The Jerry Lewis Telethon - 1964

This was posted in 2010 during the Labor Day Weekend, which has always made me think of Jerry Lewis and his Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy. I’m probably not alone in this, as most of us baby boomers were raised with the TV on and our families tuning in to the show; if only to see how much money was coming in.

So, this is my memory of the telethon’s history and the tear my family actually participated; collected money and brought it to the hotel in Manhattan where the telethon was being held. It was pretty exciting stuff to a 10 year old.

I remember when the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon was a local, one station affair broadcast from the Americana Hotel in New York City. This year is being touted as the 45th Annual Telethon, but I can tell you that this is incorrect.

The telethon began in 1956, with Jerry Lewis and his partner, Dean Martin, hosting a show on WNEW-TV in New York. They raised $600,000 to benefit the newly found Muscular Dystrophy Association of America. Again in 1957 and 1959, Jerry did two more shows, which he began calling “telethons.” These were the days when TV actually went off the air at about 1 or 2 in the morning, so the telethon was a huge event. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to see if it was really still on! And upon waking in the morning it was the first thing I checked.

Another aspect of those early telethons, which I found fascinating, was that at night pledges came in from faraway places such as Connecticut and even Philadelphia! The TV signal during the daylight hours was very short range, but at night I could pick up Channel 3 in Philadelphia. I suppose they had discovered the same thing about signals from New York.

When I was 10; and this would be 1964; my parents, along with my brother and I, collected for MDA and then went to the Americana to join in the long line waiting to dump their donations in the big carts that were set up inside the hotel hallway on the ground floor. I believe it was just outside the doors to the space that was being used for the Telethon. The 1966 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon was the first to be held on Labor Day weekend and the first to raise more than $1 million.

The Telethon has grown larger over the years. I believe the 1966 date for today's so-called 45th Telethon represents the date of the first broadcast from New York that was linked to other cities, like Philadelphia. Eventually the Telethon left WNEW in New York for WOR-TV and then finally moved to Las Vegas. But nothing will ever compare to the close knit feeling of those first few years when one little station in New York gave birth to this annual event.

Irish / Italian Medley - Bing Crosby and Dean Martin

I could not upload Bing Crosby doing "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral" from "Going My Way" with Barry Fitzgerald. The only other movie which is as Irish as that one is probably "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, but they don't sing. There is a pub scene where the locals sing songs, but that clip is also unavailable.

So, while looking around for something appropriate to post for St. Patrick's Day, I found this cool little clip from Bing Crosby’s show in 1958, with Bing and Dean Martin trading Irish and Italian songs. 

They actually end with a bit of "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral". Along the way they hit some favorites numbers, among them "Torna a Surriento", "My Wild Irish Rose", "Oh Marie", "Galway Bay", "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral"  and "O Solo Mio" with a bit of light banter thrown in.

You can view Bing Crosby singing Barry Fitzgerald to sleep in "Going My Way" by hitting this link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZYZspnmOdI   

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Éirinn go Brách!

Sammy Davis, Jr. - Entertainer.

You need only one word to describe the essence of Sammy Davis, Jr; that word is Entertainer; with a capital E and a period at the end. Fluent in the arts of singing, dancing, impressionism, and everything in between, Mr. Davis is one of those who came out of the last days of vaudeville; touring with his Uncle in the Will Maston Trio at the age of 3. The man was literally born on stage. And then dominated it, in spite of racial and physical difficulties which would make it hard even in today's enlightened era.

After serving in the army during the 2nd World War Mr. Davis took to the stage and from there went on to Hollywood and Las Vegas. It was during that period when he made the acquaintance of Frank Sinatra, beginning a friendship which would last until the two men died. Sinatra was the one who brought Mr. Davis into the fabled Las Vegas "Rat Pack", making him part of a legend even while they were still performing.

His solo career soared after the release of his first #1 single "Hey There" in the early 1950's. With his signature voice and suave style of performance it was not too long before he was headlining on that new medium, television.

This film is from one of the literally hundreds of TV appearances he made during the late 1950's and 1960's. I don't know which show it's from; if you recognize it please let me know. What really makes this a great clip to watch is that it's longer than the average 3 minutes, and Mr. Davis gets to show off his unique range of talents.

To really hear Mr. Davis at his best; using his fantastic vocal power and range; then listen to this song which is usually associated with Robert Goulet; the heckler is Frank Sinatra. The recording was made in Chicago in October 1963. And, for a really good book on Mr. Davis' life, I'd recommend his autobiography, "Yes, I Can."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhJkEMapV_0

"The Best of the Dean Martin Variety Show" - (2001)

Sit back and get ready to enjoy the shortest hour ever in front of your television. Dean Martin was a very unusual guy, with very unusual demands to be met if he were to even do the show that the network pitched at him. He was not expected to rehearse, could choose his guests, and not even sing if he felt so inclined. You would've expected the network to turn him down, and you would have been wrong.

This was 1965, the year after Dino had boasted to his son that “I’m gonna knock the Beatles off the charts” in the summer of 1964, as the country; indeed the world; was in the throes of Beatlemania. And guess what? Not only did he make good on that promise; with the smash recording “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”; but The Dean Martin Show was still on the air 5 years after the Beatles had released their last album in 1970.

In this fast paced collection of some of the finest moments from the show Dean performs with old pal Frank Sinatra, Ann Margaret, Jack Benny and more. But the best bit on here is the lesson provided by Victor Borge on how to sing musical notations, using sounds for commas, colons, and quotation marks to name a few. Now, this was Mr. Borge's  original skit, and it's really fantastic how quickly Dino adapts to the routine, even adding a few “notations” of his own in the bargain.

If you are a Dean Martin fan; or even if you have never seen him perform before; this will be one of the fastest hours you have ever spent in front of your television. And, whether you are young or old, this will have you longing for the return of the old variety shows which used to dominate TV land.

The Frank Sinatra Spectacular - 1965

The night before this TV special was recorded in St. Louis for a charity benefit in 1965, Joey Bishop slipped a disc in his back. While this was bad for Mr. Bishop, it was a wonderful opportunity for Johnny Carson, the King of late night TV at the time, to work with one of the hottest acts in entertainment history.  Acting as the emcee for, and sometimes performing with, the legendary trio was one of the self-confessed highlights of Mr. Carson’s long and storied career in show business.

The show was recorded and beamed live via closed circuit TV to selected movie theaters across the country on June 20^th, 1965. The broadcast originated at the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis.

Whatever else needs to be explained about this video is done in Mr. Carson’s introduction to the show. So, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy it!

The Beatles - February 1964

On February 7, 1964, the Beatles were heading over the Atlantic, towards America, on Pan Am Flight 101. With them were their manager, Brian Epstein; roadies/friends Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall; also the infamous Phil Spector and his wife Ronnie, and The Ronettes. They were accompanied by a few journalists. None of them had any idea of what was awaiting for them upon their arrival.

Surprisingly, they had only received word the previous week that they had the Number 1 Record on America's Billboard chart for several weeks already. This lack of knowledge, on their part, was one of the main reasons that Brian Epstein had signed The Beatles for 4 shows, contracted at Union Scale, on the Ed Sullivan Show. In between they would be making a limited amount of stops in America, "testing the waters", as it were. And those waters were boiling!

I only mention this because history has a way of repeating itself. I have been on a Dean Martin binge for a few weeks now. That, in itself, is not unusual, as I am a huge Dean Martin fan. His voice is like a single malt whiskey; pure and aged in oak, and then aged again, making it extra mellow. It's the timing that is surprising.

Just as he did in 1964, Dean Martin has done it again. At the height of Beatlemania, in 1964, he upstaged them with the number one hit "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime", which became his iconic, signature song, even replacing "That's Amore" in popularity, as well as sales. And now, 48 years later, my Dino binge eclipsed the anniversary of the Beatles arrival in America.

But, "give the devil its due", the Beatles were a lasting influence on an entire generation, and so it would be wrong to fail to mention them this week. It was 48 years ago when these guys stormed America. I still remember watching them, sitting in the living room, on the Ed Sullivan Show. Those were still the days of one TV households, and we all watched the show together. My parents and brother said they were a fad, with long hair and collarless, or "cardigan", jackets. Except for me, and millions of other kids; we felt the magic; so enjoy the above video of the Beatles doing "I Saw Here Standing There", and "Long Tall Sally", from Swedish TV in October of 1963, several months before they came to America. The energy is fantastic.

And here is one of the Beatles doing "Revolution" in the studio "live" in 1968 for the David Frost Show in England. It was later re-broadcast here on the Smothers Brothers Show in September of that year, along with "Hey Jude." Not bad, for a "fad."

Dean Martin - Live 1964

I am taking the day off; I have a sore throat, so it hurts when I type. This is a most unusual clip of Dean Martin from a 1964 TV special which I have never seen. What makes it so unusual is the slow, almost jazz-like, deliveries of the standards which Mr. Martin performs here.

"Everybody Loves Somebody", which had been previously released in this slower version in the late 1940's, was currently topping the charts, even eclipsing the Beatles in that pivotal year. So, I have to wonder why he chose to do the older arrangement. Mr. Martin initially resisted the turning of the tide towards rock n' roll, even telling his 14 year old son, Dean, "I'm gonna' knock your 'pallies' off the charts." On August 15, 1964 he did it; topping the Billboard charts for about 8 weeks with "Everybody Loves Somebody"; right in the middle of Beatlemania.

His soulful renditions of "Volare", and "On an Evening in Roma", are among his most earthy performances of those numbers. Never ceasing to clown around, and clearly a bit inebriated, he manages to slip in a reference to Jerry Lewis, as well as to kid his piano player, Ken Lane, who wrote "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime", before closing with a short, but very bluesy rendition of "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You".

Enjoy the show; they just don't make 'em like this anymore....

Dean Martin - The Capitol Years

I have always been a fan of Dean Martin. I love the arrangements and of course, the singing. Dean Martin is one of the "whiskey throated" smooth voiced singers of the 1940's through the 1960's. Along with Nat King Cole, Mr. Martin was largely influenced by the sound of Bing Crosby in his phrasing of the lyrics, as compared to the earlier stylings of singers such as Rudy Valee. That difference in styling marked the change from "crooning" to what we now consider real singing.

This double CD has it all, including Nat King Cole and Dean Martin's rousing duet of "Open Up the Dog House" to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis singing "Every Street's a Boulevard", from the 1954 soundtrack of "Living It Up." The pop hits with orchestral backings are a refreshing change from the Top 40 sounds that comes over today's radio. They don't write songs like "I'd Cry Like A Baby" anymore. I'd wager, that if that recording were ever released as a single today, it would top the charts. Laugh if you will, but remember, this is the voice that knocked The Beatles off of the Top Ten in the summer of 1964 with "You're Nobody Til Someday Loves You." Who'd have thought?

Some of my favorite tracks, as usual, are the "previously unreleased" stuff, which gives you a chance to see where the hits came from. It's a glimpse into the creative process that lends an extra attraction to the listening experience. It's the stuff I prefer to hear in my car, where it all seems so personal.

The disc covers every genre of Mr. Martin's unique talent during the years 1949 - 1957. It includes such hits as "Sleepy Old New England Town" and "Solitaire", with their sweet sentimentality, to the rollicking renditions of "Beau James" and "Good Morning Life." And with 40 selections to chose from this collection still manages to keep you in the mood for more.

"Hollywood In A Suitcase" by Sammy Davis, Jr.

It has been 30 years since this book was written. Mr. Davis was 54 years old when he wrote it. It's fortunate for us that he did as he passed away in 1989 at the pre-mature age of 64. And with his passing we would have missed out on alot of great memories and stories of Hollywood during the 1950's and 60's.

Unlike his first book "Yes I Can", which was released in 1965 (My Mom had it and I read it then as well as in my 20's) this one is not "ghostwritten" and doesn't seem to even have a co-editor. It is a book shot "straight from the hips." There are a few errors here and there concerning dates, but they are forgiveable.

Mainly the book is a collection of Mr. Davis' memories of his friends and the people who really helped him overcome barriers, both racial and later physical, as he struggled to make the transition from Vaudeville to Hollywood. Readers of "Yes I Can" will already be familiar with his early years as part of the Will Mastin Trio, of which he became a member at age 3. This is a man with show business truly in his blood. That first book also covered his service in Alabama during World War Two as well as the tragic car accident which cost him an eye.

This book is not a memoir, it is a collection of stories. Some of the best involve his friendships with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, John Wayne and of course, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He has an uncanny ability to "spill the beans" concerning some of these legends without being offensive or even intrusive about it. Perhaps it is the honesty with which he reviews his own life that makes it work without seeming to be a "kiss and tell" type book.

His freindships with Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, Judy Garland and others are equally fascinating as they were all during a time when racial tensions were high. There were times when this caused danger for Mr. Davis as well as his freinds.

The most enjoyable part of this book for me was the insight into Bogart and how his freindship helped open doors for Mr. Davis in Hollywood. And the introduction of Sammy Davis to Frank Sinatra is interesting in and of itself. The whole book is written without pretense and in a very personal way, like a freind telling you stories. It seems as if this man never lost his humility, and yet he was able to dominate an entertainment arena that was, for the most part, "whites only." What a contrast!

For fans of Sammy Davis, Jr. and Hollywood in general, this book is a quick read and an unusual look at some of the legends that Mr. Davis was privleged to have worked alongside. An ideal read for a rainy day.