December 2004

December 23, 2004
 

 

George Burns and Gracie Allen

The Peanut Vendor
Henry King and His Orchestra                 1938
(Decca 2069-A mx DLA 1335 )
 

Say It With Music
Henry King and His Orchestra 
Sonny Schuyler, vocal                             1938 
(Decca 1890-A mx 63603)
 

'Swonderful
Henry King and His Orchestra                  1936
(Decca 1890-B mx  DLA 505)
 

Burns & Allen Broadcast Excerpt
My Sugar Takes Me With A Grain of Salt
Henry King and His Orchestra
Ken Niles, announcer           December 23, 1937
(CBS Radio Broadcast )

Burns & Allen Broadcast Excerpt
I Love You From Coast To Coast
Henry King and His Orchestra
Gracie Allen, vocal                December 23, 1937
(CBS Radio Broadcast )
 

Burns & Allen Broadcast Excerpt
Opening Comedy Dialogue
George Burns, Gracie Allen, Henry King, Tony Martin                                  December 23, 1937
(CBS Radio Broadcast )
 

For most of the 1930s the Henry King Orchestra was a society  band that played smooth but danceable music with special emphasis on King's skills as a pianist. "Say It With Music" and "'Swonderful" are both good example's of the band's "society" sound.   Sometime in the late 1930s, King switched his emphasis towards Latin American style music - of which "The Peanut Vendor" is an example.  "The Peanut Vendor" is one of my favorite 1930s era rhumbas, though there are other versions I like better than King's.

In 1936 and 1937, the Henry King Orchestra was the house band on the highly popular CBS comedy program Burns & Allen starring George Burns and Gracie Allen.   I consider myself a big fan of George and Gracie both on their radio and later television programs.    The program excerpts presented here come from a Burns & Allen Christmas themed broadcast that aired live 67 years ago this evening. 

The first musical excerpt, "My Sugar Takes Me With A Grain of Salt," is from the introductory segment of the program and is, I think, a very catchy tune.   If you listen carefully to the commercial for Campbell's Chicken Soup that immediately follows the song, you will hear announcer Ken Niles struggle to maintain his composure and avoid breaking into laughter - a big occupational hazard back in the days of live radio.

The second musical excerpt, "I Love You From Coast To Coast," features Gracie Allen herself on the vocal.  Afterwards, you will hear another commercial for Campbell's Chicken Soup as well as the CBS network ID and the call letters for radio station KHJ in Los Angeles.   "Don Lee" refers to the Don Lee Broadcasting System which owned KHJ and a network of other West Cost stations.  The local station id is then followed by a commercial for Shaeffer Pen and Pencil sets.

I have also included an excerpt featuring the broadcast's opening comedy dialogue.   For those who are interested in hearing the broadcast in its entirety, you may download your own copy in mp3 format by right clicking on this link.

This particular Burns & Allen episode was titled "Gracie's Christmas Carol" because the second part features a comedy skit based on Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol.  Many of the jokes and puns used in the skit do assume a certain level of familiarity and knowledge of other network radio programs that were on the air at the time. 

I want to wish all site visitors a  Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  Every New Year's Day that goes by puts us that much further away from the amazing era in pop culture that this website celebrates.  Very few of the performers that I feature here are still with us.   But thanks to Thomas Edison's marvelous invention, their work lives on.  And I am convinced that recent innovations such as digital recording, the Internet and Internet Radio will enable the wonderful music from the early decades of the 1900s that has been all but forgotten by the general public to be rediscovered by new generations of appreciative listeners - and will perhaps help inspire a much needed renaissance in our popular culture and rescue popular music from the dismal nihilistic noise-sewer it currently finds itself in. 
 
 

 

EXTRA

This section will  present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings. 
 
 

Rexall - Christmas Greetings 1946
Jimmy Durante, Garry Moore 
and Rexall Drug Executives                                     1946
(Private issue 78 rpm)

The Rexall Song
Unknown Orchestra and Vocalists                          1946
(Private issue 78 rpm)
 

Here are both sides of a 78 rpm record distributed to owners of Rexall Drug Store franchises as a Christmas greeting from company executives.    At the time, Jimmy Durante's network radio program was sponsored by Rexall. 

At one time, Rexall had thousands of franchisees and accounted for just over 20 percent of the USA drugstore market.   The chain was dissolved sometime around the late 1970s though former franchisees were allowed to continue using the Rexall name.

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December 16, 2004
 
 

Can't You Hear Me Calling, Caroline
Ben Pollack and His "Pick A Rib" Boys 
Peggy Mann, vocal                                      1937
(Decca 1458-A mx DLA 915 )
 

Meet The Beat Of My Heart
Ben Pollack and His Orchestra 
Paula Gayle, vocal                                       1938 (Decca 2005-A mx DLA 1360 )
 

What Are You Doing Tonight?
Ben Pollack and His Orchestra 
Paula Gayle, vocal                                       1938
(Decca 2005-B mx DLA 1362)
 

My Wild Irish Rose
Ben Pollack and His "Pick A Rib" Boys        1937
(Decca 1458-B mx DLA 912 )
 

If someone asked me to make a list of which 78 rpm records in my collection are my favorites - well, I couldn't do it because, one, I love so many of them and, two, the list would change from day to day according to my mood.  However, this week's recording of "Can't You Hear Me Calling, Caroline" would definitely be a strong candidate for inclusion on such a list.

Ben Pollack is best remembered for his band in the late 1920s which was one of the better jazz oriented white dance bands of that decade.  However, as this week's selections demonstrate, the less famous Ben Pollack Orchestra of the late 1930s was also quite good.

Pollack had a rather tragic life and career.  While he did enjoy a certain measure of success during the 1920s,  his band, like many others, fell on difficult times after the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.  Many of the musicians who worked for him at various times - talent such as Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy McPartland and Harry James - ended up becoming extremely successful and famous after they left Pollack's band.   In 1934, Pollack's musicians walked out and formed their own co-operative band.  The new band recruited Bing Crosby's younger brother Bob to be its leader and it became very successful.   Over the years, Pollack grew increasingly bitter over his relative lack of success compared to that of many of the musicians he discovered and felt that they lacked sufficient gratitude for the contributions he made to their careers.

The band featured in these recordings is one that Pollack formed after he moved to the West Coast in late 1936 and it did not achieve the level of success of his earlier band.  In the early 1940s he allowed Chico Marx to take over the role of fronting the band  and worked behind the scenes as its manager.  The band's male vocalist at that time was a 16 year old kid named Mel Tormé. 

After the Chico Marx band broke up in 1942  Pollack went into business opening his own talent agency and recording company, neither of which was especially successful.  Later he owned restaurants in Hollywood and Palm Springs and would occasionally put together and front small Dixieland bands. 

In 1972, Ben Pollack hanged himself in his Palm Springs home.

 

EXTRA

This section will  present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings. 
 
 

Tus Besos Fueron Mios - Tango
Los Floridians
José Santos, vocalist                                     circa 1929
(Vocalion A 8117)
 

Siempre Sufriendo - Valse
Los Floridians                                               circa 1929
(Vocalion B 8117)
 

Here are two recordings that I enjoy but have not been able to find much information about.

I have no idea whether Los Floridians was an actual band or a recording pseudonym.  The recordings were issued on Vocalion which was a bargain subsidiary label owned by Brunswick.  Many Vocalion records of that era were pseudonymous reissues of recordings originally issued on Brunswick. 

Furthermore,  I am having difficulty dating the recording as the 8000 catalog series was apparently devoted to ethnic recordings and is not covered in any of the reference material I have access to.  The label is of the standard design that was used on Vocalion in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  It was definitely made prior to the  Brunswick Balke Collender Company's sale of its record business in 1931. 

It is possible that the recording was a reissue of a foreign pressing - perhaps from Argentina.   At that time, many successful bands in Cuba traveled to New York City for their recording sessions, even for records that were primarily made for the Cuban market.  It is possible, I suppose,  that these recordings  came from such a session.

One by-product of my search for information on these recordings was the discovery of a very nice online discography of Cuban music from 1925 - 1960 put together by Florida International University.   I was able to find mention of a group on their website called "Los Floridians" but there was no specific information about it nor anything that would link it to these recordings. 

Through the online discography's database, I was able to discover that "Tus Besos Fueron Mios" was composed by Argentine bandleader Anselmo Aieta.  The song was apparently very successful in Argentina.   The database mentions recordings of the song made in Argentina in 1926 for the Odeon label and for Columbia in New York City in 1927 - but nothing about any Brunswick/Vocalion recordings.  According to the record's label, "Tus Besos Fueron Mios" translates into "Your Kisses Were Mine."

As for "Siempre Sufriendo" (translation: "Always Suffering") - which I think is a very charming waltz - I have not been able find any information about it at all.   I would be very interested in knowing the name of its composer.

If anyone has any information about either of these recordings or any information on dating 8000 series Vocalions, please drop me a line and I will post it.
 

---

Hittin' The Ceiling
Nat Shilkret and The Victor Orchestra 
Burt Lorin, vocal                                      1929
(Victor 21969-A )
 

Sing A Little Love Song
Nat Shilkret and The Victor Orchestra 
Don Howard, vocal                                   1929 (Victor 21969-B)
 

Here is a record that I picked up a couple of weeks ago after digging through a stack of mostly junk 78 rpms for sale at a second hand book store.   I very much enjoy this recording of "Hittin' The Ceiling."  Unfortunately,  the record is not in the best of condition - but thanks to my audio restoration equipment,  it was still possible to extract an enjoyable performance out of it. 

Both of the songs on the record come from the 1929 Universal Pictures movie musical  Broadway which had a budget of around $1 million - a very large sum for the time.  In 1929 there were still many movie theaters that had not yet installed the equipment necessary to play talking pictures.  Therefore, Broadway was released with both silent and sound versions.
 
 

 

EXTRA

This section will  present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings. 
 
 

Manisot March
Columbia Band                                      1901
(Columbia A118 mx 30)
 

Liberty Bell March
Columbia Band                                       1901
(Columbia A118 mx 478)
 
 

While this is not the oldest record I have featured on this website, I am pretty sure that this recording of "Manisot March" is the oldest recording that I have featured.   It was among the very first recordings Columbia issued when it entered the disc record business in 1901.   The recording has a matrix number of 30 which means that it was only the 30th master recording - issued or unissued - that Columbia made in disc format.

In 1901, three companies dominated the American record market:  Edison which made only cylinder records, Victor which only made disc records and Columbia.  Columbia began producing cylinder records in 1889.  By 1901 the disc record that Emile Berliner had invented and began marketing in 1892 was becoming increasingly successful.  Columbia decided to hedge its bets and sell both types of records and, after some legal maneuvering over patents, began to issue its first discs in late 1901. 

All early disc records were one-sided.  In 1908, Columbia revolutionized the disc record market when it introduced its two-sided "Double Disc" records.  For obvious reasons, the two-sided discs were very popular with the record buying public and almost immediately became the industry standard for all records other than higher priced classical releases.   At this time, many of the single-sided records still in Columbia's catalog were paired up and reissued as Double Disc records - which is how this week's record has a 1908 catalog number and 1901 matrix numbers.  The record  remained in Columbia's catalog for a number of years and certain subtleties in the label design of my copy indicate that it was manufactured in either 1913 or 1914. 

The record does not give any composer credits for "Manisot March" and I have not been able to locate much information about the song's history.  "Liberty Bell March" was composed in 1893 by John Philip Sousa and is still performed.  Many will recognize it as the opening theme song of the British television comedy Monty Python's Flying Circus. 

December 2, 2004
 
 

Lulu Belle
Jack Stillman's Orchestra                      1926
(Edison 51738-L  mx 10935 )
 

Ev'rybody's Charleston Crazy
Georgia Melodians                               1926
(Edison 31730-L  mx 10918)
 

Old Fashioned Love
Broadway Dance Orchestra                  1924
(Edison 51303-L  mx 9362 )
 
 

This week's selections come from old Edison Diamond Discs.  As I have mentioned in previous updates, Diamond Disc were 80 rpm records issued by Thomas Edison from 1913 through 1929.  The quarter inch thick discs weighed a full pound and could only be played on Edison machines.  Until the advent of electrical recording in 1925, Edison Diamond Discs were considered to have the best audio quality of any record on the market.  However, Edison was slow to embrace the new electrical recording technology and continued to record acoustically until 1927.

Sales of Edison records steadily declined throughout the 1920s.  Part of the company's problems were due to the incompatibility of Edison machines and records with products made by other companies.  Edison's products, which sold at premium prices, were also hurt by a  flood of new companies offering lower priced records in the early 1920s when the patents Victor and Columbia held for the manufacture of conventional disc records expired.  Finally, the company had a mindset that originated with Thomas Edison himself that saw itself as being more in the technology business than in the entertainment business.  Indeed, for many years,  Thomas Edison insisted on personally auditioning and approving every record the company issued - despite the fact that he was almost deaf and had a strong  dislike for popular musical forms such as jazz.   Nevertheless, the company did manage to release a number of excellent jazz and "hot dance" recordings.

I have not been able to locate any biographical information on Jack Stillman - but between 1924 and 1927 he made a lot of jazz oriented dance records for Edison as well as other labels such as Pathé Actuelle,  Paramount, Gennett and Emerson.  Many of these recordings were made under the name "Jack Stillman's Oriole Orchestra" or "Jack Stillman's Orioles" which makes me wonder if the band was perhaps associated with a nightclub or restaurant called Oriole. 

The song "Lulu Belle" comes from the very successful  Broadway play Lulu Belle which was produced by David Belasco and opened at New York's Belasco Theatre on February 9, 1926.    The play was considered quite daring because the story was about a Harlem prostitute and featured a largely black cast.  As a sign of the times, however, the lead role was played by a German actress, Lenore Ulrich, who performed in blackface.  The show's touring production was actually banned by the traditionally uptight city of Boston.  According to the April 4, 1928 issue of The Tech, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student publication:
 

The upright Mayor Nichols, the alert City Censor Catsey, have together achieved a deed worthy of
a Galahad: they have forbidden Mr. David Belasco, who in his odd moments is somewhat of a theatrical producer, to present a drama entitled "Lulu Belle" in the city they serve so admirably. "Lulu Belle," it must be understood, is not just a drama; it is a drama about negroes, mulattoes, and white trash in Harlem, New York City, and most of the characters in it are of the sort one just doesn't mingle with. And they do things one doesn't do.

Actually, for decades being "banned in Boston" was a badge of honor for Broadway productions and even enhanced their box office appeal. 

The Georgia Melodians were led by Charles Boulanger and recorded for Edison between 1924 and 1926.  This week's recording of "Ev'rybody's Charleston Crazy" was made during the band's final recording session.   The song's title refers to the Charleston dance craze which was still very much at its height.  The Georgia Melodians made a couple of other Charleston oriented Diamond Discs:  "Give Us The Charleston" in 1925 and "Charleston Ball" in 1926. 

"Old Fashioned Love" is a song that I have always been fond of and is still occasionally performed today.  It was composed by early stride pianist James P. Johnson for the George White musical  Runnin' Wild which opened at New York's Colonial Theatre on October 29, 1923 and which was another production with an all-black cast.  Speaking of the Charleston,  it was  in Runnin' Wild  that  James P. Johnson introduced his hit song  "Charleston" which set off the subsequent dance craze. 
 

 

EXTRA

This section will  present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings. 
 
 

Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me
Nick Lucas, vocal and guitar                               1929
(Brunswick 4416)
 

Sunshine
Nick Lucas, vocal and guitar                               1928
(Brunswick 3850-A)
 

Someday Somewhere
Nick Lucas, vocal and guitar                               1928
(Brunswick 4016)
 

Chiquita
Nick Lucas, vocal and guitar                               1928
(Brunswick 4016)
 

All Of Me
Nick Lucas and His Troubadours                        1932
(Hit of the Week A-4-B-1)
 
 

Nick Lucas is one of a handful of 1920s and 1930s artists whose work I at one time considered to be utterly obnoxious but have developed more of an appreciation for in recent years. 

At one time,  I disliked Rudy Vallee recordings and thought that he sounded like he had a clothespin permanently attached to his nose.   I guess it is an acquired taste as today I actually consider myself to be a fan of many of Vallee's earlier recordings.   When I first discovered 1920s and 1930s popular music as a kid,  I had very little patience for the gooey saccharine-sweet sound of the Guy  Lombardo Orchestra.  Today,  I am able to enjoy it in limited doses. 

Nick Lucas was one of the pioneers of jazz guitar - and  I have never had any problems with the guitar playing aspects of his recordings.  However, Nick Lucas was equally famous as a vocalist and was billed as "The Crooning Troubadour."   His voice was very high pitched - and on some recordings, it was exaggerated to a degree that I find quite grating.

The Nick Lucas recording that I consider to be his most obnoxious was also his most famous: "Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me."  Lucas introduced the song, along with another hit "Painting The Clouds With Sunshine" in the 1929 movie musical Gold Diggers of Broadway.   His Brunswick recording of the song, featured in this week's update, sold over two million copies.  In my opinion, it is an absolutely ghastly recording - sort of like hearing someone run fingernails across a chalk board.   How on earth such a recording could have become so  popular in an age with such elevated popular musical tastes has always been beyond me.    The Nick Lucas recording was very clearly the inspiration behind Tiny Tim's highly successful and equally obnoxious 1968 remake of the song which actually climbed to number 17 on the charts. 

Largely as a result of "Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips," for a very long time I pretty much set any Nick Lucas recordings I picked up though bulk purchases aside unlistened to.  My opinion of his abilities as a vocalist began to change, however, on the strength of his 1930 Brunswick recording of "You're Driving Me Crazy" (which is currently  featured in the Radio Dismuke playlist) as well as a couple of recordings he made in 1932 on cardboard Hit of the Week discs, including this week's selection "All of Me."  If you compare "Tip-Toe Through The Tulips" with "All of Me" there is quite a difference - and it is pretty obvious that "All of Me" is much more representative of Nick Lucas' natural voice. 

Coming across these better Nick Lucas recordings inspired me to dig out the other recordings of his that I set aside and give them a second chance.  I still can't say that I am a big fan - but today I find some of his recordings to be enjoyable in limited doses. 

The recordings of "Someday Somewhere" and :Chiquita" were recorded at the Lew White organ studios in New York City - but I am not sure whether or not Lew White was the organist on the recordings.

Nick Lucas had a long career and continued performing until he was forced to retire for reasons of health in 1981.  In the 1970s he made recordings for the soundtracks of two films set in the 1920s:  The Great Gatsby and The Day Of The Locust as well as the film Hearts of the West.  The above photo of Nick Lucas comes from the flip side of the cardboard  Hit of the Week  that featured "All of Me."    For additional photos as well as biographical and discographical information about Nick Lucas, visit NickLucas.com