Fred Astaire, writes Joseph Epstein, the veteran critic and essayist, "was the very model ... of the democratic dandy, itself an innovative figure." He adds that G. Bruce Boyer called Astaire in his movie roles "the democratic ideal: a classless aristocrat." If T.S. Eliot calling the mature Henry James "a European of no known country" isn't the same thing, it's close enough.

MORE - Available Here
- WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Fred Astaire

Casino Gardens -
WIKI BIO - IMAGES - SHOP Harry James

Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known as one of the great jazz singers.
Tormé was born in Chicago, Illinois to immigrant Russian Jewish parents whose name had been Torma. A child prodigy, he first sang professionally at 4 with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, singing "You're Driving Me Crazy," at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant. Between 1933 and 1941, he acted in the network radio serials The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. He wrote his first song at 13 and three years later, his first published song, "Lament to Love," became a hit recording for Harry James. He played drums in Chicago's Shakespeare Elementary School drum and bugle corps in his early teens. While a teenager, he sang, arranged, and played drums in a band led by Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers. His formal education ended in 1944, with his graduation from Chicago's Hyde Park High School.

MORE Wiki Bio - WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Mel Torme - Video with Nat King Cole

Our next vintage popular music medley features Can I Forget You? by The Henry Allen Orchestra. There are three selections performed by The Victor Arden Orchestra They are Deamon Dance; Salute (with pianist Phil Ohman) and Can This Be Love from 1930. The popular evergreen Everybody Loves My Baby is from 1924 and sung by Aileen Stanley, this track is followed by the third Arden recording mentioned above. Then we hear Paul Whiteman's Orchestra with vocalist Jack Fulton and How Deep Is The Ocean? from 1932. The last track on this medley is by "The Selvin Knickerbockers", Irving Berlin's Blue Skies from 1927.

Listen...

Play video of movie magic with The Paul Whiteman Orchestra and a vintage sound film. (Recently colorized)...

Dick Jurgens, a composer and big-band leader, died on Thursday, 7 October 1995, at age 85. During World War II, he had three tunes simultaneously on the "Lucky Strike Hit Parade." He was a co-writer of "Elmer's Tune," "One Dozen Roses" and "Careless." Jurgens became an accomplished trumpeter by age 14. Dick and his brother Will formed their first band to play in the summer camps at Lake Tahoe. They worked as garbage collectors during the times when the band was inactive, but within 3 years, the band had it's first residency in one of the local hotels, remaining until booked by San Francisco's prestigious St. Francis Hotel in 1934. MORE. Jurgens served in the Marines during World War II, organizing and leading a band that performed in the Pacific islands.

WEB - Willowbrook Chicago -

SHOP Dick Jurgens

LISTEN to Dick Jurgens radio remote from Willowbrook:

Frederick Alfred (Freddy) Martin (December 9, 1906 – September 30, 1983) was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist. Martin was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised largely in an orphanage and with various relatives, Martin started out playing drums, then switched to C-melody saxophone and later tenor saxophone, the latter the one he would be identified with. Early on, he had intended to become a journalist. He had hoped that he would earn enough money from his musical work to enter Ohio State. But instead, he wound up becoming an accomplished musician. Martin led his own band while he was in high school, then played in various local bands. After working on a ships band, Martin joined the Mason-Dixon band, then joined Arnold Johnson and Jack Albin. It was with Albin's "Hotel Pennsylvania Music" that he made his first recordings, for Columbia's Velvet Tone label in 1930...MORE Wiki Bio

WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Freddy Martin

Listen to Radio Remote:
Boomp3.com

Watch 1950's TV Show with Merv Griffin

Singin’ Sam aka Harry Frankel (January 27, 1888, Springfield, Ohio - June 12, 1948, Richmond, Indiana) was a minstrel performer, vaudevillian and popular personality during the early days of radio. He was best known as "Singin’ Sam, the Barbasol Man" for his long association with that company...
MORE Wiki Bio - WEB LINKS

Play episode from 1939: