[Dixielandjazz] R.I.P. Orrin Tucker

Harry Callaghan meetmrcallaghan at gmail.com
Tue Apr 19 10:22:44 PDT 2011


Yes, and Orrin Tucker's female vocalist, Evelyn Nelson aka Wee Bonnie Baker,
might be described as the original fickle female.

Admittedly, she recorded "Oh Johnny, Oh, Johnny Oh" on 8/20/39

However, on 4/02/39, she was singing "When I walk, I only walk with Billy".

I'm thinking that if she only walked with Billy, she might have dumped him
cause Johnny had a shiny new car.
Tuesday's a slow day.so this is the kind of nonsense that you have to put up
with from me.

Tides
HC
On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:

> Orrin Tucker Dies at 100; Bandleader Owned L.A.'s Stardust Ballroom
> by Valerie J. Nelson
> Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2011
>
> Orrin Tucker, a bandleader whose orchestra achieved national prominence
> with a 1939
> recording of "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!" and who decades later owned a
> big-band venue
> on Sunset Boulevard, has died. He was 100.
> Tucker, who was a longtime resident of South Pasadena, died April 9 in the
> San Gabriel
> Valley, said his daughter, Nora Compere.
> After forming the band in 1933, Tucker was its primary vocalist until jazz
> trumpeter
> Louis Armstrong suggested that a petite singer named Evelyn Nelson would be
> a good
> fit for the group, according to biographical references.
> When Tucker met her in 1938, he said, "Would you mind if I change your name
> to the
> 'shy voice of Wee Bonnie Baker'? She said that would be fine," Tucker later
> recalled.
> Rummaging through old sheet music, he found a copy of "Oh Johnny," a hit
> song from
> 1917, and decided to record it with Baker.
> "So melting and cajoling were diminutive Bonnie's 'Oh's'" that the record
> "was soon
> jerking juke-box nickels faster than the fading 'Beer Barrel Polka,'" Time
> magazine
> said in early 1940.
> World War II interrupted Tucker's big band career, and he served as a Navy
> pilot
> instructor from 1942 to 1945. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor.
> With a new band after the war, he played major U.S. hotels and clubs. The
> band's
> theme song was a Tucker favorite: "Drifting and Dreaming."
> Tucker would end up making more than 70 records, including six that sold
> more than
> a million copies apiece, according to the All Music online database.
> After playing himself in the 1975 TV movie "Queen of the Stardust
> Ballroom," Tucker
> leased a skating rink that same year on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and
> turned
> it into the Stardust Ballroom.
> His orchestra was the star attraction, but economics made him realize that
> ballroom
> dancing had "a dwindling popularity," he told The Times in 1981.
> On weekends, patrons would swing and samba, but many nights Tucker would
> rent out
> the space for roller skating or other functions such as women's boxing.
> In 1982, he closed the ballroom and moved to Palm Springs, where he sold
> real estate.
> He performed into the 1990s and last appeared on a cruise ship.
> He was born Robert Orrin Tucker on Feb. 17, 1911, in St. Louis, and grew up
> in Wheaton,
> Ill.
> As a boy, he became fascinated by a saxophone in a Sears Roebuck catalog
> and taught
> himself to play one.
> A pre-med student, he attended Northwestern University and North Central
> College
> in Illinois. While in college, Tucker formed his first band and soon turned
> his hobby
> into a career.
> "He had good genes and a good outlook on life," said his daughter, who
> joked that
> ice cream may have been his secret to longevity. He ate it every day and
> preferred
> vanilla with chocolate syrup.
> Besides his daughter, Nora, of South Pasadena, Tucker is survived by Aline
> Cameron
> Tucker, whom he married in 1975, and a grandson.
>
>
> --Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Fulton Street Jazz Band
> 530/ 642-9551 Office
> 916/ 806-9551 Cell
> Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV
>
> Paddy says "Mick, I'm thinking of buying a German Shepherd."
> "Are you crazy," says Mick, "Have you seen how many of their owners go
> blind?"
>
>
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