There is something that haunts me every time I hear Sam Cooke’s Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha. In the song, the narrator is waiting for a dance that his partner can do. She cannot cha cha. But every song they play is the cha cha cha. Including Tom Dooley cha cha. Being extremely familiar with the folk ballad Tom Dooley, I am immediately set to ruminating what a Tom Dooley cha cha would sound like. The rhythms, the melody, everything seems as though it would not fit. And I wonder aloud that someone needs to make a Tom Dooley cha cha.
Well, someone did make a Tom Dooley cha cha! Apparently the Kingston Trio hit, Tom Dooley, inspired a number of response songs from various artists in various styles. The 1959 Thomas Dooley cha cha by the George Garabedian Troubadours was just one novelty song among many novelty and non-novelty songs. But then I had to know, was the Thomas Dooley cha cha playing at the party that inspired Sam Cooke to write his song? Or was George Garabedian, like me, inspired by the song to comment: what would a Tom Dooley cha cha be like? Before answering his own question.
Well, I couldn’t find a firm date for the George Garabedian 1959 release, but Sam Cooke’s “Everybody Loves to Cha Cha” was released in January 1959 after being recorded on January 7, 1959. So, it seems a fair bet that George’s cha cha came after. Mystery solved!
By William Morris Agency, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28343387
It’s been a while since I worked up an Every Month is ____ History Month post. Truth is, I got rather stalled on Pearl Bailey. The more information I found on her, the more I became completely fascinated, and nothing I found was quite enough. Unlike many other personalities that no-one I know seems to remember, Pearl Bailey wrote quite a bit about her life. I can’t tell you how excited I was to find out she had penned her own memoirs and social commentary. Suddenly, only her own words would do. I acquired a few of her books and, unfortunately, they got added to my to-read shelves. And, that is where the research post ended, until now.
No, I haven’t finished reading her biography (the one I picked up). I have read through Hurry Up America and Spit (1976), and I am currently picking through Pearl’s Kitchen (1973). The song on our Christmas mix, ‘Five Pound Box of Money’ by Pearl Bailey is just too good not to share now, and since I have got enough information for a basic biographical sketch, I figured why keep waiting. I am now a confirmed Pearl Bailey fan. I’m not going to have any trouble revisiting this great lady in another post once I have read about her story in her own words.
Pearl Baily was born in 1918 in Newport News, Virginia to Reverend Joseph James and Ella Mae Ricks Bailey (Pearl Bailey, 2022). Her brother, Bill Bailey was well known on the vaudeville stage. In a later article, Bailey recounted how she stumbled accidentally into show business by way of what sounded like a sibling spat. She had been sent to the theater to fetch her brother, who was rehearsing his dance act. He brushed her off and sent her home, so she returned, entered, and won the amateur contest that night. She was just fifteen (Pearl Bailey is serious about ambition to teach, 1956). After some time on vaudeville stages and touring the country with the USO during WWII, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946 (Pearl Bailey, 2022) to excited and complimentary reviews (Pearl Bailey’s easy style clicks on Broadway, 1946).
“The way I sing is the way I live,” Miss Bailey says…”What I do is like telling a story to music, it’s got to be something that brings a chuckle. The audience enjoys it because it tells of things they know.”
– Pearl Bailey (Pearl Bailey’s easy style clicks on Broadway, 1946)
Early on, she would describe herself as a writer when speaking with reporters and critics. Throughout a very successful career entertaining on stage, through which she was often featured in newspapers, she would carefully craft and plan her shows based on her projections of what the audience would be (Pearl Bailey’s next role, 1956). By 1956 she declared a desire to follow her long time dream of becoming a teacher, taking classes at UCLA towards that ambition (Pearl Bailey is serious about ambition to teach, 1956). She would later earn a degree in theology from Georgetown University, but before this she published several books (Pearl Bailey, 2022):
The Raw Pearl (1968)
Talking to Myself (1971)
Pearl’s Kitchen (1973)
Hurry Up America and Spit (1976)
Between You and Me (1989)
Somewhat satisfyingly, her achievements and greatness were awarded many times over during her lifetime. She was appointed special ambassador to the United Nations by President Gerald Ford; she received a Special Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly!; she won a Daytime Emmy award; she was the first African-American to receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award; she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom; and she was awarded the Bronze Medallion, the highest award conferred upon civilians by New York City (Pearl Bailey, 2022). Pearl Bailey died at the age of 72 from arteriosclerosis (Pearl Bailey, 2022).
There is so much more that I haven’t covered here and, I promise, I will get to it. But for now, enjoy a little Christmas:
Valiada Snow was in the papers. Even when journalists didn’t have a scrap to write about her, pictures of her glowing, smiling, singing and generally being gorgeous would show up alongside unrelated articles in the entertainment section. She had sponsorships, showing up in newspaper ads for RC Cola and hair treatments. She traveled the nation and the world, acting, dancing, singing, and playing trumpet.
Snow’s fall from fame and memory has been blamed on the diversity of her talent. If she had only been a torch singer, we would’ve remembered her. If she had only been a dancer, she would’ve made history. If she had only been a trumpet player, modern audiences would know her as well as Louis Armstrong. But Valaida Snow was never only one thing or another. Even within a specialty, her talent was diverse. In one oft reported performance, Snow concluded a number on the trumpet with a dance number where, for each chorus, she danced in a different pair of shoes. “The dances and shoes to match were: soft-shoe, adagio shoes, tap shoes…, Dutch clogs, Chinese straw sandals, Turkish slippers, and the last pair, Russian boots” (Reitz, 1982). Her singing was comparably varied. In addition to torch songs and blues, she was one of the few black entertainers to sing Broadway tunes as well (Mosley, 2020).
The trumpet was Snow’s primary instrument, but she also played cello, bass, violin, guitar, banjo, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, and saxophone (Charles, 1995). She conducted bands, produced shows, designed costumes, spoke seven languages (Cowans, 1943) and was reportedly a fine painter (“Valaida Snow Engagement at Orpheum,” 1946). She could write down music as it was being played (Reitz, 1982). She was also the master fabricator of her own story.
I’ve gushed over music maps before, and I adore hearing the groovy sounds and comparing how different countries did the same decade in time. Radiooooo gives you both. If you want to rock to 1970 Ethiopian music, 1920 Russian music, or listen to the original soundtrack to the Titanic, Radiooooo has you covered. No, this is not a paid advertisement. This is love.
When I tried out for band at the end of my fourth grade year, I wanted to play the trumpet or the flute, but the highschool band counselor they had brought in to help us choose our instruments said my mouth was all wrong for those. They recommended the clarinet, and, after a short period of normal child disappointment, I embraced my instrument. Through learning the clarinet I found Swing, Big Band, and the ‘Hot’ Jazz of the early 1900s. I wanted to play like Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw. The lingering feelings of my youth still lead me down roads of early jazz history. Recently, I had the opportunity to explore my library’s African American Sheet Music collection while creating an exhibit called Swing Along! But, other than the torch singers whose music I collected, I didn’t see many women. I am looking for them now, and want to …
Celebrate Blanche Calloway
The Detroit tribune. (Detroit, Mich.), 29 Feb. 1936. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92063852/1936-02-29/ed-1/seq-6/>
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 02 June 1936. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1936-06-02/ed-1/seq-38/>
Blanche Calloway, sister of band leader Cab Calloway, demonstrates how to apply cosmetics made especially for black people in Miami, Florida on July 30, 1969. Her Miami business bas boomed from a small firm to a growing national market in less than a year. The model is Sylvia Dobson. (AP Photo/JPK)
Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.), 22 Nov. 1930. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025841/1930-11-22/ed-1/seq-16/>
Blanche Calloway was a flamboyant performer, singer, dancer, business woman, and the first woman to lead an all male orchestra. She is relentlessly written about as residing in the shadow of her younger brother Cab Calloway. However, scholars and researchers have pointed out that, at one point, Blanche Calloway had attained more fame and renown, helping her brother in his show business breakthrough and inspiring his famous style (Wikipedia; Handy, 1998)
As in, all the best of what that I spend time with every October.
What Media
Rocky Horror Picture Show is always on the list. When I was a kid in Dallas, TX, Rocky Horror would start running on broadcast television all through October. My mom loved the movie, so, of course, I loved it too.
I said list. Every year Richard of Doomedmoviethon.com and I have a list of movies and specials that we have to watch throughout October. I could’ve sworn I have blogged about this list before, but it doesn’t look like I have. I will correct that. For now, just know that Halloween isn’t Halloween without having seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show and also, Martha Stewart’s Halloween special and Slumber Party Massacre.
We also have a special USB drive mix of music for the car. Henry Hall is starting to feature more and more prominently, and it wouldn’t be complete with a few versions of “Mr. Ghost is Going to Town.”
What Food
Pumpkin seeds – not that I ever stop eating these all year, but the ones we made ourselves after carving pumpkins have a special kind of flavor. I love the way they sing. It might be one of my favorite sounds.
Pumpkin bread – I found an awesome recipe for pumkin bread done in a slow cooker. It is cakey, like a breakfast loaf, and it is lovely!
Pumpkin and turkey chilli – if ya’ll haven’t tried pumpkin based chilli, you should give it a go!
I am perfecting the state of being in complete control of my media inputs. We have a USB drive for the car with a curated mix. We have no cable and instead rely on subscribed to Roku channels to bring us commercial free selected content. Aaannnddd, I’ve been really successful to the detriment of knowing what is going on in popular media culture.
The Pudding has made a fabulous thing that teases my need for some kind of popular music connection and my love of maps at the same time: a map of the world with the #1 songs of January. Go explore and listen now! We will be together separately with our ears!
Behold, the playasax, a beautiful and strange musical toy from the beginning of last century. The Musical Box Society has a recording of what these strange instruments sound like. I have to admit, for something as strange and fantastic as the Playasax looks to be, I’m kind of bummed that it just sounds like a harmonica. If you, like me, have an affinity for strange and unique instruments, then check out the Rosenberg Library Museum post on these instruments.
Inspired by a song, but not quite a song comic: Honey Comb… only slightly disturbing since all of her wonderful attributes are qualified by the fact that her head is a PIECE OF FOAM!
GYROJETS – You’re Never Nothing (art by yours truly) is now available on Amazon.com Music. You can listen to the album on bandcamp, but if you’re any kind of somebody you’re going to buy the CD.
I am perfecting the state of being in complete control of my media inputs. We have a USB drive for the car with a curated mix. We have no cable and instead rely on subscribed to Roku channels to bring us commercial free selected content. Aaannnddd, I’ve been really successful to the detriment of knowing what is going on in popular media culture.
