[Dixielandjazz] R.I.P. Orrin Tucker

[Harry Callaghan]

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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