Phantom Dancer :: 5:00pm 20th Jul 2024

Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 16th Jul 2024

CROONING, originated by female singer, Vaughn De Leath, for her first weekly broadcast on New York City Station, 2XG, in 1920, is a smooth, intimate, singing style tailored to the dynamic range of 1920s - 30s microphones.  It's your Phantom Dancer feature this week. The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. LISTEN to this week's Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 16 July) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APpoV0uJw6c[/embed]

VAUGHN DE LEATH

Vaughn De Leath was "The Original Radio Girl" and the "First Lady of Radio." She is often credited as the inventor of crooning. One of her hit songs, "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," recorded in 1927, became a hit for Elvis Presley in 1960. In January 1920, inventor and radio pioneer Lee DeForest brought Vaughn De Leath to the cramped studio of his station, 2XG, located in New York City's World's Tower, where De Leath broadcast "Swanee River". De Forest later noted: "She was an instant success. Her voice and her cordial, unassuming microphone presence were ideally suited to the novel task. Without instruction she seemed to sense exactly what was necessary in song and patter to successfully put herself across". By some historical accounts of this incident, having been advised that high notes sung in her natural soprano might shatter the fragile vacuum tubes of her carbon microphone's amplifier, De Leath switched to a deep contralto and in the process invented "crooning",which became the dominant pop vocal styling for the next three decades. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U91Aojqk6m4[/embed]

CROONERS

Before microphones, popular singers had to project to the rear seats of a theatre. The microphone made possible the more personal crooning style. Al Bowlly, Bing Crosby, Gene Austin, Annette Hanshaw, and the pioneer, Vaughn De Leath, were all crooners, but Rudy Vallée had the earliest, strongest association with crooning in the public mind There were press warnings of the "Vallee Peril": this "punk from Maine" with the "dripping voice" required mounted police to "beat back crowds of screaming and swooning females" at his vaudeville shows. By the early 1930s, the term "crooner" had taken on a pejorative connotation. Cardinal William O'Connell of Boston and the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) both publicly denounced the vocal form. O'Connell called crooning, "base", "degenerate", "defiling" and un-American. The NYSTA called it "corrupt".[ The New York Times predicted that crooning would be a passing fad. The newspaper wrote, "They sing like that because they can't help it. Their style is begging to go out of fashion…. Crooning will soon go the way of tandem bicycles, mah jong and midget golf." Voice range shifted from tenor (Vallée) to baritone (Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby). [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IeDofVzZJE[/embed]

THE ORIGINAL AMATEUR HOUR

On this week's Phantom Dancer you'll also hear the talent amateurs on Major Bowes' Origianl Amateur Hour in 1939. Edward Bowes’ father died when he was six years old, and young Edward worked as he could to augment the family income. After leaving grammar school he worked as an office boy, and then went into the real estate business, until the cataclysmic 1906 San Francisco earthquake wiped out his fortune. He then moved to New York City in search of other opportunities, soon realizing that the theatrical world was lucrative, and he worked busily in New York as a musical conductor, composer, and arranger. He also produced Broadway shows such as Kindling in 1911–12 and The Bridal Path in 1913. He was married to Kindling star Margaret Illington from 1910 until her death in 1934. He became managing director of New York's Capitol Theatre, which he ran with military efficiency. He insisted on being addressed as "Major Bowes," a nickname that sprang from his earlier military rank, though historians are divided on whether he was an active duty officer in World War I or held the rank as a member of the Officer Reserve Corps. [citation needed] Bowes brought his best-known creation to New York radio station WHN in 1934. He had actually hosted scattered amateur nights on smaller stations while manager of the Capitol. Within a year of its WHN premiere, The Original Amateur Hour—its original name, according to historian Gerald Nachman, was Major Bowes and His Capitol Family—began earning its creator and host as much as $1 million a year, according to Variety. [citation needed] The rapid popularity of The Original Amateur Hour made him better known than most of the talent he featured. Some of his discoveries became stars, including opera stars Lily Pons, Robert Merrill, and Beverly Sills; comedian Jack Carter; pop singer Teresa Brewer; and Frank Sinatra, fronting a quartet known as the Hoboken Four when they appeared on the show in 1935. The show consistently ranked among radio's top ten programs throughout its run. Bowes' familiar catchphrase "Round and round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows," was spoken in the familiar avuncular tones for which he was renowned, whenever it was time to spin the "wheel of fortune," the device by which some contestants were called to perform. In the early days of the show, whenever a performer was simply too terrible to continue, Bowes would stop the act by striking a gong (a device that would be revived in the 1970s by Chuck Barris's The Gong Show). Bowes heard from thousands of listeners who objected to his terminating these acts prematurely, so he abandoned the gong in 1936. Nachman recorded that Bowes, "a businesslike fellow with a mirthless chuckle who, unlike most emcees, had a gift for nongab," went out of his way to make contestants feel at ease, often taking them to dinner before their appearances. Nachman credits Bowes for featuring more black entertainers than many network shows of the time. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MzFShGxzUQ[/embed]

16 July PLAY LIST

Play List - The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE
Community Radio Network Show CRN #663

107.3 2SER Tuesday 16 July 2024 12:04 - 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 - 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 - 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 - 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 - 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 - 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 - 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 - 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 - 4am 7RPH Hobart Monday 3 - 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 - 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am - 4 and 6 -7pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 - 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 - 11am and Sunday 11pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1am - 2 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 - 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 - 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4am - 5am Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 - 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 - 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 - 6pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 - 10pm

Set 1
Benny Goodman
Let's Dance (theme) + In the Mood
Benny Goodman Orchestra
'Camel Caravan' WEAF NBC Red NYC 18 Nov 1939
South of the Border
Benny Goodman Sextet
'Camel Caravan' WEAF NBC Red NYC 18 Nov 1939
Swingin' a Dream + Boy Meets Horn Benny Goodman Orchestra (tp) Ziggy Elman
'Camel Caravan' WEAF NBC Red NYC 18 Nov 1939
Oh Johnny Oh + Sing, Sing, Sing + Goodbye Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Mildred Bailey 'Camel Caravan' WEAF NBC Red NYC 18 Nov 1939
Set 2
Anson Weeks Orchestra
I'm in a Love with a Tune
Anson Weeks Orchestra (voc) Pete Fylling
Radio Transcription 1932
Waltz Medley: I'll See You Again + Destiny + Paradise
Anson Weeks Orchestra
Radio Transcription 1932
Rhythm of the Day
Anson Weeks Orchestra (voc) Pete Fylling
Radio Transcription 1932
If I Were King + Rain, Rain Go Away
Anson Weeks Orchestra (voc) Fred Scott + The Rhythmsters
Radio Transcription 1932
Set 3
Crooning
Lonely
Vaughn de Leath
Comm Rec 23 Jun 1927
There's a Tavern in the Town
Rudy Vallee
'The Fleischman Yeast Hour' WEAF NBC Red NYC 13 Dec 1934
Time on My Hands + More Than You Know
Russ Colombo
'Hollywood on the Air' KECA NBC Orange LA 5 Jun 1933
Kissable Baby + I Cried For You
Bing Crosby
'Cremo Show' WABC CBS NYC 7 Nov 1931
Set 4
Amateur Hour
Romance
Organ
WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Open + I Found a New Baby
Harlem Roustabouts
'Major Bowes Amateur Hour' WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart
The Hoffman Sisters
'Major Bowes Amateur Hour' WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Melancholy Baby + Station Break
Marian Caruso (12 years old)
'Major Bowes Amateur Hour' WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Set 5
Amateur Hour Part 2
Over the Rainbow
Dorothy Moore 'Major Bowes Amateur Hour' WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
After You've Gone
Martha Booker
'Major Bowes Amateur Hour' WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Dark Eyes + Gina Swing + Bach
Gina Vellandi (age 7)
'Major Bowes Amateur Hour' WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Stay in My Arms Cinderella
Studio piano
'Major Bowes Amateur Hour' WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Set 6
Bunny Berrigan
Wearing of the Green
Benny Berrigan Orchestra
Radio Transcription 1936
Old Man Mose
Benny Berrigan Orchestra (voc) Gail Reese
Aircheck 28 Jan 1939
Sunday
Benny Berrigan Orchestra
Radio Transcription 1936
Panama + I Can't Get Started (theme)
Benny Berrigan Orchestra
Aircheck Jun 1939
Set 7
Tommy Dorsey (the songs that weren't played last week)
I Never Knew
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) The Sentimentalists
'For The Record' Carnegie Hall
WEAF NBC NYC 17 Apr 1944
So Little Time
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Morton Downey
'For The Record' Carnegie Hall
WEAF NBC NYC 17 Apr 1944
Song of India
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
'For The Record' Carnegie Hall
WEAF NBC NYC 17 Apr 1944
Loosers Weepers
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
'For The Record' Carnegie Hall
WEAF NBC NYC 17 Apr 1944
Set 8
Big Band Bop
Tiny's Blues Terry Gibbs All-Stars 'Sunday Concert' Birdland WJZ ABC NYC 1951
Perdido Terry Gibbs All-Stars
'Sunday Concert' Birdland WJZ ABC NYC 1951
Tiny's Blues + Father Knickerbocker Chubby Jackson Orchestra 'Symphony Sid Show' Royal Roost WMCA NYC 5 Mar 1949

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