Tiny Bradshaw was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, composer, singer, pianist, and drummer. His, “The Train Kept A-Rollin'”, has been recorded by bands like Motorhead and was the first song Led Zeppelin ever rehearsed. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 29 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
TINY
Graduating from university with a degree in psychology, Bradshaw turned to music for a living.
In Ohio, he sang and played drums with Horace Henderson’s campus-oriented Collegians.
In 1932, Bradshaw relocated to New York City, where he drummed for Marion Hardy’s Alabamians, the Charleston Bearcats (later the Savoy Bearcats), and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and sang for Luis Russell.
BRADSHAW
In 1934, Bradshaw formed his own swing orchestra, which recorded eight side for Decca Records that year in New York City.
The band’s next recording date was in 1944 for Manor Records, when its music was closer to rhythm and blues.
In 1947, Bradshaw recorded for Savoy Records.
The band recorded extensively for the rhythm and blues market with King Records, between late 1949 and early 1955, and had five hits on the Billboard R&B chart.
His most successful record at the time was “Well Oh Well”, which reached number two on the R&B chart in 1950 and remained on the chart for 21 weeks.
Two follow-ups were, “I’m Going to Have Myself a Ball” (no. 5, 1950) and “Walkin’ The Chalk Line” (no. 10, 1951) also made the chart
What is now Bradshaw’s best known recording was “The Train Kept A-Rollin'” (1951) – not a chart hit at the time – which passed from rhythm and blues to rock.
The song was recorded by Johnny Burnette in 1956, The Yardbirds in 1965, Aerosmith in 1974 and Motörhead in 1977.
Jimmy Page said that the first song played at the first rehearsal of what would become the English rock band Led Zeppelin, was “The Train Kept A-Rollin'”.
Bradshaw returned to the R&B chart in 1953 with “Soft” (no. 3), an instrumental later recorded by Bill Doggett, and “Heavy Juice” (no. 9). Both of these 1953 hits featured Red Prysock on tenor saxophone.
Bradshaw’s later career was hampered by severe health problems, including two strokes, the first of which in 1954, that left him partially paralyzed.
He made his last two sides in 1958.
As a bandleader, Bradshaw was an invaluable mentor to important musicians and arrangers including Sil Austin, Happy Caldwell, Shad Collins, Wild Bill Davis, Talib Dawud, Gil Fuller, Gigi Gryce, Big Nick Nicholas, Russell Procope, Red Prysock, Curley Russell, Calvin “Eagle Eye” Shields, Sonny Stitt, Noble “Thin Man” Watts, and Shadow Wilson.
Bob Chester was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and tenor saxophonist. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 22 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
BOB
Bob Chester began his career as a sideman under Irving Aaronson, Ben Bernie, and Ben Pollack. He formed his own group in Detroit in the mid-1930s with a Glenn Miller-influenced sound. This band was unsuccessful in local engagements but quickly dissolved. He then put together a new band on the East Coast under the direction of Tommy Dorsey and with arrangements by David Rose.This ensemble fared much better, recording for Bluebird Records.
CHESTER
Chester’s group, billed “The New Sensation of the Nation,” had its own radio show on CBS briefly in the autumn of 1939. The twenty-five-minute program aired from the Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio late on Thursday nights (actually 12:30 am Friday morning, Eastern Time).
Chester’s Bluebird records were excellent sellers, both for retail dealers and coin phonograph operators such as “From Maine to California”; “Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie”; “Madeliaine”; and two songs from “Banjo Eyes” – “Not a Care in the World” and “A Nickel to My Name”. His only national hit was “With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair” (b/w “I Walk With Music”), which featured Dolores O’Neill on vocals and went to No. 18 on the chart in April 1940.
Chester’s orchestra included trumpeters Alec Fila, Nick Travis, Lou Mucci, and Conrad Gozzo, saxophonists Herbie Steward and Peanuts Hucko, drummer Irv Kluger, and trombonist Bill Harris.His female singers included Dolores O’Neill, Kathleen Lane, and Betty Bradley; among his male singers were Gene Howard, Peter Marshall, Bob Haymes, and Al Stuart.
The orchestra disbanded in the mid-1940s, due in part to the shrinking market for big band sound. After a stint as a disc jockey at WKMH radio, Chester assembled another band for a short time in the early 1950s, but after it failed he retired from music and returned to Detroit to work for the rest of his life in car manufacturing.
Eartha Kitt was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and a real activist who put her career at risk to help people. Orson Welles called her the “most exciting woman in the world”. Kitt starred as Catwoman in the the TV series Batman in 1967. She’s your Phantom Dancer feature this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 15 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
EARTHA
Kitt began her career in 1942 and appeared in the 1945 original Broadway theatre production of the musical Carib Song.
In the early 1950s, Kitt had six US Top 30 entries, including “I Want to Be Evil”, “Uska Dara” (1953), based on the Turkish folk song “Kâtibim” which Kitt heard in an Istanbul bar as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company. She began performing the song in Turkish and English, the song received abundant play on Ankara Radio and became a hit.
Her other recordings include the UK Top 10 song “Under the Bridges of Paris” (1954), “Just an Old Fashioned Girl” (1956) and “Where Is My Man” (1983).
In 1968, Kitt’s career in the U.S. deteriorated after she made anti-Vietnam War statements at a White House luncheon with Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Ten years later, Kitt made a successful return to Broadway in the 1978 original production of the musical Timbuktu!, for which she received the first of her two Tony Award nominations.
Kitt’s second was for the 2000 original production of the musical The Wild Party. She wrote three autobiographies.
Kitt found a new generation of fans through her various voice acting roles in the last decade of her life. She was the voice of two villainous characters in animated works during the twenty-first century: Yzma in The Emperor’s New Groove franchise, and Vexus in My Life As A Teenage Robot, with the former role earning her two Daytime Emmy Awards. Kitt posthumously won a third Emmy in 2010 for her guest performance on Wonder Pets!
CHILDHOOD
Eartha Kitt’s mother was of Cherokee and African descent. She had little knowledge of her father and
Eartha’s mother went to live with a black man who refused to accept Eartha because of her relatively pale complexion.
Kitt was raised by a relative named Aunt Rosa, in whose household she was abused. Interviewed on BBC Wales’ Late Call in 1971, Kitt said:
“I remember at times when we didn’t have anything to eat for what seemed like an insurmountable amount of time. We had to rely on the forest and whatever we could dig out of the ground, such as weeds or a grass I remember that had a kind of onion growing at the bottom of it. And when we could find things like that to eat then we were alright. … I’m very glad that [her childhood self] will always be a part of me because she helps me do what she knows I have to do out there on that stage.”
After the death of Annie Mae, Eartha was sent to live with another close relative named Mamie Kitt, who Eartha later came to believe was her biological mother.
CAREER
Kitt began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943 and remained a member of the troupe until 1948. A talented singer with a distinctive voice, Kitt’s unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in French during her years performing in Europe. Kitt spoke four languages and sang in 11, which she demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave Kitt her first starring role as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus.
Two years later, Kitt was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing “Monotonous” and “Bal, Petit Bal”.
In 1954, 20th Century-Fox distributed an independently filmed version of the revue entitled New Faces, in which Kitt performed “Monotonous”, “Uska Dara”, “C’est si bon”, and “Santa Baby”.
Her other films in the 1950s included The Mark of the Hawk (1957), St. Louis Blues (1958) and Anna Lucasta (1958).
Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt recorded; worked in film, television, and nightclubs; and returned to the Broadway stage, in Mrs. Patterson (during the 1954–1955 season), Shinbone Alley (in 1957), and the short-lived Jolly’s Progress (in 1959).
In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. In the late 1960s, Batman featured Kitt as Catwoman after Julie Newmar had left the show in 1967. She appeared in a 1967 Mission: Impossible episode “The Traitor”, as Tina Mara, a contortionist.
The Royal Variety Performance in the London Palladium on 29th October 1962 featured Kitt singing solo, but also appearing in a skit with Harry Secombe. The review of the event in the Illustrated London News described them as “perhaps the two outstanding performers of the evening.
In 1963, Kitt traveled to the Philippines for a concert at the Araneta Coliseum, where she learned the song phonetically entitled “Waray-Waray,” which she included in her repertoire and later appeared in her live album.
WHITE HOUSE INCIDENT
On January 18, 1968, during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. Kitt was asked by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson about the Vietnam War. She replied: “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.” During a question-and-answer session, Kitt stated:
“The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. for no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons—and I know what it’s like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson—we raise children and send them to war.”
Kitt’s remarks reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears. It is widely believed that Kitt’s career in the United States was ended following her comments about the Vietnam War, after which she was branded “a sadistic nymphomaniac” by the CIA.
A CIA dossier about Kitt was discovered by Seymour Hersh in 1975. Hersh published an article about the dossier in The New York Times. The dossier contained comments about Kitt’s sex life and family history, along with negative opinions of her that were held by former colleagues.
Kitt’s response to the dossier was to say: “I don’t understand what this is about. I think it’s disgusting.” Following the incident, Kitt devoted her energies to performances in Europe and Asia.
Kitt would return to the White House on January 29, 1978 after accepting an invitation from U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attend a reception honouring the 10th anniversary of the reopening of Ford’s Theatre.
BROADWAY
In the 1970s, Kitt appeared on television several times on BBC’s long-running variety show The Good Old Days, and in 1987 took over from fellow American Dolores Gray in the London West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and returned at the end of that run to star in a one-woman show at the same Shaftesbury Theatre, both to tremendous acclaim. In both those shows, Kitt performed the show-stopping theatrical anthem “I’m Still Here”.
Kitt returned to New York City in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! in 1978. Kitt was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.
In the late 1990s, Kitt appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz.
In 2000, she again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party.
Beginning in late 2000, Kitt starred as the Fairy Godmother in the U.S. national tour of Cinderella.
In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. Kitt reprised her role as the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella, which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004.
From October to early December 2006, Kitt co-starred in the off-Broadway musical Mimi le Duck.
1980s SINGING CAREER
In 1984, Kitt returned to the music charts with a disco song titled “Where Is My Man”, the first certified gold record of her career. “Where Is My Man” reached the Top 40 on the UK singles chart, where it peaked at No. 36. The song became a standard in discos and dance clubs of the time and made the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard dance chart, where it reached No. 7.
The single was followed by the album I Love Men on the Record Shack label. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the UK and the United States, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organisations. Kitt’s 1989 follow-up hit “Cha-Cha Heels” (featuring Bronski Beat), which was originally intended to be recorded by Divine, received a positive response from UK dance clubs, reaching No. 32 in the charts in that country.
In 1988, Kitt replaced Dolores Gray in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies as Carlotta, receiving standing ovations every night for her rendition of “I’m Still Here” at the beginning of act 2.
Kitt went on to perform her own one-woman show at the Shaftesbury Theatre to sold-out houses for three weeks in early 1989 after Follies.
1990s
In 1991, Kitt returned to the screen in Ernest Scared Stupid as Old Lady Hackmore.
In 1992, she had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in Boomerang.
In 1995, Kitt appeared as herself in an episode of The Nanny, where she performed a song in French and flirted with Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy).
In November 1996, Kitt appeared in an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!. She also did a series of commercials for Old Navy. In 1996, she had a supporting role as Agatha K. Plummer in Harriet the Spy.
2000s
In 2000, Kitt won an Annie Award for her starring voice role as Yzma in the Disney feature film The Emperor’s New Groove, later reprising the role in 2005 in Disney’s Kronk’s New Groove.
Kitt returned once again to the silver screen in 2003 with the role of Madame Zeroni in the film Holes based on the book by the same name, by author Louis Sachar.
In December 2004 and 2005, Kitt was a guest narrator at Disney’s Candlelight Processional at Walt Disney World.
In August 2007, Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics’ Smoke Signals collection. She re-recorded “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website, and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month. Kitt also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams.
In her later years, Kitt made annual appearances in the New York Manhattan cabaret scene at venues such as the Ballroom and the Café Carlyle.
Kitt did voice work for the animated projects The Emperor’s New Groove and its spinoffs, as well as for My Life as a Teenage Robot.
In April 2008, just months before her death, Kitt appeared at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival
Kitt voiced herself in The Simpsons episode “Once Upon a Time in Springfield”, where she is depicted as a former lover of Krusty the Clown.
ACTIVISM
Kitt was active in numerous social causes in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1966, she established the Kittsville Youth Foundation, a chartered and non-profit organization for underprivileged youths in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
Kitt was also involved with a group of youths in the area of Anacostia in Washington, D.C., who called themselves “Rebels with a Cause”.
She supported the group’s efforts to clean up streets and establish recreation areas in an effort to keep them out of trouble by testifying with them before the House General Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Education and Labor.
In her testimony, in May 1967, Kitt stated that the Rebels’ “achievements and accomplishments should certainly make the adult ‘do-gooders’ realise that these young men and women have performed in one short year—with limited finances—that which was not achieved by the same people who might object to turning over some of the duties of planning, rehabilitation, and prevention of juvenile delinquents and juvenile delinquency to those who understand it and are living it”.
Kitt added that “the Rebels could act as a model for all urban areas throughout the United States with similar problems”. “Rebels with a Cause” subsequently received the needed funding.
Kitt was a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; her criticism of the Vietnam War and its connection to poverty and racial unrest in 1968 can be seen as part of a larger commitment to peace activism.
Like many politically active public figures of her time, Kitt was under surveillance by the CIA, beginning in 1956. After The New York Times discovered the CIA file on Kitt in 1975, she granted the paper permission to print portions of the report, stating: “I have nothing to be afraid of and I have nothing to hide.”
Kitt later became a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and publicly supported same-sex marriage, which she considered a civil right. She had been quoted as saying: “I support it [gay marriage] because we’re asking for the same thing. If I have a partner and something happens to me, I want that partner to enjoy the benefits of what we have reaped together. It’s a civil-rights thing, isn’t it?”
In a 1992 interview with Dr. Anthony Clare, Kitt spoke about her gay following, saying:
“We’re all rejected people, we know what it is to be refused, we know what it is to be oppressed, depressed, and then, accused, and I am very much cognizant of that feeling. Nothing in the world is more painful than rejection. I am a rejected, oppressed person, and so I understand them, as best as I can, even though I am a heterosexual.”
DEATH
Kitt died of colon cancer on Christmas Day 2008 at her home in Weston, Connecticut; she was 81 years old.
Her daughter, Kitt McDonald, described her last days with her mother:
“I was with her when she died. She left this world literally screaming at the top of her lungs. I was with her constantly, she lived not even 3 miles from my house, we were together practically every day. She was home for the last few weeks when the doctor told us there was nothing they could do any more. Up until the last two days, she was still moving around. The doctor told us she will leave very quickly and her body will just start to shut down. But when she left, she left the world with a bang, she left it how she lived it. She screamed her way out of here, literally. I truly believe her survival instincts were so part of her DNA that she was not going to go quietly or willingly. It was just the two of us hanging out [during the last days] she was very funny. We didn’t have to [talk] because I always knew how she felt about me. I was the love of her life, so the last part of her life we didn’t have to have these heart to heart talks. She started to see people that weren’t there. She thought I could see them too, but, of course, I couldn’t. I would make fun of her like, “I’m going to go in the other room and you stay here and talk to your friends.”
Meet Judy and Phil from the Australian Railway Crossing Safety Education Guide
They are a proud bunch and take their work very seriously.
They have just created their own video and audio series to teach people how to behave around level crossings and are excited to share their work with the community.
The simplicity of their safety messages, delivered in a uniquely Australian way makes them relatable, likeable, and sharable amongst our target audience.
They make sure the message come across in a non-patronising, common-sense way, reiterating that the easiest way to stay out of danger at a level crossing is to follow the signs and stay alert
Data from the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator showed an average of almost 950 near hits every year at level crossings on Australia’s heavy rail network between 2016 and 2025.
Tragically 35 people died and 149 were injured in train and vehicle collisions over the same period, while 16 deaths and 23 injuries were caused by collisions between trains and pedestrians at heavy rail level crossings.
Created by Publicis Groupe, directed by cowboys.
Phil: Greg Poppleton Judy: Amy McDonald
Client of National Heavy Vehicle Regulator – Senior Media and Campaigns Officer, Corporate Affairs: Sean Carr Client of Department of Transport and Main Roads – Program Manager (National Level Crossing Safety), Program Management Office: John Pearson Client of Queensland Rail – Customer and Stakeholder Interface Manager: David Reis
Agency: Publicis Australia @publicisgroupeanz ECD: Jim McKeown @jim.stagram Senior Art Director: Andrew Leftley Producer: Chris Moore Senior Account Director: Anna Hellinger
Production Company: Clockwork Films @clockwork_films Managing Director: Jamie Cohen Executive Producer: Heath George Directors: cowboys. (Alex Gibbs & Luke Hackett) @thanksihateit @iamnewtothisplanet Senior Producer: Anouk Ratnawibhushana @anouk_ratna Production Manager: Josh Nicholas @hazy.beats_ Production Runner / 1st Aid: Daniel Glossip 1st AD: Jason Faulkner DOP: Benjamin L’Aiguille @benlaiguille 1st AC: Josh Bailey 2nd AC / Data Wrangler: Jonathan Bowes-Onions Gaffer: Glenn Jones Best Boy: Ryan Dein Sound Recordist: Tristan Atkins Production Designer: Laura Elkington @elkartdirection Art Department Assistant: Datten Morgan (Pix) Wardrobe Stylist: Danielle Soglimbene @danielle_soglimbene HMU / Wardrobe Assistant: Emma Louise @emmalouise_makeupartist Post-Production: Clockwork Films @clockwork_films Post Producer: Heath George Offline / Online Editor: Benjamin L’Aiguille @benlaiguille Casting: Wayward Casting @waywardcreative_casting
Artie Shaw and his Gramercy Five was a jazz combo led by bandleader ‘King of the Clarinet’, swing band leader and composer, Artie Shaw. The Gramercy Five had different line-ups when it ran between 1940 and 1954. After his Australian tour in 1954, Shaw gave up clarinet and the Gramercy Five, saying he’d done all he could with it. The Gramercy 5 is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 8 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
FIRST GRAMERCY FIVE 1940-41
The Gramercy Five was a six-piece small group Artie Shaw formed out of his strongest jazz players. The name was his telephone number.
Big band leaders live Tommy Dorsey (The Clambake 7), Bob Crosby (the Bobcats) and Benny Goodman had their own ‘bands within a band’.
The Gramercy Five was born out of the 19 September 1939 broadcast of the ‘Melody & Madness’ radio series when Shaw arranged the rhythm section of his orchestra, with his clarinet, to accompany vocal trio, The King Sisters.
The Gramercy Five the formed in 1940 after Shaw had quite band leading, went to Mexico, then returned, was like a jazz chamber orchestra using harpsichord instead of piano.
For Artie Shaw, the sextet was an opportunity for him to stretch out as a clarinettist although his solos were never longer than 16 bars.
The Gramercy 5 featured with the Shaw Orchestra on radio broadcasts and went into the recording studio twelve times between 1940 and 1954
The foriginal line-up had Johnny Guarnieri (harpsichord), Billy Butterfield (trumpet), Artie Shaw (clarinet, arrangement), Al Hendrickson (guitar), Jud DeNaut (bass) and Nick Fatool (drums).
Shortly before his death in 1988, Billy Butterfield said about working The Gramercy Five :
“It was a great little band. We rehearsed a lot, we worked on it, and every number we played was well prepared before we did it. Artie was a perfectionist , like Benny Goodman. Both were perfectionists. He treated us very well. He once said to me ‘you know, to be a good player you need practice and you always have to live with the horn’.”
SECOND GRAMERCY FIVE 1945
Artie Shaw reassembled the Gramercy Five for Victor records in 1945 with tunes that straddled swing and bebop.
Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Artie Shaw, Dodo Marmarosa (piano), Barney Kessel (guitar), Morris Rayman (bass) and Lou Fromm (drums) recorded the two tracks “The Grabtown Grabble” and “The Sad Sack “.
Commercially, the new recordings were not very successful.
In March 1945, two more titles, “I Was Doing All Right” and ” You Took Advantage of Me ” was recorded for NBC in Hollywood.
Then on July 31 and August 2, 1945, they recorded the track “Scuttlebutt”, two days later “The Gentle Grifter”, “Hop, Skip and Jump” and two takes of “Misterioso”.
THIRD GRAMERCY FIVE 1949 -54
In December 1949 Shaw recorded five radio transcriptions including the standard Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and the Pied Piper Theme with a new Gramercy Five.
The, in January 1950, with a similar line-up, the Gramercy Five recorded “There Must Be Something Better Than Love” ( Dorothy Fields / Morton Gould ) and “Nothin’ from Nothin'” with Mary Ann McCall (vocals) For Decca.
This edition of the Gramercy Five included Don Fagerquist (trumpet), Gil Barrios (piano), Jimmy Raney (guitar), Dick Nivison (bass) and Irv Kluger (drums).
In April, the Five recorded “Crumbum” and “Sheckomeeko Shuffle” with Fagerquist replaced by Lee Castle , Nivison by Teddy Kotick and Irv Kluger by Dave Williams. They were joined by tenor saxophonist Don Lanphere.
January 1951, Artie Shaw and his Gramercy Five accompanied pop vocalists June Hutton (“My Kinda Love”/”Dancing on the Ceiling”) and Don Cherry (“I Apologise”/”Bring Back the Thrill”) on four tracks.
This band had Stan Freeman (piano), Danny Perri (guitar), Bob Haggart (bass) and Bunny Shawker (drums).
Also for Decca, in 1952, Shaw’s Gramercy Five (this time featuring Bob Kitsis (piano), George Barnes (guitar), Trigger Alpert, Buddy Schutz) accompanied singer Connee Boswell singing “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” and “My Little Nest of Heavenly Blue”.
The Five recorded an EP for Bell Records with Tal Farlow, Hank Jones, Joe Roland, Tommy Potter and Irv Kluger.
The Gramercy Five’s final recording was in June 1954 for the Clef LP Artie Shaw and his Grammercy Five Album #3.
With Artie Shaw were Hank Jones, Joe Puma, Tommy Potter and Irv Kluger. It was an album of standards including My Funny Valentine, Too Marvelous for Words, Yesterdays, Tenderly and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.
Billy May was a US composer, arranger, band leader and trumpet player. He composed for film and TV including Cocoon (1985) and Batman (1966). He was know for his brassy arrangements and slurping saxes. His most successful title was, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, (1950). He’s your Phantom Dancer feature this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 1 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
BILLY
May started playing tuba in his high school band. By 17 was playing with Gene Olsen’s Polish-American Orchestra.
May moved to New York City in 1939 to become chief arranger for the Charlie Barnet Orchestra.
He held this position from February 1939 until October 1940, and joined its trumpet section in June 1939.
May’s contract with Barnet called for four new arrangements per week. About 70 were recorded and commercially released by RCA Victor on the Bluebird label.
May arranged some of Barnet’s best-selling records, including, Pompton Turnpike, and, Leapin’ at the Lincoln. May’s arrangement of Ray Noble’s, Cherokee, launched Barnet and his Ork to stardom.
At Barnet’s request, May closely studied the musical language of Barnet’s idol, Duke Ellington. May soon developed a harmonic and sonic palette rich with Ellingtonian colours. The Ellington influence is apparent in some of May’s arrangements of new pop songs including, Danger in the Dark, and, Strange Enchantment. They are on full display in May’s arrangements of Ellington’s own compositions, particularly, The Sergeant Was Shy, Ring Dem Bells, and, Rockin’ in Rhythm. Ellington reciprocated the musical respect by recording his own arrangement of, In a Mizz, a Charlie Barnet original arranged by May in June 1939.
May’s first recorded serious composition for jazz orchestra was Wings Over Manhattan, a three-part suite celebrating the “aviation” theme of the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair for which it was written. It is also a musical salute to Ellington, showing the influence of Ellington’s longer-form works like Reminiscing in Tempo and Symphony in Black.
HUMOUR
May’s sense of musical humour, one of the hallmarks of his sound, took shape with the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, as in his arrangements of novelty numbers like, Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga, and The Wrong Idea.
May and Barnet remained close throughout their lives, and May arranged another 36 titles for the Barnet Orchestra between 1954 and 1970.
The original manuscript scores, and some of the original band parts, for about 80 of May’s arrangements for Barnet are now housed at the Music Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where they are open to the public for research. Many others were destroyed in the 1939 fire at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles.
MILLER
Bandleader Glenn Miller hired May away from Barnet in 1940.
“May points out that he was not responsible for any of the [Glenn Miller] band’s signature hits, but he did write the beautiful left-field introduction to [Bill] Finegan’s [arrangement of] Serenade In Blue”.
Miller and May had a wary relationship. According to Will Friedwald, by 1942 May was ready to resign from the Miller band. Miller refused to record half of May’s arrangements, and May objected to Miller’s regimented style. But since Miller was joining the military, he convinced May to stay on until the band broke up. May said around 1995 (after a life of heavy drinking and rehabilitation for alcoholism) that working with Miller “helped me immensely. I learned a lot from Glenn. He was a good musician and an excellent arranger.”
POST 1940s
When the era of the Big Bands ended in the late 1940s, May relocated to Los Angeles, where he became a much-coveted arranger and studio orchestra leader, working for top recording stars as Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Anita O’Day, and Bing Crosby.
At Capitol Records May wrote arrangements Frank Sinatra on the albums Come Fly with Me (1958), Come Dance with Me! (1959) and Come Swing with Me! (1961); Nat King Cole on the albums Just One of Those Things and Let’s Face the Music!; Peggy Lee on the albums Pretty Eyes and Christmas Carousel; Sue Raney on Songs for a Raney Day; Vic Damone on the albums The Lively Ones and Strange Enchantment; Jeri Southern on the album Jeri Southern Meets Cole Porter; Keely Smith on the album Politely and on a duet single, Nothing In Common/How Are Ya Fixed For Love?, with Sinatra; Bobby Darin on the album Oh! Look at Me Now; Nancy Wilson on the albums Like In Love, Something Wonderful, Tender Loving Care, Nancy – Naturally! and various tracks from the albums Just For Now and Lush Life; Matt Monro on several tracks from the albums Invitation to the Movies, Invitation to Broadway, and These Years; Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney on the albums Fancy Meeting You Here and That Travellin’ Two-Beat; and Sir George Shearing on the albums Satin Affair and Burnished Brass, co-arranged with Shearing (May also conducted Shearing’s album Concerto for My Love, on which Shearing had sole credit for the arrangements).
May’s orchestra was featured on many Capitol Records children’s projects, including cowboy star, Hopalong Cassidy.
GRAMMY AWARDS
May won two Grammy Awards, including Best Performance by an Orchestra in 1958 and Best Arrangement in 1959.
In the late 1960s into the early 1970s, May conducted many recreations of big band era classics, recorded by Capitol. May transcribed note for note from the original recordings of big band legends such as Charlie Barnet, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and others and then conducted a group of all-star veteran musicians on the sessions, including some of the original performers such as singers Helen Forrest, Helen Ward and Tex Beneke.
After Sinatra left Capitol to start his own label, Reprise Records, May continued to write arrangements for him for nearly thirty more years, working on the albums Sinatra Swings, Francis A. and Edward K. (with Duke Ellington) and Trilogy 1: The Past, as well as two charts for one of Sinatra’s last ever solo recording sessions, My Foolish Heart, and, Cry Me a River (1988).
FILM and TV
May can be seen on trumpet with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in Sun Valley Serenade (1941), including a solo in, In the Mood, and in Orchestra Wives (1942).
In 1957, May made his debut as a film composer with Jane Russell’s The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown; the soundtrack was released on Imperial Records. His film scores include the Rat Pack film Sergeants 3 (1962), Johnny Cool (1963), Tony Rome (1967), The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968), The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969), and The Front Page (1974), and several big band arrangements used in the 1991 Disney film The Rocketeer, including Melora Hardin performing Cole Porter’s, Begin the Beguine.
His compositions for television include Somewhere in the Night – the theme for Naked City (1960), and his jazzy arrangement of, Flight of the Bumblebee, for The Green Hornet (1966) with trumpet by Al Hirt. He composed the Batgirl theme for Batman (1966). He and Nelson Riddle wrote music for episodes of Naked City (1960), Batman (1966), The Green Hornet (1966), Emergency! (1972), and CHiPs (1977).
May also arranged and produced the song, River of No Return, for Tennessee Ernie Ford to sing in the 1954 film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum. Billy May and His Orchestra are also credited as playing themselves in the 1956 film Nightmare, starring Edward G. Robinson, with May as music and vocal arranger of music by Herschel Burke Gilbert, who was the musical director.
Billy Taylor was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster, educator, and jazz activist. Critic Leonard Feather called Dr. Billy Taylor, the world’s foremost spokesman for jazz. He is your Phantom Dancer feature this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 25 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
BILLY
Billy Taylor grew up in a musical family and learned to play guitar, drums and saxophone as a child, but was most successful at the piano. He had classical piano lessons with Henry Grant, who had educated Duke Ellington. Taylor made his first professional appearance playing piano in 1934 at age 13 and was paid one dollar.
He did a music degree, graduating in 1942.
Taylor moved to New York City after graduation and started playing piano professionally from 1944, with Ben Webster’s Quartet.
The same night he joined Webster’s Quartet, he met Art Tatum, who became his mentor. Among the other musicians Taylor worked with was Machito and his mambo band, from whom he developed a love for Latin music.
After an eight-month tour with the Don Redman Orchestra in Europe, Taylor stayed there with his wife, Theodora, and in Paris and the Netherlands.
Taylor returned to New York was pianist for Billie Holiday in a successful show called Holiday on Broadway.
A year later, he became the house pianist at Birdland and performed with Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.
Taylor played at Birdland longer than any other pianist in the club’s history.
In 1949, Taylor published his first book, a textbook about bebop piano styles.
In 1952, Taylor composed one of his best known tunes, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”, which achieved more popularity with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
He made dozens of recordings in the 1950s and 1960s, including Billy Taylor Trio with Candido with Cuban percussionist Candido Camero, My Fair Lady Loves Jazz, Cross Section and Taylor Made Jazz.
In 1958, he became music director of NBC’s The Subject Is Jazz, the first television series focusing on jazz.
The 13-part series was produced by the new National Educational Television Network with guests such as Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Rushing, and Langston Hughes.
Taylor also worked as a DJ and programme director on radio station WLIB in New York in the 1960s.
During the 1960s, the Billy Taylor Trio was a regular feature of the Hickory House on West 55th Street in Manhattan.
From 1969 to 1972, he served as music director for The David Frost Show and was the first African American to lead a talk-show band.
Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich were just a few of the musicians who played on the show.
In 1964, he established Jazzmobile in New York City as a way to promote jazz through educational programmes.
Taylor hosted two long-running jazz programs on National Public Radio. Jazz Alive! ran from 1977 to 1983, and Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center ran from 1995 to 2001. The former program won the Peabody Award.
In 1981, after being profiled by CBS News Sunday Morning, Taylor was hired as an on-air correspondent and then conducted more than 250 interviews with musicians. He received an Emmy Award for his segment on the multi-talented Quincy Jones.
In 1989, Taylor formed his own “Taylor Made” record label to document his own music. You Tempt Me (1996), by his 1985 trio (with Victor Gaskin and drummer Curtis Boyd), includes a rendition of Ellington’s/Strayhorn’s “Take the “A” Train”. White Nights (1991) has Taylor, Gaskin, and drummer Bobby Thomas performing live from Leningrad in the Soviet Union. Then came Solo (1992), and Jazzmobile Allstars (1992). In 1997, he received the New York State Governor’s Art Award.
TAYLOR
Taylor appeared on hundreds of albums and composed more than 300 songs during his career, which spanned over six decades.
Engaging and educating more audience and young people was a central part of Taylor’s career. He was the Wilbur D. Barrett Chair of Music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale.
Besides publishing instructional books on jazz, he taught jazz courses at Howard University, Long Island University, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he had studied under Roland Wiggins and earned his master’s degree and EdD degree in Music Education in 1975.
His extensive appearance in television series and jazz educational programs brought the music he loved to the masses at the grassroots level as well as more formal arenas.
He was sometimes better known as a television personality than a pianist. He was quoted in a 2007 article in the Post Magazine: “there’s no question that being an advocate eclipsed my reputation as a musician. It was my doing. I wanted to prove to people that jazz has an audience. I had to do that for me.”
Taylor had more than 20 honorary doctoral degrees and was the recipient of two Peabody Awards for Jazzmobile, NEA Jazz Masters Award (1998), an Emmy Award (1983) for carrying out over 250 interviews for CBS News Sunday Morning, a Grammy Award (2004)[16] Down Beat magazine’s Lifetime Achievement award (1984), National Medal of Arts (1992), and the Tiffany Award (1991). In 1981, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Berklee College of Music.
He was honoured in 2001 with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award,[18] and election to the Hall of Fame for the International Association for Jazz Education.
He served as artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he developed many critically acclaimed concert series, including the Louis Armstrong Legacy series, and the annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival.
He performed at the White House seven times and was one of only three jazz musicians to be appointed to the National Council of the Arts.
Tokyo Swing records from the 1950s in one set is your Phantom Dancer feature this week. If you’re a fan of the TV show MASH you may have already heard one of the songs on this week’s playlist, Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 18 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
IZUMI YUKIMURA
Izumi is a Japanese popular singer and actress who made made her debut with the song “Omoide no Warutsu” (想い出のワルツ, “Till I Waltz Again with You”) in 1953. Her style of singing varied from jazz to rock and roll. She became one of the three most popular female singers in early postwar Japan, known as the “Sannin Musume (three daughters), along with Chiemi Eri and Hibari Misora.
Yukimura, Eri, and Misora starred in a trilogy of hit musical movies for Toho, one of Japan’s main movie studios. These films were Janken Musume (So Young, So Bright), 1955, Romance Musume (Romantic Daughters), 1956, and Ohatari Sanshoku Musume (On wings of Love), 1957.
PEGGY HAYAMA
was the stage name for Japanese actress and singer (森 繁子 Mori Shigeko). She made her first commercial record age 18 and was the voice for Mother of Ultra and portrayed her human form, The Lady In Green, in the movie, Ultraman Taro (1973). She also acted in Jigoku ni makkana hana ga saku (1961) and Musume jûroku jazz matsuri (1954).
TIB KAMAYATSU
Was born Tadashi Kamayatsu in Los Angeles, California. He is famous for helping spread jazz music in post-war Japan and was the father of the prominent Japanese rock singer Hiroshi “Monsieur” Kamayatsu.
In 1971 he released the album “Father and Mad Son”, featuring his son, Hiroshi.
AKATSUKI TERUKO
暁テル子 was the stage name for Sekine Hisa, a Japanese singer and actress who was active in the 1940s and 50s. Her nickname was “Teri-ichi”.
As a child she sang in the Shochiku Girls’ Opera Company and debuted as a child actress in 1933.
After the war, she became an exclusive performer at the Ernie Pyle Theater (Tokyo Takarazuka Theater) and gained popularity, being affectionately called “Terry” by foreign soldiers.
In 1948, she signed a contract with Daiei and made her film debut in “Haru Ranman Tanuki Matsuri”.
In February 1949 she became an exclusive performer for Victor Records and debuted with “Minami no Koiuta” and “Kore ga Boogie Woogie”.
Her “Tokyo Shoeshine Boy” released in 1951, became a hit.
Fans of the MASH TV series would have heard the song played over the camp PA. It also plays incongruously during a terrorist attack in “Akira”.
Johnathan Clements writes in An Armchair Traveller’s History of Tokyo:
“Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy with its recognisable English words and frisky rhythm is a flatly hopeless elegy, loaded with subtle clues, starting with the slang term for a Ginza promenade, Gin-bura. As the novelist Tanizaki Junichirō once archly observed, only a country hick would use such a phrase. That poor migrant labourer has nothing to offer her – he literally couldn’t even shine her red shoes with his boot-black polish, nor can he pile her with presents like GI-issue chocolate and chewing gum, or take her for an exotic Coke in swanky Ginza. ‘I’m sure she’ll come back tomorrow,’ he says brightly. ‘Someday we’ll go out dancing together.’ It is a triumph of Japanese melancholy, never once letting its enthusiasm slip, even though any listener can plainly hear what has happened.”
ICHIRO WAKAHARA
was the stage name of Nakayoshi Tanokura（田野倉仲義). His career started when he won a prize at the 1948 NHK (Radio) Nodo Jiman（のど自慢）contest, and released his first record in 1949. Wakahara made his last commercial record in 1988.
Wild Bill Davison, called Wild Bill because of heavy drinking and womanising, was an American jazz cornetist who emerged in the 1920s playing the music of Louis Armstrong. He’s best remembered for his association with bandleader Eddie Condon, with whom he worked and recorded from the mid-1940s until Condon’s last concert at the New School for Social Research in New York in April 1972. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 11 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
You’ll see Wild Bill Davison on stage in these 1940s clips from Eddie Condon’s Club. Turn the sound off. The music that’s been used as a soundtrack is ridiculous…
WILD BILL
Poet Philip Larkin, a fan, described his playing thus:
“…a player of notable energy, he uses a wide range of conscious tonal distortions, heavy vibrato, and an urgent, bustling attack. At slow tempos he is melting, almost articulate. Humphrey Lyttelton has compared him with the kind of reveler who throws his arm round your neck one moment and tries to knock you down the next.”
“All the same, his stylistic mannerisms-the deep hoarse blurrings, the athletic in-front-of-the-beat timing, the flaring shakes-are highly conscious (the ‘Wild’ is more a personal than a musical sobriquet), and, imposed as they are on a conventional Armstrong basis, make Davison one of the most exciting of white small-band cornetists.
His sessions with Sidney Bechet for Blue Note are collisions of two furious jazz talents which at the same time were oddly sympathetic, and prove his ability to play in any kind of milieu; his numerous sides in the Condon tradition show him uniting with (Pee Wee) Russell in the same way.
But solo after solo demonstrates that he is not a ‘wild’ player: each note is perfectly shaped and pitched as if the cornet were his speaking voice, in the style of his favorites (Louis) Armstrong and (Bobby) Hackett, and with an emotional immediacy always hard to parallel.”
Richard M. Sudhalter described first seeing Wild Bill at Eddie Condon’s club in New York City in the 1950s:
“Up there, incredibly, is Bill Davison himself, looking like anything *but* the standard image of the cornet or trumpet player. Not like Louis Armstrong, horn tilted up and eyes rolled back as the tone takes flight; not like Maxie Kaminsky, so tiny that his instrument seems gigantic in his hands. Not like Bix Beiderbecke, in some old photo or other, dented cornet pointed resolutely to the floor.
“Nope. This guy is seated, one leg crossed casually over the other, drink on an upended barrel in front of him. He sweeps the cornet into the side of his mouth to expel some supercharged phrase, then jerks it away as if it’s too hot to keep there. And I realize, awe-struck, he’s chewing gum! Where in the world does he keep that stuff when he’s blowing?
“In short, he looked just the way he sounded – like a guy from Ohio (a town named, aptly, Defiance) with a fierce, uninhibited way of attacking the beat, driving a band of whatever size halfway into tomorrow. The music comes out as from a flame-thrower, but with a density and momentum only suggested by even the best (of his) records”.
Vaughn De Leath was a US singer and pioneer radio executive who was the first crooner, coming up with the style for radio in 1920s. She was called the ‘First Lady of Radio’ and also was a first lady of TV, appearing on experimental TV in 1928. Her hit ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ (1927) was covered by Elvis Presley. She’s your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 4 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
VAUGH
In January 1920, inventor and radio pioneer Lee DeForest brought de Leath to his radio station, 2XG, in New York City’s World’s Tower, where De Leath broadcast Swanee River.
DeForest advised her that high notes sung in her natural soprano might shatter the fragile vacuum tubes of her carbon microphone’s amplifier, so De Leath switched to a deep contralto and in the process invented crooning”, the dominant pop vocal style for the next three decades.
De Forest later noted: “She was an instant success. Her voice and her cordial, unassuming microphone presence were ideally suited to the novel task. Without instruction she seemed to sense exactly what was necessary in song and patter to successfully put herself across”.
By 1921, in the formative years of commercial radio, De Leath began singing at WJZ, in Newark, New Jersey (a station later known as WABC in New York City). She also performed on the New York stage in the early to mid-1920s, but radio became her primary medium, and she made a name for herself as a radio entertainer.
Her recording career began in 1921. Over the next decade she recorded for a number of labels, including Edison, Columbia, Victor, Okeh, Gennett, and Brunswick.
She occasionally recorded for the subsidiary labels of some of these companies under various pseudonyms. These included Gloria Geer, Mamie Lee, Sadie Green, Betty Brown, Nancy Foster, Marion Ross, Glory Clarke, Angelina Marco, and Gertrude Dwyer.
De Leath had a highly versatile range of styles, and as material required could adapt as a serious balladeer, playful girl, vampish coquette, or vaudeville comedian.
DE LEATH
De Leath composed and recorded songs for silent films, including Oliver Twist, for the 1922 silent film Oliver Twist.
De Leath’s recording accompanists included some of the major jazz musicians of the 1920s: cornetist Red Nichols, trombonist Miff Mole, guitarists Dick McDonough and Eddie Lang, and bandleader Paul Whiteman.
She played ukulele and occasionally accompanied herself on recordings, including on the 1925 hit, Ukulele Lady, used in the 1999 film, The Cider House Rules.
In performance she played banjo, guitar, and piano. In 1925 she narrated and sang on a May Singhi Breen ukulele instruction record for the Victor label.
RADIO MANAGER & 1928 TV
In 1923, she became one of the first women to manage a radio station, WDT in New York City, over which she also performed and led a sixty-piece orchestra.
In 1928 she appeared on an experimental television broadcast, and later became a special guest for the debut broadcast of The Voice of Firestone radio show. She also was one of the first American entertainers to broadcast to Europe via transatlantic radio transmission.
De Leath made her last recording in 1931 for the Crown label. She made her final nationwide network performances in 1936, which we hear today on The Phantom Dancer. In her waning years, she made radio appearances on local New York stations, including WBEN in Buffalo.
WDT Radio
WDT was a short-lived AM broadcasting station licensed to the Ship Owners Radio Service in New York City, which was issued its first license in December 1921, and deleted two years later.
WDT was one of the first broadcasting stations in the New York metropolitan area. Initially, all stations making entertainment broadcasts transmitted on the common wavelength of 360 meters, which necessitated a time-sharing agreement to allocate operating hours for individual stations. This soon became complicated, and by June there were in excess of ten regional stations broadcasting on this wavelength.
In May 1923 the Department of Commerce, which regulated radio at this time, greatly expanded the number of available transmitting frequencies, including three “Class B” allocations for the Newark/New York City area that were reserved for stations with superior equipment and programmimg.WDT was assigned to the Class B frequency of 740 kHz, where it shared time with WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and a new Radio Corporation of America station, WJY in New York City.
The upgrade to Class B status coincided with the beginning of joint operations with the Premier Grand Piano Corporation, with a new studio and transmitter installed at that company’s factory at 510 West 23rd Street in New York City. In addition, the famous singer Vaughn De Leath, who also was the leader of a sixty-piece orchestra, took over as the station’s studio manager. The debut broadcast from the new facility took place on the evening of June 8th, and featured an opening address by De Leath. Station publicity promoted the station’s “high character of programs” and “diversity of talent”.
In early November, it was announced that WDT was suspending operations for “several weeks while the station is enlarged”, and “Upon reopening, WDT will operate on a larger scale, with a program extending over a longer period”.However, later that month De Leath left the station to join the cast of Laugh, Clown, Laugh, and WDT was formally deleted on 28 December.
