Ted Fio Rito Cocoanut Grove 1934 – Phantom Dancer 13 September 2022

Ted Fio Rito, band leader, composer and pianist, under the radio pseudonym ‘Vincent Valsanti’, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist in a 1934 Cocoanut Grove radio transcription.

Since I’ve been playing radio transcriptions made in 1934 of ‘Valsanti’ from the Cocoanut Grove Los Angeles over the past three weeks, here’s a little about the Ted Fio Rito / Valsanti / Cocoanut Grove story along with videos from the era.

The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.

Enjoy a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 13 September at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

 

COCOANUT GROVE

The Cocoanut Grove at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel was a lavishly appointed club – part of the massive 23-acre Ambassador resort, which also included four restaurants, a bowling alley, a billiard room, a shopping plaza, and even a movie theater – decorated in Moroccan style and featured full-sized palm trees reportedly salvaged from Rudolph Valentino’s film “The Sheik.” In addition to the decor, which also offered a night sky filled with stars (thanks to about 1000 small light bulbs), an elevated stage, and both dining and dancing room for several hundred patrons, customers came for the smooth musical entertainment provided by a series of dance orchestras and popular vocalists – many of whom would later go on to star careers in radio, recordings, and the film industry.

In the 1980 book, “Are the Stars Out Tonight?”, former Ambassador PR Director, Margaret Tante Burk, recalls the Grove’s opening night:

“…on the night of April 21, 1921… the new club officially opened its Moroccan style, gold leaf and etched palm tree doors… The Cocoanut Grove was aptly named, guests agreed as they were escorted by the maître de and captains down the wide plush grand staircase… Overhead, soaring about the room were cocoanut trees of papier mache, cocoanuts and palm fronds which had been rescued from the sandy beaches of Oxnard where they had served as atmosphere of the 1921 classic, The Sheik. Swinging from their branches were stuffed monkeys blinking at the revelers with their electrified amber eyes. Stars twinkled in the blue ceiling sky, and on the southernmost wall hung a full Hawaiian moon presiding over a painted landscape and splashing waterfall.”

Ray West Orchestra in 1930…

Due to the foresight of Abe Frank, the manager of both the hotel and the Grove, in the mid-1920s the Ambassador had been equipped with a small radio studio, allowing the music of the various orchestras to be broadcast and enjoyed well outside the confines of the nightclub. From the late 1920s well into the 1960s, live “remote” programs broadcast from the Cocoanut Grove were a popular feature of nighttime radio, allowing millions of people to enjoy the music they would otherwise be unable to afford to hear in person. These broadcasts, aired live nightly for two full hours, only increased the reputation of the Grove as “the place to be” when it came to top notch West Coast entertainment.

From the beginning, the Cocoanut Grove’s glamorous atmosphere attracted the top names in Hollywood for dining, dancing, and mingling. This celebrity connection was always well-publicized by the Ambassador and for a very good reason, too: tourists coming to Los Angeles for a vacation wanted to see the stars and there was no place where the stars came out quite so regularly as the Ambassador Hotel. On an average evening, it was common to see such well-known celebrities as Joan Crawford, Jack Oakie, or Jean Harlow coming to see Bing Crosby or Russ Columbo sing with Gus Arnheim’s Orchestra or dance to Jimmie Grier’s band as they accompanied Loyce Whiteman, The Three Ambassadors (Martin Sperzel, Jack Smith, and Al Teeter), or popular tenor Donald Novis. Even though there was a nationwide depression, Hollywood stars and executives still needed to be entertained — and the Cocoanut Grove was often their first choice.

From 1930 to 1943, six Academy Awards ceremonies were hosted at the hotel. As many as seven U.S. presidents stayed at the Ambassador, from Hoover to Nixon, along with heads of state from around the world.

It was the place to be even in the 1960s…

In 1968, the Ambassador Hotel was the scene of the shooting of Bobby Kennedy.

Due to the decline of the hotel and the surrounding area, the Ambassador Hotel was closed to guests in 1989. In 2001, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) purchased the property with the intent of constructing three new schools within the area. After subsequent litigations to preserve the hotel as a historic site, a settlement allowed the Ambassador Hotel to be demolished in 2005.

VALSANTI

Ted Fio Rito used the pseudonym ‘Valsanti’ for these Cocoanut Grove transcriptions because of an existing recording contract.

Fio Rito was a pianist, hammond organist and the composer of such classic tunes as, “I Never Knew,” “Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye,” “Laugh, Clown, Laugh,” “Roll Along, Prairie Moon” and “Alone at a Table for Two.”

He started his career as a pianist with a series of bands led by Harry Yerkes, then moved to Chicago in 1921 to join Dan Russo’s band. The following year, he joined with Russo to become the co-leader the Oriole Terrace Orchestra, which he eventually took over when Russo departed in 1928.

Before coming to the Cocoanut Grove in mid-1933, Fio Rito had spent a number of years touring the East Coast and Midwest, including many engagements in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati. An early radio enthusiast, Fio Rito’s band was frequently heard on the air from various nightspots – preparing him well for the regular broadcasts scheduled to emanate from the Grove during his stay.

Musically, the orchestra that Fio Rito brought to the Grove was sweet, smooth and clever, playing highly danceable music accented with temple blocks, rapid triplets, and even an occasional solo on the Hammond organ by its talented leader.

Due to an existing recording contract, Theodore Salvatore Fiorito’s singers also adopted pseudonyms for these transcriptions. Muzzy Marcellino, Fio Rito’s guitarist and primary vocalist, sings as Jack Howard. Howard Phillips sings under the name of Bill Thomas, and Fio Rito’s vocal trio The Debutants appear as The Three Keys. 

Watch Ted Fio Rito from the Cocoanut Grove in this 1934 Paramount short ‘Star night atthe Cocoanut Grove’ also featuring Mary Pickford and Bing Crosby. You’ll hear the extreme high and low four octave voice of Jimmy Durante’s future comic foil Candy Candido in what is thought to be his earliest film performance….

 

 

13 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE   Community Radio Network Show CRN #563
107.3 2SER Tuesday 13 September 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 2RDJ Burwood Wednesday 12 – 1pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2RRR Ryde Friday 11am -12 noon 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Swing Bands One Night Stand Radio
Theme + Song of the Wanderer	Buddy Morrow Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Roseland Ballroom NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 1 Mar 1946
16:00 On The Clock	Shep Field and His New Music	‘One Night Stand’ Copacabana NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1944
Come Rain Come Shine + Close	Hal McIntyre Orchestra (voc) Frankie Lester	‘One Night Stand’ Century Room Hotel Commodore NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 15 May 1946
Set 2	1950s-60s Jazz Radio
Jazz Connoisseur	Harry James Orchestra (dms) Buddy Rich	Moonbowl Freedomland WNEW NYC 1962
The Theme	Miles Davis Sextet	‘Treasury of Music’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY AFRTS Re-broadcast 25 Aug 1959
Set 3	Benny Goodman in Chicago
Let’s Dance (theme) + Farewell Blues	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 20 Jan 1936
Soft Spring	Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Chicago 10 Aug 1941
King Porter Stomp + Goodbye (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Feb 1936
Set 4	Vincent Valsanti (Ted Fio Rito)
Serenade of Love (theme) + Flirtation Walk	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
When You’re in Love	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Two Cigarettes in the Dark	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Phil Thomas	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Were You Foolin’? + I’ll Take an Option on You + Serenade of Love (theme)	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard and The Three Blue Keys	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Set 5	1930s German Swing
Darf ich bitten?	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Sep 1936
Ja und nein	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Aug 1939
Aus lauter Liebe	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Peter Igelhoff	Comm Rec Berlin Jul 1937
Oh! Aha!	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Rudi Schuricke Terzett	Comm Rec Berlin Feb 1939
Set 6	Early Dorseys
Theme + On The Beach at Bali Bali	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 11 Aug 1936
Sandman (theme) + Is That Religion?	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Bob Crosby	Riviera Fort Lee NJ WEAF NBC Red NY 20 Sep 1934
Weary Blues	Eddy Howard Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 4 Aug 1936
Farewell Blues	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	‘Chrysler Show’ Radio Transcription 1934
Set 7	Sweet Music
Romance (theme) + We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye	Ray Herbeck Music with Romance Orchestra (voc) Lorraine Benson	Trianon Ballroom WGN Mutual Chicago 24 Nov 1947
For You	King Sisters	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Jun 1945
Sweet Lorraine	Frank Sinatra	‘Frank Sinatra Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Nov 1946
What is This Thing Called Love?	Paul Whiteman Orchestra (voc) Eugenie Baird	‘Forever Pops’ ABC Chicago 1947
Set 8	1930s Fats Waller
Yacht Club Swing (theme) + Whatcha Know, Joe?	Fats Waller	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Dec 1940
Pent Up in a Penthouse	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 14 Oct 1938
Sto Beating ‘Round The Mulberry Bush	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 16 Jul 1938
I Had To Do It	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 18 Oct 1938

Ted Fio Rito Cocoanut Grove 1934 – Phantom Dancer 24 May 2021

Ted Fio Rito, band leader, composer and pianist, under the radio pseudonym ‘Vincent Valsanti’, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist in a 1934 Cocoanut Grove radio transcription.

Since I’ve been playing radio transcriptions made in 1934 of ‘Valsanti’ from the Cocoanut Grove Los Angeles over the past three weeks, here’s a little about the Ted Fio Rito / Valsanti / Cocoanut Grove story along with videos from the era.

The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.

Enjoy a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 24 May at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

 

COCOANUT GROVE

The Cocoanut Grove at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel was a lavishly appointed club – part of the massive 23-acre Ambassador resort, which also included four restaurants, a bowling alley, a billiard room, a shopping plaza, and even a movie theater – decorated in Moroccan style and featured full-sized palm trees reportedly salvaged from Rudolph Valentino’s film “The Sheik.” In addition to the decor, which also offered a night sky filled with stars (thanks to about 1000 small light bulbs), an elevated stage, and both dining and dancing room for several hundred patrons, customers came for the smooth musical entertainment provided by a series of dance orchestras and popular vocalists – many of whom would later go on to star careers in radio, recordings, and the film industry.

In the 1980 book, “Are the Stars Out Tonight?”, former Ambassador PR Director, Margaret Tante Burk, recalls the Grove’s opening night:

“…on the night of April 21, 1921… the new club officially opened its Moroccan style, gold leaf and etched palm tree doors… The Cocoanut Grove was aptly named, guests agreed as they were escorted by the maître de and captains down the wide plush grand staircase… Overhead, soaring about the room were cocoanut trees of papier mache, cocoanuts and palm fronds which had been rescued from the sandy beaches of Oxnard where they had served as atmosphere of the 1921 classic, The Sheik. Swinging from their branches were stuffed monkeys blinking at the revelers with their electrified amber eyes. Stars twinkled in the blue ceiling sky, and on the southernmost wall hung a full Hawaiian moon presiding over a painted landscape and splashing waterfall.”

Ray West Orchestra in 1930…

Due to the foresight of Abe Frank, the manager of both the hotel and the Grove, in the mid-1920s the Ambassador had been equipped with a small radio studio, allowing the music of the various orchestras to be broadcast and enjoyed well outside the confines of the nightclub. From the late 1920s well into the 1960s, live “remote” programs broadcast from the Cocoanut Grove were a popular feature of nighttime radio, allowing millions of people to enjoy the music they would otherwise be unable to afford to hear in person. These broadcasts, aired live nightly for two full hours, only increased the reputation of the Grove as “the place to be” when it came to top notch West Coast entertainment.

From the beginning, the Cocoanut Grove’s glamorous atmosphere attracted the top names in Hollywood for dining, dancing, and mingling. This celebrity connection was always well-publicized by the Ambassador and for a very good reason, too: tourists coming to Los Angeles for a vacation wanted to see the stars and there was no place where the stars came out quite so regularly as the Ambassador Hotel. On an average evening, it was common to see such well-known celebrities as Joan Crawford, Jack Oakie, or Jean Harlow coming to see Bing Crosby or Russ Columbo sing with Gus Arnheim’s Orchestra or dance to Jimmie Grier’s band as they accompanied Loyce Whiteman, The Three Ambassadors (Martin Sperzel, Jack Smith, and Al Teeter), or popular tenor Donald Novis. Even though there was a nationwide depression, Hollywood stars and executives still needed to be entertained — and the Cocoanut Grove was often their first choice.

From 1930 to 1943, six Academy Awards ceremonies were hosted at the hotel. As many as seven U.S. presidents stayed at the Ambassador, from Hoover to Nixon, along with heads of state from around the world.

It was the place to be even in the 1960s…

In 1968, the Ambassador Hotel was the scene of the shooting of Bobby Kennedy.

Due to the decline of the hotel and the surrounding area, the Ambassador Hotel was closed to guests in 1989. In 2001, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) purchased the property with the intent of constructing three new schools within the area. After subsequent litigations to preserve the hotel as a historic site, a settlement allowed the Ambassador Hotel to be demolished in 2005.

VALSANTI

Ted Fio Rito used the pseudonym ‘Valsanti’ for these Cocoanut Grove transcriptions because of an existing recording contract.

Fio Rito was a pianist, hammond organist and the composer of such classic tunes as, “I Never Knew,” “Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye,” “Laugh, Clown, Laugh,” “Roll Along, Prairie Moon” and “Alone at a Table for Two.”

He started his career as a pianist with a series of bands led by Harry Yerkes, then moved to Chicago in 1921 to join Dan Russo’s band. The following year, he joined with Russo to become the co-leader the Oriole Terrace Orchestra, which he eventually took over when Russo departed in 1928.

Before coming to the Cocoanut Grove in mid-1933, Fio Rito had spent a number of years touring the East Coast and Midwest, including many engagements in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati. An early radio enthusiast, Fio Rito’s band was frequently heard on the air from various nightspots – preparing him well for the regular broadcasts scheduled to emanate from the Grove during his stay.

Musically, the orchestra that Fio Rito brought to the Grove was sweet, smooth and clever, playing highly danceable music accented with temple blocks, rapid triplets, and even an occasional solo on the Hammond organ by its talented leader.

Due to an existing recording contract, Theodore Salvatore Fiorito’s singers also adopted pseudonyms for these transcriptions. Muzzy Marcellino, Fio Rito’s guitarist and primary vocalist, sings as Jack Howard. Howard Phillips sings under the name of Bill Thomas, and Fio Rito’s vocal trio The Debutants appear as The Three Keys. 

Watch Ted Fio Rito from the Cocoanut Grove in this 1934 Paramount short ‘Star night atthe Cocoanut Grove’ also featuring Mary Pickford and Bing Crosby. You’ll hear the extreme high and low four octave voice of Jimmy Durante’s future comic foil Candy Candido in what is thought to be his earliest film performance….

 

 

24 MAY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #546
107.3 2SER Tuesday 24 May 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Swing Bands One Night Stand Radio
Theme + Song of the Wanderer	Buddy Morrow Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Roseland Ballroom NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 1 Mar 1946
16:00 On The Clock	Shep Field and His New Music	‘One Night Stand’ Copacabana NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1944
Come Rain Come Shine + Close	Hal McIntyre Orchestra (voc) Frankie Lester	‘One Night Stand’ Century Room Hotel Commodore NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 15 May 1946
Set 2	1950s-60s Jazz Radio
Jazz Connoisseur	Harry James Orchestra (dms) Buddy Rich	Moonbowl Freedomland WNEW NYC 1962
The Theme	Miles Davis Sextet	‘Treasury of Music’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY AFRTS Re-broadcast 25 Aug 1959
Set 3	Benny Goodman in Chicago
Let’s Dance (theme) + Farewell Blues	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 20 Jan 1936
Soft Spring	Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Chicago 10 Aug 1941
King Porter Stomp + Goodbye (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Feb 1936
Set 4	Vincent Valsanti (Ted Fio Rito)
Serenade of Love (theme) + Flirtation Walk	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
When You’re in Love	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Two Cigarettes in the Dark	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Phil Thomas	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Were You Foolin’? + I’ll Take an Option on You + Serenade of Love (theme)	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard and The Three Blue Keys	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Set 5	1930s German Swing
Darf ich bitten?	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Sep 1936
Ja und nein	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Aug 1939
Aus lauter Liebe	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Peter Igelhoff	Comm Rec Berlin Jul 1937
Oh! Aha!	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Rudi Schuricke Terzett	Comm Rec Berlin Feb 1939
Set 6	Early Dorseys
Theme + On The Beach at Bali Bali	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 11 Aug 1936
Sandman (theme) + Is That Religion?	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Bob Crosby	Riviera Fort Lee NJ WEAF NBC Red NY 20 Sep 1934
Weary Blues	Eddy Howard Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 4 Aug 1936
Farewell Blues	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	‘Chrysler Show’ Radio Transcription 1934
Set 7	Sweet Music
Romance (theme) + We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye	Ray Herbeck Music with Romance Orchestra (voc) Lorraine Benson	Trianon Ballroom WGN Mutual Chicago 24 Nov 1947
For You	King Sisters	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Jun 1945
Sweet Lorraine	Frank Sinatra	‘Frank Sinatra Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Nov 1946
What is This Thing Called Love?	Paul Whiteman Orchestra (voc) Eugenie Baird	‘Forever Pops’ ABC Chicago 1947
Set 8	1930s Fats Waller
Yacht Club Swing (theme) + Whatcha Know, Joe?	Fats Waller	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Dec 1940
Pent Up in a Penthouse	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 14 Oct 1938
Sto Beating ‘Round The Mulberry Bush	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 16 Jul 1938
I Had To Do It	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 18 Oct 1938

Rosemary Clooney Chain Smoking Singer – Phantom Dancer 1 March 2022

Rosemary Clooney was an American singer, actor and radio host. She’s this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist where you’ll hear her in radio broadcasts from the 1950s-60s. She’s also actor, George Clooney’s, aunt.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton. Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 1 March at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

ROSEMARY CLOONEY

It’s incredible that she had the beautiful voice that she had despite the heavy smoking that eventually made the end of her life painful before killing her.

From ‘More Than a Girl Singer’, American Association for Cancer Research,

“A long-time smoker, Clooney was hospitalized in 1996 with acute respiratory failure. At that time, her doctors advised her to quit smoking, but Clooney struggled with her addiction. “Mama called me from the hospital and asked me to bring her cigarettes,” Ferrer (one of her sons)  remembers. “It was so hard for her to stop, though she finally did.”

Toward the end of 2001, Clooney was on the road performing when she began to find it hard to breathe. By the time she arrived home in Beverly Hills a few days before Christmas, she was exhausted. “She could hardly get up the stairs,” says Ferrer. “After two steps, she would have to stop and rest.” Less than a month later, Clooney was diagnosed with stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer. She died six months later, on June 29, 2002, at her home in Beverly Hills with her family beside her. She was 74.”

TALENT SPOTTED

In 1945, Rosemary Clooney’s father went out one night with friends to celebrate the end of World War II. He never came back.

Clooney, 17, and her sister, 14, found themselves in a dire situation. They collected soft drink bottles and used what little money they had to buy lunch at school. The rent was overdue, the phone disconnected and the utilities about to be turned off when their luck changed. The teenagers, who had grown up performing at political rallies for their grandfather, the mayor of Maysville, won a singing competition at WLW Cincinnati, a local radio station. The station hired them for a regular late-night spot, with each sister earning $20 a week (almost US$290 in 2021 money).

They sing with Tony Pastor’s Orchestra, broadcasting and recording with the band until 1949 (as you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer mix).

In 1950–51, she was a regular on the radio and television versions of Songs For Sale on CBS. In 1951, her record of “Come On-a My House”, produced by Mitch Miller, became a hit. It was her first of many singles to hit the charts—despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. She recorded several duets with Marlene Dietrich and appeared in the early 1950s on Faye Emerson’s Wonderful Town series on CBS. Clooney also did several guest appearances on the Arthur Godfrey radio show.

HOLLYWOOD

In 1954, she starred with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen in the movie White Christmas…

Two years later she had her own half-hour syndicated television musical-variety show, The Rosemary Clooney Show. NBC re-launched the show in a prime time slot on 1957 as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney. It lasted one season. In the late 50s and early 1960s, Clooney often appeared with Bing Crosby on television and radio. You’ll hear an excerpt from a 20-minute CBS radio program they did Monday to Friday for years that aired before the midday news.

Clooney left Columbia Records in 1958, doing a number of recordings for MGM Records and then some for Coral Records. Finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. In 1964, she went to Reprise Records, and in 1965 to Dot Records.

1970s – 2000s

After a hiatus of 11 years due to pills, alcohol and depression, Clooney signed to United Artists Records in 1976 for two albums. From 1977, she recorded an album every year for the Concord Jazz record label until her death. She was also singing on other people’s albums in 70s and 80s

In 1995, Clooney guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama ER (starring her nephew, George Clooney); for her performance, she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

Here’s Rosemary Clooney on ‘What’s My Line’,

1 MARCH PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #534
107.3 2SER Tuesday 1 March 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	A Date With The Duke
Take The A-Train (theme) + Can’t You Read Between The Lines?	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Back Home Again in Indiana	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
The Wish I Wish	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Joya Sherill	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Cottontail	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Set 2	1950s Jazz Radio
Sugar Beat	Eliot Lawrence Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WOR Mutual NY 1951
At Sundown	Les Brown Orchestra	‘Treasury Bandstand’ Hershey Park Ballroom WLAN ABC Lancaster PA 1957
Give Me The Simple Life	Thelma Carpenter	‘Jazz Arts Concert’ WNBC NBC NY 4 Oct 1952
Set 3	Trad Jazz Radio
Bugle Call Rag	Red Nichols	Radio Transcription 1952
Open + South Rampart Street Parade	Preacher Rollo	‘Dixieland Club’ AFRS Re-broadcast 30 Apr 1952
Mama’s Gone, Goodbye + St Louis Blues	Kid Ory	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 5 Feb 1955
Set 4	Rosemany Clooney
‘S Wonderful	Rosemary & Betty Clooney (voc) Tony Pastor Orchestra	Aircheck New York City Sep 1948
Tenderly (theme) + You Make Me Feel So Young	Rosemary Clooney	‘The Rosemary Clooney Show’ KNX CBS LA 2 Nov 1954
Enchanted	Rosemary Clooney	‘Bing Crosby – Rosemary Clooney Show’ KNX CBS LA 20 Mar 1962
It’s a Most Unusual Day + Something to Remember You By	Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby	‘The Bing Crosby Show’ KNX CBS LA 22 Nov 1953
Set 5	1920s Comm Records
Sunday	Jean Goldkette Orchestra (voc) Keller Sisters	Comm Rec Camden NJ 15 Oct 1926
Delirium	Red and Miff’s Stompers	Comm Rec New York City 11 Feb 1927
Flamin’ Mamie	Coon-Sanders Nighthawks Orchestra (voc) Joe Sanders	Comm Rec Camden NJ 21 Dec 1925
Blue Melody Blues	Tiny Praham and his Musicians	Comm Rec Chicago 1 Feb 1929
Set 6	Henny Youngman
Love Thy Neighbour (film preview)	Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, Tommy Dorsey & more	Paramount Theatre WOR Mutual NY 17 Dec 1940
Set 7	Mid 1940s Swing Radio
Theme + Hamp’s Got a Duke	Lionel Hampton Orchestra	Casa Manana Culver City Ca KFI NBC LA 20 Jul 1947
Temptation	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Ginny Powell	Meadowbrook Gardens KECA ABC LA 10 Feb 1946
Santa Catalina	Raymond Scott Orchestra (voc) Dorothy Collins	Palace Hotel KQW CBS San Francisco 16 Sep 1947
Andy’s Blues	Count Basie Orchestra	Avadon Ballroom Aircheck Los Angeles 1946
Set 8	Women Radio Singers
Manhattan	Lee Wiley	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 1950
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen	Kay Starr (voc) Charlie Barnett Orchestra	‘For the Record’ WEAF NBC NY 11 Sep 1944
Robin Hood	Mildred Bailey	‘Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 12 Feb 1945
I Miss Your Kiss	Joya Sherill (voc) Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date with the Duke’ WJZ ABC NY 12 May 1945

Cocoanut Grove Radio 1934 – Phantom Dancer 4 January 2022

Ted Fio Rito, band leader, composer and pianist, under the radio pseudonym ‘Vincent Valsanti’, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist in a 1934 Cocoanut Grove radio transcription.

As it’s the holiday season and I’m taking a day off, this is a repeat of The Phantom Dancer broadcast 11 May 2021

The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.

Enjoy a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 4 Jan 2022 at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

 

COCOANUT GROVE

The Cocoanut Grove at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel was a lavishly appointed club – part of the massive 23-acre Ambassador resort, which also included four restaurants, a bowling alley, a billiard room, a shopping plaza, and even a movie theater – decorated in Moroccan style and featured full-sized palm trees reportedly salvaged from Rudolph Valentino’s film “The Sheik.” In addition to the decor, which also offered a night sky filled with stars (thanks to about 1000 small light bulbs), an elevated stage, and both dining and dancing room for several hundred patrons, customers came for the smooth musical entertainment provided by a series of dance orchestras and popular vocalists – many of whom would later go on to star careers in radio, recordings, and the film industry.

In the 1980 book, “Are the Stars Out Tonight?”, former Ambassador PR Director, Margaret Tante Burk, recalls the Grove’s opening night:

“…on the night of April 21, 1921… the new club officially opened its Moroccan style, gold leaf and etched palm tree doors… The Cocoanut Grove was aptly named, guests agreed as they were escorted by the maître de and captains down the wide plush grand staircase… Overhead, soaring about the room were cocoanut trees of papier mache, cocoanuts and palm fronds which had been rescued from the sandy beaches of Oxnard where they had served as atmosphere of the 1921 classic, The Sheik. Swinging from their branches were stuffed monkeys blinking at the revelers with their electrified amber eyes. Stars twinkled in the blue ceiling sky, and on the southernmost wall hung a full Hawaiian moon presiding over a painted landscape and splashing waterfall.”

Ray West Orchestra in 1930…

Due to the foresight of Abe Frank, the manager of both the hotel and the Grove, in the mid-1920s the Ambassador had been equipped with a small radio studio, allowing the music of the various orchestras to be broadcast and enjoyed well outside the confines of the nightclub. From the late 1920s well into the 1960s, live “remote” programs broadcast from the Cocoanut Grove were a popular feature of nighttime radio, allowing millions of people to enjoy the music they would otherwise be unable to afford to hear in person. These broadcasts, aired live nightly for two full hours, only increased the reputation of the Grove as “the place to be” when it came to top notch West Coast entertainment.

From the beginning, the Cocoanut Grove’s glamorous atmosphere attracted the top names in Hollywood for dining, dancing, and mingling. This celebrity connection was always well-publicized by the Ambassador and for a very good reason, too: tourists coming to Los Angeles for a vacation wanted to see the stars and there was no place where the stars came out quite so regularly as the Ambassador Hotel. On an average evening, it was common to see such well-known celebrities as Joan Crawford, Jack Oakie, or Jean Harlow coming to see Bing Crosby or Russ Columbo sing with Gus Arnheim’s Orchestra or dance to Jimmie Grier’s band as they accompanied Loyce Whiteman, The Three Ambassadors (Martin Sperzel, Jack Smith, and Al Teeter), or popular tenor Donald Novis. Even though there was a nationwide depression, Hollywood stars and executives still needed to be entertained — and the Cocoanut Grove was often their first choice.

From 1930 to 1943, six Academy Awards ceremonies were hosted at the hotel. As many as seven U.S. presidents stayed at the Ambassador, from Hoover to Nixon, along with heads of state from around the world.

It was the place to be seen even in the 1960s…

In 1968, the Ambassador Hotel was the scene of the shooting of Bobby Kennedy.

Due to the decline of the hotel and the surrounding area, the Ambassador Hotel was closed to guests in 1989. In 2001, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) purchased the property with the intent of constructing three new schools within the area. After subsequent litigations to preserve the hotel as a historic site, a settlement allowed the Ambassador Hotel to be demolished in 2005.

VALSANTI

Ted Fio Rito used the pseudonym ‘Valsanti’ for these Cocoanut Grove transcriptions because of an existing recording contract.

Fio Rito was a pianist, hammond organist and the composer of such classic tunes as, “I Never Knew,” “Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye,” “Laugh, Clown, Laugh,” “Roll Along, Prairie Moon” and “Alone at a Table for Two.”

He started his career as a pianist with a series of bands led by Harry Yerkes, then moved to Chicago in 1921 to join Dan Russo’s band. The following year, he joined with Russo to become the co-leader the Oriole Terrace Orchestra, which he eventually took over when Russo departed in 1928.

Before coming to the Cocoanut Grove in mid-1933, Fio Rito had spent a number of years touring the East Coast and Midwest, including many engagements in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati. An early radio enthusiast, Fio Rito’s band was frequently heard on the air from various nightspots – preparing him well for the regular broadcasts scheduled to emanate from the Grove during his stay.

Musically, the orchestra that Fio Rito brought to the Grove was sweet, smooth and clever, playing highly danceable music accented with temple blocks, rapid triplets, and even an occasional solo on the Hammond organ by its talented leader.

Due to an existing recording contract, Theodore Salvatore Fiorito’s singers also adopted pseudonyms for these transcriptions. Muzzy Marcellino, Fio Rito’s guitarist and primary vocalist, sings as Jack Howard. Howard Phillips sings under the name of Bill Thomas, and Fio Rito’s vocal trio The Debutants appear as The Three Keys. 

Watch Ted Fio Rito from the Cocoanut Grove in this 1934 Paramount short ‘Star night atthe Cocoanut Grove’ also featuring Mary Pickford and Bing Crosby. You’ll hear the extreme high and low four octave voice of Jimmy Durante’s future comic foil Candy Candido in what is thought to be his earliest film performance….

 

 

4 JANUARY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE   Community Radio Network Show CRN #525
107.3 2SER Tuesday 4 JANUARY 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am, Sunday 11 – 11:56pm 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am, Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Swing Bands One Night Stand Radio
Theme + Song of the Wanderer	Buddy Morrow Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Roseland Ballroom NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 1 Mar 1946
16:00 On The Clock	Shep Field and His New Music	‘One Night Stand’ Copacabana NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1944
Come Rain Come Shine + Close	Hal McIntyre Orchestra (voc) Frankie Lester	‘One Night Stand’ Century Room Hotel Commodore NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 15 May 1946
Set 2	1950s-60s Jazz Radio
Jazz Connoisseur	Harry James Orchestra (dms) Buddy Rich	Moonbowl Freedomland WNEW NYC 1962
The Theme	Miles Davis Sextet	‘Treasury of Music’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY AFRTS Re-broadcast 25 Aug 1959
Set 3	Benny Goodman in Chicago
Let’s Dance (theme) + Farewell Blues	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 20 Jan 1936
Soft Spring	Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Chicago 10 Aug 1941
King Porter Stomp + Goodbye (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Feb 1936
Set 4	Vincent Valsanti (Ted Fio Rito)
Serenade of Love (theme) + Flirtation Walk	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
When You’re in Love	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Two Cigarettes in the Dark	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Phil Thomas	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Were You Foolin’? + I’ll Take an Option on You + Serenade of Love (theme)	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard and The Three Blue Keys	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Set 5	1930s German Swing
Darf ich bitten?	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Sep 1936
Ja und nein	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Aug 1939
Aus lauter Liebe	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Peter Igelhoff	Comm Rec Berlin Jul 1937
Oh! Aha!	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Rudi Schuricke Terzett	Comm Rec Berlin Feb 1939
Set 6	Early Dorseys
Theme + On The Beach at Bali Bali	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 11 Aug 1936
Sandman (theme) + Is That Religion?	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Bob Crosby	Riviera Fort Lee NJ WEAF NBC Red NY 20 Sep 1934
Weary Blues	Eddy Howard Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 4 Aug 1936
Farewell Blues	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	‘Chrysler Show’ Radio Transcription 1934
Set 7	Sweet Music
Romance (theme) + We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye	Ray Herbeck Music with Romance Orchestra (voc) Lorraine Benson	Trianon Ballroom WGN Mutual Chicago 24 Nov 1947
For You	King Sisters	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Jun 1945
Sweet Lorraine	Frank Sinatra	‘Frank Sinatra Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Nov 1946
What is This Thing Called Love?	Paul Whiteman Orchestra (voc) Eugenie Baird	‘Forever Pops’ ABC Chicago 1947
Set 8	1930s Fats Waller
Yacht Club Swing (theme) + Whatcha Know, Joe?	Fats Waller	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Dec 1940
Pent Up in a Penthouse	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 14 Oct 1938
Sto Beating ‘Round The Mulberry Bush	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 16 Jul 1938
I Had To Do It	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 18 Oct 1938

Rosemary Clooney Chain Smoking Singer – Phantom Dancer 27 July 2021

Rosemary Clooney was an American singer, actor and radio host. She’s this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist where you’ll hear her in radio broadcasts from the 1950s-60s. She’s also actor, George Clooney’s, aunt. Because of the current Covid lockdown in Sydney, this is a repeat of the 2 Feb 2021 show. Enjoy!

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton. Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 27 July at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

ROSEMARY CLOONEY

It’s incredible that she had the beautiful voice that she had despite the heavy smoking that eventually made the end of her life painful before killing her.

From ‘More Than a Girl Singer’, American Association for Cancer Research,

“A long-time smoker, Clooney was hospitalized in 1996 with acute respiratory failure. At that time, her doctors advised her to quit smoking, but Clooney struggled with her addiction. “Mama called me from the hospital and asked me to bring her cigarettes,” Ferrer (one of her sons)  remembers. “It was so hard for her to stop, though she finally did.”

Toward the end of 2001, Clooney was on the road performing when she began to find it hard to breathe. By the time she arrived home in Beverly Hills a few days before Christmas, she was exhausted. “She could hardly get up the stairs,” says Ferrer. “After two steps, she would have to stop and rest.” Less than a month later, Clooney was diagnosed with stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer. She died six months later, on June 29, 2002, at her home in Beverly Hills with her family beside her. She was 74.”

TALENT SPOTTED

In 1945, Rosemary Clooney’s father went out one night with friends to celebrate the end of World War II. He never came back.

Clooney, 17, and her sister, 14, found themselves in a dire situation. They collected soft drink bottles and used what little money they had to buy lunch at school. The rent was overdue, the phone disconnected and the utilities about to be turned off when their luck changed. The teenagers, who had grown up performing at political rallies for their grandfather, the mayor of Maysville, won a singing competition at WLW Cincinnati, a local radio station. The station hired them for a regular late-night spot, with each sister earning $20 a week (almost US$290 in 2021 money).

They sing with Tony Pastor’s Orchestra, broadcasting and recording with the band until 1949 (as you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer mix).

In 1950–51, she was a regular on the radio and television versions of Songs For Sale on CBS. In 1951, her record of “Come On-a My House”, produced by Mitch Miller, became a hit. It was her first of many singles to hit the charts—despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. She recorded several duets with Marlene Dietrich and appeared in the early 1950s on Faye Emerson’s Wonderful Town series on CBS. Clooney also did several guest appearances on the Arthur Godfrey radio show.

HOLLYWOOD

In 1954, she starred with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen in the movie White Christmas…

Two years later she had her own half-hour syndicated television musical-variety show, The Rosemary Clooney Show. NBC re-launched the show in a prime time slot on 1957 as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney. It lasted one season. In the late 50s and early 1960s, Clooney often appeared with Bing Crosby on television and radio. You’ll hear an excerpt from a 20-minute CBS radio program they did Monday to Friday for years that aired before the midday news.

Clooney left Columbia Records in 1958, doing a number of recordings for MGM Records and then some for Coral Records. Finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. In 1964, she went to Reprise Records, and in 1965 to Dot Records.

1970s – 2000s

After a hiatus of 11 years due to pills, alcohol and depression, Clooney signed to United Artists Records in 1976 for two albums. From 1977, she recorded an album every year for the Concord Jazz record label until her death. She was also singing on other people’s albums in 70s and 80s

In 1995, Clooney guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama ER (starring her nephew, George Clooney); for her performance, she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

Here’s Rosemary Clooney on ‘What’s My Line’,

27 JULY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #502
107.3 2SER Tuesday 27 July 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 4RPH Brisbane Sunday 3 – 4am 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	A Date With The Duke
Take The A-Train (theme) + Can’t You Read Between The Lines?	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Back Home Again in Indiana	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
The Wish I Wish	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Joya Sherill	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Cottontail	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Set 2	1950s Jazz Radio
Sugar Beat	Eliot Lawrence Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WOR Mutual NY 1951
At Sundown	Les Brown Orchestra	‘Treasury Bandstand’ Hershey Park Ballroom WLAN ABC Lancaster PA 1957
Give Me The Simple Life	Thelma Carpenter	‘Jazz Arts Concert’ WNBC NBC NY 4 Oct 1952
Set 3	Trad Jazz Radio
Bugle Call Rag	Red Nichols	Radio Transcription 1952
Open + South Rampart Street Parade	Preacher Rollo	‘Dixieland Club’ AFRS Re-broadcast 30 Apr 1952
Mama’s Gone, Goodbye + St Louis Blues	Kid Ory	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 5 Feb 1955
Set 4	Rosemany Clooney
‘S Wonderful	Rosemary & Betty Clooney (voc) Tony Pastor Orchestra	Aircheck New York City Sep 1948
Tenderly (theme) + You Make Me Feel So Young	Rosemary Clooney	‘The Rosemary Clooney Show’ KNX CBS LA 2 Nov 1954
Enchanted	Rosemary Clooney	‘Bing Crosby – Rosemary Clooney Show’ KNX CBS LA 20 Mar 1962
It’s a Most Unusual Day + Something to Remember You By	Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby	‘The Bing Crosby Show’ KNX CBS LA 22 Nov 1953
Set 5	1920s Comm Records
Sunday	Jean Goldkette Orchestra (voc) Keller Sisters	Comm Rec Camden NJ 15 Oct 1926
Delirium	Red and Miff’s Stompers	Comm Rec New York City 11 Feb 1927
Flamin’ Mamie	Coon-Sanders Nighthawks Orchestra (voc) Joe Sanders	Comm Rec Camden NJ 21 Dec 1925
Blue Melody Blues	Tiny Praham and his Musicians	Comm Rec Chicago 1 Feb 1929
Set 6	Buddy Rich
Love Thy Neighbour (film preview)	Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, Tommy Dorsey & more	Paramount Theatre WOR Mutual NY 17 Dec 1940
Set 7	Mid 1940s Swing Radio
Theme + Hamp’s Got a Duke	Lionel Hampton Orchestra	Casa Manana Culver City Ca KFI NBC LA 20 Jul 1947
Temptation	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Ginny Powell	Meadowbrook Gardens KECA ABC LA 10 Feb 1946
Santa Catalina	Raymond Scott Orchestra (voc) Dorothy Collins	Palace Hotel KQW CBS San Francisco 16 Sep 1947
Andy’s Blues	Count Basie Orchestra	Avadon Ballroom Aircheck Los Angeles 1946
Set 8	Women Radio Singers
Manhattan	Lee Wiley	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 1950
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen	Kay Starr (voc) Charlie Barnett Orchestra	‘For the Record’ WEAF NBC NY 11 Sep 1944
Robin Hood	Mildred Bailey	‘Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 12 Feb 1945
I Miss Your Kiss	Joya Sherill (voc) Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date with the Duke’ WJZ ABC NY 12 May 1945

Edmundo Ros Rumba King – Phantom Dancer 1 June 2021

Edmundo Ros, Rumba King was a Trinidadian-Venezuelan musician, vocalist, arranger and bandleader who became a household name in Britain. He led a highly popular Latin American orchestra, made over 800 records, and owned one of London’s leading nightclubs.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted presented by myself, Greg Poppleton.

There’s a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now for you to enjoy at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This Phantom Dancer mix will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 1 June, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

EDMUNDO 

Edmund William Ross was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad.His mother Luisa Urquart was a Venezuelan teacher, thought to be descended from indigenous Caribs. His father, William Hope-Ross, was of Scottish and black descent. 

Ros began his musical career in the Venezuelan army. He was timpanist in the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the Caracas Martial Band.

He moved to London in 1937 on a Venezuelan Government scholarship to study harmony, composition and orchestration at the Royal Academy of Music. At the same time he was the vocalist and percussionist in Don Marino Baretto’s band at the Embassy Club.

He recorded several sides as a sideman to Fats Waller, who was visiting London in 1938.

His five-piece Rumba Band was a runaway hit, playing for high society and international royalty. His music was so popular that then-Princess Elizabeth had her first public dance to the sound of Ros’ band in the 1940s. As queen, she would award him the Order of the British Empire for his services to entertainment.

Ros was effectively London’s “ambassador for Latin American music,” his son Douglas told the Associated Press.

The prolific artist made more than 800 recordings over the course of his career. His 1949 number, “The Wedding Samba,” sold 3 million copies.

His band was a fixture at Regent Street’s Coconut Grove club, which he bought in 1951 and counted Britain’s Princess Margaret, Monaco’s Prince Rainier and Sweden’s Prince Bertil among its regulars.

The club’s demanding standards — ladies wearing broad-brimmed hats or trousers were denied admittance — kept the clientele exclusive through the 1950s, but the relaxation of Britain’s gambling laws in the 1960s began to hit his takings.

Ros sold the club and later retired to the Spanish resort city of Alicante.

ROS

In August 1940, Ros formed his own orchestra, performing as Edmundo Ros and His Rumba Band in the style of Lecuona Cuban Boys. Hee cut his first tracks with Parlophone in 1941, the first number being “Los Hijos de Buda”. 

Ros’s bands were always based in London nightclubs or restaurants. The first was the Cosmo Club in Wardour Street; then followed the St Regis Hotel, Cork Street, the Coconut Grove and the Bagatelle Restaurant, that opened the doors for Ros and high society. All the leaders of Allied Countries in World War II and the Royal Family came there to dine and listen to Edmundo’s Rumba Band. At the Bagatelle a visit from Princess Elizabeth and party made his name. The future queen danced in public for the first time to Edmundo’s music. By then, with his gently rhythmic style and engaging vocals, he was enormously popular with the public generally, and his orchestra was often invited to play at Buckingham Palace.

By 1946 Ros owned a club, a dance school, a record company and an artistes’ agency. His band grew to 16 musicians and was renamed Edmundo Ros and His Orchestra.

His 1949 hit, “The Wedding Samba“, sold three million 78s. His album Rhythms of The South (1958) sold a million copies. He was with Decca Records from 1944 to 1974, and altogether he made more than 800 recordings.

In 1951 Ros bought the “Coconut Grove” on Regent Street and in 1964 renamed it “Edmundo Ros’s Dinner and Supper Club”. The club became popular for ts atmosphere and music, but it closed in 1965, when legalised casino gambling had drawn away many of its best customers. During the 1950s and 1960s the Ros orchestra appeared frequently on BBC Radio, continuing into the early 1970s on Radio Two Ballroom.

In 1975, during Ros’s seventh tour of Japan, his band’s Musicians’ Union shop steward tried to usurp Ros’s authority by making arrangements with venues behind his back. Upon their return to the UK Ros organised a celebratory dinner after a BBC recording session and announced the disbanding of the orchestra. He destroyed almost all the band charts which conclusively ended the orchestra’s existence.

In 1994, Edmundo conducted and sang with the BBC Big Band with Strings at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The other conductor was Stanley Black.^[3] The concert was broadcast over BBC Radio 2 .

HONOURS

Ros was initiated into the exclusive entertainment fraternity, the Grand Order of Water Rats on October 4, 1964. A year and a half later he was made a Freeman of the City of London, having been admitted to the Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Poulters on 5 January 1965 and subsequently clothed with the Livery of the Poulters’ Company on 22 June 1965. He was a Freemason, initiated into the Chelsea Lodge No 3098 and a Founder Member and Worshipful Master of Lodge of Ascension No 7358; on retirement a member of Sprig of Acacia Lodge No 41, Javea, Spain.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1991. He normally was nicknamed by fans and journalists as the King of Latin Music.

In the 2000 New Year Honours, Ros (then aged 90), was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in ceremony at Buckingham Palace. He turned 100 on 7 December 2010.

1 JUNE PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #493
107.3 2SER Tuesday 1 JUNE 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	1950s One Night Stand Radio
Because of You	Blue Barron Orchestra (voc) Betty Clark	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 20 Nov 1951
Dancing Tambourine	Ralph Flanagan Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Sep 1950
Hello Young Lovers + Close	Art Wayner Orchestra (voc) Ginny Powell	‘One Night Stand’ The Latin Quarter NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 31 Jul 1951
Set 2	1930s Women Jazz Singers
Good For You Bad For Me	Boswell Sisters	Continental Broadcasting System Transcription Hollywood 1930
Solitude	Dodge Orchestra (voc) Kay Thompson	‘The Dodge Show’ Radio Transcription 22 Jan 1936
Odds and Ends / Among My Souvenirs + Theme (I Wanna Be Loved)	Johnny Green Orchestra (voc) Ruth Etting	‘The Oldsmobile Program’ WABC CBS NYC 6 Mar 1934
Set 3	1920s Commercial Sides
Florida Rhythm	Ross Deluxe Syncopators (voc) Frank Houston	Comm Rec Savannah Ga 22 Aug 1927
Hello, Lola!	Mound City Blues Blowers	Comm Rec NYC 14 Nov 1929
In Dat Morning	Jimmie Lunceford and his Chickasaw Syncopators	Comm Rec Memphis 6 Jun 1930
Set 4	Edmundo Ros
Theme + 34A Samba	Edmundo Ros and his Rumba Band	‘Variety Bandbox’ Camberwell Palace London BBC 1950
Zinga -Zinga-Zinga-Boom + Theme	Edmundo Ros and his Rumba Band (voc) Edmundo Ros + Band	‘Variety Bandbox’ Camberwell Palace London BBC 1950
Brazilian Nuts	Edmundo Ros Orchestra	BBC London 1969
Brazil + The Coffee Song + Cuban Love Song (theme)	Edmundo Ros Orchestra (voc) Edmundo Ros	BBC London 1969
Set 5	1940s Radio Swing Bands
Theme + Jeep Rhythm	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Jefferson Barracks Missouri Mutual Network 23 Nov 1945
Diggin’ Dyke	International Sweethearts of Rhythm	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Jan 1945
Lazy River	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Spotlight Bands’ Dallas Tx Blue Network 17 Aug 1943
Keep the Home Fires Burning + Close	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘For The Record’ WEAF NBC NYC 11 Sep 1944
Set 6	Women Dance Band Singers
Somebody Loves Me	Peggy Lee	‘Peggy Lee Show’ Aircheck 1947
Long Ago and Far Away	Doris Day	Cafe Rougr Hotel Pennsylvania WABC CBS NY 7 Jul 1944
It Had To Be You	Peggy Mann	‘For The Record’ WEAF NBC NYC 7 Aug 1944
Just a-Sittin’ and a-Rockin’	June Christy	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 27 Nov 1945
Set 7	1935 Dance Bands
Theme + Isn’t Love the Grandest Thing?	Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians (voc) Trio	‘Esso Boulevarde’ WABC CBS NY 7 Oct 1935
Theme + Way Down Yonder in New Orleans	Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 12 Dec 1935
Hot Lips (theme) + Jada	Henry Busse Orchestra	Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1935
What a Little Moonlight Can Do	Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Helen Ward	Palomar Ballroom KFI NBC Red LA 22 Aug 1935
Set 8	Modern Jazz on Radio
Confirmation	Ben Webster	Aircheck 1962
How High The Moon	Lester Young (voc) Ella Fitzgerald	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NY 27 Nov 1948

Louis Prima The Re-Inventor – Phantom Dancer 25 May 2021

Louis Prima, band leader, composer and trumpeter is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. Prima, the re-inventor, formed a seven-piece New Orleans-style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band group in the 1940s, helped popularise jump blues in the late 1940s and was a Vegas lounge act in the 1950s. In the 1960s, his music included early R&B and rock ‘n’ roll, boogie-woogie, and Italian folk music.

Every week I bring you, The Phantom Dancer. It’s your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted.

There’s a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now for you to enjoy at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This Phantom Dancer mix will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 25 May, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

 

LOUIS

Louis Leo Prima formed his first band in 1924 with his childhood home of New Orleans with his friends “Candy” Candido (bass), Irving Fazola (clarinet) and Johnny Viviano (drums). He played in his high school band, after which he gigged around New Orleans before heading to New York City.

While performing at Club Shim Sham in NYC in 1934, Prima met Guy Lombardo who would become an earlier booster for Prima’s career.

In received enough attention in New York that he made some records for Brunswick in September 1934 with his New Orleans Gang.

His band included Pee Wee Russell on clarinet and in May 1935, Prima and Russell had a juke box hit with, “The Lady in Red”. He was a guest on Rudy Vallee’s network radio show, “The Fleischman Hour” and in March 1936, Prima recorded “Sing Sing Sing“, a swing anthem after it was later recorded by Benny Goodman.

PRIMA

With the help of Guy Lombardo, Prima introduced his new bg swing band at the Blackhawk in Chicago in October 1936. The new format was unsuccessful.

So, the next year, Prima reformed his smaller group and returned to the Famous Door in New York. He also appeared at Billy Rose‘s Casa Mañana club in May 1938. He earned nearly a quarter million dollars throughout seven weeks at Casa Mañana.

In 1939 first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt formally invited Prima to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday celebration. He appeared in photographs with the President which boosted his publicity. Deemed unfit for military service in World War II because of a knee injury, by the mid-1940s, Prima was experiencing great success. 

He had several big hits in the summer of 1945, including “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time” and “Bell-Bottom Trousers”.

By 1947, the popularity of big band music was waning and Prima was playing more jazzy versions of his music.

While fans knew Prima as a genial and patient celebrity: he always signed autographs or posed for pictures with a smile. To the record companies and big corporations, however, Prima showed little deference, and he was uncompromising in seeking maximum compensation for his work.

KEELY SMITH

Keely Smith, has most famous singer, was 20 when she met Prima in August 1948 at a gig at the Surf Club in Virginia Beach. Prima was looking for a new female vocalist and after a try-out her hired her. During Keely’s time, and to suit her voice, Prima, went rock ‘n’ roll.

In 1954 Prima was offered a stay at The Sahara in Las Vegas to open his new act with Keely Smith. He enlisted New Orleans saxophonist Sam Butera and his backing musicians, “The Witnesses”, performing regularly in Las Vegas for the rest of the decade.

Keely received a Grammy in 1958, and was Billboard and Variety’s number one female vocalist award in 1958–59, and the Playboy Jazz Award in 1959.  Prima and Keely recorded “That Old Black Magic“, which was a Top 40 hit for two months and won a Grammy.

In January 1961, Prima was invited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the inaugural gala for President John F. Kennedy; the two played “Old Black Magic” together. 

GIA MAIONE

Married and then divorced from Keely, he replaced Keely in 1962 with Gia Maione, a waitress who was 21 years old. He did his best to make her famous by producing her first album “This Is … Gia.”  They married and had a daughter, Lena, later a New Orleans-based singer and and a son, Louis Prima Jr., the last of his six children.

In 1967, Prima landed a role in Walt Disney‘s animated feature The Jungle Book, as the raucous orangutan King Louie. He performed the hit song “I Wanna Be like You” on the soundtrack, leading to the recording of two albums with Phil Harris: The Jungle Book and More Jungle Book, and covering MC duties and singing the theme song “Winnie the Pooh”, for the 1967 album entitled Happy Birthday Winnie the Pooh, all of these on Disneyland Records. He can be heard on the soundtrack of another cartoon feature, The Man Called Flintstone. One of Prima’s final television appearances was as a “mystery guest” on What’s My Line? in 1970.

25 MAY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE   Community Radio Network Show CRN #492
107.3 2SER Tuesday 25 MAY 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	1950 One Night Stand Radio
Theme + All My Love	Guy Lombardo Orchestra (voc) Bill Flanagan	‘One Night Stand’ Grill Room Hotel Roosevelt NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Oct 1950
Melody of the Breeze	Ralph Flanagan Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Sep 1950
Sposin’ + Sentimental Journey	Ray Anthony Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 12 Dec 1950
Set 2	Chamber Music Society
Opinion	Prof. Chotzinoff (Samuel Chotzinoff, music critic of the New York World, conceded in 1924 that Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue had “made an honest woman out of jazz.”)	‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941
George Blues	Henry Levine Orch. (tb) Miff Mole arr. Red Bone	‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941
Swing Low Sweet Chariot	Diane Courtney	‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941
Solveig’s Song (Grieg) + Close	Burt Shaefta	‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941
Set 3	This is Jazz
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (theme) + Sweet Georgia Brown	Muggsy Spanier	This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 5 Apr 1947
When The Saints Go Marching In + 2:19 Blues	Louis Armstrong	This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 5 Apr 1947
When The Saints Go Marching In + Close	Muggsy Spanier	This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 12 Apr 1947
Set 4	Louis Prima
Theme + St Louis Blues	Louis Prima Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Terrace Room Newark NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 6 Jan 1945
You’ve Got Me Crying Again	Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) Sandy Bishop	‘One Night Stand’ Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca. AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Jul 1946
Don’t Ever Change	Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) Lily Ann Carol	‘Spotlight Bands’ Mitchell Field NY WJZ Blue Network 15 Jan 1945
Should I? + Close	Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) Louis Prima	Hickory House NYC WJSV CBS Washington DC 22 Sep 1939
Set 5	1933-34 Radio Transcriptions
Maniacs Ball	Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra	Radio Transcription 1934
Forty Second Street	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	Radio Transcription 1933
Loveless Love	Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra	Radio Transcription 1934
Love Is The Sweetest Thing	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	Radio Transcription 1933
Set 6	Blackhawk Bands
Theme + Boogie Woogie Maxixe	Bob Crosby Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 29 Apr 1940
Poor Girl	Ozzie Nelson Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 24 Mar 1940
Reminiscing Time	Bob Crosby Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 29 Apr 1940
Flying Home + Theme	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WMAQ NBC Chicago 13 Aug 1952
Set 7	Esquire Jazz
Tea for Two + Close	Roy Eldridge	First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House WJZ Blue NYC 18 Jan 1944
Back o’ Town	Roy Eldridge	First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House 18 Jan 1944
Muskrat Ramble	Roy Eldridge	First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House 18 Jan 1944
Buck Jumpin’	Roy Eldridge	First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House 18 Jan 1944
Set 8	1950s-60s Pop Jazz
After You’ve Gone	Roy Eldridge	‘Tonight Show’ WRCA TV NBC NY 21 Jul 1956
Every Tub	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Stars in Jazz’ Birdland WNBC NBC NY 14 Jan 1953
Hello Dolly	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964
Tangerine	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Birdland WCBS CBS NY Jun 1956

Ted Fio Rito Cocoanut Grove 1934 – Phantom Dancer 11 May 2021

Ted Fio Rito, band leader, composer and pianist, under the radio pseudonym ‘Vincent Valsanti’, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist in a 1934 Cocoanut Grove radio transcription.

Since I’ve been playing radio transcriptions made in 1934 of ‘Valsanti’ from the Cocoanut Grove Los Angeles over the past three weeks, here’s a little about the Ted Fio Rito / Valsanti / Cocoanut Grove story along with videos from the era.

The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.

Enjoy a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 11 May at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

COCOANUT GROVE

The Cocoanut Grove at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel was a lavishly appointed club – part of the massive 23-acre Ambassador resort, which also included four restaurants, a bowling alley, a billiard room, a shopping plaza, and even a movie theater – decorated in Moroccan style and featured full-sized palm trees reportedly salvaged from Rudolph Valentino’s film “The Sheik.” In addition to the decor, which also offered a night sky filled with stars (thanks to about 1000 small light bulbs), an elevated stage, and both dining and dancing room for several hundred patrons, customers came for the smooth musical entertainment provided by a series of dance orchestras and popular vocalists – many of whom would later go on to star careers in radio, recordings, and the film industry.

In the 1980 book, “Are the Stars Out Tonight?”, former Ambassador PR Director, Margaret Tante Burk, recalls the Grove’s opening night:

“…on the night of April 21, 1921… the new club officially opened its Moroccan style, gold leaf and etched palm tree doors… The Cocoanut Grove was aptly named, guests agreed as they were escorted by the maître de and captains down the wide plush grand staircase… Overhead, soaring about the room were cocoanut trees of papier mache, cocoanuts and palm fronds which had been rescued from the sandy beaches of Oxnard where they had served as atmosphere of the 1921 classic, The Sheik. Swinging from their branches were stuffed monkeys blinking at the revelers with their electrified amber eyes. Stars twinkled in the blue ceiling sky, and on the southernmost wall hung a full Hawaiian moon presiding over a painted landscape and splashing waterfall.”

Ray West Orchestra in 1930…

Due to the foresight of Abe Frank, the manager of both the hotel and the Grove, in the mid-1920s the Ambassador had been equipped with a small radio studio, allowing the music of the various orchestras to be broadcast and enjoyed well outside the confines of the nightclub. From the late 1920s well into the 1960s, live “remote” programs broadcast from the Cocoanut Grove were a popular feature of nighttime radio, allowing millions of people to enjoy the music they would otherwise be unable to afford to hear in person. These broadcasts, aired live nightly for two full hours, only increased the reputation of the Grove as “the place to be” when it came to top notch West Coast entertainment.

From the beginning, the Cocoanut Grove’s glamorous atmosphere attracted the top names in Hollywood for dining, dancing, and mingling. This celebrity connection was always well-publicized by the Ambassador and for a very good reason, too: tourists coming to Los Angeles for a vacation wanted to see the stars and there was no place where the stars came out quite so regularly as the Ambassador Hotel. On an average evening, it was common to see such well-known celebrities as Joan Crawford, Jack Oakie, or Jean Harlow coming to see Bing Crosby or Russ Columbo sing with Gus Arnheim’s Orchestra or dance to Jimmie Grier’s band as they accompanied Loyce Whiteman, The Three Ambassadors (Martin Sperzel, Jack Smith, and Al Teeter), or popular tenor Donald Novis. Even though there was a nationwide depression, Hollywood stars and executives still needed to be entertained — and the Cocoanut Grove was often their first choice.

From 1930 to 1943, six Academy Awards ceremonies were hosted at the hotel. As many as seven U.S. presidents stayed at the Ambassador, from Hoover to Nixon, along with heads of state from around the world.

It was the place to be even in the 1960s…

In 1968, the Ambassador Hotel was the scene of the shooting of Bobby Kennedy.

Due to the decline of the hotel and the surrounding area, the Ambassador Hotel was closed to guests in 1989. In 2001, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) purchased the property with the intent of constructing three new schools within the area. After subsequent litigations to preserve the hotel as a historic site, a settlement allowed the Ambassador Hotel to be demolished in 2005.

VALSANTI

Ted Fio Rito used the pseudonym ‘Valsanti’ for these Cocoanut Grove transcriptions because of an existing recording contract.

Fio Rito was a pianist, hammond organist and the composer of such classic tunes as, “I Never Knew,” “Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye,” “Laugh, Clown, Laugh,” “Roll Along, Prairie Moon” and “Alone at a Table for Two.”

He started his career as a pianist with a series of bands led by Harry Yerkes, then moved to Chicago in 1921 to join Dan Russo’s band. The following year, he joined with Russo to become the co-leader the Oriole Terrace Orchestra, which he eventually took over when Russo departed in 1928.

Before coming to the Cocoanut Grove in mid-1933, Fio Rito had spent a number of years touring the East Coast and Midwest, including many engagements in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati. An early radio enthusiast, Fio Rito’s band was frequently heard on the air from various nightspots – preparing him well for the regular broadcasts scheduled to emanate from the Grove during his stay.

Musically, the orchestra that Fio Rito brought to the Grove was sweet, smooth and clever, playing highly danceable music accented with temple blocks, rapid triplets, and even an occasional solo on the Hammond organ by its talented leader.

Due to an existing recording contract, Theodore Salvatore Fiorito’s singers also adopted pseudonyms for these transcriptions. Muzzy Marcellino, Fio Rito’s guitarist and primary vocalist, sings as Jack Howard. Howard Phillips sings under the name of Bill Thomas, and Fio Rito’s vocal trio The Debutants appear as The Three Keys. 

Watch Ted Fio Rito from the Cocoanut Grove in this 1934 Paramount short ‘Star night atthe Cocoanut Grove’ also featuring Mary Pickford and Bing Crosby. You’ll hear the extreme high and low four octave voice of Jimmy Durante’s future comic foil Candy Candido in what is thought to be his earliest film performance….

 

11 MAY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #489
107.3 2SER Tuesday 11 MAY 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 4RPH Brisbane Sunday 3 – 4am 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Swing Bands One Night Stand Radio
Theme + Song of the Wanderer	Buddy Morrow Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Roseland Ballroom NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 1 Mar 1946
16:00 On The Clock	Shep Field and His New Music	‘One Night Stand’ Copacabana NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Aug 1944
Come Rain Come Shine + Close	Hal McIntyre Orchestra (voc) Frankie Lester	‘One Night Stand’ Century Room Hotel Commodore NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 15 May 1946
Set 2	1950s-60s Jazz Radio
Jazz Connoisseur	Harry James Orchestra (dms) Buddy Rich	Moonbowl Freedomland WNEW NYC 1962
The Theme	Miles Davis Sextet	‘Treasury of Music’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY AFRTS Re-broadcast 25 Aug 1959
Set 3	Benny Goodman in Chicago
Let’s Dance (theme) + Farewell Blues	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 20 Jan 1936
Soft Spring	Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Chicago 10 Aug 1941
King Porter Stomp + Goodbye (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Joseph Urban Room Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Feb 1936
Set 4	Vincent Valsanti (Ted Fio Rito)
Serenade of Love (theme) + Flirtation Walk	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
When You’re in Love	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Two Cigarettes in the Dark	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Phil Thomas	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Were You Foolin’? + I’ll Take an Option on You + Serenade of Love (theme)	Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard and The Three Blue Keys	Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934
Set 5	1930s German Swing
Darf ich bitten?	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Sep 1936
Ja und nein	Die Goldene Sieben	Comm Rec Berlin Aug 1939
Aus lauter Liebe	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Peter Igelhoff	Comm Rec Berlin Jul 1937
Oh! Aha!	Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Rudi Schuricke Terzett	Comm Rec Berlin Feb 1939
Set 6	Early Dorseys
Theme + On The Beach at Bali Bali	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 11 Aug 1936
Sandman (theme) + Is That Religion?	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Bob Crosby	Riviera Fort Lee NJ WEAF NBC Red NY 20 Sep 1934
Weary Blues	Eddy Howard Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exhibition KRLD CBS Dallas Tx 4 Aug 1936
Farewell Blues	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	‘Chrysler Show’ Radio Transcription 1934
Set 7	Sweet Music
Romance (theme) + We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye	Ray Herbeck Music with Romance Orchestra (voc) Lorraine Benson	Trianon Ballroom WGN Mutual Chicago 24 Nov 1947
For You	King Sisters	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Jun 1945
Sweet Lorraine	Frank Sinatra	‘Frank Sinatra Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Nov 1946
What is This Thing Called Love?	Paul Whiteman Orchestra (voc) Eugenie Baird	‘Forever Pops’ ABC Chicago 1947
Set 8	1930s Fats Waller
Yacht Club Swing (theme) + Whatcha Know, Joe?	Fats Waller	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 3 Dec 1940
Pent Up in a Penthouse	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 14 Oct 1938
Sto Beating ‘Round The Mulberry Bush	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 16 Jul 1938
I Had To Do It	Fats Waller	Yacht Club WABC CBS NY 18 Oct 1938

Phil Harris – Phantom Dancer 23 February 2021

Phil Harris is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. Wonga Phil Harris was a drummer, band leader, singer, comedian, actor, Academy Award winner and voice-over artist.

His first name, Wonga, is a Cherokee word meaning fast messenger.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton. Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 23 February at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

PHIL

Phil Harris’ parents were circus performers. Phil started playing in his father’s tent band as a drummer at age 9.

He began his dance band career as a drummer in San Francisco, first in 1925 with the Henry Halstead Orchestra, which toured Australia in 1927. In the late 20s he formed an orchestra with Carol Lofner which had a three year engagement at the St. Francis Hotel.

The Lofner-Harris orchestra recorded for Victor, Columbia, Decca, and Vocalion.

MOVIES

In 1933, he made a short film for RKO called So This Is Harris!. It won the Academy Award for best live action short subject. He followed with a feature-length film, Melody Cruise. 

He starred in I Love a Bandleader (1945) with Leslie Brooks. He appeared in The Wild Blue Yonder a.k.a. “Thunder Across the Pacific” (1951), alongside Forrest Tucker and Walter Brennan. He made a cameo appearance in the Warner Bros. musical, Starlift, with Janice Rule and Dick Wesson, and was featured in The High and the Mighty with John Wayne in 1954.

He made many TV appearances guesting on the Ed Sullivan Show and Dean Martin Show in the 1960s

As a singer, he had a #1 hit in 1950 with the novelty record, “The Thing”.

He was an avid golfer and won many amateur golf tournaments. Took over managing the Bing Crosby Golf Tournament after Crosby’s death

RADIO

 

On this week’s Phantom Dancer you’ll hear Phil Harris from a radio transcription simulating a broadcst from the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel where his band was resident in 1933-34.

In 1936, Harris became musical director of The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny singing and leading his band.

When Harris showed a knack for giving snappy one-liners, he joined the cast.

In 1946, after serving in the US Navy during WW2, Harris and wife Alice Faye began co-hosting The Fitch Bandwagon, a comedy-variety program that followed the Jack Benny show on Sunday nights.

On The Fitch Bandwagon and its later incarnation as The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, Harris played a vain, stumbling husband, while Faye played his sarcastic but loving wife.

The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show ran until 1954. Harris was concurrently on Jack Benny’s show from 1948 to 1952.

VOICE ACTOR

Harris was a popular voice actor for animated films – he played Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967), Thomas O’Malley in The Aristocats (1970), Little John in Robin Hood (1973), and Patou in Rock-a-Doodle (1991). 

23 FEBRUARY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #476
107.3 2SER Tuesday 23 February 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 4RPH Brisbane Sunday 3 – 4am 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	1945 Radio Dance Bands
Moonlight Serenade (theme) + Sun Valley Jump	Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Cedar Rapids Iowa Blue Network 1945
I’m Beginning To See The Light	Ray Noble Orchestra (voc) Trudy Irwin and the Smart Set	‘By Request’ KNX CBS LA 13 Jun 1945
Dark Eyes + Close	Jimmy Joy Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Hartigan TX Blue Network 6 Jan 1945
Set 2	1940s-50s Mod Jazz Bands
Open + Who’s Sorry Now?	Ray Anthony Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 1952
Old Man Bebop	Dizzy Gillespie	AFRS Radio Transcriptions 1946
El Greco + Let’s Dance (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 1949
Set 3	Phil Harris
Young and Healthy	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) Phil Harris and The Three Ambassadors	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1933
The Girl in the Little Green Hat	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) Lee Norton	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1933
Come On, Get Up	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) Leah Raye	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1933
Set 4	Women on Radio
Theme + 24 Hours of Sunshine	The Andrew Sisters, Dick Haymes, Jerry Gray Orchestra	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 8 Jan 1950
If I Loved You + Lady Be Good (close)	Georgia  Gibbs (voc) Paul Whiteman Orchestra	Madhattan Room Pennsylvania Hotel AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Jul 1945
That Ol’ Black Magic + Close	Jo Stafford, The Starlighters, Paul Weston Orchestra	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 22 May 1949
Set 5	1940s Australian Swing
Don’t Sweetheart Me	George Trevare Orchestra (voc) Joan Blake	Comm Rec Sydney 1944
Let’s Have One For The Road	George Trevare Orchestra (voc)	Comm Rec Sydney 1944
Long Ago and Far Away	George Trevare Orchestra (voc) al Royal	Comm Rec Sydney 1944
Set 6	Radio Trad
Back to Coajingolong	George Trevare Orchestra	Comm Rec Sydney 1945
September in the Rain	Eddie Condon	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NY 21 Oct 1944
Levee Blues	Jimmy Dorsey Dorseyland Band (voc) Charlie Teagarden	Radio Transcription 1950
Gin Mill Blues + Close	Bob Crosby Orchestra	‘Swing Concert’ Congress Hotel WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 18 May 1937
Set 7	Lseter Young 1950s Radip
Lullaby of Birdland (theme)	Lester Young Quintet	Birdland WABC ABC NY 5 Sep 1956
Three Little Words	Lester Young Quintet	Birdland WABC ABC NY 5 Sep 1956
Lullaby of Birdland (theme)	Lester Young Quintet	Birdland WABC ABC NY 7 Aug 1956
Lester Leaps In	Lester Young Quintet	Birdland WABC ABC NY 7 Aug 1956
Set 8	Benny Goodman Small Groups
Oh, Baby!	Benny Goodman Sextet	Meadowbrook Gardens Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Jan 1946
Limehouse Blues	Benny Goodman Sextet	Meadowbrook Gardens Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Jan 1946
Sweet Georgia Brown	Benny Goodman Quintet	‘Spotlight Bands’ Springfield Mass Mutual Network 29 Sep 1943
Sweet Lorraine	Benny Goodman Trio	Meadowbrook Gardens Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Jan 1946

Rosemary Clooney Chain Smoking Singer – Phantom Dancer 2 February 2021

Rosemary Clooney was an American singer, actor and radio host. She’s this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist where you’ll hear her in radio broadcasts from the 1950s-60s. She’s also actor, George Clooney’s, aunt.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton. Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 2 February at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

ROSEMARY CLOONEY

It’s incredible that she had the beautiful voice that she had despite the heavy smoking that eventually made the end of her life painful before killing her.

From ‘More Than a Girl Singer’, American Association for Cancer Research,

“A long-time smoker, Clooney was hospitalized in 1996 with acute respiratory failure. At that time, her doctors advised her to quit smoking, but Clooney struggled with her addiction. “Mama called me from the hospital and asked me to bring her cigarettes,” Ferrer (one of her sons)  remembers. “It was so hard for her to stop, though she finally did.”

Toward the end of 2001, Clooney was on the road performing when she began to find it hard to breathe. By the time she arrived home in Beverly Hills a few days before Christmas, she was exhausted. “She could hardly get up the stairs,” says Ferrer. “After two steps, she would have to stop and rest.” Less than a month later, Clooney was diagnosed with stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer. She died six months later, on June 29, 2002, at her home in Beverly Hills with her family beside her. She was 74.”

TALENT SPOTTED

In 1945, Rosemary Clooney’s father went out one night with friends to celebrate the end of World War II. He never came back.

Clooney, 17, and her sister, 14, found themselves in a dire situation. They collected soft drink bottles and used what little money they had to buy lunch at school. The rent was overdue, the phone disconnected and the utilities about to be turned off when their luck changed. The teenagers, who had grown up performing at political rallies for their grandfather, the mayor of Maysville, won a singing competition at WLW Cincinnati, a local radio station. The station hired them for a regular late-night spot, with each sister earning $20 a week (almost US$290 in 2021 money).

They sing with Tony Pastor’s Orchestra, broadcasting and recording with the band until 1949 (as you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer mix).

In 1950–51, she was a regular on the radio and television versions of Songs For Sale on CBS. In 1951, her record of “Come On-a My House”, produced by Mitch Miller, became a hit. It was her first of many singles to hit the charts—despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. She recorded several duets with Marlene Dietrich and appeared in the early 1950s on Faye Emerson’s Wonderful Town series on CBS. Clooney also did several guest appearances on the Arthur Godfrey radio show.

HOLLYWOOD

In 1954, she starred with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen in the movie White Christmas…

Two years later she had her own half-hour syndicated television musical-variety show, The Rosemary Clooney Show. NBC re-launched the show in a prime time slot on 1957 as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney. It lasted one season. In the late 50s and early 1960s, Clooney often appeared with Bing Crosby on television and radio. You’ll hear an excerpt from a 20-minute CBS radio program they did Monday to Friday for years that aired before the midday news.

Clooney left Columbia Records in 1958, doing a number of recordings for MGM Records and then some for Coral Records. Finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. In 1964, she went to Reprise Records, and in 1965 to Dot Records.

1970s – 2000s

After a hiatus of 11 years due to pills, alcohol and depression, Clooney signed to United Artists Records in 1976 for two albums. From 1977, she recorded an album every year for the Concord Jazz record label until her death. She was also singing on other people’s albums in 70s and 80s

In 1995, Clooney guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama ER (starring her nephew, George Clooney); for her performance, she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

Here’s Rosemary Clooney on ‘What’s My Line’,

2 FEBRUARY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #473
107.3 2SER Tuesday 2 February 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 4RPH Brisbane Sunday 3 – 4am 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	A Date With The Duke
Take The A-Train (theme) + Can’t You Read Between The Lines?	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Back Home Again in Indiana	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
The Wish I Wish	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Joya Sherill	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Cottontail	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date With The Duke’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Set 2	1950s Jazz Radio
Sugar Beat	Eliot Lawrence Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WOR Mutual NY 1951
At Sundown	Les Brown Orchestra	‘Treasury Bandstand’ Hershey Park Ballroom WLAN ABC Lancaster PA 1957
Give Me The Simple Life	Thelma Carpenter	‘Jazz Arts Concert’ WNBC NBC NY 4 Oct 1952
Set 3	Trad Jazz Radio
Bugle Call Rag	Red Nichols	Radio Transcription 1952
Open + South Rampart Street Parade	Preacher Rollo	‘Dixieland Club’ AFRS Re-broadcast 30 Apr 1952
Mama’s Gone, Goodbye + St Louis Blues	Kid Ory	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 5 Feb 1955
Set 4	Rosemany Clooney
‘S Wonderful	Rosemary & Betty Clooney (voc) Tony Pastor Orchestra	Aircheck New York City Sep 1948
Tenderly (theme) + You Make Me Feel So Young	Rosemary Clooney	‘The Rosemary Clooney Show’ KNX CBS LA 2 Nov 1954
Enchanted	Rosemary Clooney	‘Bing Crosby – Rosemary Clooney Show’ KNX CBS LA 20 Mar 1962
It’s a Most Unusual Day + Something to Remember You By	Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby	‘The Bing Crosby Show’ KNX CBS LA 22 Nov 1953
Set 5	1920s Comm Records
Sunday	Jean Goldkette Orchestra (voc) Keller Sisters	Comm Rec Camden NJ 15 Oct 1926
Delirium	Red and Miff’s Stompers	Comm Rec New York City 11 Feb 1927
Flamin’ Mamie	Coon-Sanders Nighthawks Orchestra (voc) Joe Sanders	Comm Rec Camden NJ 21 Dec 1925
Blue Melody Blues	Tiny Praham and his Musicians	Comm Rec Chicago 1 Feb 1929
Set 6	Buddy Rich
Love Thy Neighbour (film preview)	Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, Tommy Dorsey & more	Paramount Theatre WOR Mutual NY 17 Dec 1940
Set 7	Mid 1940s Swing Radio
Theme + Hamp’s Got a Duke	Lionel Hampton Orchestra	Casa Manana Culver City Ca KFI NBC LA 20 Jul 1947
Temptation	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Ginny Powell	Meadowbrook Gardens KECA ABC LA 10 Feb 1946
Santa Catalina	Raymond Scott Orchestra (voc) Dorothy Collins	Palace Hotel KQW CBS San Francisco 16 Sep 1947
Andy’s Blues	Count Basie Orchestra	Avadon Ballroom Aircheck Los Angeles 1946
Set 8	Women Radio Singers
Manhattan	Lee Wiley	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 1950
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen	Kay Starr (voc) Charlie Barnett Orchestra	‘For the Record’ WEAF NBC NY 11 Sep 1944
Robin Hood	Mildred Bailey	‘Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 12 Feb 1945
I Miss Your Kiss	Joya Sherill (voc) Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘A Date with the Duke’ WJZ ABC NY 12 May 1945