Sept. 12, 2025

Make Believe Ballroom - 9/12/25 Edition

Show Notes
Transcript

This week's Make Believe Ballroom with Jeff Bressler brings you Classic Big Band Hits from the 30s and 40s - a Duke Ellington story, a listener's famous big band relative, an underrated vocal group, a song and dance that was not as it appeared - plus many more great records and stories to cherish and enjoy on this week's program.

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It's make Believe Ballroom time.

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Put all your cares away.

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All the bands are here to bring good cheer your way.

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It's make Belief Ballroom time and free to everyone. It's

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no time to friend your Dalis said Bombas, close your.

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Eyes and visual lie in your solitude.

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Your favorite bands are on.

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This stance and mister Miller, but you're in the mood.

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It's make Believe Ballroom time. We are a sweet romance

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is to make the bottom come on till the last

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dass last.

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Hello world, I'm Jeff Presler, turning on the lights of

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the Make Believe Ballroom and welcoming you into my Crystal

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studio for another program of classic big band hits from

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the nineteen thirties and forties. Get ready as I play

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for you some amazing big band jazz, swing, blues, and

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boogie woogie favorites. Folks, you're listening to the Make Believe Ballroom,

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broadcasting almost continuously since nineteen thirty five. And Hi, folks,

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welcome into my Crystal studio for starters. Today, I'm dusting

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off the jacket of an old seventy eight A record.

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I don't think I ever played on the Make Believe

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Ballroom recorded by Joe Venudi and his Orchestra on October

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the thirteenth, nineteen thirty three, in New York for Victor

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Records and released on Bluebird. Everybody shuffle Joe Venudi and

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his Orchestra, Why don't they stick with another? Great violinist.

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Jovenudi was considered by many to be the best. But

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this guy could also play the fiddle as a Venudi equal.

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Now, first you call call the pianist, and you call

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a drummer.

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Man boy, pick up that old.

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To to and swing called swing so bad hands.

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Then you add a little nassal trumpet.

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Pull out all your muses.

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I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there isn't any.

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Need for news.

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Now. All we needed turning more nails to give a.

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Demonstration of the thing gone jam, what's wrong with the fiddle?

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I did a little God jumped over them. Hey, hey, put.

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Your hearts where they belong from.

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All folks joining this on, pat your hands and shop

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with please God.

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This Indie all Extreme.

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Recorded by Stuff Smith and his Onyx club Boys on

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March fourth, nineteen thirty seven, in New York City for

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Decca Records. I certainly hope you enjoyed just listening to

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the Onyx club spree. I'm Jeff Bresler and you're listening

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to the one, the only, the original Make Believe Ballroom,

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And now I think I want to play for you.

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Glenn Miller's last and final number one hit record before

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he went into the military and disbanded the orchestra. Unfortunately,

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as we all know, Glenn Miller went missing in action

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and declared deceased when a plane he was on over

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France went down. This record was, as I mentioned, the

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last of his twenty three number one hits, and that's amazing.

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Those twenty three hits all came in a short four

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year period.

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M that all black mancheck has.

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Me it spell.

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That ole black manjic that you weed.

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It's so.

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Those eyes see.

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Things up and down, my spy. The same of will

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rave when you're aw mid may.

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The same mold.

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Mad me inside and then the busts.

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It's rough.

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And not and not like clo.

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And run igle go.

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That's call the time.

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I should stay.

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But what can I.

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Your name.

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And I'm a flame, a flame.

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Inside a burning design.

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Then only age.

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And out the fall.

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For you the Lord for me that mame ha me.

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For andvery time your lip sweet my.

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Darling, and.

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I long I go.

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Spa loving the speed under that Old black Magic.

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Cool recorded on Victor Records. That Old black Magic by

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Glenn Miller and his orchestra vocal by Skip Nelson and

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the Modernaires, recorded in Chicago, July the fifteenth, nineteen forty two.

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And just as a side note, that Old black Magic,

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written by Harold Arlin and Johnny Mercer, was Miller's last

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hit and also the first time that song That Old

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Black Magic was ever recorded. This is Jeff Bresler. I'm

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in the Crystal Studio and I welcome you to this

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week's Make Believe Ballroom. Listener's email will be coming your

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way in just a moment, but first I want to

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tell you a quick Duke Ellington story. You know when

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most well known tales were told during the Big Band era, Well, honestly,

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some were greatly embellished, to say the least. It's not

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exactly like everyone had a smartphone to record these spontaneous

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episodes to share on social media or with friends. I

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guess it was like that old game. A lot of

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us played the old game of telephone, and that when

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the story finally got to you, it was totally different

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than it was at the start. So a story is

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told that Ellington's orchestra went out to eat during a

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train station stop on their way to a gig. When

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they were done, they came back to find their train

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had already departed, unfortunately with all their instruments on board.

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And it said that Ellington actually had to borrow horns

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from a local high school for that night's concert. So

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I've heard and read this story with a ton of

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different versions, attributed many cases to bands other than Ellington,

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So I don't know if the story is true or not.

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One thing, though, is true for sure, the Duke did

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know something about trains.

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Not more than.

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A pounded. I founded amoment.

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From Victor records, and I know you were able to

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feel that train engine roaring along in motion along the

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steel rails and then slowing into the station. That was

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Daybreak Express. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded in Chicago,

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December fourth, nineteen thirty three. And now let's go with

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Duke from Union Station in Chicago to the subways of

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New York City. My Mamma, the Duke Ellington famous Orchestra

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take the a train recorded in Hollywood, California, February fifteenth,

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nineteen forty one. For Victor records the a train, that

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famous subway that went through Manhattan and up to Harlem. Folks,

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to reach me here in the crystal studio of the

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Make Believe Ballroom, all you have to do is write

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to Jeff at MakeBelieve Ballroomradio dot com. That's Jeff at

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MakeBelieve Ballroomradio dot com. And before I read a listener's email,

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quick update for you to hear past shows in this series.

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I always tell you to go to Make Believe Ballroom

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podcast dot com. Make Believe Ballroom podcast dot com, and

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so many of you do, but that is no longer

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the case for past shows. Now you could go to

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make Believe Ballroom dot com. Very simple, let's MakeBelieve Ballroom

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dot com. You know, somebody was actually holding onto that

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email address for I don't know, I think it was

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the last eleven years or so, but he or she

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finally gave it up. So for the website and past

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shows once again, just go now to make Believe Ballroom

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dot com a whole lot easier. And now that listener's

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email I mentioned, I would read to you, and it

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is from Lyle Josephson who listens via Jazz ninety point

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one in Rochester. So many email from that great station

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and he writes, Hi, Jeff, longtime listener. My father's great

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uncle was a gentleman named Dick Robertson. He was a singer,

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a songwriter and had his own band. He was very

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popular in the early to mid nineteen thirties. Like many

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members of my family, he was born in Brooklyn. Later

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in life he lived on Long Island. I think he

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passed in the late seventies. If you have one of

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his records, it would be nice to hear him sing,

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Thanks well, thank you, Lyle. Dick Robertson was a popular singer,

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and as Lyle said, he did sing with the best

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of them in the early to mid thirties of vocalists

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such as Chick Bullock and Scrappy Lambert that we play

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several times a year on the show or his equals

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at the time. He did, indeed, also have his own band.

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So let me play one by Dick Robertson.

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Out of the river comes a melancholie whale. Trees are

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a shiver, even the moon turns pale. Louisville Lady holding

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as she drifts along.

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I was a man?

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Why did I do her wrong?

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Or Louis Lady, forgive me for being untroull.

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Now that you're gone?

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How can I without you?

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Louis the Lady won't judisten too?

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Might be.

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I'm out of the river.

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Don't say goodbye to me?

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Recorded by Dick Robertson and his orchestra in July of

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nineteen thirty three, four Gem Records, Louisville Lady vocal by

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Dick Robertson, real sultry sounding early nineteen thirties record. Dick Robertson,

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as Lyle mentioned, was also an accomplished songwriter who wrote

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this memorable tune, We three.

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We're all.

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Living in a memory, myckle, my shadowy.

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We three, we're not a crawl, We're not even commonly

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my mickle, my shadow.

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And me. What good is the moonlight?

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The sil very moonlight that shines aboard.

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I walk with my shadow, I talk with my echo.

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But where is the one?

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My lord?

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We three.

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Will wait for you, eave until it turny. My eckle,

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my shadow.

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And me.

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We three, we're all alone, seem like we're living in

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our memory. That's my echo, my shadow.

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And me.

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We three, we ain't no crowd. Fact is we ain't

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even company. That's my echo, my shadow.

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And me.

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You know I've been wondering what good is the moonlight,

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that silvery moonlight that shines we way up above here'all

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walk with my shadow, A talk with my echo. But

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where is that girl that I love?

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Three?

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Three will wait for you.

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Pee until it talkty.

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My echo, my shadow, wam.

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Me week three, My echo, My shadow and Me by

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the Ink Spots, Recorded on Deco Records in nineteen forty

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the number one hit on your Hit Parade and written

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by Dick Robertson. And thank you so much, Lyele Josephson

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for your email and introducing us to your relative, Dick Robertson.

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Book Book Book Click.

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Cook Don't Don't Do They.

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Do Don't, Recorded in New York on February the third,

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nineteen thirty seven on Victor Records. Benny Goodman clarinet, Teddy

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Wilson piano, Lyle Hampton on the vibes, Gene Croup of

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the drums, the Benny Goodman Quartet with T four to two.

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Strangely enough, that song about tea for two got me

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to thinking about well actually thinking about coffee for one,

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So as I step away to pop a pod into

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the curric could there be a better time to introduce

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to you and give me a quick break at the

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same time, The one, the only, the producer emeritus of

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the Make Believe Ballroom, the virtuoso of the virtual turntable.

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I'm talking about mister personality himself. Lenny from down the

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Block in Tampa, Florida with his record pick of the week.

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Hi gang, Lenny from down the block here with my

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record pick of the week. Six Hits and a Miss

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was a vocal group active mainly in the late nineteen

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thirties and nineteen forties. The group was originally formed in

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nineteen thirty six and featured six male singers they were

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deemed the Hits, and one female singer, who was known

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as the Miss. They were popular for their close harmony, singing,

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upbeat novelty numbers, and swing era arrangements. They performed on

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radio made recordings and appeared in films, most notably with

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Bing Crosby K. Keiser and in a number of Warner

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Brothers cartoons of the nineteen forties. Six Hits and a

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Miss were compared to groups like the Mary Max and

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the Modern Airs. The group frequently changed personnel over the years. Today, guys,

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I don't have a record but a radio remote featuring

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six hits in a mis. It is from Bob Hopes

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Pepsiden Show, originally broadcast on December twenty seventh, nineteen thirty eight.

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The song is Crazy Rhythm, and the group is accompanied

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by Skinny Innis and his orchestra.

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On do it On on.

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CITHM.

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Here's the doorway, I'll come.

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My way, you'll go your way, Crazy rhythm.

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From now on where to crazy Rhythm.

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This is where we have a showdown. I'm too I

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hat you're too low down Crazy Rhythm.

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Here's goodbye to you. They say that when I bound.

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Me so low bow walking along godway, soon that I.

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Brown he has no prout.

250
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He to the shame and join to blame them.

251
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What's the use of prohibition? You produce the same condition

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Crazy Rhythm. Here's good bye to you Crazy.

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It's crazy pism my god, crazy, just deal it.

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Just this deem you just just deem.

255
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Yeay, crazy rhandom in doorway, take.

256
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My way, passed your way, Crazy.

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Rhythm, And now I'm We're through with you.

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Do you know crazy random to show down and I God,

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you're the low brown crazy rhythm. It's goodbye, here's goodbye

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you farewell Tom.

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When at I down to loro wogging along broad Way.

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Oh we'll have a back you're.

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Lay more shame change saying well what's your stuff?

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From addition you.

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You produce the same condition.

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Crazy rhythm, dibsolutely you damn crazy too if ripped if.

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Truely do dam crazy too crazy.

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Random is good bye, so long to.

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Thanks money. Let me play one more for you. Then

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when everything you thought was the case was not, well,

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that sounds kind of cryptic, but I'll explain after this record.

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That one catch you wal you know, jet to that

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big place he go where the big one peanuts left joke,

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he jokes an digit number one. He's from Gomo di

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joke now, but they don't rap in downtown. The jet

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the bugganeers and he's a real gender king one. Then

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no ging of swing to him is what is always played.

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He jumped the break Dan joke you byesday, hanging up

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in all of me just to do these days and

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don dig both.

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Number one.

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Ray don.

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RAI raid dandy ray I'm not.

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Ra nand Raddundun Dunn Dun down down Na Dunn d

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ray ray n ray dunk. Yeah, Yeah, die ye ye

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lie ye yea lie ye yea die ye ye ye

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ye ye ye ye ye ye ye godam die ye.

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Ye lie ye yee adae ye ye ye ye ye

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ye yea.

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Yea when he dances.

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They all wrong to think that cat his number and

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every things he has no fun.

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In fact, he has jump.

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He's the b jump.

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He could cut a rock.

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He's a dumpings a.

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From Bluebird Records Public Jitterbug number one, recorded by the

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Cats and the Fiddle on December seventh, nineteen thirty nine,

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in Chicago, Illinois. A highly underrated group in my opinion.

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Cats in the Fiddle were formed in Chicago in the

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late thirties and as sort of the same as six

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Hits in a Miss that Lenny from Down the Block

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introduced us to during his record pick of the week.

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The group had frequent changes of personnel, but we just

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heard the originals with Austin Powell he was the lead vocal,

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also with Ernie Price, Chuck Barksdale, and Jimmy Henderson. And

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reading these names, I'm pretty positive that Chuck Barksdale later

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as a rock and roll came into prominence. Was a

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member of the Moon Glows. I'll have to look that

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one up. Cats and the Fiddle here today on the

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Make Believe Ballroom. So before that jitterbug in tune, I

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said I would tell you about everything you thought was

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the case was not. But let me play this record.

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Then I'll explain why it was. Everything you thought was

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the case but was not.

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Hi and Balace, what's new?

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Nah?

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Not much? Well, Hello, Edith, what's.

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New with you.

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I've got a new dance. I'd like to show it

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to you. If you've got rhythm to burn, here's a dance.

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It's easy.

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Did you learn?

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If you don't, then your name is mum. If you don't,

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you a social does. Of course.

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Everybody's learning how to do the big Apple, the big Apple.

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And it isn't very hard to do the big Apple,

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the big Apple.

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00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:14.199
Ten can do it just as well as two. The

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big Apple, the big Apple. Everybody's learning how to do

331
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that brand new apple.

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Dam They say an apple a day will keep the

333
00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:26.679
doctor away.

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00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:32.840
Hey, hey, it's easy to dance your cares away. Everybody's

335
00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:36.320
learning how to do the big Apple, the big Apple.

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Come on, learn to do that apple dance.

337
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First you get around, then you come a ground to

338
00:42:47.239 --> 00:42:48.960
a bid of this is a bit of.

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00:42:49.159 --> 00:42:50.320
That, and then.

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Do a fred a stall hands up the all truck

341
00:42:57.360 --> 00:43:01.559
around them. Then you start right in the and you

342
00:43:02.119 --> 00:43:08.800
must do anything that you know. The most important thing.

343
00:43:09.159 --> 00:43:38.000
Is just to let yourself go. See this once an

344
00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:40.639
apple you're talking about. It's a new dance.

345
00:43:40.719 --> 00:43:45.719
They're all raving about your truck on down and susan cue.

346
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Then shag a bit and some posing too, a Lindy hot.

347
00:43:54.639 --> 00:43:58.719
You pick a lot, put them all together, and what

348
00:43:58.920 --> 00:43:59.400
have you got?

349
00:43:59.480 --> 00:44:05.039
The big the big Apple, the big Apple Apple, Well, my.

350
00:44:07.400 --> 00:44:19.880
Yes, mine, via Victor Records, The Big Apple by Tommy

351
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.840
Dorsey and his clam Bake seven vocal by Edith Wright

352
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and the chorus, recorded in New York City, August the thirteenth,

353
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nineteen thirty seven. So there was a toe tap in

354
00:44:34.599 --> 00:44:39.280
tune seemingly about New York City and the dance craze

355
00:44:39.400 --> 00:44:45.000
the Big Apple, which was obviously invented there. Well, if

356
00:44:45.079 --> 00:44:50.360
that's what you thought, wrong on both accounts, you see

357
00:44:50.800 --> 00:44:54.760
everything you thought was the case was not. Believe it

358
00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:58.239
or not, the first official use of the term the

359
00:44:58.320 --> 00:45:02.119
Big Apple when ref referring to New York City, did

360
00:45:02.480 --> 00:45:07.199
not actually come about until the nineteen seventies, when the

361
00:45:07.280 --> 00:45:11.000
New York City Convention and Visitors Bureau launched the tourism

362
00:45:11.320 --> 00:45:16.800
campaign that officially branded New York City as the Big Apple.

363
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The name actually originated when John Jay Fitzgerald, he was

364
00:45:22.760 --> 00:45:26.400
a sports writer for the New York Morning Telegraph, well

365
00:45:26.440 --> 00:45:28.760
he began using the term the Big Apple in his

366
00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:34.440
columns in the early nineteen twenties to describe New York racetracks.

367
00:45:35.679 --> 00:45:39.760
Stable hands in New Orleans reportedly used the phrase when

368
00:45:40.599 --> 00:45:43.960
they were told they were headed to New York City

369
00:45:44.039 --> 00:45:48.039
to race their horses, so Fitzgerald picked it up. He

370
00:45:48.239 --> 00:45:52.880
popularized that his slang for the city's racetracks, meaning that

371
00:45:53.039 --> 00:45:56.199
those tracks were the big Time or the big Prize.

372
00:45:57.239 --> 00:46:02.760
In the nineteen thirties and forties, jazz musicians adopted the

373
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:06.599
term Big Apple, using it to refer to New York

374
00:46:06.679 --> 00:46:10.719
as the ultimate place to play. But the Dorsey song

375
00:46:10.840 --> 00:46:13.519
We Just Heard did not talk about the Big Apple

376
00:46:13.639 --> 00:46:17.239
as being in New York City, so if the Big

377
00:46:17.320 --> 00:46:21.480
Apple was not referred directly to New York City. In

378
00:46:21.880 --> 00:46:26.920
nineteen thirty seven, the dance The Big Apple still must

379
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:31.000
have been created by New York City dancers who might

380
00:46:31.079 --> 00:46:36.760
have heard musicians using the term well wrong again. The

381
00:46:36.800 --> 00:46:39.679
Big Apple as a dance became popular in the late

382
00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:44.599
nineteen thirties. Actually, it was invented in Columbia, South Carolina,

383
00:46:45.239 --> 00:46:49.000
when dancers in a black only nightclub created it, and

384
00:46:49.199 --> 00:46:52.119
the white college students who saw it brought it to

385
00:46:52.880 --> 00:46:57.480
wider popularity across the country. By nineteen thirty seven, when

386
00:46:57.519 --> 00:47:00.440
the song the Big Apple was recorded by the clam

387
00:47:00.519 --> 00:47:04.360
Bake seven, the dance had become a national craze and

388
00:47:04.519 --> 00:47:08.559
ballrooms across the US, even appearing in a number of

389
00:47:09.400 --> 00:47:14.079
musical films. So little history about a great song that

390
00:47:14.239 --> 00:47:16.679
you may have thought was all about New York City

391
00:47:17.280 --> 00:47:21.880
and a dance also invented in that same town, but wasn't.

392
00:47:22.960 --> 00:47:26.239
And like I said, everything you thought was the case

393
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:31.320
was not, folks. It's now time to check the big

394
00:47:31.440 --> 00:47:33.320
bull of a clock on the wall here in the

395
00:47:33.400 --> 00:47:36.639
crystal studio to see how much time remains in our

396
00:47:36.840 --> 00:47:44.440