Bruce Glen’s Magical Soirées are best described as ‘storytelling magic shows for adults – but not necessarily grown-ups’.
They feature cutting-edge magic that seemingly defies the laws of physics – set amid intriguing stories guaranteed to leave you wondering.
He’s dazzled at sold-out Edinburgh International Magic Festival shows and at the London headquarters of The Magic Circle.
Greg Poppleton 1920s singer and The Gentleman Magician Bruce Glen – Sorcery & Magic Show
Venue: Cellos Grand Dining Room, Castlereagh Boutique Hotel, 169 Castlereagh St City Time: 6.30pm arrival for 7.00 pm start Dress Code: 1920s Guys in ties, Girls in pearls Single Tickets: $150.00 per person + booking fee Inclusive of sparkling wine “moonshine” and canapés on arrival, 3-course dinner, entertainment, GST and Members’ Discount.
Table of 8 Deal: $1100.00 + booking fee (save $100) You get 8 single tickets + 2 complimentary bottles of Silverleaf Sparkling Wine
WE’RE MAKING AN IMPACT – *We have chosen Humanitix as our ticketing partner, contributing to creating a positive impact on the world. Humanitix is making a difference by reinvesting 100% of profits back into helping the world’s most disadvantaged children.
Spike Jones is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. He was a US drummer, percussionist and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells, hiccups, burps and outlandish and comedic vocals. He toured the United States and Canada as “The Musical Depreciation Revue”.
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 November) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
POTS, PANS & DRUMS
At the age of 11 Spike Jones got his first set of drums. As a teenager he played in bands that he formed himself. His first band was called Spike Jones and his Five Tacks. A railroad restaurant chef taught him how to use pots and pans, forks, knives and spoons as musical instruments. Jones frequently played in theater pit orchestras. In the 1930s, he joined the Victor Young orchestra and got many offers to appear on radio shows, including Al Jolson’s Lifebuoy Program, Burns and Allen and Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall.
From 1937 to 1942, Jones was the percussionist for the John Scott Trotter Orchestra,which played on Bing Crosby’s first recording of “White Christmas”.
He was part of a backing band for songwriter Cindy Walker during her early recording career with Decca Records and Standard Transcriptions. Her song “We’re Gonna Stomp Them City Slickers Down” provided the inspiration for the name of Jones’s future band.
PARODIES
Jones became bored playing the same music each night with the orchestras. Spike Jones found other like-minded musicians and they began playing parodies of standard songs for their own entertainment.
The musicians wanted their wives to share their enjoyment, so they recorded their weekly performances. One of the recordings made its way into the hands of an RCA Victor executive, who offered the musicians a recording contract.
One of the City Slickers’ early recordings for the label was a Del Porter arrangement of “Der Fuehrer’s Face”. The record’s success inspired Jones to become the band’s leader. He initially thought the popularity the record brought them would fade. However, audiences kept asking for more, so Jones started working on more comic arrangements.
RADIO
After appearing as the house band on The Bob Burns Show, Spike got his own radio show on NBC, The Chase and Sanborn Program, as Edgar Bergen’s summer replacement in 1945.
The guest list for Jones’s 1947–49 CBS program for Coca-Cola (originally The Spotlight Revue, retitled The Spike Jones Show for its final season) included Frankie Laine, Mel Torme, Peter Lorre, Don Ameche and Burl Ives.
Frank Sinatra appeared on the show in October 1948, and Lassie in May 1949. You’ll hear Lassie’s appearance on this week’s Phantom Dancer singing ‘El Barkio’.
In 1942, the Jones gang worked on numerous Soundies, musical shorts similar to later music videos which were shown on coin-operated projectors in small nightclubs, arcades, malt shops, and taverns.
The band appeared on camera under their own name in four Soundies.
TV & MOVIES
Jones saw the potential of television and filmed two half-hour pilot films, Foreign Legion and Wild Bill Hiccup, in the summer of 1950. Veteran comedy director Eddie Cline worked on both, but neither was successful.
The band fared much better on live television, where their spontaneous antics and crazy visual gags guaranteed the viewers a good time. Spike usually dressed in a suit with an enormous check pattern and was seen leaping around playing a washboard, cowbells, a suite of klaxons and foghorns, then xylophone, then shooting a pistol.
The band starred in variety shows, such as The Colgate Comedy Hour (1951, 1955) and their All Star Revue (1952) before being given his own slot by NBC, The Spike Jones Show, which aired early in 1954, and Club Oasis on NBC, in the summer of 1958; and by CBS, as The Spike Jones Show, in the summers of 1957, 1960, and 1961.
Spike Jones and his City Slickers also appeared on NBC’s The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford in the episode which aired on November 15, 1956.
In 1940, Spike Jones had an uncredited bandleading part in the Dead End Kids film Give Us Wings, appearing on camera for about four seconds.
As the band’s fame grew, Hollywood producers hired the Slickers as a specialty act for feature films, including Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Meet the People (1944), Bring on the Girls (1945), Breakfast in Hollywood (1946) and Variety Girl (1947). Jones was set to team with Abbott and Costello for a 1954 Universal Pictures comedy, but when Lou Costello withdrew for medical reasons, Universal replaced the comedy team with look-alikes Hugh O’Brian and Buddy Hackett, and promoted Jones to the leading role. The finished film, Fireman Save My Child, turned out to be Spike Jones’s only top-billed theatrical movie
Spike Jones is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. He was a US drummer, percussionist and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells, hiccups, burps and outlandish and comedic vocals. He toured the United States and Canada as “The Musical Depreciation Revue”.
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 7 June) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
POTS, PANS & DRUMS
At the age of 11 Spike Jones got his first set of drums. As a teenager he played in bands that he formed himself. His first band was called Spike Jones and his Five Tacks. A railroad restaurant chef taught him how to use pots and pans, forks, knives and spoons as musical instruments. Jones frequently played in theater pit orchestras. In the 1930s, he joined the Victor Young orchestra and got many offers to appear on radio shows, including Al Jolson‘s Lifebuoy Program, Burns and Allen and Bing Crosby‘s Kraft Music Hall.
He was part of a backing band for songwriter Cindy Walker during her early recording career with Decca Records and Standard Transcriptions. Her song “We’re Gonna Stomp Them City Slickers Down” provided the inspiration for the name of Jones’s future band.
PARODIES
Jones became bored playing the same music each night with the orchestras. Spike Jones found other like-minded musicians and they began playing parodies of standard songs for their own entertainment.
The musicians wanted their wives to share their enjoyment, so they recorded their weekly performances. One of the recordings made its way into the hands of an RCA Victor executive, who offered the musicians a recording contract.
One of the City Slickers’ early recordings for the label was a Del Porter arrangement of “Der Fuehrer’s Face“. The record’s success inspired Jones to become the band’s leader. He initially thought the popularity the record brought them would fade. However, audiences kept asking for more, so Jones started working on more comic arrangements.
The guest list for Jones’s 1947–49 CBS program for Coca-Cola (originally The Spotlight Revue, retitled The Spike Jones Show for its final season) included Frankie Laine, Mel Torme, Peter Lorre, Don Ameche and Burl Ives.
In 1942, the Jones gang worked on numerous Soundies, musical shorts similar to later music videos which were shown on coin-operated projectors in small nightclubs, arcades, malt shops, and taverns.
The band appeared on camera under their own name in four of the Soundies including “Pass the Biscuits, Mirandy”…
TV & MOVIES
Jones saw the potential of television and filmed two half-hour pilot films, Foreign Legion and Wild Bill Hiccup, in the summer of 1950. Veteran comedy director Eddie Cline worked on both, but neither was successful.
The band fared much better on live television, where their spontaneous antics and crazy visual gags guaranteed the viewers a good time. Spike usually dressed in a suit with an enormous check pattern and was seen leaping around playing a washboard, cowbells, a suite of klaxons and foghorns, then xylophone, then shooting a pistol.
The band starred in variety shows, such as The Colgate Comedy Hour (1951, 1955) and their All Star Revue (1952) before being given his own slot by NBC, The Spike Jones Show, which aired early in 1954, and Club Oasis on NBC, in the summer of 1958; and by CBS, as The Spike Jones Show, in the summers of 1957, 1960, and 1961.
In 1940, Spike Jones had an uncredited bandleading part in the Dead End Kids film Give Us Wings, appearing on camera for about four seconds.
As the band’s fame grew, Hollywood producers hired the Slickers as a specialty act for feature films, including Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Meet the People (1944), Bring on the Girls (1945), Breakfast in Hollywood (1946) and Variety Girl (1947). Jones was set to team with Abbott and Costello for a 1954 Universal Pictures comedy, but when Lou Costello withdrew for medical reasons, Universal replaced the comedy team with look-alikes Hugh O’Brian and Buddy Hackett, and promoted Jones to the leading role. The finished film, Fireman Save My Child, turned out to be Spike Jones’s only top-billed theatrical movie
7 JUNE PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #548
Lionel Hampton, this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Lionel Hampton was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996.
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 31 May) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
DRUMS
Lionel Hampton began his career playing drums for the Chicago Defender Newsboys’ Band (led by Major N. Clark Smith) while still a teenager in Chicago.
He moved to California in 1927 or 1928, playing drums for the Dixieland Blues-Blowers.
While he lived in Chicago, Hampton saw Louis Armstrong at the Vendome, remembering that the entire audience went crazy after his first solo.
He made his recording debut with The Quality Serenaders led by Paul Howard (which you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer), then left for Culver City and drummed for the Les Hite band at Sebastian’s Cotton Club.
One of his trademarks as a drummer was his ability to do stunts with multiple pairs of sticks such as twirling and juggling without missing a beat.
VIBRAPHONE
During this period, he began practicing on the vibraphone.
In 1930 Louis Armstrong came to California and hired the Les Hite band for performances and recordings. Armstrong was impressed with Hampton’s playing after Hampton reproduced Armstrong’s solo on the vibraphone and asked him to play behind him like that during vocal choruses.
So began his career as a vibraphonist, popularizing the use of the instrument in the process. Invented ten years earlier, the vibraphone is essentially a xylophone with metal bars, a sustain pedal, and resonators equipped with electric-powered fans that add tremolo.
While working with the Les Hite band, Hampton also occasionally did some performing with Nat Shilkret and his orchestra. During the early 1930s, he studied music at the University of Southern California. In 1934 he led his own orchestra, and then appeared in the Bing Crosby film Pennies From Heaven (1936) alongside Louis Armstrong (wearing a mask in a scene while playing drums).
In November 1936, the Benny Goodman Orchestra came to Los Angeles to play the Palomar Ballroom. When John Hammond brought Goodman to see Hampton perform, Goodman invited him to join his trio, which soon became the Benny Goodman Quartet with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa completing the lineup.
The Trio and Quartet (which you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer) were among the first racially integrated jazz groups to perform before audiences and were a leading small-group of the day.
ORCHESTRA
In 1940 Hampton left the Goodman organization under amicable circumstances to form his own big band which you’ll hear in this week’s Phantom Dancer from two 1944 airchecks.
Hampton’s orchestra developed a high-profile during the 1940s and early 1950s.
His third recording with them in 1942 produced the version of “Flying Home”, featuring a solo by Illinois Jacquet that anticipated rhythm & blues.
Hampton was a featured artist at numerous Cavalcade of Jazz concerts held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles and produced by Leon Hefflin Sr.
The sixth Cavalcade of Jazz, June 25, 1950, precipitated the closest thing to a riot in the show’s eventful history. Lionel and his band paraded around the ball park’s infield playing ‘Flying High’. The huge crowd, around 14,000 went berserk, tossed cushions, coats, hats, programs, and just about anything else they could lay hands on and swarmed on the field.
Around 1945 or 1946, he handed a pair of vibraphone mallets to then-five year old Roy Ayers. Roy Ayres, composer and vibraphonist was seminal in the development of ‘acid jazz’ and is the Godfather of Neo Soul.
CHARITY
Hampton was deeply involved in the construction of various public housing projects, and founded the Lionel Hampton Development Corporation. Construction began with the Lionel Hampton Houses in Harlem, New York, in the 1960s, with the help of then Republican governor Nelson Rockefeller.
Hampton’s wife, Gladys Hampton, also was involved in construction of a housing project in her name, the Gladys Hampton Houses. Gladys died in 1971. In the 1980s, Hampton built another housing project called Hampton Hills in Newark, New Jersey.
In this final clip from the late 1940s, note the fender bass…
31 MAY PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #547
Zelda, Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau, is a glossy annual published by the multi-talented US actor, cinematographer and stills photographer, Don Spiro.
If you’re a fan of what matters in Nouveau Vintage in the USA, then this magazine is for you. Even the ads for newly tailored vintage suits and cravats are a great resource for those of us worldwide who look sharp.
In this, the latest 2022 edition, the Zelda annual invites you to “enjoy a vintage cocktail, and listen to some old jazz while you page through the articles in this issue…”
WHAT’S IN THIS YEAR’S ZELDA
“We start with researcher and historian Garret Richard’s take on Trader Vic’s tropical tequila classic cocktail, El Diablo, followed by Eff’s Style Emporium’s review of the allure of that vintage summer fabric, Palm Beach Cloth.
We have interviews with Jazz-Age-style singer Greg Poppleton and New York burlesque star Dandy Dillinger.
We’ll catch up on the undertakings of Philadelphia bandleader, Drew Nugent and we’ll learn about the history of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.”
“We’ll learn from Queen Esther how influential accomplishments people of color have gone unacknowledged, and Mr. Burton will enlighten us about appreciating vintage style without vintage values.
We’ll introduce you to the sites of jazz age arts and culture in Atlanta, Georgia, and our Recipe Box feature about the U. S. Department Of Agriculture’s Circular 109 from 1918, “Cottage Cheese Dishes,” appropriately shows how to enjoy tasty recipes in hard times, and with social activities returning, we are thrilled to showcase various Jazz Age and Prohibition-era events that our readers have attended in On The Town.”
It’s an honour to be published in this year’s Zelda.
1920s 1930s Jazz Swing Songs by Greg Poppleton. Enjoy this 53 minute YouTube mix of 1920s – 1930s jazz swing songs. It’s mixed from six albums by Australian 1920s-30s singer, Greg Poppleton.
1920s – 1930s SONG MIX:
0:00 Tip Toe Through the Tulips
3:48 The Charleston (correct tempo, dancers!)
6:17 Sweet Sue
8:33 Carolina in the Morning
12:13 It’s Only a Paper Moon
14:34 My Gal Sal
17:39 San Antonio Rose
19:47 St James Infirmary
22:47 Singing the Bathtub
24:50 Love Me or Leave Me
28:50 Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
32:27 Exactly Like You
34:39 On The Sunny Side Of The Street
39:54 If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)
42:43 Ain’t She Sweet (Grahame Conlon ukulele)
45:15 Cakewalkin’ Babies From Home
47:46 St Louis Blues
1920s 1930s Jazz Swing Songs by Greg Poppleton Band:
Greg Poppleton: 1920s – 1930s singer
Paul Furniss: soprano, alto, tenor saxes and clarinet
Al Davey: trumpet and trombone
Bob Henderson: trumpet
Matt Baker: piano
Peter Locke: piano
Grahame Conlon: guitar and banjo
Geoff Power: sousaphone
Rod Herbert: sousaphone
Darcy Wright: double bass
Mark Harris: double bass
Dieter Vogt: double bass
Lawrie Thompson: drums and washboard
Joel Davis: drums
Ray Miller, popular 1920s band leader and trombonist, whose jazz band was the first to play at the White House (in 1924) is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. This is a ‘classic’ Phantom Dancer from May of this year. I won’t be in the studio due to a film commitment.
Check out this scholarly article about that first White House encounter with jazz which included Ray Miller and his Orchestra, Al Jolson and a host of New York City showbiz stars http://vjm.biz/white_house.pdf
The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV which I’ve had the plaesure of producing and presenting for you since 1985.
Miller followed the ODJB to New York City, where he formed a band, the Black and White Melody Boys, featuring himself on drums and New Orleans native Tom Brown on trombone. The band performed in vaudeville and featured in musical productions before disbanding.
Around 1920s, Miller formed a dance band. At different times, its members included Ward Archer (drums); Charlie Rocco (trumpet); Miff Mole (trombone); Danny Yates (violin); Roy Johnston (trumpet); Rube Bloom and Tommy Satterfield (piano); Louie Chasone (tuba); Frank Trumbauer, Andy Sannella, Billy Richards and Andy Sandolar (saxophones); and Frank O. Prima (banjo).
The orchestra recorded for Columbia and OKeh before signing an exclusive contract with Brunswick Records in late 1923.
MILLER
The Ray Miller Orchestra played more jazz-influenced music after Mole and Trumbauer joined in 1924. Late, in thart year, after performing for President Coolldge at the White House on 17 October, they recorded Irving Berlin‘s song “All Alone” with Al Jolson singing. The band had residencies at the New York Hippodrome and Arcadia Ballroom in New York City as well as in Atlantic City.
Their most successful recordings included “The Sheik of Araby” (OKeh, 1922), “I’ll See You In My Dreams” (Brunswick, 1925), and “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies” (Brunswick, 1930).
After Mole and Trumbauer left, Miller moved his base to the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1927, and performed regularly for the powerful radio stationWLW. He left Cincinnati and formed a new band in Chicago in 1928, which for a few months included trumpeter Muggsy Spanier and clarinetist Volly De Faut. Miller and his orchestra recorded regularly for Brunswick in Chicago until 1930.
On this week’s Phantom Dancer you’ll hear the Miller Band on radio transcriptions recorded to advertise Sunny Meadows washing machines recorded on five minute 78 rpm radio discs between December 1928 and February 1929.
His last Brunswick recording, ‘Kiss Me With Your Eyes’ with ‘When It’s Springtime in the Rockies’, was recorded in Chicago in March 1930.
He disbanded in 1930 afterwhich he disappeared from the record. It is guessed that he died in 1974.
You are cordially invited to a very special evening of magic and music – or as we like to call it: Sorcery & Swing.
For one night only the original, ornate 1920s vintage Cellos Grand Dining Room in the historic 1920s Castlereagh Boutique Hotel will be transformed into the Sydney Solstice Speakeasy for Sorcery and Swing.
Come dressed to the nines in your finest Roaring Twenties fashion (girls in pearls, guys in ties). There’s even a small dance floor to swing, Charleston and balboa to.
You will be greeted with close-up magic, champagne & canapés before being seated for a delicious three-course dinner.
My quartet and I will serenade you with 1920s music for dining and dancing throughout the evening. On sousaphone and trumpet will be Geoff Power, guitar and banjo Grahame Conlon and Damon Poppleton will play alto and soprano saxophone. My friend, Bruce Glen will be making the magic.
Bruce is known as The Gentleman Magician, “Charming and with impeccable manners…you’re almost unaware of the stunts he’s pulling off in front of you until they’ve actually happened,” Edinburgh International Magic Festival.
WHEN: 7:00PM Saturday 12th June
WHERE: The Castlereagh Boutique Hotel, 169 Castlereagh Street, Sydney
TICKETS: $125 includes welcome champagne and canapés, three course dinner, all entertainment. Cash bar available (but shhhh….this is the Prohibition Era).
Great Art Deco Ball 2020.Greg Poppleton’s and his 1920s-30s music has been playing the Great Art Deco Ball at Katoomba’s Carrington Hotel since 2012. It’s the highlight of the annual Blue Mountains 1920s Festival.
In that time, the Ball has grown in audience size so that the Grand Dining Room now is always full. Tickets sell out months in advance. That’s despite the fact that the only way to get a ticket is to be in the know and ring hotel reception.
The Grand Dining Room ready for the Great Art Deco Ball
The Ball has grown in large part because, as Australia’s only authentic 1920s-30s singer, people who book tickets to enjoy a 1920s experience at the Ball get exactly that.
The Grand Dining Room doors of The Carrington Hotel. Photo by Suzanne.
In 2019, the Carrington decided to book another band. There were so many complaints we were called back. It’s very humbling to receive such strong support from Great Art Deco Ball fans. So in 2020 the dance floor was full most of the night, the band gave two encores, and many happy guests continued enjoying the atmosphere in the Grand Dining Room one hour after the show had concluded.
1920s-30s singer Greg Poppleton and a full dance floor
It’s a lesson that if you want a successful 1920s-30s themed event, you book a 1920s-30s band. Jazz bands, DJs, covers band that do a bit of ‘jazz dinner music and then rock music for dancing’ are not appropriate for a 1920s, 30s, Gatsby event.
Greg Poppleton from the dance floor. Geoff Power is playing sousaphone.
I’ve played large 1920s themed events where other jazz bands and big bands, rock bands and DJs have played in other sections of the party. Either guests ask ‘why are they here?’ or they simply get angry. We get re-booked.
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 