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Some of my earliest memories are of my mother singing. She sang while doing housework and she went out to rehearse and perform with her various singing groups. I have a vivid memory of her on a stage, in some kind of variety show, dressed in a rather gaudy hobo costume and singing “Side By Side” with a group of women. She even sang on local Minneapolis television at least once, I think it was a choir that time.

The inspiration for this musical adventure was three young women from Minnesota who had made it big in show business, LaVerne, Maxine, and Patty Andrews who had been inspired in their own show business quest by the Boswell Sisters from New Orleans. The youngest, Patty was eleven years old when the sisters entered and won a talent contest at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, in 1929. They toured with Larry Rich’s big band and sang in clubs and vaudeville theaters for several years and nearly quit and went to secretarial school when suddenly their recording of Bei Mir Bist Du Schön became a number one hit in 1937.

During WWII the Andrews Sisters volunteered their time to entertain the troops both in the US and Europe. Their popularity soared because of the following thy bulit up in the armed forces.

In 1941 the Andrews Sisters appeared in the Abbott and Costello film Buck Privates, which grossed more than four million dollars, a lot of money for a film at that time. This clip, of one of the Andrews Sisters’ biggest hits, Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me is from a 1942 movie Private Buckeroo, which lacked Abbott and Costello, among other things. The Andrews Sisters play themselves, doing what they did - entertaining the troops. Harry James is the bandleader and it is his orchestra in the film. The male lead, dragged briefly onstage, is played by Dick Foran. Sometime third Stooge, Shemp Howard plays the part of Sgt. ‘Muggsy’ Shavel, in this low budget wartime entertainment. Most of the “business” in this scene is done by the youngest sister, Patty Andrews, the lead singer and major ham of the group.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1919, Jackie Washington began singing at events in the black community in his home town at age 5. He and his brothers sang four part harmony and soon were singing in nightclubs around southern Ontario. After learning to play the guitar, Jackie began to appear with visiting big bands like Duke Ellington, Glen Miller and Benny Goodman. He worked outside of music business in the 1940s and fifties, at a day job, but still made occasional appearances with jazz groups. Twenty years later Jackie was discovered by the folk music scene and was adopted as Canada’s resident blues man, a complete misnomer. He has been playing his repertoire of 1,300 or so jazz standards and novelty tunes at folk festivals and clubs ever since. This year, at the age of 89, Jackie is booked for several festivals in Canada. his 84th year in show business. His recent recordings can be found at Borealis records.

This is a clip from a bio film I Want To Be Happy made in 2006. There is a short sample of his singing and playing and Jackie tells the story of his first guitar.

“Orchestra Wives” was a musical filmed in 1942 starring Ann Rutherford and George Montgomery and featuring the Glen Miller Orchestra. It was the second, and last, film that Miller made, both with songs written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren. The first was called “Sun Valley Serenade.”

Soon after making this film Miller joined the Army and attempted to “modernize” military music. His addition of swing rhythms to Sousa marches outraged military music traditionalists. Miller was lost in an airplane crash over the English Channel in 1944, on his way to entertain the troops in France.

This clip features saxophonist Tex Beneke, singing group The Modernaires and the dancing Nicholas Brothers. The Nicholas Brothers called their athletic dance style “flash dancing.” They are a precursor to the 1990’s break dancers. The “no hands splits,” which they do several of in this routine, are considered physically impossible by present day dancers. Gregory Hines has said that if their biography was ever filmed, their dance numbers would have to be computer generated because no one could duplicate them.