{"id":3317,"date":"2020-10-15T21:44:25","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T15:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=3317"},"modified":"2025-05-16T00:38:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:38:35","slug":"tracing-linda-keene-part-3-one-more-for-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=3317","title":{"rendered":"TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 3: ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, here we go with the third and final in a series of blahgs where I try to trace musical star Linda Keene through the media. If you haven’t read the first two parts, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 1: THE FLORENCE SUTTLE YEARS<\/a> or\u00a0TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 2: THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE<\/a> then do yourself a favour and stop now and check out those two blahgs.\u00a0 If you’ve arrived here or returned here after reading the first two parts then you know I’m trying to trace the life of the great but forgotten singer Linda Keene through her notices, reviews, advertisements, and photos in the media.\u00a0 This post will have a great surprise at the end and if you want to skip ahead to check it out, I wouldn’t blame you but I’m hoping you stick it through from the beginning. T<\/span><\/strong>his blahg will pick up where the last one left off but a quick word about the title.\u00a0 I can’t tell you that right now but when you get to the end, and the big reveal, you will understand the title.\u00a0 I think it’s a more respectful title to end this final blahg on tracing Linda Keene.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 When I last left off, Linda Keene was finishing up 1945 at the Village Vanguard in New York.\u00a0 In February of 1945 she had also recorded the last of her official recordings supervised by her good friend Leonard Feather with a group of musicians including Charlie Shavers on trumpet and Red Norvo on vibes.\u00a0 Linda had once toured with Norvo and was at Kelly’s Stable in 1944 with Charlie Shavers.\u00a0 The sum total of her official recordings were 21 songs starting with her first recording of “Blue and Disillusioned” with Bobby Hackett’s band in November of 1938 through recordings with Jack Teagarden in 1939, Lennie Hayton also in late 1939 and again in early 1940, a single with Tony Pastor in 1941, a 78rpm album containing six vocals from Linda with Henry Levine and his band in February of 1942, then two recordings with Joe Marsala in November 1944, followed by the last recordings in 1945 with Charlie Shavers, Red Norvo, and group.\u00a0 There were also three Soundies with Levine in 1942; which you will understand if you checked out part two of this blahg series.\u00a0 There were no further orchestra or band affiliations by the end of 1945 and all of Linda’s future appearances would be club dates.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0 I’m not sure when her engagement at the Village Vanguard came to an end.\u00a0 Billboard reviewed her there on December 19th, also see part two of my Linda Keene series, and mentioned she went into the Village Vanguard on the 18th. Variety failed to mention her in the Variety Bills section for the whole month of December. The last listing for the Village Vanguard in the December 26, 1945 issue of Variety looked liked this:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The January 2nd issue of Variety had the following billing for the Village Vanguard for the week of January 3rd:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Variety would carry the same billing well into February with only a slight change-up in their February 27th issue for the week of the 28th: <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The last Village Vanguard billing listed in Variety that carried Linda Keene’s name was in the March 13th, 1946 issue for the week of March 14th:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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It looked like a very long engagement for Linda Keene at the Village Vanguard from December 18th, 1945 to mid-March 1946. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first newspaper notice for Linda Keene in 1946 appeared in the Daily News (New York, New York) on January 20, 1946:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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This was a radio listing for an appearance for Linda Keene on a radio program called “Battle of Music.”\u00a0 Further research turned up an article in The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) also on January 20th:
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That article from The Times Dispatch explains a little of the format of Classical vs. Pop tunes.\u00a0 We also learn that Linda Keene, misspelled here as Linda Keane, sang “My Guy’s Come Back” and “Blues in the Night” backed by Ken Delmar.\u00a0 A similar article would appear in the Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, on January 26th:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 I checked the radio listings for January 26th in Indianapolis and the show aired from 6 to 6:30pm on WIRE 1430.\u00a0 This means that if the show aired six days after the initial airing on January 20th then there must have been a transcription recording of the program to air on the later dates.\u00a0 I have yet to find a transcription for the program.\u00a0 I have also found this program listed as the “RCA Show”, “RCA Victor Show”, and “RCA Victor Program”.\u00a0 Of the two songs sung by Linda Keene, “Blues In The Night” is the more famous of the two, having been written in 1942 with an excellent recording in the same year by Dinah Shore.\u00a0 “My Guy’s Come Back” was written in 1945 by Ray McKinley and Mel Powell with three recordings of the song made in the same year.\u00a0 Liza Morrow recorded it with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, while another recording was of Helen Forrest with Mannie Klein’s Orchestra, and Dinah Shore also recorded this one with Russ Case and his Orchestra.\u00a0 You can view\/hear all three recordings on YouTube:
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