Make Believe Ballroom - 5/31/24 Edition

WEBVTT

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It's make believe ballroom time. Put
all your cares away. All the bands

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are here to bring good cheer your
way. It's make believe ballroom time and

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free to everyone. It's no time
to friend your Dalis said Bamba yours.

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Close your eyes and vis you lie
in your solitude. Your favorite bands are

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on list Dance and Mister Miller.
But you're in the mood. It's make

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believe ballroom time. We are of
sweet romance as you make the ball common.

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Joe Last, Dass Last, Hi, folks, I'm Jeff Bresler,

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turning on the lights of the make
Fully Ballroom and welcoming you into my crystal

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studio for yet another hour of the
greatest swing, jazz and big band hits

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of the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. I'm hosting the program to keep the

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music and tradition of past hosts Martin
block Al, Jarvis William B. Williams,

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and the legendaries Steve Allen alive.
Whether you're one of my longtime listeners

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or perhaps a new listener to the
show, I invite you to join me

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for some of the greatest jazz and
swing hits from the big band era.

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Hello, world, and thanks for
joining me on another edition of the Make

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Foley Ballroom broadcasting on the legendary members
supported Jazz ninety point one in Rochester News,

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New York, and via iHeart Podcasts
or your favorite podcast provider. The

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original Make Believe Ballroom broadcast in one
form or another almost continuously since Martin Block

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first took to the airwaves at w
New Radio in New York City back in

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nineteen thirty five. And to get
things swinging on today's show, What better

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way, folks than this last from
Victor Records, Swannee by Bunny Berrigan and

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his orchestra, recorded in New York
City on May the thirteenth, nineteen thirty

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seven. And arrange Bunny and Larry
Clinton. You know I have to spend

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some time on today's program writing some
perceived wrongs. Our old friend, if

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you've been a longtime listener, Norm
Land, who listens to the podcasts of

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this show each week in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, the same norm Land who

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likes to also go by the name
of Believe It or Not, mister McNasty.

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Yes, he certainly relishes that,
and he just can't wait to tell

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me when I make a verbal era
on the Make Bully Ballroom, and he

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found two over the last few weeks, and I'm going to address one of

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those shortly. But first, I
played Swanee by Bunny Bergan as the opening

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tune today, and I mentioned that
Berrigan and bandleader Larry Clinton arrange the song.

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So now a tribute to Larry Clinton
and his orchestra with one of their

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most popular hits. The dipsy Doodle
is a thing to beware. The dypsy

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doodle will get in your hair,
and if it gets you, it couldn't

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be worse. The things you say
will come on and rebverse like you love

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I and we love you. That's
the way the dipsy doodle works. They

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doodle is easy to It's almost always
in the back of your mind. You

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never know where it until it's too
late, and then you're into a terrible

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state like jump o't borrow the cow
hand. And that's the way the dipsy

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doodle works. When you think that
you're crazy, you are the victim of

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the dipsy doodle. But it's not
your mind that's hazy. It's your tongue

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that's a fault, not your noodle. You'd better listen and try to be

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good and try to do all the
things that you should. The gypsy Doodle

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will get you. Some days you'll
think you're crazy, the things that you'll

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say, like rhythm God, I
am hot am I. That's the way

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the dipsy Doodle works. That friends, was dipsy Doodle from the thirty three

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and third RPM album The Uncollected Larry
Clinton on the record Clinton and the Gang,

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with vocal by b Wayne of Dipsy
Doodle, originally recorded back in nineteen

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thirty eight. Now dipsy Doodle if
you want to know about why the song

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received that name. Dipsy Doodle was
Larry Clinton's tribute to the great New York

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Giant baseball pitcher of the eraic Carl
Hebbel and Hubble. He threw a very

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deceptive curveball with a lot of movement
that was christen the dipsy Doodle on the

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sports pages. But the big question
here is that Larry Clinton was born in

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Brooklyn and paid tribute to a New
York Giant and not a Brooklyn Dodger.

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No scholarly research to find out why, and that is certainly understandable. We

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just played dipsy Doodle. So Normland
mister McNasty himself took objection that a few

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weeks back I named a number of
popular small bands or small groups, and

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if I recall from that program,
I mentioned the Benny Goodman Sextet. I

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certainly acknowledged Tommy Dorsey and his Clambake
seven. I'm trying to remember maybe the

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Kansas City six and a few more. But Norm chided me for not a

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whisper about the John Kirby Sextet.
So for you, Norm, I certainly

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wish you Blue Skies Blue. That
was the John Kirby Sextet, Blue Skies

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here on Jazz ninety point one,
celebrating their fiftieth year on the air.

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And now friends who resolved the second
bone, Normland that had a pick with

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me? The eagle eared make Belie
ballroom critic found another egregious era last week

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that after the playing of Jada Jada
by Louis Prima, I also mentioned that

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the song was recorded by, among
others, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong,

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Bobby Hackett, and pee Wee Hunt. Well, it seems I called pee

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Wee Hunt pee Wee Herman, and
I'm sure that the late Pee Wee Herman

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never actually recorded his studio version of
Jada Jada Jing Jing Jing, and that

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I just made a verbal era,
but it's stuck in mister mcnasty's craw,

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so here now to loosen up his
craw or whatever. Pee Wee Hunt an

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original founder along with Glenn Gray of
the Castloma Orchestra with that orchestra, and

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got to get some shut eye.
That's that's the same, that's the same

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through. Got to get some shut
eye. Give the world to go.

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Five, got an awful lot of
dreaming too. Gotta catch some shut high

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where the kisses flow. Five,
got an awful lot of dream to come.

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Gonna let that saying man faith for
me, where stars only hope that

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on lamp lighter lets me hold my
babit tigers. So I'm going one by

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five, catch myself some shut high. Got an awful lot of dreaming to

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do from Decca Records. Got to
get some shut eye by Glenn Gray and

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the Castlona Orchestra vocal by p we
Hunt, recorded February seventeenth, nineteen thirty

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nine. And with that, I
hope normaland that settles up our accounts.

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Whether you want to praise or like
norm Land criticize to make believe ballroom in

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good fun. I hope I'm easy
to reach it. Jeff at MakeBelieve Ballroom

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Radio dot com. That's Jeff at
MakeBelieve Ballroom Radio dot com and believe me.

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Normland Friends is a dedicated listener who, on rare occasions sometimes does,

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indeed in his own way, praise
the program. Now on Jazz ninety point

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one in Rochester, New York,
I posit a question to you which legendary

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Big band era and beyond performer just
this past April hit a category within the

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Billboard charts that registered at number one. Who with roots in the Big band

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era had a Billboard number one album
this past April. I will tell you

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that after this you must walk and
rid the land in sleep and talking reservoir.

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Right now everybody is German for how
it makes your tempert, your rise

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way up to the skies and none. It all goes right now to your

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toes. Marvelous jam man gets you
in the crouse. Then your knees begin

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to move and before you know you're
damning. Take your highbrow ballet musicast friend,

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what we want to session of Damn
That was on the Victor Records offshoot

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their Master Records Division Jammin by Franklin
Marx and his orchestra vocal by Al Darcy,

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recorded in New York City, April
the twentieth, nineteen thirty seven.

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Franklin Marx had his own band for
just a little while, and through his

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life was more recognized as a skilled
composer and arranger, especially for films.

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He worked for about twenty years,
I think for the Disney Studios, where

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he crafted some great hits for both
their cartoons and regular films. Franklin Marx

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so before Jammin. I asked the
question what legendary big band era and beyond

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performer just this past April hit a
category within the Billboard charts that registered at

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number one, and the answer is
one Francis Albert Sinatra. Hasn't released any

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new music obviously for many years,
but his name still regularly appears on a

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number of Billboard charts. Now,
Sinatra doesn't just continue to chart these days,

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though, he's actually a dominating a
handful of rankings, as the music

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he released during his lifetime remains incredibly
a popular to this very day, not

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just here in the United States,
but all across the world. The beloved

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singer was back at number one on
two Billboard rankings. This past April,

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Sinatra's Greatest Hits compilation Ultimate Sinatra rose
to number one on both the Jazz Albums

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and Traditional Jazz Album's charts, And
that is pretty amazing. The Ultimate Sinatra

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album, which I have a copy
of in CD form, it really covered

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his full body of work. There's
over one hundred songs on that album.

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But since the Make Believe Ballroom plays
big bands of the thirties and forties,

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let's stick to Sinatra during his Tommy
Dorsey run from nineteen forty to nineteen forty

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two. And here from a radio
broadcast, we have Sinatra singing with the

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Tommy Dorsey Orchestra back in nineteen forty
and after that a story of my personal

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encounter with the Chairman of the Board
himself back in the mid nineteen eighties.

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Fame and fortune. One simple little
metal he made done the train. I

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know we are listening to the tune
of its great deal to do with sending

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us on our way to fame,
and here to being your listening to.

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Well, it's Frank Sinatra to sing
the ever popular Murray, all right,

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might take it on the rate Desertsberry
Great warming Bury, my streams thy way,

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I mean to find fault in here
I go Friday again, A mean

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not a paper on the night as
we're gonna market kids way, A very

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spoken that game produce all and living
in a great big way. That was

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Marie, one of Frank Sinatra's most
famous hits with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

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And I told you before I played
that clip, I was going to tell

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you about my encounter with Frank Sinatra
back in the mid nineteen eighties. I

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was at one time the vice president
of development for a large national youth program,

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and we were at a dinner at
the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York

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City, honoring the late Walter Annenberg, who was Ronald Reagan's ambassador to England,

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but more significantly, the founder his
family founded Triangle Publications, which for

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several decades published the weekly television Bible
that so many of us relied on to

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determine what we were going to watch
on the television. I'm talking about TV

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Guide. Aninburgh founded a TV guide. Well, he wanted Sinatra to come

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to the dinner, not to perform
at all, but to offer an opening

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toast Annenburg and Sinatra very close friends, as they both lived in the Palm

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Springs area in California. So we
got in touch with Sinatra through Annenberg's office

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and he kindly obliged to come from
California to go to the dinner, and

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I had the chance to spend some
time with Sinatra to go over the program

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and his toast. Earlier in the
day before the dinner, Frank was staying

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in a suite in the Waldorf Historia, and I think that suite, even

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though Frank was spending the great majority
of his time in California, was still

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perpetually held for him in New York
City, and Frank graciously invited myself,

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my team, and the president of
the organization up to that suite to discuss

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the evening's activities well later on in
the day. In the evening, I

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was checking out the Grand Ballroom to
make sure everything was in place for the

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dinner, when mister Lefkowitz, who
was one of the legendary Waldorf Historia Matred's,

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asked me if I wanted to place
a bottle of Jack Daniels by Sinatra's

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seat at his table. I said
sure, but when left Goowitz gave me

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the price of the bottle. It
was, as with anything at the Waldorf

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Historia priced astronomically, it was a
lot of money to spend. I'm sure

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back then it was probably thirty dollars. Today would probably be five hundred dollars.

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So I told Lefkowitz to put the
bottle down before I go on.

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Just as an aside, there were
two things that Frank Sinatra really loved that

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carried him through his entire life.
One was Jack Daniels and the other was

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Bulvar watches. So a few minutes
later, after we had the encounter about

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the bottle of Jack Daniels, I
went to the men's room at the hotel

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and opulent a men's room it was, indeed, since it was in the

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Waldorf, and Sinatra walked into the
men's room to do obviously what he had

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to do. So where is all
of this leading? So I went to

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wash my hands and Sinatra was finished
and also came to the sink and told

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me not to go anywhere. And
when Francis Albert Sinatra confronts you in a

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men's room and tells you not to
go anywhere, you stay in place.

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So when we were both done in
the men's room, he reached into his

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tuxedo, his inner breast pocket,
and he pulled out an envelope and he

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gave it to me, and he
said it was for the kids. And

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after that we both left, and
I didn't see Sinatra again until the dinner.

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I opened the envelope outside and it
was a check for thirty one thousand

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dollars. And that was no small
amount in the late nineteen eighties given to

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the youth program I worked for.
So Sinatra, as legend has it,

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was a true friend to so many
and a huge philanthropist, so I think,

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and I'm sure I was the first
fundraising professional ever to receive a major

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donation from a donor in any form
of bathroom anywhere in the world. And

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I guess the humongous amount we spent
on a bottle of Jack Daniels was minuscule,

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indeed, next to the generosity of
one Francis Albert Sinatra and his concern

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for those youth that we served.
Little Frank Sinatra story here on the radio

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via Jazz ninety point one in Rochester. Also streaming ninety point one is the

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full line of programs twenty four hours
a day, seven days a week on

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the iHeartRadio app, and you can
hear past episodes of the Make Believe Ballroom

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on iHeart or on any podcast platform
you listen to. And for whatever reason,

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00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:23.000
though, I think iHeart has the
best sound quality out there overall for

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live streaming of radio or for the
playing of podcasts. Benny Goodman's story coming

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up next. That was the nineteen
thirty nine recording of the King of Swing,

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Benny Goodman and his orchestra Let's Dance, the official Goodman theme song,

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And I played that tune because last
week I spoke about Benny's famed nineteen thirty

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eight Carnegie Hall concert that really brought
swing into the mainstream, not making a

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difference whether you were lower class,
middle class, or upper class. The

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Carnegie Hall concert brought everybody together.
But another event that year was also a

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game changer for big bands and Goodman
especially, and it took place some months

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before the Carnegie Hall concert. As
many of you know, Goodman and the

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band put swing on the map at
a nineteen thirty five gig at the famed

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Palomar Ballroom in California. From there
on, Benny's popular already continued to grow

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and grow, both on the radio, on records and performing live in ballrooms

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all across the United States. There
was, though, becoming a big pent

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up demand to see Goodman. Goodman's
agents knew this, and they booked Benny

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into the Paramount Theater on forty third
Street and Broadway in New York City for

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a two week run. Now,
let's look for a second at today's music

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groups versus the swing era bands today. Maybe a new record release followed up

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with a tour for a few months
a year. But in order for Benny

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Goodman to fulfill his obligation at the
Paramount, the orchestra had to play five

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daily theater shows and then they had
to end the night because they had another

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obligation at the Manhattan Room at the
New Yorker Hotel. That's six shows every

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day, and the Paramount shows began
in the morning, So the band probably

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finished at the Manhattan Room probably around
two am, and then just got a

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couple of hours sleep before they had
to appear at the Paramount. So the

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Paramount was a movie theater first and
foremost the biggest in the United States.

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But the theater manager, Bob Whiteman, came up with this revolutionary idea of

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mixing big band concerts with the movies, so under Whiteman's creativity, the movie

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would play. Then a rising orchestra
bandstand ascended from the basement of the Paramount

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like an elevator, and it came
up to rest on the stage of the

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theater. So when Benny played the
Paramount for that first show, he started

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with the song I just played Let's
Dance. The song started in the basement

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was muffled, I'm sure, But
then as the stage rose up towards the

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theater, the music grew louder and
louder, and folks, can you imagine

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being in the audience and seeing and
hearing that It must have been spectacular to

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hear the band play as they rose
up into the theater, and think about

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the band, think about the band, hearing the muffled applause, and then

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the full throat of a thunderous applause
and whistles as the orchestra and the bandstand

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finally reached its destination in the theater. Much more to this story, but

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first, as chronicled, after the
band descended to Let's Dance, Benny opened

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the show with this one any the
everything that was Bugle called Rag. The

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first song after Let's Dance that Benny
Goodman played at his historic Paramount Theater engagement

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in March of nineteen thirty seven.
Now why was this engagement historic. Well,

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prior to the Paramount, the only
people who saw Goodman live in ballrooms

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were adults and college kids who were
deemed old enough to attend. Teenagers never

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saw Benny Goodman in person, and
they had to enjoy the music either through

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records or on the radio. So
the first day of the Paramount gig,

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the band arrived at the theater at
seven am to rehearse before the opening show,

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and many of them were amazed because
at seven there were already several hundred

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teens lined up waiting to buy tickets, with those numbers continuing to swell to

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the point that some police protection was
needed to keep things in line. So,

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to make a long story short,
that first day that first appearpearance at

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the Paramount, over twenty one thousand
youngsters attended the five shows. A record.

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This very interesting, It is like
a Guinness Book of records. A

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record nine hundred dollars worth of nickel
candy bars were sold and the kids,

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the teenagers jammed near the stage and
they were dancing in the aisles. I

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guess fire codes for fire marshals and
inspectors were pretty sketchy at the time,

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and I wouldn't doubt that the theater
was probably over capacity for each show.

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Goodman extended the two week run at
the Paramount by one week, and it

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said he would have stayed even longer
if the band didn't have prior commitments across

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the country that needed to be fulfilled. Many say that the Paramount performances cemented

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even further Benny's moniker of King of
Swing and the Paramonts A White Man became

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as a result of his Benny Goodman
concerts mixed with movies, The Father of

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big band theater performances. One more
by Benny from the radio The Walk Jenny

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Walk, from a nineteen thirty five
radio broadcast of Betty Goodman's Let's Dance Program

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and now on this program, the
original Make Believe Ballroom broadcast on member supported

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00:46:49.760 --> 00:47:29.920
Jazz ninety point one. I invite
you to listen to this selection. Father

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first, holding Hazard mid Night needs
the starry Sky. Nice word if you

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can get it, and you can
get it if you try strolling with the

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one boy Dying Sian to sie niaus
work if you can get it, and

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you can get it if you try. Just imagine someone waiting at the cottage

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door when't you hard become one who
could ask for anything more, loving one

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who loves you, and then taking
that downius work if you can get it,

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and if you get it, won't
you tell me how? Folks?

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I mentioned Tommy Dorsey and His clam
Bake seven earlier in the show, so

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I decided to play one from the
very same That was the classic Ira and

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George Gershwin hit Nice work, if
you could get it Tommy Dorsey and His

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clam Bake seven vocal by Edith Wright, recorded in New York City, October

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fourteenth, nineteen thirty seven. And
now hey, why not go back to

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back? Dancing back you back takes
you up the beaten track. You don't

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look at your partner at all when
you dance back you back. That's that

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new attack that the other who dances
black. You can see what goes on

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in the hall when you dance back
you back. Your partner won't see you

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make guys that who dancify. Your
partner won't mind he's doing the same.

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That's why you must dance back to
back. Let me place you in the

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pack the cards loved you a Queen
and attack back to back. I said,

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let's go back to back, so
fittingly I played the tune back to

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Back Irving Berlin, composed and here
recorded on Bluebird Records by Glenn Miller and

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his orchestra vocal by Marion Hutton from
back in nineteen thirty nine, the tune

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back to Back. And now as
I look at the big bull of a

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clock on the wall here in the
Crystal studio, I see, well,

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unfortunately we are just about out of
time. And gee, I never got

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to play a Ralphie from Canarsi Record
Club Selection or two, which I like

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to play for you every week on
the program. But we were still productive

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00:52:52.519 --> 00:53:00.519
with a Frank Sinatra laboratory story,
as well as the tale of Benny Goodman's

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initial performances in New York City's Paramount
Theater. If you'd like to reach me

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like Norm Land did earlier in the
show, I'm Jeff at MakeBelieve Ballroom Radio

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00:53:10.840 --> 00:53:16.119
dot com. That's Jeff at MakeBelieve
Ballroom Radio dot com. And also,

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00:53:16.360 --> 00:53:21.679
if you missed any part of this
episode of the Ballroom, it can be

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00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:28.480
streamed on your favorite podcast platform,
So until next week, members supported Jazz

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00:53:28.719 --> 00:54:00.159
ninety point one. This has been
Jeff Bresler, the