Solid Potato Salad

 

 

 

A quickie for a Sunday evening. 

 

The Ross sisters were a novelty act who made, as far as I can tell, only one appearance on the the big screen – in an otherwise forgettable MGM musical from 1944 called Broadway Rhythm – starring George Murphy and Ginny Simms.

 

Other cast members included Charles Winninger, Gloria DeHaven, Lena Horne, Nancy Walker, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, and Ben Blue, and Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.

 

The plot doesn’t really matter, suffice to know that George Murphy wants to put on a show, and that gives him the opportunity to audition a number of acts.

 

The Ross Sisters are listed as a Dance Specialty act, and that doesn’t begin to describe it.  

 

At first, they sound like a rip-off of the Andrews Sisters doing a hep tune called Solid Potato Salad . . . but give it your full attention for the entire 3:50. 

 

The Andrews Sisters never dreamed of doing an act like this!

 

 

 

While they are billed as Aggie, Maggie and Elmira Ross, their real-life names were actually Vicki, Dixie and Betsy Ross. 

 

There is an amazing lack of information about this trio online.  Hard to figure, really.  

 

But Novelty acts were like that sometimes. 

 

No matter how spectacular, once they’d been seen nationally . . . producers were bound to ask . . . “That was great, but what else can you do?”

Joe Howard And The Gay 90’s Review

 

 

If you’ve every wondered if Television was as much fun in its infancy as it is in it’s adultery . . . . we’ve an example of some very early television for your viewing pleasure.   

 

In this case, a rare surviving episode of Joe Howard’s Gay Nineties Review – which was broadcast on the ABC network between 1948 and 1949.

 

 

You may not know who Joe Howard was, but you undoubtedly know some of the songs he wrote.  

 

His two biggest hits were `I wonder who’s kissing her now?’ and “Hello, Ma Baby”, immortalized forever in the the classic cartoon “One Froggy Evening”.

 

Michigan J. Frog

 

But Joe wrote more than 100 songs, many of which ended up in Broadway musicals around the turn of the century (not the last one, the one before last!).

 

In 1948, at the age of 81 (he was born in February of 1867), Howard was tapped by ABC-TV to do a weekly Gay 90’s Review type show.  For 81, he was pretty spry – and was still a long way from retirement.

 

The show, like many early TV shows, was produced with almost no budget to speak of.   It was basically a venue for a series of Vaudeville style acts.    A barbershop Quartet,a dance routine (by Honey Murray), and 3 `bird-brained’ violinists you have to see to believe.

 

Sharing the hosting duties was Lulu Bates.

 

Lulu who?   

Ok, so she isn’t a household name.  You probably won’t recall the Townsmen Quartet either.   Their lack of fame shouldn’t detract from your enjoyment, however.

Lulu Bates takes the role of the `Red Hot Mama’ Jazz Singer.   She’s no Sophie Tucker, but this was early TV after all.

 

By 1948, Joe Howard had done it all in show business.

 

He’d run away from home as a kid, entered show business, and over the next 8 decades would perform as a singer in concert saloons, acted in touring companies, was a headliner in Vaudeville, was a host of a network radio show during the 1930’s, and of course composed music and even wrote plays.

 

Howard would live another 13 years, after the Gay Nineties Review left the air, and literally died on stage at the age of 95, while taking a bow at Chicago's Opera House in 1961.  

 

He’d just led the audience in singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and during a curtain call, died of a heart attack.  

 

Hollywood couldn’t have written a more fitting ending to his career.

 

 

Click on any of the pictures to view the video.

From Out Of The Clear Blue Of The Western Sky Comes . . .

 

 

 

 

 

It’s okay to admit it.   Sky King was cool.

 

Sure, Sky King was a kids show.  But we were all kids once.  Some of us, deep down inside, still are . . .  and so Sky King holds a special place in our hearts.

 

Sky (Skyler or Schuyler) King was a flying cowboy, the two-fisted owner of the Flying Crown Ranch in Arizona, and every week he would round up rustlers, spies, or bank robbers while saving his niece from certain death.

 

How much cooler could you get in the 1940’s and 1950’s?

 

Created by Robert Morris Burtt and Wilfred Gibbs Moore, who also created Captain Midnight,  Sky king debuted on radio in 1946. 

 

Many believe that Sky King was loosely based on a real character - Jack Cones, the Flying Constable of Twenty-nine Palms during the 1930s.

 

Private aviation was still a bit of a novelty in the 1940’s, although its popularity soared (sorry . . .) after the end of WWII.   Radio shows and movie serials about daring pilots were therefore very popular in the 1940’s offering such fare as Terry and the Pirates, and Captain Midnight.

 

Sky King was played on the radio by two different actors; Earl Nightingale (yes, the motivational speaker!), and John Reed King – a well known radio actor/announcer (Duffy’s Tavern, What’s My Line) who would go on to host several television game shows in the 1950’s (Chance of a Lifetime, Beat the Clock).

 

The radio show ran until 1954, running concurrently with the later television show starring Kirby Grant.

 

We’ve 8 episodes of the radio show for your listening pleasure, all from the Internet Archive.

 

 

SKY_K_1947.06.30_Prince_Aron_Zibi.mp3                      7.13 MB

SKY_K_1947.07.14_Army_of_Blue_Men.mp3                   6.90 MB

SKY_K_1947.07.23_The_Stolen_Pearls.mp3                    7.11 MB

SKY_K_1947.07.31_Capture_of_the_Pearl_Thief.mp3    6.90 MB

SKY_K_1947.12.04_A_Message_in_Code.mp3                 14 MB

SKY_K_1951.04.12_The_Lady_Sheriff.mp3                     12 MB

SKY_K_1951.04.17_The_Mark_of_El_Diablo.mp3            12 MB

SKY_K_19xx.xx.xx_The_Black_Circle.mp3                      9.31 MB

 

Of course, most of us remember Sky King – the television show.

 

Beginning in 1951, and flying a Cessna T-50 `Bamboo Bomber’,  Sky King flew into the world of early TV first on the NBC network.  Reruns of that first year’s show ended up on ABC’s Saturday morning lineup.

 

The show would run briefly during primetime on ABC in 1954, before going into syndication.  Episodes would be produced until 1959. 

 

The T-50 was replaced with as Cessna 310-B midway through the series when the producers began to worry that the ageing Bamboo Bomber was no longer safe to fly.  

 

All of Sky King’s aircrafts were called the `Songbird’.

 

Kirby Grant (born Kirby Grant Hoon Jr in 1911), who is best remembered today for his role as Sky King, had been a `B’ movie actor for many years. 

 

A musician (violin) and singer, Grant won a “Gateway to Hollywood" talent contest in 1939, which gave him a movie contract – and a new name -  Robert Stanton.   

 

Grant would alternate between his stage name and his given name in the 1940’s, but ultimately went back to using his first and middle name. 

 

During the early 1940’s he appeared in a number of movies, often as a singer, including:

 

Rosie the Riveter (1944) (uncredited) .... 'Rosie the Riveter' singer at Award Presentation

Hi, Good Lookin'! (1944) .... King Castle

Chip Off the Old Block (1944) (uncredited) .... Member, Jivin' Jacks

Destination Tokyo (1943) (uncredited) .... Hornet's Captain

The Stranger from Pecos (1943) .... Tom Barstow

Bombardier (1943) (uncredited) .... Pilot

Hello Frisco, Hello (1943) .... Specialty singer

My Favorite Blonde (1942) (uncredited) .... Pilot

 

In 1945, Grant was picked by Universal to replace Rod Cameron in a series of `B’ Westerns, and after that, Monogram Pictures put him in a series of series of mounted-police adventures, featuring "Chinook the Wonder Dog."

 

While not exactly prime roles, it did establish Grant as an action star.

 

So when television needed a two-fisted cowboy to play Sky King, Grant got the call.

 

There has always been a bit of skepticism over whether Kirby Grant was a real pilot.   The flying on the show was done by (according to the Wikipedia):

 

Paul Mantz Air Services and flown by several pilots, and the Cessna 310B used in later episodes was provided at no cost by Cessna and flown by Cessna employee Bill Fergusson

 

Grant, however, was a pilot, and did fly the Songbird.  

 

At least according to anecdotal reports from friends and co-workers.   Grant pretty much gave up acting after Sky King, although he did make numerous personal appearances int he 1960’s, 1970’s, and early 1980’s as `Sky King’.

 

Grant was killed in 1985 in a car accident near Titusville Florida, as he was enroute to Cape Kennedy to watch the Challenger Liftoff.

 

Gloria Winters, who played Sky’s niece Penny, had first appeared as Babs, Chester Riley’s daughter in the first (Jackie Gleason) incarnation of the Life of Riley on Television.   She retired from acting in 1960.

 

Ron Hagerthy played Sky’s nephew Clipper, but didn’t appear in all of the episodes.

 

 

In all, 72 episodes of Sky King were produced over the years.   We have 17 available for your nostalgic viewing pleasure.

 

Sky Robbers
destruction from the sky
Bullet Bait
showdown
A Dog Named Barney
Ring Of Fire
The Wild Man
dust of distruction
the silver grave
rodeo round up
double trouble
sleight of hand
the runaway
designing woman
carrier pigeon
fish out of water
note for a dam

 

While yes, this was a kids show, many pilots (and a few astronauts) credit Sky King as having sparked their desire to learn to fly as a youth.  

 

And let’s face it . . .  nearly 60 years after it was filmed, it is wonderful to see that old Bamboo Bomber slicing through the Arizona Skies once again.

Warner Brothers Breakdowns Of The Early 1940’s

 

 

 

In my last post I highlighted the blooper, or gag reels, produced by Warner Brothers during the 1930’s for in-house consumption at their annual Christmas party.

 

Today we continue with the blooper reels from the early 1940’s, featuring such players as William Demarest, Humphrey Bogart, George Brent, James Cagney, Miriam Hopkins, Bette Davis, John Garfield, Brenda Marshall, Pat O'Brien, George Raft, Edward G. Robinson Allen Jenkins, Joel McCrea, and Ann Sheridan – among many others.

 

We’ve the breakdowns of 1940, 1941, 1942, and 1944 available for viewing. The gag reel for 1943 doesn’t appear to be available at this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warner Brothers Breakdowns of the 1930’s

 

 

Just about everyone loves to watch ostensibly `perfect’ movie stars screwing up their lines, bumping into furniture, or otherwise ruining a shot.

 

Appending a short blooper reel at the end of movies has become fairly common in the past dozen or so years,  and of course, there have been a number of `blooper’ TV shows hosted by Dick Clark.

 

But back in the early days of Hollywood, bloopers were generally kept hidden from the public.   After all, it wouldn’t do to have the public see All American nice guy Jimmy Stewart cussing after blowing a line!

 

Bloopers were collected and compiled, however, by the Warner Brothers social club, which was open to all studio employees, and these blooper reels – or `Breakdowns’, as they were called – were a highlight of their annual Christmas party from 1935 until 1949.

 

Here you’ll find stars like Bogart, Pat O'Brien, Ronald Reagan, Bette Davis, Jimmy Stewart, Glenda Farrell, Errol Flynn, Dick Foran, Joan Blondell, Kay Francis, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Boris Karloff, Barton MacLane, Dick Powell, Claude Rains and scores of other familiar faces having a bad moment captured on film. 

 

Not only are they funny clips, they also serve to humanize many celebrities that we rarely saw under such candid circumstances. 

 

With the warning that what follows would never have been shown publicly under the Hays Movie Code, and that the language gets a bit salty at times, we have the Warner Brothers Breakdowns of 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1939.

 

Enjoy!