Found Objects

In the early 1970s my parents got a place on Cape Cod. My father still spends time there, and I was recently there for a visit.

While looking through some family things, stored there, I found some items from my mother’s career that I don’t remember seeing before.

There was sheet music, from the time (1948 and 1949) when she had a singing role in a Broadway revue— the show “Small Wonder,” which starred Tom Ewell.

I found a list, in her handwriting; it appeared to be of songs she had sung one week (or, perhaps, was about to sing) on the show Teen Time Tunes, on the Dumont television network. The TV show, fifteen minutes long (a popular time format during early TV), featured my mother and The Alan Logan Trio, and aired weeknights, for part of 1949.

I also found a nice publicity photo of her, which I reproduce here. The picture is not dated, but I believe it is from 1949 or 1950, during the time she sang on Kay Kyser’s TV show on NBC.

Early television, on a movie set

The picture at right was recently posted on philly.com—the website of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News—as part of a photo feature, concerning film stars from Philadelphia (including Grace Kelly, who appears in the photo).

The photo was taken on the set of the film High Noon, on October 4th, 1951.

In the picture, Grace Kelly, Gary Cooper, and others are watching the television broadcast of the opening game of the 1951 World Series (featuring the New York Yankees and the New York Giants).

In the photo, from left to right: High Noon cast members Otto Kruger, Thomas Mitchell, Gary Cooper, an unidentified member of the studio staff, Grace Kelly and Lon Chaney Jr. (Photo by Charles Handel, Associated Press)

Nat King Cole, "Mona Lisa," "Orange Colored Sky," & Milton DeLugg

This February 15th will mark the 45th anniversary of the death of Nat King Cole. He died in 1965, a month before his 46th birthday.

Here’s a video of Cole, singing one of his best-known songs, “Mona Lisa”; it was a hit record in 1950. I don’t know what year the video is from, but Cole’s performance of the song (as is typical of his performances) is quite beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M3uR24_V10

Cole had another hit in 1950, with the song “Orange Colored Sky”; he was accompanied, on the record, by Stan Kenton’s orchestra. Here’s the recording, via YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-6QknAOsVo&feature=related

Musician and bandleader Milton DeLugg (about whom I’ve written previously, in this space, and who is interviewed in my book) co-wrote “Orange Colored Sky” (with Willie Stein).

In 1950, DeLugg was the bandleader on (and was well-known for playing the accordion on) network TV’s first late-night hit show, Broadway Open House. He played “Orange Colored Sky” regularly on the program.

The star of Broadway Open House, comedian Jerry Lester, recorded a version of the song, prior to the recording made famous by Nat King Cole and Stan Kenton. A version was also recorded by Betty Hutton.

In their book, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (Ballantine Books, several editions), authors Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh write that DeLugg’s frequent performances of “Orange Colored Sky,” on Broadway Open House, led to this distinction: that it was “probably the first song ever to become a hit through television exposure.”

Louis Armstrong, 1950

Coming upon a fragment…

My relationship to early television (the period I have focused upon is, largely, 1949-1952; I was born later, 1956) has often been defined by/informed by fragments—segments of kinescopes, partial audio recordings of TV programs, pictures, newspaper & magazine stories, conversations.

Years ago, for example, before beginning to write about the era, I spent much time listening to audio recordings from Your Hit Parade. They had been given to my mother (probably by the program’s advertising agency, BBD&O, though perhaps by NBC; I am unsure) during the period she was a cast member. They were not of entire telecasts, but were extracts: recordings of some of her performances on the program.

Just recently (to my delight), I came upon another fragment from the era—via the blog of Ricky Riccardi, who is the Project Archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens. (His blog address: http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/ )

In addition to his work at the Louis Armstrong museum, Riccardi has taught jazz history at Rutgers, has delivered lectures about Armstrong (at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, for example), and is the author of the forthcoming book What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years. The book will be published in May, by Pantheon.

In a November blog posting, Riccardi included a wonderful audio recording of an Armstrong performance of the song “When You’re Smiling.” The performance is from a fall of 1950 appearance Armstrong made on Kay Kyser’s television show on NBC. (In a previous blog entry I referred to Armstrong's appearance on the program.)

The recording is an incomplete one—forty-three seconds long.

I asked Riccardi about the audio tape, by e-mail—wondered if it had come from a still-existing segment of a kinescope.

The recording, he told me, was given to him a couple of years ago by a collector, in Europe, of Armstrong’s music; the collector passed away in 2009.

Riccardi did not know of the provenance of the audio segment, but suggested the performance could have been taped off of a television set, in 1950; he noted that dedicated jazz fans, during the era, were known for making such recordings of favorite artists.

In that the tape is of the latter part of the song, perhaps the tape recorder (if this was indeed how the recording was made) had simply not been turned on in time.

The recording from the Kay Kyser program is the initial one in Riccardi’s November posting; the posting also includes two other Armstrong performances of “When You’re Smiling”:

http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-youre-smiling-later-versions.html

Here, too, is the amazon link to Ricky Riccardi’s forthcoming book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307378446?tag=rickricc-20&camp

And lastly, please note the following link to the Louis Armstrong House Museum, in Queens:

http://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/

Michael Buble, Luisana Lopilato, and Your Hit Parade

Here’s an enjoyable song (and video), from the very talented singer Michael Buble. The song, “Haven’t Met You Yet” (co-written by Buble), is from his latest CD, “Crazy Love.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJmKkU5POA&feature=related

The song and video are enjoyable on their own terms—and there are also a few nice echoes of other performers.

In one of the video’s scenes, Buble passes between musicians dressed in marching band-style outfits. The scene’s trumpet music calls to mind The Beatles’ “Penny Lane.” (And one of the trumpet phrases, too, recalls the Chicago song “Beginnings.”) I also like the video’s dancers—including the moment when (at 2:43, standing in place, arms extended forward), they echo, briefly, Michael Jackson.

Buble’s love interest in the video is Luisana Lopilato, an Argentine singer, actress, and model. (In real life, evidently, the two are a couple.)

If I might, let me draw a particular parallel between this video, and Your Hit Parade (a show which some believe anticipated the era of music video—in that songs, on the TV program, were conjoined with acting, and storytelling). Routinely, during the TV show’s musical productions, a featured singer sang to another performer; the latter performer would act (and react) silently. While watching kinescopes of the program, I have frequently been impressed by the engaging performances of those who acted silently. Similarly, Luisana Lopilato’s role in the Michael Buble video is for the most part one of reacting to Buble. Her performance, like Buble’s, is likeable, and appealing.

(photos: Michael Buble and Luisana Lopilato, from video of “Haven’t Met You Yet”; Snooky Lanson, at center, sings to dancer Virginia Conwell, Your Hit Parade, NBC-TV, image from video of kinescope, January, 1952; Dorothy Collins sings to unidentified actor, rehearsal of Your Hit Parade telecast from the S.S. United States ocean liner, NBC-TV, June, 1952. Your Hit Parade images copyright Lost Gold Entertainment, Inc.)

Carl Ballantine

Comedian and actor Carl Ballantine passed away on Tuesday, at age 92.

Ballantine is perhaps best-known for playing the character Lester Gruber, on the 1960s TV series McHale's Navy.

Yet he was also well-known, for decades, as “The Amazing Ballantine” (or, “Mr. Ballantine”, or “The Great Ballantine”). He performed magic tricks that did not work.

In the fall of 1950, in this capacity, he made several guest appearances on Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge, on NBC-TV.

Steve Martin has spoken of his admiration for Carl Ballantine’s work as “The Amazing Ballantine.”

"Carl Ballantine influenced not only myself but a generation of magicians and comedians," he said, in a statement to The Los Angeles Times, after Ballantine’s death.

In January of 2009, Martin was interviewed by Terry Gross, on NPR’s Fresh Air.

TERRY GROSS: So, did you feel like you had kindred spirits in the performance world when you were getting started who had a more, like, conceptual or avant-garde approach to what they were doing like you?

STEVE MARTIN: Well, I'm trying to think. I just respected comedians whether they were or they weren't, you know, from, you know, new or old. Bob Newhart I loved, and George Carlin was hilarious at the time, and Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. And there was a comedy magician who's still alive, Carl Ballantine, who did an act of all magic tricks that didn't work. And it was, still is, one of the funniest things I've ever seen…

(Photo, above: Carl Ballantine, on McHale's Navy.)

"Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention"

The annual "Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention" is taking place, beginning on Thursday, in Newark, New Jersey.

For more information, please click on this link:

http://www.lofcom.com/nostalgia/fotr/update09.php3