[Dixielandjazz] Arthur Godfrey

[Don Robertson]

With all the discussion on Arthur Godfrey, probably everyone knows of 
the infamous incident where he fired singer Julius LaRosa on the air.  
Something about "humility"; I heard Julius wanted or tried to get a 
piece of the action at Archie Blyers'  Cadence Records.

Arthur either discovered or at least featured a female singing group (I 
think a quartet) called the Chordettes.  They did barbershop type 
harmony.  They had a least one big hit, Mr. Sandman.  We had a female 
bluegrass band here in the bay area called Sidesaddle  In fact their 
bass player Karen Quick was a listmate in the early days of DJML; Bob 
Ringwald probably remembers her.  Anyway, Sidesaddle had a hilarious 
parody on Mr. Sandman, called Mr. Soundman.  I don't remembers the 
words, but at the end, the highly annoyed  Mr. Soundman cuts them off 
mid phrase.  Everyone wanted them to record it, but they said they 
couldn't get permission from Archie Blyer's estate.

Don Robertson