[Dixielandjazz] Russell Arms (New York Daily News)

[Robert Ringwald]

Death of Russell Arms Recalls a Bygone Era with TV/Radio Show 'Your Hit Parade'
by David Hinckley
New York Daily News, March 5, 2012
The last notes faded from a charming corner of TV and radio music history when singer
Russell Arms died Feb. 13.
Arms was the last of the featured singers on the 1950s TV version of "Your Hit Parade,"
a weekly radio and later a TV show where a regular cast of singers and musicians
performed the week's most popular hits.
Arms was featured with Dorothy Collins, Gisele MacKenzie and Snooky Lanson on the
NBC-TV show during its peak years, 1952 to 1957.
The radio show went back to April 20, 1935, when Lucky Strike cigarettes decided
hit songs would be a good way to promote Luckies. That's why "Your Hit Parade" featured
two tobacco auctioneers and each broadcast ended with a rapid-fire riff that built
up "Sold, American!"
The radio edition featured singers like Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Johnny Mercer and
Dinah Shore. Some of its early segues were written by a young Alan Jay Lerner.
The concept of "Your Hit Parade" seems bizarre today. But in 1935, "hits" were songs,
not particular versions of songs.
That was changing by the end of World War II, but what really impaled "Your Hit Parade"
was rock 'n' roll. It was one thing for Doris Day to sing Jo Stafford, quite another
thing for Snooky Lanson to take a run at Elvis.
The radio show ended in 1955, the TV show in 1959.
Arms, a handsome chap, left in 1957 and guest-starred on shows like "Have Gun Will
Travel," "Perry Mason" and "Gunsmoke."
He had one hit record, "Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)," in 1957.


--Bob Ringwald
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