IT'S FINALLY LEGAL!!! The year: 1985. The place: Rustler Steak House (remember those?!?!). 
A 19-year old me is quietly working on the front line (behind the front counter for you non-Rustler alumni). Just then, somebody rolls a cart full of clean dishes up to the area where I'm working. It's this new kid we just hired; even younger than me. 
He's only been here for about a week or so. I don't even know his name and he certainly has never met me either. Two strangers in aprons and blue-checkered shirts. I continue working, not taking any notice of him (because I'm a shy bastard) and this kid proceeds to stack the clean dishes on the shelf. Finishing his task, this new kid turns his cart around to leave. Suddenly, he turns back towards me and says, without a prelude of any kind: "Do you know that Alucard spelled backwards spells Dracula?" Now, I've never spoken to this guy in my life and here he is blurting out this incredibly random statement. He doesn't know who the hell I am and there's no reason in the world for him to say this to me. "Yes," I reply, somewhat non-plussed, "I did know that." (What a snappy comeback!!! Our kid can REALLY think on his feet!) The guy then nods and wheels his cart away. That's it. The end of conversation. 
This is a true story. I swear to God! He just turns and walks away without another word or explanation of any kind. Needless to say, I was fuckin' puzzled (that's me looking fuckin' puzzled on the right)! Not at the fact that this stranger made such a vague, random statement (which most people would contemplate calling the authorities over to see if they were missing a mental patient). However, I love horror movies and had just taped "Dracula A.D. 1972) off the TV; said Hammer horror film features a character named Johnny Alucard!!! (That's him pictured below getting the "cold shoulder" from Christopher Lee). 
Now what made this strange kid say this particular sentence to me out of the blue??? It can only be called fate or destiny or whatever new age term is fashionable these days. All I can say is: my first thought was "Here is one strange pup and I've got to get to know this guy better!" And I did. And to this day, 21 years later (I suppose that means our friendship is finally turning LEGAL!!!), I still consider this guy my best friend. The daffy dope! He has seen me thru my ups and downs (quite a few downs in the last decade) and has always been there for me. He's supported me when I was in the depths and has made my life more incredibly fun and enjoyable than it ever would have been if he hadn't made that stupid-ass random statement to me all those years ago. 
Hail Cheeks, the doddy extraordinaire!!! Now I don't know if everybody gets such a good friend in life but I hope so. Because there's really nothing better in the world.
THE SUNDAY EVENING ANTI-STUFFED SHIRT & FLYING TRAPEZE CLUB. On Sunday nights, a group of friends gather to plot the overthrow of the known universe (also to watch movies and have snacks). I am proud and frankly thankful to find myself included in this illustrious group. They include among them 3 Oscar winners, 2 Pulitzer Prizes for literature, a Nobel Peace Prize, 5 Tony Awards, 12 Purple Hearts and 6 Hasty Puddings. Only those members who secretly meet every Sunday night at their secret mountain headquarters can call themselves "The Sunday Evening Anti-Stuffed Shirt & Flying Trapeze Club (a reference stolen from the 1938 Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant film "Holiday"). I would like to take this opportunity to introduce them and let them know that I think they're really keen. First we have my OLDER brother Ern 
-- good lookin' cuss, ain't he? He's always been there for me and offered me much-needed support when a woman done me wrong (I feel the start of a country/western song coming on). Next we have Pax 
-- what a distinguished-lookin' gent! This is one guy who will NEVER lose his horizons! And then, there's the shining light of our little group -- Ms. Henrietta Hudson (of the Coney Island Hudsons) 
-- we will ALWAYS have Paris!!! Hugs to you, my dear! Next we come to the group's action hero -- Miss Jenny Penny (here pictured at her wedding reception). 
I'll bet you THAT waiter will never serve red wine with fish again! Last but not least is our very own Troll Joey 
-- seen here at yet ANOTHER magazine shoot! He'll grind your bones to make his bread and STILL you'll love him!!! Last (and certainly least) is yours truly (seen below) -- 
who treasures the friendship of all these great people and just wanted to take a moment to let them know. Thanks for putting up with me all these years. It might also be appropriate at this point to mention one member of the club who has gone AWOL for much too long -- the well-known (and fantasized about) 
Finkmaster Flash (seen below at left). We miss you, you stupid hippy freak! You don't even phone, you don't even write. . . . . . . . . . .
A BELATED FAREWELL TO DARREN McGAVIN. The actor who had enough charm to light up a major city died on February 25, 2006. It was always my intention to make mention of it but I haven't managed to do it until now. It's probably because I don't really know what to say. Anyone who has seen Darren McGavin in ANYTHING knows how great he was. What could I possibly add that isn't crystal clear when seeing him up there on the screen? He will perhaps forever be known as Carl Kolchak; and that's not too bad an epitaph. The original Night Stalker was the highest rated TV movie up to that time. Sure, the story and premise were great but the lion's share of the credit has to go to McGavin. Especially when you watch the TV Series which followed (which I've done about 3 times since it was released on DVD last year). The reason for the show's watchability is not really the scripts (which quickly devolved into what was called at the time "the monster of the week"). The reason the show can be watched and re-watched rests on the shoulders of Darren McGavin; he's so damn likeable, charming, funny, fresh and surprising in his acting that the viewer is sorry to see the end credits. We want more. That's probably the greatest testament I can give to Darren McGavin: he always left us wanting more. 
Very few actors can make that claim. He was, of course, priceless as the father in "A Christmas Story", as Murphy Brown's father and in his small role in David Lean's "Summertime" starring my all-time fave Katharine Hepburn. He was even fantastic in an unsold 1961 TV pilot for a show called "Witchcraft" hosted by Franchot Tone and based on the horror stories of William B. Seabrook (which can be found on Alpha Video's DVD "Lights Out and Other Supernatural Tales). He's the same old Darren McGavin; the episode almost plays like Kolchak: The Early Years! I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that Darren McGavin had talent, personality, charm and inventiveness. Those are precious commodoties these days. And it goes without saying that there will never be another Darren McGavin. We'll miss you, sir.
GO BROKE WITH ME PART 2: MY BROKER SAYS HE'S BROKER THAN ME!!! Hey wait, I neglected to go back to the 50's with you. There are a couple more DVD's which I've enjoyed recently that emerged from the decade of poodle skirts and fallout shelters! We all know the atom is our friend. At least that's what we were told in the 50's when most of the short films on the DVD "Atomic Age Classics Vol. 3: A-Bombs, Fallout & Nuclear War" 
were released. This laugh-a-minute collection of public service films is in the "Sex & Hygene" and "Driving Safety" films we all snoozed thru in school. "Atomic Age Classics" features such flicks as "Living With the Atom" (hosted by none other than Irwin A. Moon from the Moody Institute of Science) which informs us that atomic theory makes us all good Americans. A medical self-help film called "Radioactive Fallout and Shelter" tries to make us believe that fallout is nothing more than a "minor nuisance" and our government what to do about beating that pesky fallout problem. Another animated cartoon called "Fallout: When and How To Protect Yourself" is a Civil Defense film which actually tells you that, if you are unfortunate enough to be covered with fallout, just brush it off and wash your hands. You'll be fine, kids! The next two DVD's are actual films that were shown in schoolrooms (I can attest to that; I remember one of them). These 2 DVD's contain 4 animated films including "Hemo the Magnificent" (the one I saw in grade school) about the circulatory system, "Unchained Goddess" (about the weather), 
"Our Mr. Sun" (about guess who) and "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays". All 4 were made by Frank Capra (!); that's right. . . .the famous director of "It's A Wonderful Life", "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" and many other classic films. 3 out of the 4 also feature famous sci-fi 50's leading man Richard Carlson (from "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "It Came From Outer Space" among many others). "Our Mr. Sun" replaces Carlson with Eddie "Green Acres" Albert. All 4 feature our typical 50's scientist Dr. Frank Baxter
(who actually appeared in the prologue of Universal's 50's monster movie "The Mole People" -- that's him over there holding the bongos!!!) teamed with a writer (Carlson/Albert) who refer to a "Magic Screen" upon which appear the animated Hemo, Mr. Sun or whomever else we're learning about today, class. The scientist and writer are live action while the magic screen features cartoon animation (with the exception of actual marionnettes of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoyevsky used in the "Cosmic Rays" story). Also featured are the voices of famed cartoon voice actor June Foray and Lionel Barrymore as Father Time. These films are quintessential 50's homages to science as our saviour (with a token nod to God so the bible belt wouldn't be too offended). Science will save us all, children so march forward into those broad, sunlit uplands (Hi Winston!). 
If you have yourself a nice 50's sci-fi movie night with screenings of "This Island Earth", "Invaders From Mars", "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "It Came From Outer Space" (Are you listening Ern & Pax?!?!?!?), these flicks would make a perfect short subject or intermission feature while we're all going out to the lobby (Ern & Pax's kitchen, more likely) to scarf up some of that Twinkie Tiramisu!
GO BROKE WITH ME!!! When you're like me and have absolutely no life (and you obviously are or else you wouldn't be trolling around on blogs), there ain't much reason to get outta bed except to drop some cash on new DVD's. And then you've got a perfect excuse to stay in bed and watch 'em. Well, here are some recent DVDs I've been enjoying . . .as well as some upcoming releases that make my heart go pitter-patt! Of course, there's the ever classic "Die Mommie Die!" 
(Thanks, Ms. Hen!) which is the only DVD in here that DOESN'T make me puke! It's for me, for me FOR MEEEEEEEE!!!! Then there's the recent release of Liza Minnelli's 1972 Emmy-winning TV concert "Liza With A Z"; 
a fave LP from my childhood. All right, it's time to get more macho in here or people will talk. (Hi Pax!) Of course, nothing could be more macho that James Tiberius Kirk (Hi Shat!) and I've recently quite enjoyed the new Star Trek Time Travel Fan Collective box set 
which gathers together time travel episodes not only from the original Star Trek series but also The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager. Now, I'm not a Trekkie (I'm a Trekker) but I thought they were generally pretty good. I had only seen 2 of the Next Generation episodes and none of the other series so it was a new experience for me; and an entertaining one. Speaking of science fiction, for those poor schmucks among you who didn't see the new 2005 Doctor Who series a year ago (Hi Little Brother Ern!), 
the complete season will be released on DVD in the States on July 4th. It's airing now on the Sci-Fi channel but (I hate to break it to you) it's been sliced and diced for commercial TV and I can't stand all those pauses for our sponsor. Thank God I've had the DVDs direct from Britain since last year. However, another Dr. Who release coming up on June 6 is the long-awaited release of Tom Baker's storyline
"Genesis of the Daleks". More British science fiction from the 70's can be found on "The Omega Factor" box set
(released May 2nd) which also features Louise (Dr. Who's Leela) Jameson in a series about a battle of psychic powers between good and evil. I remember this from way back when (PBS briefly aired it in the early 80's). There's not much in the way of cool horror releases these days but one of the best is the recent DVD release of Showtime's Masters of Horror episode "Dreams in the Witch House". 
Stuart Gordon splendidly adapts yet another H.P. Lovecraft tale and the result is fantastic. Sadly, John Carpenter's episode "Cigarette Burns", also released, is not quite up to this standard; let's call it an interesting failure, shall we? But a major DVD box set in the horror field is Full Moon Video's "Subspecies" box set
featuring that vampire of vampires Radu in all 4 Subspecies movies (plus the Anne Rice "inspired" Vampire Journals flick). Radu and the Subspecies movies are the best things Full Moon ever put out (which admittedly ain't saying much but it's meant as a recommendation). Click here for the movie trailer. Anders Hove as Radu and Denise Duff as his vampirized apprentice kick arse! (Hi Ma!) Anyway, it's back to the 70's for one of the early TV mini-series I watched as a kid: "Backstairs at the White House" 
which chronicles the true (but Hollywoodized) story of a mother and daughter who served on the housekeeping staff of the White House starting with the Taft administration all the way thru the Eisenhower years. Great American history TV movie-style! Quite outta left field comes Julia Child (Hi Miss Jenny Penny. . .I STILL love that Julia Child story about the boiling water) and the second French Chef DVD 
with the recipes and the bloopers. The first DVD set was great and I'm looking forward to getting the second. So...until Alton Brown's DVD's get A LOT cheaper... And finally, last but not least, is the upcoming April 25th release of one of my favourite musicals of all-time: "Three Little Words" 
starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton as real-life songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (creators of such classic songs as "Who's Sorry Now", "Nevertheless", "Thinking of You", "I Wanna Be Loved By You" and. . .ahem. . ."Hooray for Captain Spaulding"). I've been waiting years for this to come out on DVD and I'm holding my breath till it's in my hot little hands. Click here to watch the movie trailer! So there you have it. You'll love yourself if you go get all these DVD's now. If not, at least you know what I already have when it's time to choose my birthday present. Thanks for suffering...er....I mean listening.
THE DEFENDERS -- STILL ONLY 25 cents!!! While I'm still using Rip Hunter's time machine to travel back to last month, I wanted to mention one of my favourite 70's superhero groups: Marvel Comics' Defenders. That's right. The oddball collection of Marvel superheroes who were, in the words of Dr. Strange himself (in Defenders #14) "...a loosely-knit band of independent adventurers". Unlike their sister group The Avengers, the Defenders had no solid membership; heroes wandered in and out at their own whims. The thing I loved most about the Defenders was how utterly 70's they were; the team consisted mainly of Marvel's more offbeat characters like Valkyre (a sort-of female Thor), Nighthawk (a former villain from the Squadron Sinister who gained super-strength at night) and Hellcat (a former 60's romance comic heroine turned Catwoman clone) teaming up with heavyweight (but still offbeat) characters like the Sub-Mariner, The Hulk and Dr. Strange. My absolute favourite era for the Defenders was circa 1974-1976 when the title was written by the iconoclastically subversive Steve Gerber (who was launching the amazing Howard the Duck series around the same time) and drawn (mostly) by the solid Sal Buscema. Gerber's warped sensibilites reached their apex on "Howard the Duck" but his delirious writing on The Defenders came pretty close. Favourite villains of the time include the sparkly "Nebulon" 
(who was in fact a Chthulu-like monster in disguise) and the Headmen. Stunningly bizarre events happened routinely: the bad guys shrunk Washington D.C., brainwashed the population into becoming Bozos (literally wearing clown masks!) and succeeded in removing Nighthawk's brain (seriously. . .Nighthawk's body was seen walking around carrying his brain sloshing around in a bowl!!!!!). This is good stuff, folks! Who could resist it? Other terrific characters who fought with the Defenders included Power Man and The Son of Satan! (The only thing that could've made it perfect would have been if Morbius the Living Vampire had joined but I guess he was busy with The Legion of Monsters at the time). There was just something about these mid-70's Steve Gerber stories that are gloriously unhinged. Gerber's "Howard the Duck" and "The Defenders" deserve to be rediscovered. These stories remain one of the fondest memories from my 70's childhood. There's just a style and feeling I get from re-reading them which transports me right back to my grandparents' porch on a hot summer night. Long live the Defenders!!!
FLASHBACK TO LAST MONTH, YOU HIPPIES, IN MY VERY OWN TIME MACHINE!!! Well, even though it was LAST month that I had a comic book theme, I have now commandeered Rip Hunter's Time Machine (old 60's DC Comics reference, folks) and have travelled back to last month so I can pass along this fun little task for you. Just click on this link and it will take you to a site where you can see what DC Comics were on the newstand the day you were born (or ANY date in the past you'd like to visit). Kinda like that Time Magazine cover thing (HIYA PAX!!!). Have fun.
SIDETRACK OFF THE BEATEN PATH -- INTO THE STRANGE WORLD OF INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC! Now, this music doesn't quite fit in with the "Great American Songbook" tradition but it was a HUGELY popular genre in the pre-rock & roll era. Known variously as Lounge Music, Space Age Bachelor Pad or Exotica, this wonderfully wacky music was all the rage in the 50's and 60's shortly after Don the Beachcomber opened his famous bar. (Here's a facsimile of the actual menu below). 
Equally at home in a Tiki Lounge, an orbiting rocket or a Polynesian island, this stuff is a lot of fun. The big "lounge revival" of the mid-90's brought a lot of this stuff onto cd for the very first time. Here's some of the big contenders in the lounge field and my personal pick for favourite tracks. Les Baxter was probably the maestro; not only did he write the song "Quiet Village" (which Martin Denny has a monster hit with) but he also produced albums raging from tiki exotica to space-age cocktail music to scores for horror films such as House of Usher and The Dunwich Horror. 
I have a soft spot for the exotica stuff, so the Les Baxter track I'd pick would have to be "Harem Silks From Bombay". Speaking of Martin Denny, he was probably the king of the exotica sound. While his version of "Quiet Village" is indeed a classic, 
I'd have to pick his eponymous song "Exotica" as my fave. 
Juan Garcia Esquivel (over there on the left. . . .I assume he's standing in front of an Aztec temple) stuck to the more spacey, swinging bachelor pad music. He's famous for his chorus of singers who would croon "Zoo Zoo Zoo Zoo Zoo Zoo"! I'm hard-pressed to pick one particular track of his but I'd have to say "Mini Skirt" is suitably wacky. Yma Sumac is supposedly an actual princess from the Andes and has been blessed by the gods with a multi-octave voice which ranges from a volcanic growl to a martini glass-shattering screech. 
I don't know if I can pick one particular song by this fabled "voice of the xtabay", but I guess I'll pick "Malambo #1". eden ahbez (he doesn't believe people are worthy of capital letters) was the original "Nature Boy". 
In fact, he wrote the Nat King Cole hit of the same name. This guy actual took off for a desert island and stayed there for a good part of his life. The unequaled masterpiece of this musical Robinson Crusoe is definitely "Full Moon". If this song doesn't transport you to a Polynesian beach then nothing will (it comes complete with jungle birds and the sound of waves). In an effort to prove just how odd I am, I will admit to driving around one night years ago listening to this song over and over and OVER (for a good few hours) during a particularly stressful night. The strange power of cheesy tiki lounge music knows no limits, ladies and gentlemen! Speaking of transporting yourself to a beach, Arthur Lyman specialized in the Hawaiian sound. 
His masterpiece is the song entitled "Sea Breeze" which will make you crave a tropical drink within 5 seconds listening. Another Hawaiian specialist was Webley Edwards (his classic "Fire Goddess" LP cover below). 
I'm partial to his song "Alika". Alika it a lot. Ouch! Last but certainly not least on this list is Korla Pandit; he had a long career playing Far Eastern tunes on the organ, hosting his own TV show and eventually even having a cameo in Tim Burton's film "Ed Wood" (that's Korla playing in the turban playing the organ to Johnny Depp's veil dance). Korla's LP "Korla Pandit Plays the Music of the Exotic East" is a classic and his version of "Misirlou" is a keeper. 
Well, I'm gonna fix myself a tropical drink (maybe an Alien Urine Sample. . . . .yes, that IS an actual drink. . . .click here and see the recipe) and take the next boat to Eden's Island. I'm meeting a Tiki Idol on the beach and I don't wanna keep him waiting. You know what happened to Greg Brady. . .
THE DIVINE ONE: SARAH VAUGHAN. If there was a Mount Rushmore of vocalists, Sarah Vaughan would be carved up there in stone along with Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday. The Divine One or Sassy, as she was known, was simply one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. The first time I heard her was on the radio. The song was "East of the Sun (West of the Moon) and I was absolutely floored. Her voice amazed me. I had never heard someone sing with such originality while still retaining the beauty of the vocal. The song is still one of my favourites. Sarah Lois Vaughan was born in New Jersey (like me) and it pisses me off that we never hung around together. Oh well, I'll always have her brilliant sides to listen to. If it's possible you have never heard Sarah Vaughan sing, take your right hand and slap yourself right across the face. Once you're through with that, you can run right out and find the following songs which, in my opinion, are some of her best tracks. So here we go, my ideal track listing for the Divine One: September in the Rain (Live at Mr. Kelly's), I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (Live at Mr. Kelly's), Midnight Sun, Lullaby of Birdland, Lover Man, Lush Life, Poor Butterfly, East of the Sun (West of the Moon), I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise, Bidin' My Time, The Man I Love, Summertime, I Won't Say I Will, A Foggy Day, My Funny Valentine, It's Got To Be Love, It Never Entered My Mind, Thou Swell, Blue (duet with Barry Manilow), I Remember You, Teach Me Tonight (live with Joe Williams & Count Basie) and Love You Madly (Live duet with Nat King Cole). That's a nice start.
RODGERS AND HART: MUCH BETTER THAN RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN. That's right, baby. You can take your "Sound of Music" and stick it up your Alps! And we all know that the tune for "Bali Hai" from "South Pacific" is merely an unconscious plagarization of the music from "Bride of Frankenstein". It's true; in fact, "Bride" composer Franz Waxman even sent a telegram to R&H on this very point (Waxman joked that they made his song sound really good and he'd be expecting his royalty payments directly). There was always just something very remote about Rodgers & Hammerstein songs. Sort of empty. All that "corn as high as an elephant's eye" stuff never cut any ice with me. Self-consciously cutesy. "Oklahoma" and the other Rodgers & Hammerstein blockbusters are all too "Broadway musical" for me (and I definitely am NOT a fan of Broadway musicals as a rule). Many are and they're welcome to enjoy them; but not me. The songs Richard Rodgers wrote together with Lorenz Hart are beautiful and genuine whereas Rodgers & Hammerstein songs seem contrived and distant. It wasn't until Hart's mental problems got the better of him that Rodgers was forced to team up with Hammerstein (Hart died shortly thereafter). It has been said that the songs Rodgers wrote with Hammerstein became more epic or majestic; this, however, seems to be another way of calling them arty and bloodless. Rodgers and Hart songs breathe and bleed and sigh with a humanity almost painful in some cases. Take, for instance, "It Never Entered My Mind" where the woman singing realizes that the love she took for granted is gone forever. What a brilliant, funny and heartbreaking lyric occurs when she sings: "And I even have to scratch my back myself". Her shock of realization is at once trivial and mind-blowing. Her painful loneliness can be heard when she's forced to order orange juice for one. A fantastic song! Another favourite lyric of mine can be found in "Dancing On the Ceiling" where the man singing lies awake every night staring at the ceiling, eaten up by remorse for the woman who has left him. The song's narrator almost seems to be losing touch with reality as he sees his ghostly lost lover dancing up there on the ceiling. He sings: "I love my ceiling more since it is a dancing floor just for my love." Brilliant! Rodgers & Hart have always been one of my favourite songwriting teams; in a class by themselves. The songs they wrote are iron-clad standards to this day and can move you like few others. Here is a list of some of my favourites in their definitive recordings (if you listen to these versions you can't go wrong): "Manhattan" sung by Blossom Dearie (sung slowly as it should be), "Thou Swell" by Sarah Vaughan (also not sung too fast like it usually is), "Spring Is Here" by Chet Baker, "Dancing On the Ceiling" by Frank Sinatra (because the pain of Frank's recent separation from Ava Gardner is raw and palpable), "She Was Too Good To Me" by The Kingston Trio (really!), "Isn't It Romantic" by Ella Fitzgerald (the most "romantic" rendition of this song I've ever heard), "Little Girl Blue" by Nina Simone (in which she incorporates "Good King Wenceslas" on the piano as countermelody), "Glad To Be Unhappy" by Frank Sinatra, "There's A Small Hotel" by Sammy Davis Jr. & Carmen McRae, "My Funny Valentine" by Sarah Vaughan, "This Can't Be Love" by Nat King Cole, and "It Never Entered My Mind" by Sarah Vaughan. When you want real human emotion, you can't do better than the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
THE AMERICAN SONGBOOK: Part 2 in a series celebrating the singers and songs of the 20th Century (pre-rock & roll, folks).
Just picked up this terrific book by Ken Bloom called "The American Songbook" which inspired this month's themey theme. This is a major coffee table book, pilgrims! It's a hardcover that's bigger than my cranium (and those who know me will be suitably impressed by that ratio). It's packed with about 600 photos and examines the singers and songwriters who made the standards. The first section of the book focuses on the singers; we're talking Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone. . .well, you know all the giants. However, it gives equal coverage to lesser known by equally talented singers such as The Boswell Sisters, Mildred Bailey, Blossom Dearie, and scads more, jack. The second section of the book is devoted to the big bands (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, etc.). The final (and largest) section focuses on the great songwriters such as Rodgers & Hart, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer. . .well, you get the idea. Once again, lesser known songwriters get equal time (including personal favourites Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby whose 1950 biopic "Three Little Words" starring Fred Astaire & Red Skelton is FINALLY being released at the end of this month. . . .one of the best MGM musicals, folks). So, if you can afford to drop about 35 bucks, I would urge you to do so on this particular tome.
CELEBRATE THE BOSWELL SISTERS!!!
The Boswell Sisters were quite simply one of the best (if not THE best) vocal groups of the 20th century. So there! Martha, Vet & Connee started out in New Orleans doing vaudeville and swiftly became known as one of the hottest groups around. Bing Crosby was a fan (along with just about everybody else) and Ella Fitzgerald cited Connee Boswell as a MAJOR influence! The first time I set eyes (and ears) on the Boswells was in the daffy, almost surreal 1932 movie musical "The Big Broadcast" (which is criminally LOOOOOOONG overdue for a DVD release). The Boswell Sisters were prominently featured along with an impossibly young Bing Crosby, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, The Mills Brothers, Kate Smith and many other early radio acts. When I say this film was bizarre & surreal, I mean it. One scene in particular features Bing Crosby & Stuart Erwin attempting suicide after being jilted. They lock themselves in the kitchen and turn on the gas while a ghostly, phantasm of Arthur Tracy materializes out of the stove to croon "Here Lies Love" to the slowly asphixiating pair. But back to the Boswells. . .who after all, we're supposed to be celebrating. The Andrews Sisters came after them and are more well-known today but the Boswells were there first and were better by far! They started recording in the late 20's but hit it big in 1930. Martha and Vet retired from performing in 1936 and Connee went on to a fairly successful solo career. Connee, incidentally, was unable to walk due to a childhood accident (not polio as is sometimes asserted) and performed her entire career sitting down. Many fans probably never knew her physical restrictions. Some of the best (and hottest, jazziest, hep-cattinest) sides are "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", "Louisiana Hayride", "42nd Street", "Heebie Jeebies", "Sophisticated Lady", "Shout, Sister, Shout!", "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", "Coffee in the Morning and Kisses in the Night" and "That's How Rhythm Was Born". After going solo, Connee kicked it with fantastic versions of "Time On My Hands" and "Concentratin' On You". If you're a hep cat, you should seek out the Boswells. They'll make you swing and sway, daddy!
