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Dismuke's Hit Of The Week
Previous Selections
  March 2009



March 28


This week's Hit of the Week is brought to you by
Hoover Electric Cleaner - 1932 ad 

Click on image or here for larger view

Hoover Electric Cleaner

(from 1932 ad)



Lady Luck Click on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra     1929
(Brunswick 4610)

Singin' In The BathtubClick on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra     1929
(Brunswick 4610)

Confessin'Click on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra     1930
(Brunswick 4898)

I'm YoursClick on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra     1930
(Brunswick 4898) 

Keepin' Myself For You Click on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra     1930
(Brunswick 4732)

Who's Your Little Who-zisClick on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra
Ben Bernie, vocal                         1931

(Brunswick 6245)

Oh What A Thrill Click on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra     1931
(Brunswick 6245)

What Have We Got To Lose Click on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra    
Ben Bernie, vocal                         1933
(Brunswick 6504 mx 526)

This Is RomanceClick on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie & All The Lads          1933
(Columbia 2820 D mx 152502)

You Gotta be A Football HeroClick on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie & All The Lads         1933
(Columbia 2820 D mx 152503)

Shanghai Lil Click on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
Ben Bernie And His Orchestra     1933
(Columbia DQ 1019 mx W152512)


 
 

Here are some selections  from the Ben Bernie band in the years following its lengthy engagement at the Hotel Roosevelt in New York.  Bernie's band was the first to play at the Roosevelt when it opened in 1923 and was so well received that the engagement lasted until 1929.   Some of these recordings come from Matt From College Station's collection and others come from my own.

Born as Bernard Anzelevitz in Bayonne, NJ into a family of twelve,  Bernie was earning money by age 15 giving violin lessons.   In his October 20, 1943 obituary, the Associated Press quoted Bernie talking about his childhood:

"We were so poor that I still look upon fruit as a luxury.  But in spite of our poverty there was always music, and I received violin lessons.

My first argument with the family was when, after we had moved to New York's lower East Side and I was attending Cooper Union School, I received a $25-a-week offer to play for a neighborhood school.  My father turned me down because he wanted me to be an engineer and thought the orchestra would end any aspiration for that work.  But I took the job nevertheless."

In the early 1910s, Bernie struggled unsuccessfully in small time vaudeville getting jobs in only the lowest tier theaters.    In 1914  Bernie's unique speaking voice was "discovered" and he was offered a job as emcee of the shows at Reisenweber's Restaurant in New York's Columbus Circle.  Dating back to the 1850s, Reisenweber's was one of New York's most famous restaurants.  The restaurant had a seating capacity of 5,000 and featured performances by some of the top names in entertainment.   It was also the site of some of the earliest jazz performances in the Northeast.   The legendary restaurant was liquidated and closed with the advent of Prohibition.

Bernie's second attempt at vaudeville, teamed with accordion player Phil Baker, was more successful but ended when Baker entered the Navy to fight in World War I.   In 1923, after watching the success of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, Bernie purchased Don Juelle's band renaming  it "Ben Bernie And All The Lads" and quickly got a booking at the newly constructed Roosevelt Hotel.

During the band's years at the Roosevelt, Bernie's fame spread as a result of recording contract with Vocalion which led to a contract with the more popular Brunswick label when it bought out Vocalion in 1925.   By the late 1920s,  Vocalion became a bargain label and many sides issued on Brunswick as Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra were issued on Vocalion under the pseudonym of Al Goering And His Collegians - the real-life Al Goering being Bernie's piano player.

The biggest break for Bernie while at the Roosevelt was the remote radio broadcasts of the band's performances from the hotel's supper club.   Radio was still in its infancy and Bernie was able to apply his skills from emceeing at Reisenweber's to a brand new medium.   During this period, Bernie developed his trademark "Old Maestro" folksy yet sophisticated on-air persona and his famous "Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah" catch phrase which quickly became part of the national slang vocabulary.

In late 1924 or early 1925, the Bernie band appeared in some of the very first sound-on-film movies which were produced by inventor Lee DeForest - a full two years prior to the introduction of talking pictures by the major Hollywood studios.   These DeForest films still survive and can be viewed on the Red Hot Jazz website.   These film clips are excellent examples of the band's very jazzy sound from its early Hotel Roosevelt days.  The performance Bernie's saxophone player Jack Pettis on the " Sweet Georgia Brown" clip is the earliest film of a jazz solo.   Bernie was the fist bandleader to record and popularize the song and was given co-composer credit, presumably so that he could share in the royalties from its success. 

Like many, Bernie had big losses in the 1929 stock market crash and suffered from the diminished market that all bandleaders had to contend with.  He was successful, however, at maintaining a presence on network radio and by the middle part of the 1930s was one of radio's most popular personalities.  His 1932-1933 season sponsored by  Blue Ribbon Malt (the sponsor became Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer the season after the repeal of Prohibition) was the top rated program on the NBC Red Network achieving a 33.7 audience share.   As was the case with Rudy Vallee, during the 1930s, Bernie's band became more of a backdrop to his career as a radio personality rather than a primary endeavor.  One of the factors that helped further publicize Bernie's radio career was an ongoing staged feud with columnist Walter Winchell.  In real life the two were actually close friends.

Bernie and his band had staring rolls in four major Hollywood films, Shoot The Works in 1934, Stolen Harmony in 1935, Love and Hisses and Wake Up And Live in 1937.

Of the selections presented here, my personal favorites are "Lady Luck" which was introduced in the 1929 Warner Bros film The Show of Shows (as was "Singing In The Bathtub") and "Who's Your Little Who-zis" which  Ben Bernie is credited as being co-composer along with Al Goering and Walter Hirsch.


 - Dismuke
 
 

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EXTRA





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

SingClick on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
National Cavaliers            1930
(Victor 22559 A)

Here Comes The SunClick on song title to stream or right click on folder to download
National Cavaliers            1930
(Victor 22559 B)
 
 

The National Cavaliers were a vocal group that achieved some measure of popularity on records and radio in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  Over time, the group experienced several personnel changes. On these particular  recordings, both from Matt's collection,  the group consisted of Leo O'Rourke (1st tenor), Robert Stevens (lead), John Seagle (baritone), Darrel Woodyard (bass), and Lee Montgomery, Jr. (piano).
 

 - Dismuke
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board.




 
 
 

 

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