Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 5th May 2020

Harry ' The Hipster' Gibson is your feature artist on this week's Greg Poppleton Phantom Dancer. You'll hear him play two of Bix Beidebecke's famous piano compositions, In a Mist and Candlelight on live 1944 radio. The Phantom Dancer, your non-stop 2 hour mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio, is produced and presented by 1920s-30s singer and actor Greg Poppleton can be heard online from 12:04pm AEST Tuesday 5 May at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ The last hour is all vinyl.

1920s-30s

Harry "The Hipster" Gibson was a jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. Gibson played New York style stride piano and boogie woogie while singing in a wild, unrestrained style. His music career began in the late 1920s, when under his real name, he played stride piano in Dixieland jazz bands in Harlem. He continued to perform there throughout the 1930s, adding the barrelhouse boogie of the time to his repertoire. Gibson was fond of playing Fats Waller tunes, and when Waller heard Gibson in a club in Harlem in 1939, he hired him to be his relief pianist at club dates. Between 1939 and 1945, Gibson played at Manhattan jazz clubs on 52nd Street ("Swing Street"). Harry took the name "Gibson" from brand of gin.

1940s

Gibson was known for writing unusual songs considered ahead of their time. He recorded often but there are very few visual examples of his work. In 1944 he filmed three songs in New York for the Soundies film jukeboxes, and he went to Hollywood in 1946 to appear as himself in the feature-length film musical Junior Prom. He preceded white rock-and-rollers by a decade: the Soundies he recorded are similar to Jerry Lee Lewis's raucous piano numbers of the 1950s. For all his wild-man theatrics, Gibson demonstrated remarkable discipline. While working on "Swing Street" at night, he was a fellow at the Juilliard Graduate School during the day. At the time, Juilliard was strictly a classical music academy; Gibson excelled there. Like Mezz Mezzrow, Gibson consciously abandoned his ethnicity to adopt black music and culture. Gibson grew up near Harlem in New York City and his constant use of black jive talk was not an affectation; it was simply something he picked up from his fellow musicians. In his autobiography, Gibson claims he coined the term hipster between 1939 and 1945 when he was performing on Swing Street, and he started using "Harry the Hipster" as his stage name.

1950s

He recorded "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?", released in January 1946 and radio stations across America refused to play it, resulting in his being blacklisted in the music industry. Although Gibson's mainstream movie appearance in Junior Prom was released that same year, it couldn't overcome the notoriety of the "Benzedrine" record. Gibson's own drug use led to his decline.

1960s-80s

In the 1960s, when Gibson saw the huge success of the Beatles, he switched to rock and roll. By the 1970s, he was playing hard rock, blues, bop, novelty songs and a few songs that mixed ragtime with rock and roll. His hipster act became a hippie act. His old records were revived on the Dr. Demento radio show, particularly "Benzedrine", which was included on the 1975 compilation album Dr. Demento's Delights. His comeback resulted in three more albums: Harry the Hipster Digs Christmas, Everybody's Crazy but Me, (its title taken from the lyrics of "Stop That Dancin' Up There") (Progressive, 1986), and Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine (Delmark, 1989). Those two include some jazz, blues, ragtime, and rock and roll songs about reefer, nude bathing, hippie communes, strip clubs, male chauvinists, "rocking the 88s", and Shirley MacLaine. Gibson may have been the only jazz pianist of the 1930s and 1940s to go on to play in rock bands in the 1970s and 1980s.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

'Handsome Harry the Hipster' from 1944. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm3HdISZLKc 5 MAY PLAY LIST

Play List - The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #435
107.3 2SER Tuesday 5 May 2020 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 - 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 - 5:55pm National Program: 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Sunday 10 - 11pm 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 - 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 - 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 - 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 - 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 - 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 - 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 - 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 - 9pm 2MCE Bathurst / Orange / Central West NSW Wednesday 9 - 10am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 - 1pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 - 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 - 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 - 6am
Set 1	1930s Swing on the Wireless
Back Room Romp (A Contrapuntal Stomp)	Rex Stewart and his 52nd Street Sompers	Comm Rec NYC 7 July 1937
Margie	Benny Goodman Orchestra	'Camel Caravan' WABC CBS New York 6 Sep 1938
Here Comes Your Pappy Down The Own Dusty Road + Close	Bob Crosby Orchestra (voc) The Freshman	'Ford V-8 Revue' NYC 1936
Set 2	The Songs of Juan Tizol
Zambu	Harry James Orchestra featuring Juan Tizol	Meadowbrook Gardens Cedar Grove NJ WNBC NBC NY Feb 1946
Take The A-Train (theme) + Caravan	Duke Ellington featuring Juan Tizol (tb)	'Stars in Jazz' Birdland WNBC NBC NY 24 Nov 1952
Perdido + Lullaby of Birdland (theme)	Sarah Vaughan	'Stars In Jazz' Birdland WNBC NBC NY 31 Mar 53
Is There Life On Other Planets?	Various Learned Professors	'University of Chicago Roundtable' NBC Chicago 1948
Set 3	The Great Jazz Singers of the 1950s on Radio and Tv
Keeps On Raining	Billie Holliday	'Eddie Condon's Floor Show' WPIX TV NY 1949
You're My Thrill	Carmen McCrea	'All-Star Parade Of Bands' Birdland WRCA NBC NY 1956
Linger Awhile + Tenderly (Close)	Sarah Vaughan	'All-Star Parade of Bands' Sardi's Hollywood KFI NBC LA 21 May 1956
Set 4	Cuban Rhythms - Cugie and Desi on the Radio
Open + Brazil	Xavier Cugat Orchestra (voc) Choir	'Xavier Cugat Show' AFRTS Re-broadcast 1944
Cachita	Desi Arnez Orchestra (voc) DA	Ciro's Hollywood KNX CBS LA 1946
Chiu Chiu + Close	Xavier Cugat Orchestra (voc) Nita Rosa	'Xavier Cugat Show' AFRTS Re-broadcast 1944
Set 5	1944 - 1946 Radio Swing on One Night Stand
Cherokee	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	Radio Transcription 21 Jul 1944
Zanzi	Cab Calloway Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Club Zanzibar NY AFRS Re-broadcast 16 Jul 1945
On The Road To Mandalay	Jack Teagarden Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Joplin, Missouri AFRS Re-broadcast 18 Mar 1946
Holiday For Swing + Trinidad	Erskine Hawkins Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Blue Room Hotel Lincoln NY AFRS Re-broadcast 1 May 1946
Set 6	1930s Swing on the Radio
can You Take It?	Fletcher Henderson Orchestra	Comm Rec New York 18 Aug 1933
Let's Dance (theme) + Te Object Of My Affection	Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Buddy Clark	'Let's Dance' WEAF NBC Red NY 1 Dec 1934
Zonky	Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra	'Camel Caravan' WABC CBS NY 17 Dec 1935
Happy As The Day Is Long + Close	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	'Ford V-8 Show' Texas Centennial Exposition Dallas Aug 1936
Set 7	Bix Beidebecke
Singin' The Bluess	Frankie Trambauer Orchestra Orchestra, Bix Beidebecke (cnt) The 1st recorded jazz ballad?	Comm Rec New York 4 Feb 1927
In A Mist + Candlelight - both composed by Bix	Harry 'The Hipster' Gibson (piano)	'Eddie Condon's Jazz Concert' Town Hall WJZ Blue Network NY 22 Jul 1944
You Took Advantage Of Me	Paul Whiteman Orchestra (voc) Bing Crosby (cnt) Bix Beidebecke	Comm Rec New York 28 Apr 1928
Set 8	Bop Singers On The Air
What's The Matter Now?	Clyde Hart's All-Stars (tp) Dizzy Gillespie (voc) Rubberleg Williams	Comm Rec NYC Jan 1945
Hurry Home + Deedle + Royal Roost Bop	Dave Lambert and Buddy Stewart (voc)	'Symphony Sid Show' Royal Roost WMCA NY 5 Mar 1949
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles	Jackie Kane and Roy Kral (voc) Charlie Ventura Quartet	'Symphony Sid Show' WMCA NY 1949
Romance Without Finance	Charlie Parker Quintet (voc) Jimmy Butts	Comm Rec NYC 15 Sep 1944