Vladimir Putin's murderous, catastrophic war against Ukraine has now lasted one year.
Putin, of course, did not get what he expected, in response to his merciless invasion.
What he got (in addition to solidarity with Ukraine, from much of the world) was the valiant, indefatigable leadership of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's President--and the courage and resolve of the citizens Mr. Zelenskyy leads.
In previous posts, I have written about a significant change which took place in the late 1950s, regarding the cast of the NBC television program Your Hit Parade.
In January of 1957, one of the show's stars, singer Gisele MacKenzie, announced she would be leaving the program at the close of the 1956-1957 TV season.
A few weeks later, The New York Times reported that a new cast of starring singers would join the program, in the fall of 1957. The show's longtime vocalists, in addition to Gisele MacKenzie--Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, and Russell Arms--were to be replaced, along with bandleader Raymond Scott.
In the fall, the four singers who assumed the starring roles on the program were Jill Corey, Tommy Leonetti, Virginia Gibson, and Alan Copeland. They sang on the show for the 1957-1958 season. (The show then left NBC for CBS; the new version of the program--which aired from the fall of 1958 to the spring of 1959--starred Dorothy Collins and singer Johnny Desmond.)
Virginia Gibson, one of the Hit Parade's 1957-1958 stars, died in 2013, at age 88. Tommy Leonetti died at age 50, in 1979. Jill Corey died at 85, in 2021. I recently learned that the surviving star from the 1957-1958 season, Alan Copeland, died this past December 28th, in California. He was 96.
Mr. Copeland was, for a number of years, a member of the noted vocal group The Modernaires; he sang with the group from the late 1940s until 1956, the year before he joined the Hit Parade. He rejoined The Modernaires in 1959, and performed with the group through the first few years of the 1960s.
In late 1949, while Copeland was part of The Modernaires, the group sang on a lovely version of the song "The Old Master Painter," accompanying Frank Sinatra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLkKwEzmHZg
The song--as was common at the time--was also recorded, in late 1949, by a number of other singers and bands. In addition to Mr. Sinatra's record with the Modernaires (and with an orchestra led by Axel Stordahl), others who released "The Old Master Painter" included Phil Harris and his Orchestra, Bob Crosby and his Bob-Cats, and singers Richard Hayes, Dick Haymes, and Snooky Lanson; Peggy Lee and Mel Torme released a duet of the song. Snooky Lanson's version was performed with the orchestra of Beasley Smith, who was also one of the song's writers. Earlier in the 1940s, Mr. Lanson had been a vocalist with Ray Noble's orchestra; in mid-1950, a few months after his recording of "The Old Master Painter" was a hit on the popular music charts, he was hired for the radio and television versions of Your Hit Parade.
In 1954, Copeland was seen with The Modernaires in the film The Glenn Miller Story--singing "Chattanooga Choo Choo" with vocalist Frances Langford and Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band.
From 1941 to 1942, The Modernaires--prior to Copeland's affiliation with the group--had
been a significant part of the Glenn Miller ensemble, singing on some of the orchestra's best-known
recordings--such as "Don't Sit Under the
Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)," "Elmer's Tune," "Moonlight
Cocktail," "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo," and "Chattanooga Choo Choo," In joining the Army, in 1942, Mr. Miller dissolved his civilian band, and later led the Army Air Force orchestra, at first stateside, and then overseas.
In a lobby card for The Glenn Miller Story, below, The Modernaires are gathered around a microphone; Copeland is to the immediate left of Frances Langford. The star of the film, James Stewart, is visible over Langford's left shoulder.
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| The Modernaires (with Alan Copeland) singing with Frances Langford |
The enjoyable, memorable scene with Frances Langford and The Modernaires took place at a (supposed) overseas airplane hangar, before an audience of troops during World War Two. (The scene was filmed at a Colorado Air Force base, and the audience, according to a memoir by Copeland, was made up of service members from the base.)
In the scene, Mr. Copeland exhibited, as a performer, an easygoing, friendly, and appealing style.
In addition to his work with The Modernaires and on the Hit Parade, Copeland was a successful musical arranger and composer; he also performed as a solo vocalist, and led his own vocal groups (which went by varying names, including, simply, The Alan Copeland Singers). During the 1960s, Copeland was the vocal arranger for (and his singers were cast members of) Red Skelton's TV program. Copeland released a number of records, by his singers; they were also featured on a 1966 album by Count Basie. Copeland won a Grammy Award for a 1968 recording, performed by his singers, in which two songs of the era were intertwined: The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" and the theme, by Lalo Schifrin, from the television drama Mission: Impossible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUV-WghBifc
In 2007, Copeland released the aforementioned memoir about his lengthy musical career, Jukebox Saturday Nights. It was published by BearManor Media (the publisher which brought out my own book about early television.)
I interviewed Mr. Copeland, about his career, and his book, for an online radio program I hosted from 2011 to 2014. He was a thoughtful and delightful guest, and it was a great pleasure speaking with him.
(Lobby card, above, from The Glenn Miller Story, 1954, © Universal Pictures)
