Well, we’re past the half-way mark of February 2026 and I was a little stalled about what to post for this new blahg. I had an idea but I had to stop being lazy and get around to doing some essential work. No, still nothing on my “Delbert Robinson” story. That’s more than a stall, that’s just complete and utter lack of interest to finish that story. Instead, like last month’s post, WARMING MUSIC FOR A COLD JANUARY, I’m going to go back the music.
Last month, Jeanette and I went back to Peterborough, Ontario to do some shopping. We were there in November of last year and there was a brand new Salvation Army Thrift Store but unfortunately it wasn’t going to open up until the end of November and we were three weeks early. We finally got back to the store. Before I talk about that, I want to mention the other reason we went back to Peterborough. For Christmas, I had bought my friend Bryan, 3 of the 4 Schitt’s Creek Funko Pops from the first series. Bryan is not a fan of Funkos but he always said he wished he had bought these. Here’s what they look like:
Unfortunately, I could not find #975, the David Rose Funko Pop. When I was in Peterborough, I stopped by a store by the name of Fly By Nite (I know, with a name like that you’d think no one should shop there).
They had all of the above pops except Moira Rose. This was of course, the day after the great Catherine O’Hara passed away who played Moira on the show. I hope some collector picked it up in honour of her. I manged to pick up the David Rose figure for a decent price and Bryan was glad to have it.
Also, while I was in Peterborough, I stopped by a collectible shop called “Things From Mom’s Basement.” The store is very crowed and almost like a fire hazard. Check out the photo below of outside the shop and another photo below that of the inside.
While I was there, I found a Rat Fink Funko Pop. I wasn’t looking for it and I didn’t even know it existed but I had to have it once I saw it:
Did I have room for it? Well, I had recently put these shelves up by my desk:
Notice that I put up Rat Fink on the top shelf. I’ve also decided to collect the Funko Pop releases of characters from the animated show, “Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends”
I currently have the flocked Eduardo and Mac:
I’ve ordered a Bloo and will pick up the regular Eduardo. I decided to collect them because there’s another wave coming out:
I guess I’m going to have to add another shelf or two. I have also added to my Funko Sodas recently. I showed them all off in the UNPACKING THE 2026 FALSE DUCKS NEW YEAR’S DAY VIDEO RAMBLE blahg but have added a couple of new ones. A few weekends ago, I picked up two Frodo Baggins Sodas. Here they are alongside the two Bilbo Baggins Sodas my daughter Emily got me before Christmas:
The Frodo with the hood and the scary looking Bilbo are the chase variants. For a while, I only had the regular Plastic Man Soda release but I found a retailer with a few and I was finally able to get the chase version. The chase is the one with the twisted arms:
Okay, so back to stopping at the new Salvation Army Thrift Store. It was pretty much a bust. It looked nice in the window before the grand opening but I found that most of the stock were now clothes. Of course, I always have to check their record bins. That’s where this blahg gets interesting. I picked up two records. Here’s a shot of the covers:
I’ll start with the Ray Herbeck LP. The only website with substantial information about Ray Herbeck was from another blog: https://fromthevaults-boppinbob.blogspot.com/2015/11/ray-herbeck-born-27-november-1910.html. Here’s what was posted:
Ray Herbeck (b. 27 November 1910, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 17 January 1989, Phoenix, Arizona, USA) was an American band leader and alto saxophonist. With their theme song, ‘Romance’, Herbeck’s was one of the most commercially
orientated orchestras of the day.
Formed in Los Angeles, California, USA, in 1935, the Ray Herbeck Orchestra soon relocated to Chicago to pursue the lucrative Midwest one-nighter circuit. was one Having previously worked with Leighton Noble, Herbeck recruited musicians George Van, Whitney Boyd, George Winslow, Benny Stabler, Bob McReynolds, Jay Stanley, James Baker, Jim Hefit, Bunny Rang, Art Skolnick, Louis Math, Tom Clark, Al Ciola, Chi Chi Crozza, Bob Hartzell and Leo Benson, alongside vocalists Betty Benson, Hal Munbar, Kirby Brooks, Ray Olson, Lorraine Benson, Roy Cordell and Irene Wilson.
Herbeck later married his vocalist Lorraine Benson (b. 19 April 1920, Pocatello, Idaho, USA, d. 10 August 1996, San Dimas, California, USA). With a supporting tag of ‘Ray Herbeck And His Music With Romance’, they offered a steady stream of sentimental numbers cultivated to the specific requirements of slow dancing, including songs such as ‘Time Stood Still’.
The 40s saw the band take engagements at famous hotels such as the Peabody, New Yorker, Muehlbach and Brown Palace, and there were few major ballrooms who did not book the band during their
extensive tours.
Over his career, Ray and his various bands recorded over 200 sides for Vocalion Records, Columbia Records and OKeh Records among many others, further exposure arrived during World War II with Herbeck’s band making over 300 USO camp show appearances to entertain the forces. They also appeared several times on Coca Cola’s Spotlight Bands radio show during this time.
After the war Herbeck returned to California to play a year’s residency at the Riverside Hotel in Reno, then two years at the Last Frontier in Las Vegas. But by the early 50s he had given up music to concentrate on real estate businesses in California and Phoenix. He passed away at age 79 on January 17, 1989.
Both Ray and his vocalist/wife – Lorraine Benson – are buried in the Veteran’s Admin. Cemetary in Phoenix, AZ, USA. His son, Ray Jr., still has the original “book” and has produced a “Live” CD with the 1943 band including his mother Lorraine Benson singing. (Info mainly AMG)
Here’s a shot of the back of the the Ray Herbeck LP:
If you click on the image, you can see a larger version. It’s interesting to note that all of these tracks come from live remotes between 1947 and 1948. I’ve uploaded all of the tracks to YouTube and I’ll post them below and try to note the date and venue for these live tracks.
The first track is “Romance” from the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago on November 24, 1947:
“We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye” with vocal by Lorraine Benson also from the Trianon on November 24, 1947:
“Kate” from the Trianon on the same date as the two above with vocal by Hal Munbar:
The location switches to the Radio Rendezvous in Twin Falls, Idaho on February 25, 1947 with “The Old Lamplighter” vocals by Buddy Burke & The Glee Club:
Here comes an instrumental of “12th Street Rag” from the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago on November 1st, 1948:
Lorraine Benson is back with a vocal on “Playmates” back at the Trianon from November 24, 1947:
Hal Munbar is back in again with a vocal on “You’ll Always Be The One I Love” from the Radio Rendezvous on February 25, 1947:
Finally, side A ends with a Melody of “Ooh, Looky There; Ain’t She Pretty; Baby Face; and Heartbreaker” from the Edgewater Beach Hotel again on November 1, 1948:
Side B picks up with Lorraine Benson again from the Rainbow Rendezvous this time from Salt Lake City, Utah on February 27, 1948 and it’s “Little Boy Love:”
Hal Munbar returns from the Trianon on November 24, 1947 with a vocal on “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So:”
Vince Caplette sings “Possum Song” from the Radio Rendezvous on February 25, 1947:
Here’s an instrumental of “Bye Bye Blues” from the Rainbow Rendezvous on February 27, 1947:
“Daddy, Surprise Me” features Lorraine Benson’s vocal from the Edgewater Beach Hotel on November 1st, 1948:
“Johnson Rag” is a fine instrumental by the band from the Rainbow Rendezvous on February 26, 1948:
Lorraine Benson returns for her final vocal on “Tiss Me Or You Dotta Det Out” from the Rainbow Rendezvous on February 27, 1948:
“I’ll Get By” is the last instrumental by Herbeck before the closing number. It’s from the Trianon on November 24, 1947:
“Romance” from the Trianon on November 24, 1947 started off the “A” side of the album and it also closes out the “B” side taken from the same location and date:
My thoughts on the Ray Herbeck album is that it’s very pleasing. This is an orchestra I wasn’t aware of before finding this record. The live remotes are an added treat and they make it seem like it’s all from one location and one date. I couldn’t find any listings for any other Herbeck LPs but there are a couple of CDs of his material from 1940 and 1942. These were put out by Circle back in the mid 1990s so they might be hard to find. The first is “Mostly 1940”:
I don’t know much about it or if they’re live remotes or studio recordings, but here’s a picture of the rear of the CD with track listings:
Here’s an image of the second Circle CD, “1942”:
The rear of the CD notes that these tracks were recorded by Lang-Worth Transcriptions in New York City, March 9th, and May 6th, 1942:
As far as I know, the LP I bought is the only available source for the later 1947-1948 band led by Ray Herbeck.
The next album, “The West, A Nest And You” features a Canadian orchestra fronted by Mart Kenney. Here’s what I could find about Mart Kenney from the History of Canadian Broadcasting website, https://broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/kenney-mart/:
Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen. Canada’s leading dance band in the 1930s and 1940s. It was formed in 1931 for an engagement at Vancouver’s Alexandra Ballroom by Mart (Herbert Martin) Kenney (b Toronto 7 Mar 1910, d Mission, BC 8 Feb 2006; honorary LLD, Lethbridge, 1985), an alto and baritone saxophonist and clarinetist who played during the late 1920s in the CJOR radio orchestra and with Len Chamberlain at the Hotel Vancouver. The founding five – Kenney, the trumpeter-pianist Glen Griffith, the trumpeter Jack Hemmings, the saxophonist Bert Lister, and the bassist Hec MacCallum – were joined later in 1931 by the drummer Ed Emel and in 1932 by the vocalist-saxophonist-pianist Art Hallman.
The band made its radio debut in 1934 on CJOR from the Alexandra Ballroom and for three seasons appeared at the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park in Alberta. There, as Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen, it made its CRBC debut in 1934 with the program ‘Rocky Mountain Melody Time,’ taking the 1922 Billy Hill-Larry Yoell waltz ‘The West, a Nest and You, Dear’ as its theme-song. A succession of engagements followed 1934-7 at CPR hotels, including the Hotel Vancouver, where the band’s most popular CRBC/CBC program, ‘Sweet and Low,’ began in 1935. The band initiated summer tours of eastern Canada in 1937 and appeared for the first of many seasons at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel.
In 1938 it began recording for RCA and by 1951 it had made some 25 78s for its Victor and Bluebird labels, as well as 2 for the Dominion company. Hits included ‘The West, a Nest and You, Dear,’ ‘There’s Honey on the Moon Tonight,’ and the Kenney song ‘We’re Proud of Canada’.
Relocating in 1940 in Toronto, the band continued ‘Sweet and Low’ 1940-2 and was featured until 1949 on other commercially sponsored CBC programs. Its broadcasts were picked up in the USA by CBS or the NBC ‘Blue’ network and in Britain by the BBC. During four cross-Canada tours 1943-5 the band was heard twice-weekly on ‘The Victory Parade with Canada’s Spotlight Band,’ broadcasting from army camps and war plants. After 1949, Mart Kenney’s Ranch, a dance hall near Woodbridge north of Toronto, was the site of the band’s CBC broadcasts. Other bands also appeared there as Kenney continued to tour into the 1960s. With his retirement to Mission, BC, in 1969, the band broke up and the ranch closed. Thereafter Kenney organized orchestras for special occasions such as CBC TV’s ‘In the Mood’ in 1971 and a CNE appearance in 1975, and for engagements throughout the 1980s in the Vancouver area.
Although initially a septet, the Western Gentlemen among them played some 30 instruments and featured the vocal trio ‘Three of a Kind’ (Kenney, Griffith, and Hallman). A 12-piece band on its first recordings, it added four violins for ‘Sweet and Low’ from Vancouver and Toronto and for some of its later Victor recordings in Montreal. (Violinists in Vancouver included Ricky Hyslop and Cardo Smalley; in Toronto, Hyman Goodman, Samuel Hersenhoren, and Albert Pratz.) Featured singers were Hallman 1932-44, Eleanor Bartelle in 1936, Georgia Dey in 1937, Beryl Boden in 1940, Judy Richards 1940-3, Veronica Foster 1943-4, Norma Locke 1944-69, Roy Roberts 1946-9, and Wally Koster 1949-52. The band’s most popular vocalist, Norma (Beth) Locke (b Montreal 15 Oct 1923, d Mission 17 Sep 1990, a one-time student at the TCM and singer with the Joe DeCourcy and Howard Cable dance bands), married Kenney in 1952.
The personnel of the Western Gentlemen changed frequently after 1940, and some former members, including Bobby Gimby, Art Hallman, the pianist Jack Fowler, and the saxophonist Stan Patton, formed their own bands, which were initially managed by the Kenney booking agency, established in the late 1940s.
A versatile dance band, neither excessively ‘sweet’ nor too boldly ‘swinging,’ Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen made a particular impact on the Canadian public with their tours during the war years and achieved some popularity in the USA through their recordings and broadcasts. In 1980 Kenney was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
Here’s an image of the back cover of the LP and you can see a larger version when you click on it.
The back of the album mentions that the tracks are “as representative as possible of the music of Mart Kenney and his Western Gentlemen when they were in the heyday of their popularity in the late 30’s and early 40’s.” Unfortunately the album notes do no mention who performs the vocals on any of the tracks. I believe they are studio recordings. I have posted them all on YouTube as well but YouTube has blocked me from posting one song. I’ll mention that when I get to that track.
First up is “Sometime:”
Next up is “Blue Tahitian Moonlight:”
The third track on the “A” side is the one that YouTube has blocked me from posting. The song is “Ramona” and here’s what YouTube emailed to me:
Hi scobeyfan,
Copyright-protected content has been detected in your Short “Romona”. This content is currently not allowed in Shorts that are 60 seconds or longer. Your Short is longer than that, so it has been blocked.
Here’s what they further had to say:
Content owners: LatinAutor – SonyATV, Sony Music Publishing, Hexacorp (music publishing), LatinAutorPerf, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM
Content type: Melody or lyrics
Impact on video: Blocked globally
If you look at the label for the record, it gives us a listing for the tracks and denotes that “Ramona” is contributed to L. Wolfe Gilbert and Mabel Wayne. 
I don’t know why this version is blocked when I have found other versions of the tune on YouTube. Oh well, I’ll post the audio of Mart Kenney’s version of “Ramona” below
“Heart of Mine” is up next and it’s back to YouTube for this song and remaining tracks from the LP:
“Beloved” is last track on the first side of the album:
Starting off the flip side is “I Wonder What’s Become of Sally:”
“Surrender” is up next:
“Paradise” follows next:
“Gee, It’s Good To Hold You” is the second last track:
Finally, it’s the title track, “The West, A Nest And You!”
Again, I don’t have information about the vocals on the album. The tracks are lush and lean toward sultry. I’ve tried to find some live versions of Mart Kenney and his Orchestra but with no luck. I did notice that there was a 7 inch EP of live tracks released by Nomadic Records
The tracks on the EP are from live performances in 1946, as can be noted on the rear cover:
I don’t have access to that EP but I’ve found a National Film Board of Canada video, “Canada Calling”, that has a clip of Mart Kenney and his Orchestra performing. Their portion starts at 7:05:
The notation earlier from the History of Canadian Broadcasting website mentioned “Its broadcasts were picked up in the USA by CBS or the NBC ‘Blue’ network and in Britain by the BBC. During four cross-Canada tours 1943-5 the band was heard twice-weekly on ‘The Victory Parade with Canada’s Spotlight Band,’ broadcasting from army camps and war plants.” Someone has posted a Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands featuring Mart Kenney from February 2nd, 1943:
I’ll keep looking for more Mart Kenney remotes. Speaking of the Victory Parade of Spotlight, I found this image posted on a blog https://gilliandr.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/victory-parade-and-canadas-spotlight-band-wwii/ where the poster noted “Saw this poster on display at the World of Coke in Atlanta, Georgia.”
That’s it for this time. Two obscure records from one thrift store. Two bands that were not well known to me but certainly very pleasurable. Maybe I’ll find more from these bands. I bet you won’t find “Ramona” anywhere else.