Orchestra and we learned that she’s from Charleston, West Virginia. Obviously, Marie left Art Farrar after that to take the position of singer with the Maurice Spitalny Orchestra. Here’s an article from January 31st, 1944 that explains how she ended up with Spitalny:
The marriage to Jack Conselmi and her association with Spitalny ended by summer of 1944. By June 26th, 1944 it was being reported that Conselmi and Marie Carroll had separated and she was no longer with Spitalny’s band:
Two articles ran a week apart in March of 1944, the first on the 14th and the second on the 21st, suggesting there was a problem in the Spitalny Orchestra with Marie Carroll. The first detailed the split:
The second article, the following week, suggests they’ settled their differences:
As we know, from the June 1944 article announcing her separation from Cancelmi, she was also gone from Spitalny’s orchestra.
We next pick up Marie Carroll’s information in December of 1944 with an advertisement for the Bob Strong Orchestra at Lakeside Park in Dayton, Ohio on December 9th of that year. And guess who his female vocalist is?
Her stint with Bob Strong can be tracked from this December 1944 advertisement to listings with Bob Strong into April of 1946. It’s with the Bob Strong orchestra that we are able to now hear Marie Carroll sing. A month after the December 9th appearance at Lakeside Park, the Bob Strong Orchestra, with Marie Carroll, appear on the The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands broadcast of January 9, 1945. This radio program survives and from it are three vocals of Marie Carroll with Bob Strong’s band, “Strange Music”, “Her Tears Flowed Like Wine”, and “Embraceable You”:
Strange Music:
Her Tears Flowed Like Wine:
Embraceable You:
I do not believe that Marie Carroll went into the studio and recorded any vocals with Bob Strong or any other orchestra with which she had been associated over the years. At least I couldn’t find any. In addition to The Victory Parade of Spotlight Band broadcast there are some other remotes that have survived of Marie Carroll with Bob Strong. These have been collected on the CD “Bob Strong & His Orchestra 1944-45” on the Circle Records label:
I have ordered a copy of this CD but it hasn’t arrived yet so I don’t have any liner notes to post here. Someone has posted Marie Carroll’s tracks on YouTube but they are referenced to “Marion Carroll,” which is how she might have been listed on the CD. Marie/Marion’s songs are “You Was Right, Baby!”, “This Is It”, “Love Letters”, “I Wish I Knew”, and “Out of This World”:
The above five songs plus the three from The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands are all of the available vocals I have discovered for Marie/Margie/Marion Carroll. It’s really a shame because she has a nice voice and really sells her ballads and can really swing on songs like “This Is It.”
The only other highlight of her time with the Bob Strong Orchestra was that she married again in July of 1946. DownBeat magazine noted her marriage:
I could find nothing else about Marie Caroll’s marriage to Al Yost. The only other significant item about Marie Carroll during her time with Bob Strong was a report in the February 15, 1945 DownBeat that Marie Carroll was being courted by Hollywood:
I tried to run this down but there’s no reference to any Hollywood activity our output by Marie Carroll. Maybe the screen test didn’t amount to anything.
The next, and final piece of information, that I could find about Marie Caroll was a report that she had become Miss Regina Hassock of 1947. This article appeared in the Radio & Appliance Journal of April 1947. You can click on it to view a larger article.
In March of 1947, the Radio Retailing magazine had also mentioned that Marie Carroll was Miss Regina Hassock for that year:
That same edition of Radio Retailing also featured a full page spread with a photo of Marie Carroll as Miss Regina Hassock:
The only other take away from this is that at some point she had been with the Bob Chester Orchestra.
That’s it! Any other information I could find related to advertisements of appearances with the Bob Strong Orchestra but nothing to say what happened after being crowned Miss Regina Hassock! I could find no obituary or anything else detailing her later life. I even tried searching for Al Yost who we know was a tenor saxophone player. There was an Al Yost who ran Yost Home Improvements in Pittsburgh after retiring as a tenor saxophone player. Is this the same Al Yost? You can learn about Al and his company, which continues on, even after his death, from the following website: https://yosthomeimprovements.com/yost/our-story/?utm_source=al%20yost%20music%20page&utm_medium=our%20story%20link&utm_campaign=yosthomeimprovements.com. Here’s a significant excerpt:
Our story first began in 1961 when Albert Yost Sr. retired from the Coast Guard Band after playing the tenor saxophone for 20 years. Albert, originally from Pittsburgh, and his wife Catherine, from Brooklyn, decided to stay in the area and grow roots for themselves and their five children. With Albert’s knack for home repairs, opening a home improvement company was a natural choice.
The Yosts quickly turned their home into company headquarters. During the early days, Albert oversaw projects while Catherine fielded calls and stayed on top of paperwork. It also wasn’t unusual for Catherine to prepare full course meals for the crew. Soon the Yost’s two sons Albert Jr. and George joined the company, eventually taking it over in 1983.
I use the word “significant” because these notes say his wife’s name was Catherine and she was from Brooklyn. If this is the same Al Yost then Marie Carroll had moved on from him at some point and Al Yost made a great life with Catherine.
So what happened to Marie Carroll? I don’t know!!! Maybe the CD I’ve ordered might have some details in the liner notes but beyond that, I’ve exhausted myself trying to find out what happened to her. If anyone knows or if anyone wants to take up the search and continue where I left off, please let me know. If I find out more, you know there’s going to be another blahg.
The answer to the question title of this blahg should be yes. Afterall, it was only a couple of blahgs ago. In case you don’t know what I’m referring to or maybe you’ve been kicked in the head recently by a mule, or any other animal of your choice with a hefty kick, and possibly lost your memory, all or part of it, then you really should check out that previous blahg WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THAT BLAHG ON DOTTIE REID?
Dottie Reid was a big band singer but if you check out that other blahg then you’ll learn all that. The purpose of this blahg is an addendum to that other blahg. I had posted a number of songs and live remotes by Dottie Reid but there were a few that I didn’t have access to until now. Here’s what I said in that last blahg:
There are a couple of Buddy Rich albums featuring live remotes of his band, with Dorothy Reid, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. They are inaptly titled “One Night Stand with Buddy Rich” and “One Night Stand with Buddy Rich Volume 2”. I say inaptly because the first record features selections from Buddy Rich’s band at the Hollywood Palladium March 27th and 28th, 1946. “Volume 2” features selections from Buddy Rich and company from the Hollywood Palladium on March 21, March 27th, and March 28th, 1946. None of the tracks from March 27th from the first album are repeated in the selections from the same date on the second album.
I was able to track down and post the tracks from “One Night Stand with Buddy Rich” which was essentially volume 1. I eventually purchased Volume 2 to locate the missing tracks. Here’s what I had to say about Volume 2 in that previous blahg:
“One Night Stand With Buddy Rich Volume 2” features the song “Personality” from March 21, 1946 at the Hollywood Palladium, “Do You Love Me” from March 27th at the Palladium, and “Just A-Sittin’ And A-Rockin’ ” from March 28th. I haven’t been able to track down a copy of the album but someone has posted a version of “Just A-Sittin’ And A-Rockin’ ” on YouTube which they reference as being from ” 3/1946″ which is probably from the Hollywood Palladium:
Before I talk about the “Just A Sittin’ And A Rockin’ ” track, let me post the front and back covers for “One Night Stand With Buddy Rich, Volume 2.” Be sure and click on the images to view even larger images:
One other thing of note about Dottie Reid’s appearance with Buddy Rich is that she was billed as Dorthy Reid.
Now, as to the above YouTube video of Dorothy Reid performing “Just A Sittin’ And A Rockin’ “, I believe it probably is the same track that appears on the Volume 2 album. The album references the track coming from the March 28th, 1946 appearance of Dorothy with Buddy Rich at the Hollywood Palladium whereas the YouTube video only references “3/1946.” I believe they are the same but you can compare for yourself. Here’s the album version:
Now for the other two tracks on the album that I could not post in the previous blahg. First up is “Personality” from March 21, 1946 at the Hollywood Palladium:
And finally, here’s “Do You Love Me” from March 27, 1946 at the Hollywood Palladium:
The only other recordings of Dottie Reid’s that I could not post about last time referred to some 1953 records she made with Chic Layne. Here’s what I posted about that:
The next listing I can find for a Dottie Reid recording is the following reference from the May 23, 1953 issue of Billboard:
I came up with a blank in terms of other information for this recording, an image, or even the ability to stream it from somewhere. The June 6th, 1953 issue of Billboard does make reference to two recordings by Dottie Reid with Tonex that may have been issued on the Twentieth Century label. Unfortunately there’s no information about the songs themselves:
I could find no updates for the Tonex recordings but I’ll keep looking. Maybe someday I’ll find those recordings and have to pen another addendum blahg with the title, “HEY, REMEMBER THAT ADDENDUM BLAHG ABOUT DOTTIE REID WHERE I SAID I MIGHT HAVE TO WRITE AN ADDENDUM BLAHG TO THE ADDENDUM BLAHG?” Maybe you’ll get your memory back and remember both of these blahgs. Until then, stay away from mules…oh yeah, and goats.
If this blahg has a title then I must have figured out what I was going to say. I’ll offer up a warning right at the beginning that this is going to be another one of those Sinatra related entries. I’d been working on it for a while in my mind and through emails with other Sinatra fans but I think I’m ready to start typing this out. If the title doesn’t say, “To Be Or Not To Be” or “Did That Really Happen?” or “Sylvan Beach to Crystal Beach and Schenectady In-between” then I’m ready to post this. Maybe it will have one of those titles because a couple sound intriguing. Read on.
As you know, and I have mentioned in previous blahgs like “Down A Rabbit Hole With Linda Keene“, I send out a daily post about what Sinatra was doing for every calendar day. In the Linda Keene blahg I had talked about a post I made for April 17th. On that date I posted the following:
April 17, 1950 Strictly From Dixie Henry Levine Orchestra NBC Blue Network
WJZ
New York City
10:30 – 11:00 p.m.
Monday Evening
Henry Levine Orchestra & Soloists
Martha Lou Harp blues singer Guest Singer: Frank Sinatra
Where this story begins is way back in 1939. In the summer of 1939, Frank Sinatra began touring with Harry James and his Orchestra. By August, they had settled in for a long run at the Fountain Lake Bandshell at the World’s Fair in New York. Their first day was August 19, 1939 and this is what I had listed for August 19:
1939 New York World’s Fair, Fountain Lake Bandshell (August 19 – September 2) Harry James and his Orchestra with Frank Sinatra
Note, that in brackets, I had posted what I thought was the complete run of their engagement at the World’s Fair from August 19th to September 2nd. The September 1st and 2nd dates are what began to be called into question. One of the members of our Sinatra group emailed me the following:
Wondering where you found a listing for 9/2 ? Did not see anything in The Times and there was no listing of a remote on that Saturday night. The band had a date outside of Buffalo on 9/3 and then on to Chicago. A gruelling bus trip in 1939 and they had played 14 consecutive days at The Fair.
Back in 2021, we began to note a conflict regarding September 1st, 1939. Here’s what we listed and below that are some details of the mystery.
1939 Sylvan Beach, New York (One Nighter) Harry James and His Orchestra with Jack Palmer, Connie Hayes, and Frank Sinatra
1939 New York World’s Fair, Fountain Lake Bandshell (August 19 – September 2) Harry James and His Orchestra with Frank Sinatra
Here were some details I provided at the time.
1939 New York World’s Fair, Fountain Lake Bandshell (August 19 – September 2) Harry James and His Orchestra with Frank Sinatra
Here is the listing of James at the World’s Fair (New York Daily News September 1)
But also there’s also adverts for him at Sylvan Beach (Syracuse Herald-Journal, August 30)
Adding to this mystery was the fact that Harry James was also listed at the New York World’s Fair on September 2nd, 1939, his supposed closing night, as well an engagement at The Casino in Bemus Point, New York. Here’s what the September 2nd listing looked like:
1939 New York World’s Fair, Fountain Lake Band Shell (August 19 – September 2) Harry James and his Orchestra w/Frank Sinatra1939 The Casino, Bemus Point, N.Y. (One Nighter) Harry James and His Orchestra with Connie Hayes, Jack Palmer, Frank Sinatra
Here were our details about the two conflicting engagements:
Here is yet another September 1939 mystery: Here is a listing for James at the Worlds Fair on this date (New York Daily News – September 2)
But also there are multiple ads for them at Bemus Point (Warren Times Mirror/Dunkirk Evening Observer/The Kane Republican, August 30; Warren Times Mirror August 31)
So, the question was how could Harry James be at the New York World’s Fair on September 1st and 2nd but also be at Sylvan Beach on the 1st and Bemus Point on the second?
When the question was first asked of me about the September 2nd closing date and its accuracy, I of course set out to defend my listing for the New York World’s Fair by offering more evidence. Here’s what I posted to everyone:
The following is from the New York Daily News, Sat, Sep 2, 1939:
Note that Harry James was listed as playing at the World’s Fair on September 2nd. Here was one of my subsequent posts:
Are we any closer to a consensus on September 2, 1939? The evidence for Beemus Point Casino is compelling but then we also have the listing from the Daily News that James and company were still at the World’s Fair.
This is the list for programs on September 3, 1939 at the World’s Fair
Note that Hal Kemp is in the Band Shell.
Compare that to the September 2nd, 1939 listing:
Note the September 2nd, 1939 listing has the Bunny Berrigan Orchestra at the Fountain Lake Band Shell at 7:30 but there’s no mention where Harry James was playing but the listing below from September 1st has Harry James in the amusement area:
So what does this all mean? I don’t know! There are no reviews of James at Bemus Point. I checked a number of other New York State papers and found the ads for Beamus Point but no review. There’s also no review of James on September 2nd at the World’s Fair.
We do know that Harry James was billed at Olcott Beach on September 3rd.
Olcott Beach is approximately 400 miles from New York City. Bemus Point is also around 400 miles from New York City.
Bemus Point is 103 miles from Olcott Beach. Certainly travelling to Bemus Point on September 2nd and then Olcott Beach for the 3rd would make sense.
That was when I began to believe that the September 2nd, 1939 entry for the New York World’s Fair was probably incorrect and that Bemus Point would have been more accurate. This was also when I began to believe that maybe our listing for September 1st was wrong and I should look more into the Sylvan Beach entry. Here’s what I worked out in my mind and then posted to our group:
Looking at all the articles and news and such, I’m inclined to believe that Harry James and ensemble were not at the World’s Fair in New York after August 31st. That would make the following itinerary more likely to be true:
September 1, 1939 Russell’s Danceland, Sylvan Point, NY
September 2, 1939 Casino, Bemus Point, NY
September 3, 1939 Olcott Beach, NY
If you assume that Harry James finished on August 31st in New York then looking at the map below, it was quite easy to drive to Sylvan Beach for September 1st and then straight across and down to Bemus Point for the 2nd and then up to Olcott Beach for September 3
One of our Sinatra group members took up the challenge and reached out to someone in Bemus Point. Here was his post about it:
I’ve always believed in going to the source when all else fails.
This morning I called the casino in Bemus Point, N.Y. A very polite gentleman listened to my question and then told me to hold on while he checked their records. The casino has the history of all the name acts that played there in the 1930s and 40s. The James band played a one-nighter on 9-2-39.
Well, that confirmed September 2nd, 1939 but what about September 1st, 1939 at Sylvan Beach? Here was my post after hearing confirmation about Bemus Point:
I checked the same newspaper Syracuse Herald Journal that advertised Dorsey at Sylvan Beach in 1941 and found they were advertising Harry James at Sylvan Beach on September 1st , 1939 as tonight only:
Would be odd to advertise as Tonight Only and Harry James wasn’t there. I’m still looking for any other reference.
Eventually, one of our group, the same person who reached out to Bemus Point, resolved the issue with the following post:
Hi Philers,
I contacted the historian of an area that includes Sylvan Beach, N.Y.
Scott was right. The band closed at the World’s Fair on 8-31-39.
They arrived in Rome, N.Y. on the afternoon of September 1st. The big hype locally was the return of Jack
Palmer. He was from Rome. James and Co. had dinner at the Grand Hotel in Rome ( name was changed to Commander Hotel
in the 1980s ). See enclosed photo.
The concert at Russell’s Danceland took place that evening. Jack Henke ( historian ) told me that a color
photo from the stage was displayed for many years at the Pancake House in Sylvan. Front and center was Jack Palmer
playing a trumpet solo. Frank was in the background ( I’ve seen the photo. Never knew the location ). Between sets the
band ate at Eddie’s. He had established the place in 1934 with his wife Phoebe. While the band was eating, she noticed
a skinny little guy was sitting out on the curb smoking. Phoebe went out and told him to come in and have something to
eat. And he did.
Now, there was a remote of the James band broadcast that evening on CBS, from 12:A.M. to 12:30. Jack
assured me that the station in Rome was able to air such a program. It is listed in the New York and Boston papers.
Here are the two images attached to the post:
So what about Crystal Beach, you may well ask. Give me a moment to finish and then you can ask. At one point after the information was posted and confirmed about Bemus Point, I posted some additional information about Sylvan Beach and another Sinatra connection:
As an aside, I was looking into Russell’s Danceland at Sylvan Beach and one website mentions that Sinatra and Dorsey played there on July 17th, 1941 but we’ve never had that in our listings. I’m going to try and run it down to confirm.
Here was the post where I detailed what I found about Tommy Dorsey at Sylvan Beach:
This is the listing I found that mentions Dorsey on July 17, 1941 at Sylvan Beach, NY:
HISTORY OF SYRACUSE MUSIC “OFFICIAL SITE” – CHAPTER 37 – MORE FAMOUS NAMES WHO PERFORMED OR SPOKE IN SYRACUSE BETWEEN 1941-1945
Feb 7-9, 1941 Louis Armstrong RKO Keith’s Theater
Apr 18, 1941 Howard Thurston (Magician) RKO Strand
May 9-11, 1941 Count Basie RKO Strand
May 23-25, 1941 Sally Rand RKO Strand
June 16-18, 1941 Vincent Lopez Orchestra RKO Keiths
June 20-22, 1941 Bill “Bojangles” Robinson RKO Strand
June 22, 1941 Gene Krupa Sylvan Beach
July 17, 1941 Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Sylvan Beach
Aug 24, 1941 Kate Smith N.Y.S. Fair
Jan 6, 1942 3 Stooges (Curly, Larry, Moe) Strand Theater
Here was my follow-up post about Dorsey and Sinatra at Sylvan Beach in 1941:
Here’s the ad and a small article about Dorsey at Sylvan Beach, July 17, 1941:
Note Sinatra not mentioned but the week before he was mentioned in a small article:
So, if it wasn’t for the Harry James at Sylvan Beach mystery, I probably wouldn’t have found out about Tommy Dorsey and Sinatra at Sylvan Beach in 1941.
Now on to Crystal Beach. Ask away. What’s that? What about Crystal Beach? Let me tell you. There had already been another unsubstantiated early Sinatra engagement that I could never verify. It concerned Crystal, Beach, Ontario here in Canada. Here was my follow-up post after the resolution to the Sylvan Beach issue:
Now that you’ve finalized the answer to Sylvan Beach 1939 with Harry James, I’d like some answers about Tommy Dorsey at Crystal Beach in Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada. I’m not sure of the exact date and I’ve found no article or ads to substantiate the rumors that Sinatra and Dorsey played there. Websites dedicated to Crystal Beach swear they were there but no date given. There’s even a mock poster in circulation, also without a date:
I’ve checked Buffalo newspapers and Toronto newspapers but can’t find anything to suggest they were there. If anyone else wants to take a crack at it, let me know.
Just to give you an idea of where Crystal Beach, Ontario, is, have a look at the following map:
The distance is about 26 miles. Many of the big bands who had played in Buffalo or Fort Erie would also play the Ballroom in Crystal Beach. I have read some of the posts from seniors through memory projects who clearly remember seeing Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey at Crystal Beach and the poster above springs either from someone’s memory or imagination. The poster too clearly featured Sinatra rather than focusing on Tommy Dorsey and of course there was no date attached to it. So, I began my research and the posts began. Here was one of my first posts on the subject :
On a side note, I found this:
July 17, 1965
Not the original Dorsey and not Sinatra Sr. but interesting.
I also added the following post about Tommy Dorsey at Crystal Beach:
So far the only reference I can find to Tommy Dorsey at Crystal Beach was July 14th, 1955 with his brother Jimmy.
Here was another post in response to another member of our Sinatra group:
I’ve read so many posts from people who say they saw Sinatra at such and such a place with or without Dorsey and I haven’t been able to confirm most of them.
There’s a great book called:
“Let’s Dance: A Celebration of Ontario’s Dance Halls and Summer Dance Pavilions”
When I searched through the book I could find no reference to Dorsey at Crystal Beach. Strange though that if you read the section on “Summer Gardens” in Kitchen-Waterloo (pages 86-87), someone who was interviewed, recalls “I shrieked at a skinny Frank Sinatra there.”
Strange, I hadn’t heard the one before and couldn’t prove it.
I finally decided to reach out to someone in Fort Erie and they sent a contact for the archivist with Fort Erie Times. I asked them to look into Dorsey playing Crystal Beach sometime between 1940 and 1942. Those were the years that Sinatra was touring with Dorsey. While waiting for a response, I received this post from a member of our group:
Charlotte Nielsen interview with Mr. Truckenbrodt
April 23, 1985
F.T. They used to advertise ••• it was a quarter million dollar ballroom. Well of course in nineteen twenty-five, that’s a lot of money. And of course, interestingly, like the boat, I’ve been involved in the ballroom all my life because I went to work in the ballroom when I was twelve taking tickets and we used to say working on the ropes because it used to be five cents a dance, later on ten cents a dance like the song says. But you’d pay five cents for a ticket and then we would go out with the ropes. we had long long ropes and we would then sweep the people off the back of the floor, you see, at the end of the dance. The new people with the new five cents would come on in the front and dance their .•. There was ..• I think three minutes was a dance .•• After the first two minutes we would begin to work out with the ropes and push the people off and then we’d have to see that everybody got off because they had to pay their next ten cents before they could get on again.
C.N. So you worked at this Crystal Beach Ballroom as a child?
F.T. Yes, yes. Well, I worked there from twelve until I was twenty.
C.N. Could you describe it? Tell me about the bands, the people .•.
F.T. Well, it was unbelievable. As I said, when you try to tell about Crystal Beach you can’t. You can’t make people believe how wonderful it was because there were two bands that played: A Canadian band (12) ( ( ( and an American band. and they were what we knew as, in those days, as the bands, right. And in my time essentially it was Bert Niosi, who I watched on television two years ago, when he had his fiftieth anniversary at the Palais Royale in Toronto. He used to play the Palais in the winter and Crystal Beach in the summer. And I knew all the Niosis Johnny and Joe and Burt and my sister used to babysit Burt’s children when she was a little girl. Joe Niosi was in the airforce with me so we used to see each other in Ottawa. He was the number one airforce band during the war. But at any rate .. • And Harold Austin was the orchestra that came over on the boat. and you see with union rules, they had to have a Canadian band or the American couldn’t play. So the Canadian band started at eight o’clock and the boat came in at nine fifteen and at nine thirty Harold Austin played. And Harold Austin played from nine thirty until eleven and then Burt Niosi and his band would come on at eleven and play through till twelve. Now can you imagine what a joy this was, because Harold Austin left Buffalo at eight o’clock every night, seven days a week from Decoration Day till Labour Day and all the people of Buffalo would come out at eight o’clock, you know, people who had worked during the day, and they’d dance to this eighteen piece orchestra all the way across on this beautiful maple dance floor on the back deck of the Canadiana on a hot summer’s night, moon over the water, and land at Crystal Beach and walk just over to the ballroom and then dance away the night at the ballroom and then get back on the boat and dance their way back to Buffalo till twelve fifteen at night. I can remember seeing still the Harold Austin orchestra coming down the covered walk from the bridge with their bass fiddles and their saxaphones. They looked like the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra coming out after a concert. And then at eleven o’clock you’d see them all packed up with their bags going down to get on the boat again. Well, can you think what excitment this is with the boat and the dance hall and all this sort of thing.
C.N. No, I don’t quite understand.
F.T. And you see, the whole village, the whole place in the summer turned around the boat, because it was like Martha’s vineyard or (13) Nantucket. In the early days, everybody came on the boat because they didn’t have cars particularly during the depression in the early nineteen twenties. People might have had a car but they didn’t take it to Crystal Beach. But everybody in Buffalo could take the streetcar down to the dock at the end of Commercial Street and take the hour ride to Crystal Beach and be there for the day or for the evening and have their swim and go back. But it was always a different crowd, an adult crowd, that came on the. late boat at night, eight o’clock, and then go back and dance there.
C.N. Are you saying the band played both on this boat, the Canadiana
and at the ballroom at Crystal Beach? But you were in the ballroom working?
F.T. Yes, and in the ballroom. Taking tickets, yes.
C.N. You said, “Everybody could do this.” These were’nt rich people? They were everyday people? Oh yes! Sure. Oh!
F.T. And young people. Marvelous young people. We had such great gangs of people here. And we all went to the ballroom at night. Everybody did. And we all went to the beach in the afternoon. You know, it was just a wonderful time. And then of course, we began to have the name bands at the ballroom too as the big bands became famous. And we would have •.• Almost all summer, Saturday night there’d be a big band. And my favourite orchestra was Jimmy Dorsey. And I was absolutely in love with Helen O’Connell. And I had all the records, you know, my old poor old seventy-eights on this scratchy Victrola that I played all these things. And then suddenly Jimmy Dorsey was coming. Can you imagine the excitement? So I met Helen O’Connell and Bob Everly and got their autographs on my poster. I was just so thrilled. And we had Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. Oh, it’s so hard to do it all at once. But there was hardly a name band that we didn’t have. Larry Clinton. You name me some and they were probably here. And I can’t tell you the name of the orchestra. I just remember the girl singer was Louise King who I was terribly proud of. And then we had a terrible, terrible time one Labour Day. And I was working on the door (14) ( ( and Artie Shaw was corning. Well that was after .•• Like each year one of the big bands would become the band of the year. We had Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller of course, and then suddenly there was Artie Shaw playing.
It was a fascinating memory but it didn’t narrow down a firm date for Sinatra Dorsey at Crystal Beach. Here was part of my reply:
Assuming Dorsey played a Saturday night, I checked gaps in our listings and every Saturday night from April to September in 1940, 1941, and 1942 are all accounted for in our listings.
I gained access to Ontario, Canada newspaper archives today and searched for Tommy Dorse or Sinatra for those years and nothing comes up except the Canadian National Exhibition dates for those years.
The post brought this response from one of our members:
But how do we account for all the people bearing witness ?
Dorsey’s name comes up again and again in the history of the Crystal
Lake Ballroom. I’m sure the band would have been welcomed any day
of the week. As Frank was fond of saying: Dorsey was the General
Motors of the big band era. Last week I read about an eye witness
describing how the young women were hovering near the stage and
squealing as Frankie crooned away.
Here’s how I responded:
I can’t account for it. One person with no evidence to back it would convince me it didn’t happen but several people remembering it makes no sense. This is like Sylvan Lake with Harry James. It made no sense compared to the other evidence that he was still advertised at the World’s Fair and live remotes for a September 1st, 1939 for the World’s Fair were still being listed. In the end, we know how that worked out with Sylvan Lake actually occurring. I also found a previously unlisted Sylvan Lake in 1941 with Dorsey and Sinatra because of the research into Sylvan Lake. So, anything’s possible.
The fact that the mock-poster for Crystal Lake exists is obviously based on someone’s belief or knowledge that Dorsey and Sinatra were there. I’ve heard nothing from the contact I was given for the Fort Erie Times so I’ve reached out to them again. Maybe my initial request went into someone’s spam.
I haven’t given up on Crystal Lake and I’m still trying to run down Schenectady. The fact that Sinatra himself once said he played there with Dorsey is enough to send me searching.
Ok, so now I’ve thrown in Schenectady. I’ll explain that in a bit. My comment that my first inquiry to the archivist at the Fort Erie Times might have gone into spam was probably correct because I received the following email:
Hello Scott,
I didn’t get your previous email but the Museum can provide you with some background.
In 2009, William Kae wrote a book called “Crystal Beach Live – Buffalo and Toronto Entertainers & More”. There is information in that book regarding Tommy Dorsey playing at Crystal Beach Park. The following is taken from that book:
Page 199
“Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey had bands together and separately … Jimmy’s band came to Crystal Beach, as did Tommy’s, and after the brothers reconciled, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra also played at the park. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under Warren Covington played Crystal Beach twice during the big band era and returned in 1988.”
Page 202
“Old Blue Eyes sang with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra from 1939 through 1942. Tommy Dorsey, however, never played at Crystal Beach during those years. This poster has to be one of the biggest faux-pas on record.” [ A photo of a poster is in the book and is and exact match to the poster that you attached to your email.]
We hope this helps your research project.
Regards,
Jane Davies
Manager
Fort Erie Museum and Cultural Services
Box 339, Ridgeway, ON
L0S 1N0
Thank you Jane Davies. So much, for all those people who remember Sinatra being there.
So what about Schenectady? One of our group, during the Sylvan Beach search had posted the following:
The search for this date reminded me of a tape I listened to many years ago.
As the vamp started on “N.Y.,N.Y.,” Frank would sing out “Milwaukee” or “Alamogordo” or some other city
decidedly not measuring up to the Big Apple. On the night in question, he let out with “Schenectady.” Then Frank said
he had played there with Dorsey many years ago. Another time I received a call from the office of the writer William
Kennedy. They had heard Sinatra once played in our area with the Dorsey band. “Was it Schenectady ? or Albany?
or . . .” I told them I didn’t know.
That band played a lot of one-nighters more than 80 years ago. And newspaper coverage was very meager
Inside the expansive back room in the northwest corner of the old Kenmore Hotel hangs a drab, grey curtain concealing the last piece of history tied to the space.
The curtain protects a mural called “The Court of Cleopatra,” painted on the wall above a modest stage on which Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington played. It’s a depiction of the Queen of Egypt, whose beauty was unparalleled and whose intelligence matched that of the powerful men she seduced, most notably Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. It’s placement high upon the wall implied that this was the room in which the masters of the universe was expected to frolic.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information to pinpoint a date or even prove that Dorsey and Sinatra were together at the Kenmore Hotel. Of course Sinatra would sing at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany on January 30th, 1990 and November 13th, 1991. Sinatra was the first act to open the new Knickerbocker Arena when he played there in 1990 but earlier appearances with Dorsey remain a mystery.
There are also other Sinatra concerts that people have alleged to have seen or heard about but never happened. I recently came across the following website that mentions Sinatra at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto in 1948: https://www.vintageinn.ca/tag/cne-history/. That never happened. Here’s what they posted:
In 1948 Frank Sinatra performed under the big tent.
I found this GREAT post on a Sinatra family forum page about his visit thru the eyes of an attendee, which I will share with you now.
I was able to retrieve a couple of memories from my Mom about the 1948 Concert held under the big tent at the CNE in Toronto.They are wonderful memories of a time totally lost. I asked her to try and write everything down when she feels up to it.
The tent was jammed to the limit with fans, and not one speck of trouble occurred. My mom remembers the wood floor that was layed out for the dancing. Can you imagine trying to pull that off nowadays? If we could only have times like that today!
She remembers his famous bow tie, and how all the girls were just swooning at the front of the stage.She had the best time. My parents’ seats (they were newly engaged at the time), along with my Uncle and Aunt were quite a distance from the stage, but the minute Frankie came on my Mom and Aunt were off like a shot, my Dad and Uncle following. As I mentioned before, she was right up to the stage, and loving every minute.You can imagine her excitement, as she’d been a bobby soxer through and through, buying every magazine, and record. And here she was FRONT AND CENTRE STARING UP AT HER IDOL! Hopefully she’ll be able to write her memories of this great time down.
Take Care,from the Second Generation of Sinatra Fans-Ann
I had a bit of a laugh last night, as my Mom recalled another interesting fact about the concert in Toronto.
There was a dance floor put up in front of the stage, and the guys were wanting to dance. The girls on the otherhand were just standing there staring at their beloved Frankie!!!! But then again what else would one expect! He was sooooo cute!!!
Here was my comment, which you can read in the comment section:
Hello,
I have done extensive research on Sinatra’s appearances in Canada and there’s no record of a 1948 CNE concert. He was with Dorsey at the CNE in 1941 in Toronto and then the Mutual Street Arena in 1949 in Toronto. He did not return to Toronto until 1975.
I think the guy’s mother is misremembering ( I know, it’s not a real word).
You can flip through images for the whole 1948 program for the CNE and the big draw was Olsen & Johnson. The program does not mention Sinatra:
I have access to the Toronto Star newspaper archives as well and I checked the daily listings for the CNE in August/September 1948 and Sinatra was not listed.
I am certain there was no performance by Sinatra at the CNE in 1948. The Grandstand opened that year and all the big draws were at the Grandstand and not in a tent.
I also wrote a blog about some of Sinatra’s Canadian appearances, including his CNE concerts:
Of course, I had to get a plug in for one of my blahgs. If you read through the other comments on that page you will also find this comment:
Hi Liz, do you know if there’s any evidence of Sinatra visiting or performing at the Brant inn in Burlington in the late 40’s? My grandmother worked there and claimed he ‘stole a kiss’ from her.
That never happened either. I’ve done a comprehensive study of all of Sinatra’s performances in Canada and the CNE in 1948 in Toronto certainly wasn’t among them nor have I ever seen another mention of a possiblity of Sinatra at the Brant Inn in Burlington. The only other reference to Sinatra in Canada that is left unanswered is a reference to The Curlu in Toronto. From the Wikipedia entry for The Curlu, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carlu, you will find this:
Itself a highly regarded work of Art Moderne the Eaton’s Seventh Floor was at the heart of Toronto’s cultural life for many years. The Auditorium played host to the major performers of its day, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra.
That’s one I don’t even know where to begin to try and verify. I think I’ll leave it for now. Maybe someday I’ll resolve the Schenectady/Albany question but I’m happy at least I had a hand in solving the Sylvan Beach and Crystal Beach mysteries. There may be other mysteries but I’m taking a break for now…maybe for at least the next five minutes.
My novel, “Pippa’s Passing” is finally ready to order from Amazon. I started writing the book in February 2022 and now, two years on, it’s been edited and fine tuned and ready for readers to take it on. 
Hello,
I have done extensive research on Sinatra’s appearances in Canada and there’s no record of a 1948 CNE concert. He was with Dorsey at the CNE in 1941 in Toronto and then the Mutual Street Arena in 1949 in Toronto. He did not return to Toronto until 1975.
I think the guy’s mother is misremembering ( I know, it’s not a real word).
You can flip through images for the whole 1948 program for the CNE and the big draw was Olsen & Johnson. The program does not mention Sinatra:
https://www.icollector.com/1948-Canadian-National-Exhibition-Program_i33705507
I have access to the Toronto Star newspaper archives as well and I checked the daily listings for the CNE in August/September 1948 and Sinatra was not listed.
I am certain there was no performance by Sinatra at the CNE in 1948. The Grandstand opened that year and all the big draws were at the Grandstand and not in a tent.
I also wrote a blog about some of Sinatra’s Canadian appearances, including his CNE concerts:
SINATRA–CNE–1984–SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN