Topic: Big Band Remotes
James "Jimmy" Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter and big band leader. Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a music teacher and older brother of Tommy Dorsey who also became a prominent musician. He played trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage in a Vaudeville act as early as 1913. He switched to alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on clarinet. While little-known now, Jimmy Dorsey played on a clarinet outfitted with the Albert system of fingering, as opposed to the more common Boehm system used by most of his contemporaries including Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. On December 26, 1953, the brothers and their orchestra appeared on Jackie Gleason's CBS television program. The success of that television appearance led Gleason to produce a weekly variety program, Stage Show, hosted by the brothers on CBS from 1954 and 1956. Elvis Presley appeared on several of the telecasts. Jimmy took over leadership of the orchestra after Tommy's death. Jimmy survived his brother by only a few months and died of lung cancer, aged 53, in New York City. Broadcasts of Jimmy Dorsey and The Fabulous Dorsey Orchestra on NBC Bandstand survive from December 25, and December 31, 1956. At least two other extant broadcasts from the month of December 1956 are available as well.

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Topic: Big Band Remotes
The Casa Loma Orchestra was an American swing band active from 1927 to 1963. It did not tour after 1950 but continued to record as a studio group. It began its existence in 1927 as the Orange Blossoms, one of several Detroit-area groups that came out of the Jean Goldkette office. It was a co-operative organization, fronted for the first few years by violinist Hank Biagini, although the eventual leader, saxophonist Glen Gray (1900-1963) was from the very beginning "first among equals." The band had adopted the Casa Loma name by the time of its first recordings in 1929, shortly after it was supposed to play an engagement at Casa Loma in Toronto.

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Topic: Your Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade was a popular American radio and television program, sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes and broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and 1950 to 1959 on television. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or groups. Each Saturday evening, the program offered the most popular and bestselling songs of the week. The earliest format involved a presentation of the top 15 songs. Later, a countdown with fanfares led to the top three finalists, with the number one song for the finale. Occasional performances of standards and other favorite songs from the past were known as "Lucky Strike Extras."

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Topic: Big Band Remotes
The Hollywood Palladium Ballroom opened September 23, 1940 with a concert by Frank Sinatra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Over the years, it has hosted the Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Barbra Streisand and many others. The Hollywood Palladium was built by film producer Maurice M. Cohen, on the site of the original Paramount Pictures, between Argyle and El Centro avenues. Tommy Dorsey's first band was formed out of the remnant of the Joe Haymes band, and his smooth, lyrical trombone style – whether on ballads or on no-holds-barred swingers – became one of the signature sounds of both his band and the Swing Era. The new band hit from almost the moment it signed with RCA Victor with "On Treasure Island", the first of four hits for the new band that year. That led to a run of 137 Billboard chart hits, including his theme song, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You".

The Palladium Ballroom

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Now Playing: 18 JULY 1912 - Birth of Red Skelton
Topic: Red Skelton
RICHARD (“RED”) SKELTON [1912-1997] radio, television and film comedian who appeared in several MGM musicals (“Panama Hattie”, “DuBarry Was A Lady”, “Ziegfeld Follies”, “Neptune’s Daughter”) - portrayed composer Harry Ruby in "Three Little Words". Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, clubs and casinos, while pursuing another career as a painter...

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Topic: Jo Stafford Paul Weston
Jo STAFFORD ...R.I.P. .....Nov. 12th 1917/July 16th 2008
Jo Stafford, born Jo Elizabeth Stafford on November 12, 1917, in Coalinga, California was an American pop singer whose career spanned the late 1930s through the early 1960s. Stafford was greatly admired for the purity of her voice and was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. She is also viewed as a pioneer of modern musical parody, having won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1961 (with husband Paul Weston) for their album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris.
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Topic: Art Linkletter
17 JULY 1912 - Birth of Art Linkletter, American television host.
Art Linkletter born Gordon Arthur Kelly, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, was the host of two of the longest-running shows in United States broadcast history: House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on 'House Party' and 'Kids Say the Darndest Things', which led to a successful series of books quoting children...MORE in Wiki Bio
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Topic: Lux Radio Theater
16 JULY 1911 - Birthday Ginger Rogers (Virginia Katherine McMath), Academy Award winning American actress, singer and dancer who partnered with Fred Astaire...("Did everything he did but backwards and in high-heels" ;-)

Died 25 April 1995. Rogers introduced some celebrated numbers from the Great American Songbook, songs such as Harry Warren and Al Dubin's "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)" from Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), "Music Makes Me" from Flying Down to Rio (1933), "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee (1934), Irving Berlin's "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and the Gershwins' "Embraceable You" from Girl Crazy and "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)" from Shall We Dance (1937). Furthermore, in song duets with Astaire, she co-introduced Berlin's "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936), Jerome Kern's "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance" from Swing Time (1936) and the Gershwins' "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from Shall We Dance (1937). Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in 1940s Kitty Foyle...dramatized on radio's Lux, Presents Hollywood:

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Topic: Announcers
Iconic American newsmen born this day...
14 JULY 1917 - Douglas Edwards, American newscaster, TV's first evening news anchor.
14 JULY 1927 - John Chancellor, American radio/TV newscaster.

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Topic: Dave Garroway
13 JULY 1913 - Birth of Dave Garroway, American radio disc jockey and television host.
David Cunningham Garroway was the founding host of NBC's Today from 1952 to 1961. He also hosted NBC-TV's live remote Sunday series Wide, Wide World and weekend radio series Monitor.

His easygoing, relaxed and relaxing style belied a battle with depression that may have contributed to the end of his days as a leading television personality--and, eventually, his life. Born in Schenectady, New York, Garroway was 14 when he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended University City High School and Washington University. He began his broadcasting career modestly, starting as an NBC page in 1938, and then graduating from NBC's school for announcers 23rd in a class of 24. Even so, he landed a job at influential Pittsburgh radio station KDKA in 1939. He roamed the region, filing a number of memorable reports from a hot-air balloon, from a U.S. Navy submarine in the Ohio River, and from deep inside a coal mine. Those early reports earned Garroway a reputation for finding a good story, even if it took him to unusual places. He died 21 JULY 1982.

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