[Dixielandjazz] Re: AM radio

[Don Ingle]

Bill: Re - Orange Blossoms.
Another part of the story is one that should be known. The leader of the
unit was Hank Biagini, but he and the band members did not get along, to the
point where the sidemen fired the leader. They organized, co-op, as the Casa
Loma under the leadership of Mel Jensen, a violinist from Toledo who was a
childhood friend of my dad, also a Toledoan. Spike was a better looking and
articulate guy so they put him in as front man, while Mel did the
organization work behind the scene.
Goldkette had a band unit playing on the excursion boat to Bo Lo (Bois
Blanc), an Island dance pavilion in the upper Canadian side the Detroit
River. Dad played in the Goldkette unit on the boat and Pee Wee Hunt would
dance with my mother on the way over. Then dad would dance with her while
Pee Wee played in the Orange Blossoms.
Clem Johnson later came to work in Chicago, lived in the same apartment
building as we did, and when I was a small fry of two or three I somehow
gave him the nick-name "King Kong," and years later when I was a teen and
visiting friends on small lake in Michigan, I heard some players playing
over the lake. I tooted the musician's call " You're a horse's ass" and he
echoed it back. Soon he and some others came walking around the lake,
exchanging Bix licks back and forth, and I met him coming. Since I was told
that it might be him since he had a place on the lake, I called out..."Is
that you, King Kong.?," Clem
called back..."There's only one person in the world who ever called me
that -- it's got to be little Donnie Ingle." After Chicago Clem played on
the staff orchestra at a Detroit radio (WXYZ)station doing live musical
programming up into the late 1950's.
   I came across a slide recently of Walter
(Pee Wee) Hunt I took in 1950's at a bed and breakfast near Cleveland where
musician's stayed. He is standing there in the backyard in his bathrobe. His
band and dad's were playing dates in Cleveland. I listened to the two of
them recalled dozens of war stories from the Goldkette Office days. Oh to
have had a portable tape recorder in those days. I remember a few of the
stories, but the fog of time dims the others.
   Gene Pendergast was from Owasso, MI, about 9 miles from my mom's home
town of Ovid. I saw Gene at the First Bix fest in 1972. He and dad had
worked in various Goldkette units. Gene worked with  Lud Gluskin in Europe
in late-20's, early-30's. Dad almost joined that band, but went with Maury
Sherman's band in Chicago instead. He flipped a coin to decide which band
offer to accept. Dad always said that had the flip gone the other way, I
might have been born in Berlin, Germany since that's where Gluskin's ban was
at the time of my entry into the world. Instead, I am a native
Chicagoan..."and all that jazz."
Cold here with snow, Bill. Not summer like you are having in OZ.
Great post forwarded by you. Just kicked all kinds of recollections loose.
Would add more but my fingers are freezing...office is at 52 F. this
morning. Off to spike a cup of Java with a shot of brandy and thaw out.
Don Ingle


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler@nsw.bigpond.net.au>
To: "Walker, Maurice" <maurice.walker@gwl.com>
Cc: "dixieland jazz mail list" <dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 12:39 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: AM radio


> Dear Maurie,
> I am surprised that no DJMLer has replied to your comment: >In the next
half
> hour there was a live broadcast of Tony Almerico's band, featuring Buglin'
Sam
> DeKemel, and vocalist Lizzie Miles. This was broadcast from a famous room
in the
> local famous hotel, but the name of the room and of the hotel have slipped
from
> my mind.<
> OK, the boy from Oz will try, and maybe prompt Pat Cooke to confirm it.
> Tony Almerico's band played  at The Parisian Room, above Gluck's
Restaurant, 124
> Royal Street, New Orleans from 1948 until 1961. Weekly coast-to-coast
broadcasts
> were made from the nightclub during the 1950s.
> Lizzie Miles also worked at the Paddock Lounge on Bourbon Street in 1950
and
> opened the Mardi Gras Lounge at 333 Bourbon Street in 1951.
> The Capitol recordings with Sharkey Bonano's Kings of Dixieland (with
Lizzie
> Miles and Buglin' Sam) were made at The Vieux Carre Inn at Bourbon and St
Ann
> Streets.
> I do not know if broadcasts were made from The Paddock, Mardi Gras or
Vieux
> Carre in the 1950s.
> Over to Pat.
> Kind regards,
> Bill.
>
>
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