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Episode #5 of Futuristic Rhythm takes a look back at the halcyon days of pre-code Hollyood, especially the flood of pioneering movie musicals from 1929 and 1930. All of the songs contained in the program were premiered in films. This extended edition of the program runs 72 minutes instead of the usual hour.
In 1926, songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart scored several big hits from the Broadway musical The Girlfriend. One of those songs was "The Blue Room":
VERSE
All my future plans, Dear, will suit your plans. Read the little blueprints. Here's your mother's room. Here's your brother's room. On the wall are two prints. Here's the kiddies' room, Here's the biddy's room, Here's a pantry lined with shelves, dear. Here I've planned for us Something grand for us, Where we two can be ourselves, dear.
REFRAIN
We'll have a blue room, A new room, For two room, Where ev'ry day's a holiday Because you're married to me. Not like a ballroom, A small room, A hall room, Where I can smoke my pipe away With your wee head upon my knee. We will thrive on, Keep alive on, Just nothing but kisses, With Mister and Missus On little blue chairs. You sew your trousseau, And Robinson Crusoe Is not so far from worldly cares As our blue room far away upstairs.
The tricky arpeggios in the song's refrain, along with its pleasant chord progression, made the tune popular with jazz musicians, and it soon entered into the standard jazz and big band repertory.
Here are two versions of the song released on the popular "buff" cream and blue Bluebird label of the mid-1930's.
In December 1932, the Bennie Moten Orchestra from Kansas City made their way to the Victor recording studios in Camden, NJ. The band was in the midst of an unsuccessful string of one-nighters in the Northeast, driving from town to town in a broken-down bus with no heat. The band members were broke and starving. By some good fortune, the band's bus struck a rabbit on a backwoods road; the band was able to beg ingredients from locals and make a rabbit stew, which was the only food the band had on the day before their Victor recording session.
But the band's dire straits are nowhere to be heard on those records. The band tears into "The Blue Room" with a ferocious intensity matched by few other bands. Soloists include Oran "Hot Lips" Page on trumpet, Eddie Barefield on clarinet, and Ben Webster on tenor saxophone. The head arrangement concludes with some of the most exciting riffing ever captured on record, a precursor of what was to become known as "Kansas City swing."
Opposite in virtually every respect from the Bennie Moten orchestra was the New York-based dance orchestra of Isham Jones. He demanded top dollar for engagements, and filled his band with the best musicians and arrangers available. Jones was well-known as a successful songwriter, and as a bandleader he was a relentless perfectionist; thus his men enjoyed a reputation as one of the best groups in New York City.
This August 1934 recording of "The Blue Room" was probably arranged by Gordon Jenkins, who would later gain a tremendous amount of notoriety for the work he did as musical director at Decca Records in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Prominent soloists are Saxie Mansfield on tenor sax and Chelsea Quealey on trumpet. The horns swing hard on this record, but unfortunately the rhythm section does an inadequate job of backing them up. Still, this is a great rendition of the tune.
One of my favorite girl singers of the late 1920's and early 1930's is the beautiful and talented Irene Taylor. Biographical information about Ms. Taylor is scarce, but she had a successful career on Broadway and on the radio. She was also the first female singer hired by orchestra leader and "King of Jazz" Paul Whiteman. Taylor's 1928 recording of "Mississippi Mud" with the Whiteman Orchestra, featuring a hot cornet solo by Bix Beiderbecke, is considered a jazz classic.
Taylor also scored a 1933 hit as a vocalist with Whiteman with the song "Willow Weep For Me," now an American standard. Taylor was married to pianist/singer/bandleader Seger Ellis, and during the late 1930's she recorded several sides with Ellis' orchestra, that were released both as commercial recordings and radio transcriptions.
As far as I know, Irene Taylor's only film appearance is this July 1934 Vitaphone short entitled Listening In. It was part of a series of film shorts that featured performances by popular radio stars of the era -- the only way for audiences to actually see their favorite stars sing! Ms. Taylor sings the Dave Franklin song, "I Ain't Lazy, I'm Just Dreamin'".
Here is Irene Taylor with Bix Beiderbecke and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra performing "Mississippi Mud," recorded Feb. 18, 1928:
Although not very well known today, Russ Columbo became a household name in the early 1930's, propelled by a smooth baritone singing voice, extraordinary good looks, and a charming screen presence. His mysterious death in 1934 suddenly ended a promising career.
He was born in Camden, NJ in 1908, christened Ruggiero Eugenio di Rodolpho
Colombo, the 12th child of Italian immigrants. His musical talent blossomed early, and while still in his teens he became a professional violinist. He eventually joined the Gus Arnheim Orchestra, playing violin and singing in a vocal trio made up of members from the band. A 1929 Vitaphone short film of the Arnheim prominently features Columbo as a singer and band member, but not as a star vocalist. That spot belonged to Bing Crosby, who joined the Arnheim orchestra in 1930 and sang with the band until he left for New York City to pursue a career as a radio entertainer. Upon Crosby's departure, Columbo was offered the solo vocalist spot, and he began to attract national attention.
Here is the 1929 Arnheim short. Columbo can be seen playing hot violin and singing at the center of the vocal trio, still holding his violin. (embedding has been disabled for this video)
The Gus Arnheim orchestra's home turf was Hollywood, and Columbo's talents did not go unnoticed by the movie industry. He worked in minor roles in several films in 1929 and 1930, but was unhappy with the small roles (sometimes unbilled) that he was offered. In 1931 Columbo met songwriter Con Conrad, who felt that he could make Columbo into a radio star. Conrad became Columbo's manager and soon managed to get him contracts with NBC radio and RCA Victor records.
Here is one of Columbo's lesser-known recordings, "As You Desire Me", recorded for Victor on August 3, 1932:
Columbo developed a devoted following as a romantic crooner, rivaling Bing Crosby for popularity as a radio star. Although Columbo disliked the "crooner" label, his singing style was the inspiration for a popular 1932 song by Al Dubin that inspired a Merrie Melodies cartoon, Crosby, Columbo and Vallee.
By 1933, Columbo's meteoric rise to fame meant that Hollywood was ready to give him starring roles in pictures. Beginning with Broadway Through A Keyhole and culminating with Wake Up And Dream, Columbo established himself as a box office draw. He further enhanced his musical abilities by studying opera, in a determined effort to distance himself from the image of a lightweight pop music star. He also co-wrote three of the songs from Wake Up And Dream.
Here is Russ Columbo performing "Too Beautiful For Words" from Wake Up And Dream (1934)
Here is Russ Columbo's Brunswick studio recording of "Too Beautiful for Words", waxed on August 31, 1934 -- just two days before Columbo's untimely death:
On Sunday Sept. 2, 1934, Russ Columbo visited his old friend, photographer Lansing Brown, at Brown's home in Santa Barbara. Columbo was eager to hear Brown's opinion of his new motion picture Wake Up And Dream, and to clear things up after a disagreement that the two men had a month before. Here is what happened during that fateful meeting:
Lansing Brown kept a pair of antique dueling pistols on his
desk. According to statements given at the inquest, Brown was
toying with one of the pistols and holding an unlighted match
in his left hand. The "trick" was that the hammer would
ignite the match, although Brown would later testify that he did
not know why he had the match and the gun, other than a sort of
odd "habit." Unfortunately, the old relic had both gunpowder
and a vintage mini ball. Somehow, the match and the hammer triggered
the gun powder, and the bullet was discharged. Detectives later
determined that the bullet must have ricocheted off the mahogany
desk between the two men, striking Russ Columbo in the left eye,
lodging at the back of his brain. He slumped in the chair and
immediately lost consciousness. It was 1:45 PM.
... When the coroner's ambulance arrived to pick up the
body, it was discovered that Russ was unconscious, but still alive.
He was taken first to Hollywood Receiving Hospital, then transferred
to the Hospital of the Good Samaritan.
Doctors attempted to save his life by surgery, but it was too
late.
Russ Columbo was only 26 years old when he died. And in one of the most unusual circumstances following a celebrity's death, Columbo's mother Julia was never told of the accident. In order to preserve her fragile health, the family (along with the cooperation of actress Carole Lombard, a close friend of Columbo) convinced his mother that Columbo had embarked on an extended tour of Europe, then wed Lombard and settled in Europe. News of Lombard's own sensational 1939 wedding to Clark Gable was kept from Julia, and she died in 1944 never knowing that her favorite son preceded her in death by nearly a decade.
Although Russ Columbo is not well remembered today, his music lives on. Many of Columbo's early hits -- "All Of Me," "Paradise," "You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)," "Sweet And Lovely" -- have become American standards. In 1946, interest in Columbo was strengthened by Perry Como's revival of a 1931 hit for Columbo, "Prisoner of Love." And in 1994, for what would be his last recording project, eccentric cabaret entertainer Tiny Tim recorded an entire album of Columbo songs.
Could Columbo really have eclipsed Bing Crosby in popularity? Crosby's strong background as a jazz singer greatly enhanced his ability to continue as a top entertainer through the Swing Era. Columbo had jazz talent, but seemed to want to distance himself from pop music. Unfortunately his career was too short to have established a definitive identity for himself.
