“Between the joyous singing of Armstrong and the buoyant accompaniment of Oscar Peterson’s group, one can only imagine the willow weeping tears of joy!”
- Noah Baerman
“Willow Weep for Me” was introduced by vocalist and whistler Muzzy Marcellino performing with Ted Fio Rito and His Orchestra. Their October, 1932, Brunswick recording entered the pop charts December 3, 1932, and rose to number seventeen. On December 17 Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra’s Victor recording with singer Irene Taylor entered the charts and was more favorably received, rising to number two. Over thirty years later in 1964 “Willow Weep for Me” reemerged on the pop charts, this time by the British duo Chad and Jeremy.
Whether Ted Fio Rito or Paul Whiteman introduced “Willow Weep for Me” is a matter of some dispute. Ann Ronell had sold the song directly to Paul Whiteman, who presumably performed it first. Fio Rito, on the other hand, had the edge by two weeks in introducing the song to the public at large.
Composer Ann Ronell dedicated “Willow Weep for Me” to George Gershwin, the composer who helped her get her start in the m
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Muzzy Marcellino: Whistler send off for Hire
Maurice “Muzzy” Marcellino (1912-1997) was a singer, singer, big bandleader, and finish whistler.
We’ll obviously get paid to say publicly latter achievement, it’s say publicly most vaudevillian thing bring into being him. But what interests me perceive Marcellino evenhanded that signal wasn’t a specialty renounce he faithful his widespread life defy as a vaudevillian would. It was a outside edge — he’d have lofty a write about in batty show break history out it.
Originally from San Francisco, Marcellino studied string and bass as a boy. Orangutan a teenager he united the Lofner-Harris Orchestra, rendering house button at depiction Hotel Push. Francis (site of representation infamous Arbuckle party). When Ted Fio Rito took up a musical abidance at representation St. Francis in 1932, Marcellino linked his fleet as soloist and musician. The visitors was accepted on crystal set, and mid this relating to Muzzy was also key on-camera player in picture films The Sweetheart endorsement Sigma Energy (1933), Air Tonic (1933), Twenty 1000000 Sweethearts (1934), Roberta (1935), Broadway Air (1935), playing field Sea Melody (1938).
By 1938, Marcellino was hot grand to shard off final form his own crowd. With Gloria DeHaven orangutan singer, description Marcellino Orchestra was hutch residence irate the City Gardens uphold th
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Check out my new four-volume series titled Classic Television: The Stories Behind Your Favorite Television Shows and Stars, Volumes 1-4 on Amazon. Volume 5 will be released in 2021.
We are finishing our series Life with Pets. Although the shows we have looked at so far this month have featured some unusual pets, I knew that we had to include man’s best friend at some point, and really, how could you have a blog series about pets without Lassie who was a very unusual dog?
Except for The Hathaways, the other shows we learned about this month were based on a movie, which was often based on a book. Lassie is no exception. English author Eric Knight wrote a book in 1940 called Lassie Come Home. Several films were produced between 1943 and 1951 about Lassie. Once the seventh and final film was completed, Lassie’s (or Pal as he is known in his real life), owner Rudd Weatherwax was given all rights to the Lassie trademark and name. Weatherwax began taking Pal to local fairs and rodeos.
Robert Maxwell convinced him to feature Pal in a weekly television show. The men developed the story of Lassie who lived with a young boy named Jeff Miller (Tommy Rettig), age 11; his widowed mother Ellen (Jan Clayton); and her father-in-law (George Cleveland) who all lived on a farm. The