Floodlights and Footlights
August 2, 1947
p. 22
Sunday night, August 10, an all-Negro cast under the supervision of John Golden will be in an Urban League benefit of “John Loves Mary” down at the Music Box Theatre. Abram Hill will direct… Marlowe Morris, billed as the nearest pianist to Art Tatum, is opening at the Shalimar Music Room Thursday. Don Raphael continues at the organ… they are re-issuing some of the old records of King Cole Trio, including “That Ain’t Right”, and “Scotchin’ with the Soda”… his publicity man says that Count Basie narrowly escaped drowning last week in Atlantic City while on a deep sea fishing trip with a party… Nellie Lutcher is rounding out her engagement at Billy Berg’s in Hollywood before coming East to let her many record fans see her.
The department of parks is active this summer with name bands, golf tournaments, swimming contests, marionette shows, athletic meets, etc.; take advantage of the fun. Check your nearest park… Illinois Jacquet, youthful dynamo of the saxophone, will augment his sextette to a full sized orchestra for a nationwide concert tour in the fall… The Ravens are going strong on their record hit, “Old Man River.” But, according to information, that publicity stunt where they threw copies of the platter from George Washington Bridge to imitate the “flying discs” got them before the judge… Rita Christiana, Hollywood dancer, Boscoe Holder, calypso pianist, and Sammy Htywood [sic], folk singer, were featured at Solidarity House Sunday during cocktail hour…
Lillian Fitzgerald, Cozy Cole and his band, Hortense Allen, the Zanzibeauts, and Johnny Hudgins are all going to Europe this fall with a show produced by Clarence Robinson. Earl Bolling, former manager of the Apollo Theatre, is coordinating. The show is now rehearsing… Out California way, an interesting chatter program is done over the radio by Teresa Pittman, who broadcasts from Berkley… Children now have a radio program of their own called “Saturday Morning Children’s Story Fair,” a show designed and geared to provide a new approach to the problem of presenting appropriate and original children’s entertainment and education.
Roly poly king of the boogie beat, Pete Johnson is going upstate to Little Falls for an engagement, fresh from his triumphs out West. Pete, as you know, stayed down to Cafe Society Downtown and Uptown for umteen years… the tapsters Hun and Bun are really a whiz at Club 345. The new show opened with limited fan-fare Friday night. By limited, I mean no press seats, but anyhoo there was still the good solid all-there rhythm of Earl Bostic and ork, that divine team of Bobby Johnson and Foster Johnson, “gone” Rhythm Willie on the harmonica, suave Willie Bryant, and several new acts trying for par… The Roman choir, as you saw by the papers, turned down a chance to get Marian Anderson to sing with them, due to the fact that in the contracts, it was “expressly stipulated that no other soloist or group sing with them.”
Ella Fitzgerald was taken ill with a heavy cold and high fever shortly after arriving in Ontario, Canada, last Tuesday, and was unable to sing her scheduled show at Brant Inn Wednesday. She is improving, however… Atlantic City was the scene of a great impromptu jazz jamboree Thursday when Erskine Hawkins and Count Basie each took a turn at “fronting” the other’s band. Basie and several members of his band decided to pay a courtesy visit to Hawkins, who was playing a dance engagement at the Waltz Dream. Fans begged him to take a turn at the piano, so at least seven of his men joined in to form a band of about twenty-two men with Hawkins batoning and Basie at the keyboard. The same thing happened when Hawkins went over to the Paradise and made the rafters ring… Juano Hernandez sends greetings from Mexico along with all the reasons why he likes the place. He’ll be back August 6.