Hitting on All Sixes
Monday. That was some Saturday in Buckingham. Can't wait til next week. AB-SO-LUTE-LY! Tuesday. Way too much work to do. Have to concentrate. THIS JOB IS BUSHWA. Wednesday. Halfway through. Saturday is in sight. Think I'll check the ad. GET A WIGGLE! Thursday. Getting real close. Look at that Saturday lineup. TELL IT TO SWEENEY! Friday. Final countdown. Tomorrow is finally here. WHOOPEE! EVERYTHING'S BEE'S KNEES & JAKE! CAKE-EATERS & GOLD DIGGERS. FLOOR FLUSHERS & HEALERS. SHEBAS & SHEIKS. MAZUMA & VOOT. BUBS & BUNNIES. Doors open at 8 P.M.
Epitome of Extravagance. The Dolly Sisters,
Illus. from The Art of Stage Dancing, Ned Wayburn, 1925
Identical twins Jennie and Rosie reached the pinnacle of popularity in the 1920's. Stage dancers, they attracted men, especially the wealthy. Wined, dined, coddled and cuddled, their life was on a level few could understand. "They had it all" is an understatement. Like the Roaring Twenties, all crashed around them in an Icarus ending, losing their limelight lives the two hardest ways - one through suicide and the second through aging.
Wait a minute! Hold it right here. Let's slow down a bit. First, what is with all this lingo? Bee's knees and Jake? And 8 P.M.? Since when do the auctions start at night? Is everyone at Brown Bros. hopped-up? Not quite. Let's just say this week we are playing the part, time traveling, heading back to the spark of our creation. Welcome to the Roaring Twenties, the time and reason our auction gallery building was constructed. With the Great War ending, hemlines went up and knickers went down. Not satisfied to breathe once again, the populace hyperventilated. Cole Porter penned the decade Anything Goes, and everything did. No one was settled with just living. Life sizzled. It was a Great Gatsby moment. The world was changing: Fashion. Automobiles. Electricity. Lindbergh. Nothing was impossible. Baseless wars birth booming times. Within this wonderful madness, the big band era erupted. Hundreds of dance halls opened across America. Fortunately, Brown Bros.' structure is one of the few surviving from this period. Jazz was King and high stepping was bling. Life was more than good, life was SITTING PRETTY!
Salesman sample, from M. Born & Co., 1918, 19" x 20". Fashion foreshadowing a post-war America. Skin is in.
Very soon the layers would peel in a ritualistic rebirth of human sexuality.
It's Howdy Hoody Time
Thousands of orchestras formed nationwide. Night after night, week after week, people danced insatiably. The Charleston. Tango. Lindy Hop. Chicken Scratch. Castle Walk. Texas Tommy. All steps based on speed and stamina. We enter this world through a 1910-1930 photograph album assembled by Howard Howdy Quicksell, banjo player for band promoter Jean Goldkette in Detroit, Michigan. Composer, improviser, and lyricist, Howdy captured the essence of his age within the black and white photos, many with captions. Here we meet Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, McKinney's all black Cotton Pickers band (who recorded multiple national hits with RCA), The Vagabonds, Casa Loma, Ted Lewis, and the Graystone Ballroom house band playing in downtown Detroit. The Graystone was legendary for performers and attendees alike, attracting both in droves.
Live broadcasting of dance hall bands was an excellent sales promotional tool. In the foreground right is Jean Goldkette, band manager in Detroit, Michigan. Far middle back is Howdy Quicksell holding his banjo.
The radio announcer is unidentified., ca. 1925
The twelve-member band was filled with top talent, some of the best in the business. Howard played with them through the decade. Included within these photos are the girls, plenty of them. From flappers to fibbers, they are all here, a sexual undertone to a ribald decade. The Detroit gig was top shelf income for musicians, until 1927. That year, Jean Goldkette lost his dominance when he failed to meet the payroll demands of his best players. Overnight, key members like trombonist Bill Rank, string bassist Steve Brown, saxophonist Donald Murray, and trumpet player Bix Beiderbecke departed, signing contracts with Paul Whiteman in New York City. Whiteman was the top band promoter in the United States, his orchestrations and arrangements defined the Jazz Age, e.g., Rhapsody in Blue. He was the top, the coliseum, He was the top, the Louvre Museum. If his hand touched yours, whether composer, musician, or singer, your career was made. Not all could handle this pressure.
Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, ca. 1920's. Musical vagabonds knew the road to the top was difficult and never assured. The Dorsey Brothers understood the key to success - practice. Tommy admitted to playing hours each day, perfecting his sound. Both achieved greatness, including surviving the Depression while still in the music business. Jimmy was a leap year baby, born February 29, 1904
Blow Gabriel Blow
Bix Beiderbecke was both a gifted jazz legend and a classic Greek tragedy. From Davenport, Iowa, this self-taught trumpet player rose to the top of his field. As with many musicians in the industry, parents held little respect for their livelihood. It would become Bix's Achilles heel. From Iowa his path traveled to endless dance halls. His talent would open the door to the Gennett Recording Studio in Richmond, Indiana. Located in a small shed behind the Starr Piano Company, the haphazard studio captured the greats of the jazz. So primitive was the studio, musicians were forced to schedule sessions around the locomotives passing by. And record they did. The Gennett brothers achieved what Sam Phillips would repeat thirty years later in Memphis. Over the years, whenever he cut a record, Bix would mail a copy home seeking justification in his parents' eyes. With Whiteman, his apogee was achieved. Then he returned home for a visit, the prodigal son reaching for his roots, secure in his success. At home he found all of his records, not by the record player in the parlor, but stuffed away in a closet, unopened. His parents' blatant nonacceptance sent him into a tailspin ending inside a liquor bottle.
The emblem of every successful man. From Born's catalog, 1918.
Spin the Bottle
Alcoholism consumed him. Still, his talent shone through, although his tardiness in the band created unextinguished friction. Despite attempts to save Bix, he died in 1931 at the age of 28. Did alcohol fuel his talent or destroy it? A timeless oxymoron. During Bix's bouts, Paul Whiteman maintained his full salary and promised him his spot in the band. Kindness? Most certainly. But there was more. Whiteman himself left his home in Colorado, climbed the musical entertainment mountain, and achieved unprecedented success. All the while, he knew his father, a classical trained musician, disapproved, believing Paul's choice was a failure. Paul Whiteman knew full well the personal pitfalls from a nonsupporting family. His outlet was not alcohol, but pressing forward. Beyond his musical successes, he also founded the Miss America Beauty Pageant, held annually in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The choice of AC was hardly by chance.
Bix Beiderbecke's personal business card with the Paul Whiteman's band is signed to Hoody, ca. 1927-29.
Whiteman's personal breakthrough was his discovery by RCA Camden record executives in 1921 while he was performing in Atlantic City. A puppy never forgets his master...'s voice. The world is small, the cycles tight. One hand feeds the other, a repetition forever repeating, like a favorite melody.