Dismuke's Hit Of The Week

July 2009 July 31 This week's Hit of the Week is brought to you by (Click on image for larger view) Williams Ice-O-Matic Refrigeration Williams Oil-O-Matic Heating Corp., Bloomington Ill. (from 1930 ad) Fascinating Devil (With Those Angel Eyes) Elmer Grosso And His Orchestra Jerry Macy, Ed Smalle, vocal 1930 (Champion 15957 B) I'm Climbing Up A Rainbow Elmer Grosso And His Orchestra Jerry Macy, Ed Smalle, vocal 1930 (Champion 15957 A) These selections come courtesy of guest contributor Matt From College Station. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of biographical information about Elmer Grosso who, in addition to leading his own band, played both the violin and trumpet. In the early 1920s Grosso appeared on a few recordings for Columbia as a sideman with a jazz ensemble called the Happy Six. Between 1926 and 1930 his band cut a few dozen sides for Richmond, Indiana based Gennett Records. Most of Grosso's Gennett recordings were also issued on the company's Champion, Superior and Supertone subsidiary labels as well as its flagship Gennett label. At some point Grosso retired from the music industry and moved to Hollywood, Florida where he was successful in the real estate industry. "Fascinating Devil With Your Angel Eyes" is my favorite of the two sides. It is an upbeat, peppy song presented with a nice jazzy arrangement. "I'm Climbing Up A Rainbow" was introduced in the 1930 Fox Film The Big Party which starred Dixie Lee, Frank Albertson and "Whispering" Jack Smith. Unfortunately, the film is believed to be lost. - 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. 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. Oh! What A Thrill Jack Miller, vocal 1932 (Columbia 2595 D mx 152073) You're My Everything Jack Miller, vocal 1932 (Columbia 2595 D mx 152072) These selections also come courtesy of Matt From College Station. Jack Miller was a vocalist who made several dozen recordings for Columia and its subsidary labels between 1928 and 1933. Some of his records issued on the Harmony and Velvet Tone subsidiary labels were backed up by a group of studio musicians billed as "The New Englanders." In 1931, Miller accepted the positon of piano accompanyist and orchestra director for singer Kate Smith's radio and, much later on, television programs - a position he held until 1954. You can read a very detailed biography of Jack Miller from the ARSC Journal at the end of this link. (.pdf document) - Dismuke July 18 This week's Hit of the Week is brought to you by (Click on image for larger view) The New Stutz Vertical Eight Stutz Motor Car Co. Indianapolis (from 1926 ad) I've Grown So Lonesome Thinking Of You The Clevelanders Tom Stacks, vocal 1926 (Brunswick 3375) Take In The Sun Hang Out The Moon The Clevelanders Tom Stacks, vocal 1926 (Brunswick 3375) Idolozing Park Lane Orchestra Frank Bessinger, Frank Wright, Lester O'Keefe, vocal 1926 (Brunswick 3363 B) Just A Little Longer Park Lane Orchestra Frank Bessinger, Frank Wright, Lester O'Keefe, vocal 1926 (Brunswick 3363 A) The Clevelanders and The Park Lane Orchestra were both recording pseudonyms used by the Harry Reser band on Brunswick records. Reser was one of the top banjo players of the 1920s and led a band which recorded for most of the labels of the era under a variety of pseudonyms. Reser most famous band during the 1920s and early 1930s was the Clicquot Club Eskimos which appeared on the pioneering musical variety radio program of the same name. The Clicquot Club Eskimos was among the first of the early network radio programs to have a commercial sponsor. The Reser band also made a number of famous novelty recordings, many of them under the name The Six Jumping Jacks. Recordings under the Park Lane Orchestra pseudonym rarely featured Reser's signature peppy banjo solos which were heavily featured on Clicquot Club Eskimos and Six Jumping Jacks recordings. However, you can briefly hear him play after the vocal on The Clevelander's "Take In The Sun Hang Out The Moon." The Clevelanders pseudonym was used for certain Reser recording sessions for Brunswick through February 1929. Later that year, the pseudonym was then used for recordings that Reser made for the group of labels that merged to create the newly formed American Record Corporation with the exception of a single side for Brunswick recorded in February 1930. I am not sure whether The Clevelanders was a name that Reser had originated and brought with him or what sort of legal exclusivity the labels had for the pseudonyms they used. Tom Stacks, who provides the vocal on the two Clevelanders selections, was Reser's drummer and primary vocalist. He is best remembered for his comic novelty vocals on Reser's Six Jumping Jacks recording sessions. On February 12, 1936, Stacks was playing drums with the Earl Carpenter band for a Catholic Holy Name Society party at Lum's Chinese Restaurant located on the second floor of 735 Lexington Avenue in New York City when a fire broke out in one of the building's ground floor shops. The fire quickly spread to the restaurant and set off a stampede among the 150 who were inside. Stacks initially escaped the building but went back to retrieve his drums. He died a week later in the hospital from burns to the hands and face. - 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. 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. (Tulia Herald, July 16, 1942) I'd Rather Be A Texas Aggie The Aggieland Orchestra Jack Littlejohn, vocal circa 1940 (Official Record SR 12 111A) The Aggie War Hymn and The Sprit of Aggieland Texas A&M College Concert Band circa 1940 (Offical Record SR 12 113 B) Here is a record that was privately issued by Texas A&M College (now Texas A&M University). I do not have an exact date for the recording - but my strong guess is that it is from 1940 based on the fact that it was the year that "I Would Rather Be A Texas Aggie" was published and it was the year that the song's composer and the vocalist on this recording, Jack Littlejohn, graduated from the school. I have seen a reference which suggests that the song might have been featured in the 1943 film We've Never Been Licked, parts of which were filmed on the Texas A&M campus. Unfortunately, I have not been able to verify that for sure. Jack Littlejohn was a vocalist and arranger of the Aggieland Orchestra, a student band which for a while also included Littlejohn's brother Thomas M. Littlejohn, Jr who graduated in 1939. A newspaper article announcing a 1937 appearance by the band in Corpus Christi, Texas described it as primarily specializing in swing music. During World War II, Jack Littlejohn served in the Army Air Corps as a lieutenant colonel. After the war, both Littlejohn brothers returned to their hometown of Tulia Texas where they owned a grocery business. - 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. July 11 This week's Hit of the Week is brought to you by Ideal Power Mowers (from 1928 ad) Hop Off Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra 1928 (Brunswick 4119) I Must Have That Man Broadway Broadcasters 1928 (Brunswick 4119) Here is one of several interesting Fletcher Henderson records that I acquired a few months ago. "Hop Off" is a Fats Waller composition that the Henderson band had previously recorded in November 1927 for Columbia - though that recording remained unissued until the early 1940s. Most likely the Henderson band also recorded the song in October 1927 on the Paramount label under the pseudonym of The Louisiana Stompers - though some have raised the question as to whether it actually was Fletcher Henderson's band on the Paramount recording. The Brunswick version featured here was recorded in Chicago on September 14, 1928. "I Must Have That Man" was a successful song from the Lew Leslie production Blackbirds of 1928 which featured an all-black cast. The name "Broadway Broadcasters" was mostly used as a recording pseudonym for Sam Lanin and His Orchestra on late 1920s labels affiliated with with Cameo. The band on this recording - which had no connection with the Lanin band - cut three sides for Brunswick October 30, 1928, all of them issued under the Broadway Broadcasters pseudonym. The only personnel from the session I have been able to find listed is Ray Lodwig and Tommy Gott. - 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. 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. Die Songs Der Driegroschenoper Part 1 Carola Neher, Kurt Gerron, Arthur Schröder 1929 (HMV EH 301 mx 4 049308) Die Songs Der Driegroschenoper Part 2 Carola Neher, Kurt Gerron 1929 (HMV EH 301 mx 4 049309) Aufsteig Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny Part 1 Lotte Lenja Mit Grossem Ensemble Un Orchester Des Theaters Am Kurfürstendamm 1932 (HMV Z 224 mx 2D 748) Aufsteig Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny Part 2 Lotte Lenja Mit Grossem Ensemble Un Orchester Des Theaters Am Kurfürstendamm 1932 (HMV Z 224 mx 2D 749) I will begin this section with a disclaimer that I personally find all four of these recordings to be mostly horrible. These most emphatically do NOT represent my taste in music. I include them, however, because they certainly fit within the time frame this site covers and because it provides the "other side" to the late Wiemar era scene that is very much different to the salon music, Viennese operettas and peppy jazz recordings that I often feature from that time and place. The first two selections are medley recordings from the 1928 Bertolt Brecht /Kurt Weill musical Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) which starred Weill's wife Lotta Lenya. These recordings feature artists who appeared in the production. Die Dreigroschenoper is best remembered for introducing the song "Mack The Knife" which you can hear in its original version towards the end of the second selection. Louis Armstrong recorded the song in 1956. Bobby Darin's 1958 recording of the song topped the charts in 1959 and earned him a Grammy. Oddly enough, while I am NOT generally a fan of Weill's works, I do enjoy both the Armstrong and Darin recordings of the song. When Armstrong made his recording, Lotta Lenya was in the studio which inspired Armstrong to improvise the now famous line in the lyrics "Look out for Miss Lotte Lenya!" Two of the artists featured in the Die Dreigroschenoper recordings ended up being murdered by the totalitarian regimes that dominated events in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. Kurt Gerron was a very successful actor who appeared on stage and with Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film The Blue Angel. When the National Socialists came to power, Gerron fled to Holland. However, when that country fell to German occupation during World War II he was taken into custody and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. At Theresienstadt, Gerron was forced to direct a propaganda film staging scenes depicting the inhabitants as being happy and well-treated. After shooting on the film ended, Gerron was transferred to Auschwitz where he was murdered immediately after his arrival. Carola Neher appeared in several Bertolt Brecht productions before she was forced to flee Germany. An ardent communist, she and her husband moved to the Soviet Union in 1934. In 1936, during the Stalinist purges, Neher and her husband were arrested after having been denounced as Trotskyites by a fellow German actor. Her husband was executed in 1937 and she died in a Soviet Gulag in 1942. Aufsteig Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) is a Bertolt Brecht/ Kurt Weill opera which debuted in Leipzig in March, 1930. The Leipzig performance was disrupted by Nazi sympathizers. A revised version eventually opened in Berlin at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in December 1931 with Lotte Lenya in the role of Jenny. The recordings here feature Lenya and the ensemble from the cast. To provide a feel for what the production was like, here is how it is described by a commentator who has a positive opinion of it: The original Brecht production of Mahagonny, as with his other plays, utilized various contrivances to prevent viewers from being lulled into a theatrical fantasy. Stage settings were deliberately sparse and flooded with harsh lights, with no attempt to hide stage lighting equipment. Slogans and explanatory text were projected upon stage walls, and actors carried placards onstage bearing political messages. With outbursts of songs whose lyrics drove home his political points, Brecht would use music itself to interrupt stage action. You can read a synopsis of Brecht's storyline for the opera here. My take on it is that the story is as senseless and chaotic as what you hear on the recordings. Mahagonny and all of Brecht's other works were outlawed in Germany once the National Socialists took power. Undoubtedly Brecht would have been persecuted and almost definitely murdered had he remained in that country. But it is interesting to note that Brecht himself was a staunch admirer of Joseph Stalin and, when asked about the number of innocent people being killed by the Stalinist purges, he famously replied: "The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to die." Even the deaths of Carola Neher, his former mistress who had starred in his plays, and other former associates at the hands of the Soviet regime did not diminish his support for it. In 1949, he moved to East Germany as a staunch and loyal supporter of that country's Stalinist dictatorship. In other words, Brecht had a mindset that was not much different from the that of the thugs in Germany who disrupted and eventually outlawed his plays - his allegiance was simply with a rival gang. Personally, I cannot stand the sort of "art" that Brecht championed and I find these recordings to be very unpleasant to listen to. But unlike Nazis and Communists, civilized people do not seek to silence or criminalize art and viewpoints that they disagree with. - 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.

(Click on image for larger view)
Williams Ice-O-Matic Refrigeration
Williams Oil-O-Matic Heating Corp., Bloomington Ill.
(from 1930 ad)

I'm Climbing Up A Rainbow

Elmer Grosso And His Orchestra
Jerry Macy, Ed Smalle, vocal 1930
(Champion 15957 A)

These selections come courtesy of guest contributor Matt From College Station. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of biographical information about Elmer Grosso who, in addition to leading his own band, played both the violin and trumpet. In the early 1920s Grosso appeared on a few recordings for Columbia as a sideman with a jazz ensemble called the Happy Six. Between 1926 and 1930 his band cut a few dozen sides for Richmond, Indiana based Gennett Records. Most of Grosso's Gennett recordings were also issued on the company's Champion, Superior and Supertone subsidiary labels as well as its flagship Gennett label. At some point Grosso retired from the music industry and moved to Hollywood, Florida where he was successful in the real estate industry.

"Fascinating Devil With Your Angel Eyes" is my favorite of the two sides. It is an upbeat, peppy song presented with a nice jazzy arrangement.

"I'm Climbing Up A Rainbow" was introduced in the 1930 Fox Film The Big Party which starred Dixie Lee, Frank Albertson and "Whispering" Jack Smith. Unfortunately, the film is believed to be lost.

This week's Hit of the Week is brought to you by

Stutz Motor Car Ad - 1926 Click on image for larger view.

(Click on image for larger view)
The New Stutz Vertical Eight
Stutz Motor Car Co.
Indianapolis
(from 1926 ad)

I've Grown So Lonesome Thinking Of You
The Clevelanders
Tom Stacks, vocal 1926
(Brunswick 3375)

Take In The Sun Hang Out The Moon
The Clevelanders
Tom Stacks, vocal 1926
(Brunswick 3375)

Idolozing
Park Lane Orchestra
Frank Bessinger, Frank Wright, Lester O'Keefe, vocal 1926
(Brunswick 3363 B)

Just A Little Longer

Park Lane Orchestra
Frank Bessinger, Frank Wright, Lester O'Keefe, vocal 1926
(Brunswick 3363 A)

The Clevelanders and The Park Lane Orchestra were both recording pseudonyms used by the Harry Reser band on Brunswick records. Reser was one of the top banjo players of the 1920s and led a band which recorded for most of the labels of the era under a variety of pseudonyms.

Reser most famous band during the 1920s and early 1930s was the Clicquot Club Eskimos which appeared on the pioneering musical variety radio program of the same name. The Clicquot Club Eskimos was among the first of the early network radio programs to have a commercial sponsor. The Reser band also made a number of famous novelty recordings, many of them under the name The Six Jumping Jacks.

Recordings under the Park Lane Orchestra pseudonym rarely featured Reser's signature peppy banjo solos which were heavily featured on Clicquot Club Eskimos and Six Jumping Jacks recordings. However, you can briefly hear him play after the vocal on The Clevelander's "Take In The Sun Hang Out The Moon." The Clevelanders pseudonym was used for certain Reser recording sessions for Brunswick through February 1929. Later that year, the pseudonym was then used for recordings that Reser made for the group of labels that merged to create the newly formed American Record Corporation with the exception of a single side for Brunswick recorded in February 1930. I am not sure whether The Clevelanders was a name that Reser had originated and brought with him or what sort of legal exclusivity the labels had for the pseudonyms they used.

Tom Stacks, who provides the vocal on the two Clevelanders selections, was Reser's drummer and primary vocalist. He is best remembered for his comic novelty vocals on Reser's Six Jumping Jacks recording sessions. On February 12, 1936, Stacks was playing drums with the Earl Carpenter band for a Catholic Holy Name Society party at Lum's Chinese Restaurant located on the second floor of 735 Lexington Avenue in New York City when a fire broke out in one of the building's ground floor shops. The fire quickly spread to the restaurant and set off a stampede among the 150 who were inside. Stacks initially escaped the building but went back to retrieve his drums. He died a week later in the hospital from burns to the hands and face.

- 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.

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.

(Tulia Herald, July 16, 1942)

I'd Rather Be A Texas Aggie
The Aggieland Orchestra
Jack Littlejohn, vocal                                                circa 1940
(Official Record SR 12 111A)

The Aggie War Hymn and The Sprit of Aggieland
Texas A&M College Concert Band                              circa 1940
(Offical Record SR 12 113 B)

Here is a record that was privately issued by Texas A&M College (now Texas A&M University).   I do not have an exact date for the recording - but my strong guess is that it is from 1940 based on the fact that it was the year that "I Would Rather Be A Texas Aggie" was published and it was the year that the song's composer and the vocalist on this recording, Jack Littlejohn, graduated from the school. I have seen a reference which suggests that the song might have been featured in the 1943 film We've Never Been Licked, parts of which were filmed on the Texas A&M campus. Unfortunately, I have not been able to verify that for sure.

Jack Littlejohn was a vocalist and arranger of the Aggieland Orchestra, a student band which for a while also included Littlejohn's brother Thomas M. Littlejohn, Jr who graduated in 1939. A newspaper article announcing a 1937 appearance by the band in Corpus Christi, Texas described it as primarily specializing in swing music.

During World War II, Jack Littlejohn served in the Army Air Corps as a lieutenant colonel.   After the war, both Littlejohn brothers returned to their hometown of Tulia Texas where they owned a grocery business.

Here is one of several interesting Fletcher Henderson records that I acquired a few months ago. "Hop Off" is a Fats Waller composition that the Henderson band had previously recorded in November 1927 for Columbia - though that recording remained unissued until the early 1940s. Most likely the Henderson band also recorded the song in October 1927 on the Paramount label under the pseudonym of The Louisiana Stompers - though some have raised the question as to whether it actually was Fletcher Henderson's band on the Paramount recording. The Brunswick version featured here was recorded in Chicago on September 14, 1928.

"I Must Have That Man" was a successful song from the Lew Leslie production Blackbirds of 1928 which featured an all-black cast. The name "Broadway Broadcasters" was mostly used as a recording pseudonym for Sam Lanin and His Orchestra on late 1920s labels affiliated with with Cameo. The band on this recording - which had no connection with the Lanin band - cut three sides for Brunswick October 30, 1928, all of them issued under the Broadway Broadcasters pseudonym. The only personnel from the session I have been able to find listed is Ray Lodwig and Tommy Gott.

You can read a synopsis of Brecht's storyline for the opera here. My take on it is that the story is as senseless and chaotic as what you hear on the recordings.

Mahagonny and all of Brecht's other works were outlawed in Germany once the National Socialists took power. Undoubtedly Brecht would have been persecuted and almost definitely murdered had he remained in that country. But it is interesting to note that Brecht himself was a staunch admirer of Joseph Stalin and, when asked about the number of innocent people being killed by the Stalinist purges, he famously replied: "The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to die." Even the deaths of Carola Neher, his former mistress who had starred in his plays, and other former associates at the hands of the Soviet regime did not diminish his support for it. In 1949, he moved to East Germany as a staunch and loyal supporter of that country's Stalinist dictatorship. In other words, Brecht had a mindset that was not much different from the that of the thugs in Germany who disrupted and eventually outlawed his plays - his allegiance was simply with a rival gang.

Personally, I cannot stand the sort of "art" that Brecht championed and I find these recordings to be very unpleasant to listen to. But unlike Nazis and Communists, civilized people do not seek to silence or criminalize art and viewpoints that they disagree with.