"24"

Boy, a lot happens during a season--one day--of the TV series "24."

Do the characters ever get to nap?

More about Louis Armstrong. And, NBC Radio's "The Big Show."

Louis Armstrong made a guest appearance on Kay Kyser’s NBC-TV show in November of 1950, during the program’s second season.

Guest stars were featured prominently during the show’s second season, which began at the start of October, 1950, and lasted until the end of December, of 1950, when the show left television. Ella Fitzgerald, Carl Ballantine, Faye Emerson, Mindy Carson, Gordon Jenkins, Bob Hope, and Hoagy Carmichael were some of the guest stars who appeared.

According to one Louis Armstrong discography, Armstrong appeared on two other TV shows in 1950: CBS’s Ken Murray Show, in May of 1950, and the Dumont Network’s Cavalcade of Bands, in October of 1950.

Armstrong, the discography notes, also appeared in December of 1950 on NBC Radio’s variety extravaganza, The Big Show. The ninety-minute program, which aired Sunday evenings and starred Tallulah Bankhead, as host, had made its debut the month before—at a time when radio was fading in popularity, and television was in ascendance. Guests on the first broadcast included Fred Allen (who would appear on the program regularly), Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Mindy Carson, and Danny Thomas. Meredith Willson led the show’s orchestra.

Writes John Dunning, in his book On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Oxford University Press, 1998):

“The Big Show was mounted on a scale unprecedented in radio. NBC literally threw money into its Sunday night colossus: $300 a minute by one estimate, which, if anything, was low. Some shows cost $100,000—‘real television money,’ as Newsweek termed it—a vast budget spent on a dying medium in a timeslot that NBC had owned for years.”

Yet, Dunning writes, The Big Show “made almost no dent in the ratings of [CBS’s] The Jack Benny Program and The Charlie McCarthy Show.” Both shows had for years aired on NBC Radio, on Sundays, but were now heard on CBS.

The Big Show was broadcast until April of 1952. The program, notes a Wikipedia piece about the show, “is remembered as one of the great final stands, at its best, of classic American old-time radio…”

Louis Armstrong

Here is a video of the great Louis Armstrong, singing “What A Wonderful World.” The video is evidently from a 1968 taping, in London, for BBC-TV. His vocal performance is moving, and beautiful.

Armstrong died in July, 1971, a month before his 70th birthday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpXB5F0MC6k

Krupa, and Bernstein

Since posting the Gene Krupa video, below, I have watched it again, several times.

The video, which I love, has put me in mind of Leonard Bernstein.

Both Bernstein, in his conducting, and Krupa, at the drums, threw themselves, bodily, into their work; the physicality was striking, electric, beautifully expressive.

Gene Krupa

Here’s an enjoyable bit of film of Gene Krupa—the sensational and brilliant drummer, and bandleader (1909-1973).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHr4XQ9SEcg&context=C4d7bf1dADvjVQa1PpcFN4oSQ5EEI_jtW6K5OQiZYbeRCt2W31Mro=

"Big Band Jump"

“Big Band Jump” is an excellent syndicated radio show—originating in Atlanta, and heard on a great many stations in the United States and Canada. The show airs weekly, for two hours, and, as the title suggests, features music from the big band era; the program also provides interesting information about the featured songs and performers. The host of the program is broadcast veteran Don Kennedy.

The show’s “Big Band Jump Newsletter” is published six times a year; the cost of a yearly subscription is $24.95. The March-April, 2009 issue—the first issue in the newsletter’s 21st year of publication—includes a brief piece about The Lucky Strike Papers. The book, the newsletter observes, “takes us inside early TV to let us in on the confusion, uncertainty and thrill of performing ‘live’ in a black and white world before videotape…”

To find a station in your area which carries “Big Band Jump” (or to find out how to listen on-line), please go to: http://www.bigbandjump.com/. The web site also includes information about subscribing to the “Big Band Jump Newsletter.”

(Above right: "Big Band Jump" host Don Kennedy)

Frank Ford

On Tuesday, Philadelphia lost one of its best-known—and finest—broadcasters. Frank Ford, who worked for decades as a Philadelphia radio talk show host, passed away at age 92.

His wife, Lynne Abraham, is Philadelphia’s District Attorney.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20090303_Frank_Ford__radio_pioneer_and_DAs_husband__dies.html

In the 1980s, Frank was the co-owner of Philadelphia all-talk station WDVT-AM, which was also known as “Talk 900.” He was also the host of an afternoon talk show on the station.

The station went on the air in 1985, and went out of business in 1988. It was a relatively small station, one which was heard only during the daylight hours, and which had less-than-stellar ratings.

It was also a terribly exciting place to work. I am guessing that most of the people who were part of the station—a mixture of radio veterans and radio newcomers (I was in the latter group)—would say the same thing.

I admired Frank, and always took great pleasure in watching him work, and in listening to him work. Philadelphia was very fortunate to have been the beneficiary of his considerable talent.