June 25, 1958

Someone apparently doesn't like Dorothy Adamson's fox terrier, which is missing after her apartment at 1034 Hilldale was bombed. An unidentified caller had complained about the dog's barking, The Times says. Alas, the paper never followed up on this story. And wedding bells ring for Jack Webb and former Miss USA Jackie Loughery, who met when Webb was casting "Pete Kelly's Blues." The couple are going to live on the Republic Studios lot, The Times says. They divorced in 1964. Email me

April 13, 1958

KNOB-FM (103.1) went on the air in August 1957 as the world's first all-jazz station under the ownership of Sleepy Stein, The Times said. According to an Aug. 18, 1957, story by Don Page, the station had received permission to raise its power to 70,000 watts and would be moving 97.9-FM. However a 1958 story says the station wanted to raise its power to 7,000 watts.

By 1966, the station had moved to Anaheim and was sold to Jack and Jeannette Banoczi and by October of that year KNOB-FM had a pop music format.  Several 1984 stories say the station was in Anaheim and had an easy listening format. Think MOR: Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers and Olivia Newton-John. In 1986, the station went to "love rock" and in 1988, it became KSKQ-FM, all-Spanish contemporary.

Alex "Sleepy" Stein died July 27, 2000, at the age of 81. The Los Angeles Jazz Institute has a collection of his material.

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Oscar Peterson RIP

Oct. 26, 1952
Los Angeles

Now playing at the Daily Mirror HQ: "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," from "Oscar Peterson Plays 'Porgy and Bess' " and "You Go to My Head" from "Jazz 'Round Midnight." 

Orchestra wives

 

June 28, 1957
Los Angeles

It's a tough life for orchestra wives. Consider the case of Joy Windsor, bandleader Charlie Barnet's 10th wife. In May, Barnet had assured her that his days of touring were over. "I was on the road a lot in the old days," he said. "One-night stands. The way a musician travels on the road is tired, dirty and drunk. Doesn't make for a good marriage."

"The band business has changed now. There's not much road any more.... You don't have those one-night stands."

Maybe the band business had changed, but Barnet hadn't. Windsor's complaints echoed those of his previous wife Betty Reilly, who said Barnet left her for days at a time and refused to tell her where he had been. 

In fact, Barnet had been married so often that even The Times lost count, calling Windsor Barnet's ninth wife in some stories and 10th wife in others.

The wives of Charlie Barnet, with his comments, as listed in 1955:

1. A showgirl--It lasted about eight months.
   
2. A singer--Artie Shaw was the best man. "We had a horrible fight after the ceremony and she went her way and I went mine."
   
3. A showgirl--Her divorce wasn't final, so the marriage was annulled.   
4. A singer--"It lasted a couple of years."
   
5. An actress. "She was my favorite. We were married about six years."
6. "Just a plain li'l ol' gal. It only lasted a week."
7. A singer--"A couple of years."
8. An artist--"My divorce from No. 7 wasn't final, so that one was annulled too." 
    

Among Barnet's wives are:

• Rita Merritt (1947), probably wife No. 5.
  
• Harriet C. Barnet
• Betty Reilly (1953)
• Linda Joyce Johnson (1956)
• Joy Windsor (1957)

Wife No. 5 said in 1955: "Sorry I married him? Not a bit. If I marry again, I'd like to marry a fellow exactly like Charlie. He's a fascinating man and certainly not a bore.  In fact you never knew what was going to happen next. But being a musician he was on the road a lot and we really didn't get a chance to establish a home. It just wasn't conducive to a good marriage."

Bonus fact: In researching Charlie Barnet, I stumbled across the sad story of vocalist Ann Richards, who married bandleader Stan Kenton in 1955. She won the Downbeat poll as the No. 1 band vocalist in 1956, but left her career to be a mother, rejoining the band in 1961. After divorcing Kenton, Richards married William Botts, although she later separated from him. It was Botts who discovered her body in the bedroom of her Hollywood Hills home in 1981. Unable to find work after she ended a 10-year engagement at the Bel-Air Hotel, Richards shot herself in the head, leaving two children, Dana and Lance Kenton. Richards was 46.

(You may recall Lance Kenton was arrested in 1978 in a scheme to kill attorney Paul Morantz, who won a lawsuit against Synanon, by putting a rattlesnake in his mailbox).

Here's some Charlie Barnet.

And some Stan Kenton.

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Ella Fitzgerald, "Angel Eyes"

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Dave Pell

Dave Pell swings at the Shrine Auditorium.

Buddy Rich!

Buddy Rich plays the Valley, May 14, 1957

Click here to see Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa.

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Ella Fitzgerald, "April in Paris"

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"These Foolish Things," 1959

"Brandenburg Gate," 1959

"Take the 'A' Train," 1959

"St. Louis Blues," 1961

"Take Five," 1961

Note the personnel change, Gene Wright replacing Norman Bates on bass

Art Pepper Movie, Part 1

Art Pepper Movie, Part 2

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Billie Holiday, 1957, "Fine and Mellow"

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Voices

          In 1957, saxophonist Dave Pell was the leader of the Dave Pell Octet, the house band at the Crescendo on the Sunset Strip. He recently reminisced about performing there with comedian Lenny Bruce. Pell performs once a week with Johnny Vana's Big Band Alumni at Los Hatos in the San Fernando Valley. Lenny Bruce died Aug. 3, 1966, at 8825 Hollywood Blvd. at the age of 40.   

Well I was lucky, very lucky. I was there for five years and Lenny was there for almost the same amount of time. It was one of greatest moments of my life. He was quite a man. Incredibly funny, loving, kind, sweet... all the things that nobody ever knew about him. Nobody took the time to know about him. He was really a lovely guy, a lovely man, a funny man. We had a guy named Jack Sheldon in the band. Sheldon was the phenom of our time. A very funny cat. He and Lenny were dear friends. They used to do crazy things together.

We were a Be-Bop band that played for everybody.

Gene Norman (the nightclub owner) ... says: "You have a home here... Stay as long as you wish." It was the time where Mickey Cohen used to hang out at the club. He used to have his boys there. They were dear men. As big as gangsters as there ever were. He loved Lenny. He was their favorite of all.

We played for all the acts. Johnny Mathis and we played for the Mills Brothers and, you know, people of that nature. People played the club with us.... Lenny was in and out of jail every other day. He was there.

Then the narcotics people were hanging out. They were dear friends. They were after the guys selling to the band and Mickey was there every night. With Lenny there; he was changing the show every night and the band was absolutely loving it. Most comedians worked to the bands because they gotta hear the same material night after night. If they could make the band laugh then they knew they were funny... Lenny played to us. He and Jack Sheldon would do dialog together.

Lenny would say: "Did you see Mickey's here tonight?" We'd be on the floor. A very hip band: Marty Paich on piano, Mel Lewis on drums, Buddy Clark on bass. It was the best band in town by far. We'd play the dumb Mills Brothers. We're playing "You Want a Paper Doll." Playing almost back to Dixieland and playing it straight. And Bobby Darin. Just an incredible thing.

The funniest thing. Lenny Bruce and Jack Sheldon decided to go on the amateur hour.... Do an Al Jolson song. Something was all set up and they'd play it and wear black makeup. They did the show... it was a car dealer that had the show ... I wish I could remember. On Sunday morning... Jack and Lenny were going to be on and we were all set up to watch it. (This was apparently Compton car dealer H.J. Caruso, who was indicted on charges of forgery and grand theft in June 1957).
 

 They got on. They didn't do the show they auditioned with. It got a little dirty and funnier and funnier and Lenny is yelling "Caruso is a thief!" "He doesn't give good deals on cars!" They couldn't get him off soon enough. They said, "This isn't the way they auditioned." They finally figured out it was Lenny Bruce.

  I never got over that one. Funniest thing that ever happened with the band. Every night, Lenny was a magnificent mind. If he took off, we had Mort Sahl. He would do a half-hour on Lenny Bruce. And they put him in jail and he'd try to behave. He got put in jail 50 times because they were trying to clean up the nightclub circuit.

Just the greatest time of our lives.

Lili St. Cyr, a  beautiful lady. Harry Betts was a trombone player with Kenton. He said, "Well you know she has this one little piece that needs a violin." So we made him bring a violin. He played a solo behind her (Pell hums something from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker"). Lenny would come up just to see the guys laughing... He didn't play the violin well. She was dancing with all these lights. She was never naked, she wore a skin thing. We weren't going to see nothing. Lenny Bruce made so much of it. God he was funny.

Between sets, they turned over people so fast, we'd go downstairs and play poker for an hour.

Johnny Mathis was doing seven or eight shows a night. People were around the block. Gene Norman had signed Johnny Mathis 10 months before he had a hit. He comes up with all his hits in one short time.... He was working for $350 a week... around the block crowds are waiting to get in. We would do a fast 20-minute or 30-minute show and the next one would start. They'd empty the house and do another one.

And of course Lenny ... He'd say: "I can't be very funny tonight I'm down to 10 minutes."  So hip and so sharp... and I look back. Damn that was fun. Lenny was a marvelous cat and got in trouble and couldn't handle it and died very young. His wife a very nice gal and a homemaker and tried to make him straight.

Jack Sheldon and Lenny Bruce. Jack almost started his career with Merv Griffin... doing comedy. All the timing he got from Lenny....

Five years. We had a ball... a lot was happening then. When Lenny Bruce was downstairs, Mort Sahl was upstairs. When Lenny had to go to jail we got Mort Sahl... He'd read tabloids, and then do a show.

It was sensational. Edie Gorme, all the good singers. Everybody who was hot at the time was there with us. Marty Paich, in 1957 he couldn't have been over 21 years old. Marty turned out to be one of the most successful jazz and big band arrangers of that time. We had him and Shorty Rogers and we never had the same band two nights in a row. The deal was you could take off any time as long as I approved the sub. We had record dates so there was a different band every night....

Bobby Darin says, "The band is sensational. It's the best band I ever had." He comes in the next night, it's totally different. "The band is sensational." Half the band was back the third night... He says "Dave I can't handle it.  I can't kid with the band, it's never the same guys twice." They're playing for scale, so I say, "They can take off anything they want as long as they are the top guys." The best band I've ever had....

Those things were so much fun... That whole club situation....

The club was on Sunset in the Playboy Building.... and then we were right at the middle of the strip. Across the street was Ciro's, right across the street. Little nightclub on the West Coast. Ben Polack (?) had a Dixieland club that ran strippers. He had a good Dixieland band. Great players. We'd play the opener or closer. "Mountain Greenery."

He booked smart in those days, three or four shows a night....
 
It was a great home for me. I was working at a record company during the day. It would be the Dave Pell band and I'd be at a record date. Gene Norman and I went to high school together (so that wasn't a problem).

It was a record company. I'd record in the afternoon and rush over to play the first gig at the club. I'd be tired but had a such a good time... such an incredible time. Not a dumb gig at a nightclub, it was the hit nightclub and Lenny being there with us killed us.

It was the funniest thing going day by day. Mickey Cohen.... Lenny would come and play to them. Call them the stars of the government.... highest government officials in town and Mickey Cohen... everything was so cool.

I used to be in  the record business. Sold them in the supermarkets for 99 cents. I'd record "Dave Pell Plays Benny Goodman," "Dave Pell Plays whatever." I must have made 50 albums, "The Best Songs of Italy." I'd go to England for a couple weeks and record 20 albums. Put them in Kresge, Woolworth, the same albums but change the songs on each one.... It was the beginning of the compilation disc.

I'd have 75 string players over in England. The albums were gorgeous... The label was TOPS records... I put out 20 other labels for everybody else. Everybody had their labels. You'd go into Sears and there'd be a rack near the door. I sold millions. People never had to go to the record store.

I'd work at night.. Edie Gorme would come to sit in. People didn't realize it was her. Didn't recognize her... They'd wonder who is singing with the band?

It's marvelous, at 10:30 every Tuesday morning... at Los Hatos at Balboa and Nordhoff... They can't get in the joint. Oversold every Tuesday morning. We play till 12:30. The band is excellent... Johnny Vana's Big Band Alumni... Everybody played with the big bands, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich.... producing a new album we did live a couple of weeks ago...

Lots of bands out there... They say we're the Glenn Miller Band, or the Harry James band. All picked up for the night. They sound fair. This band plays all the bands... We have a great band... One of the guys got sick, so they asked "Pell, would you like to play?" Love to. I don't have to set up, don't have to bring mikes. Just sit in the band. I love it.

The other day they gave me a red tie that I can keep so when I play around town I don't have to borrow a tie... It's a good band.

A guy came in and recorded it... We only get a one-hour set and then a 20-minute set. He figured he could do an album in two days... The album was almost really done the first morning it was so good. It was fun and we go out and do the shows and the band is very happy. We call it a rehearsal, so the guys can keep their chops up.

Lots of clubs tried to do that but they don't seem to get the crowds that this thing does. People still really want to dance, do the jitterbug. It's not rock 'n' roll.

Sound clips courtesy of Davepell.com
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