ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 7-More Thievery

Okay, back to more thievery. With The 18th Amendment replaced by the 21st Amendment, PROHIBITION is officially repealed. Its time to have a drink, legally.

The glamorous supper clubs and the “legitimate” night clubs reopened their doors. The speakeasy’s turned their lights on even brighter, as most never truly closed AND all continued to be financed by THE MOB.

The Mob ruled clubs in Cleveland, Portland, Corpus Christi, The swanky Beverly Hills Supper Club of Newport, Kentucky, a jazz venue CLUB 18 on West 52nd St in NYC, The Chez Paree in Chicago,The Cloister of Chicago,The Copacabana (NYC), The Latin Quarter(NYC) just to name a few. To get a paying gig in these establishments you had to join the “local”…As Frank Zappa wrote, “Hey,you can call me Rudy, I’m the union man, and any of you boys not paid up on your card”.

One could seek employment through the AGVA- THE AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, a mob run union or through its sister organization the GAC (General Amusement Corporation) a massive talent agency.

So let’s pick one hot spot away from my NYC… say we travel south to Miami Beach located in beautiful, climate controlled as well as mob controlled south Florida. In the 1950’s Miami Beach had over 300 hotels. (Las Vegas had 4, hold that thought for later). AGVA acts would tour via booking by the General Amusement Corp, these acts would make the circuit from Miami to Chicago to Houston then to NYC and so forth with the agencies taking a piece of the action.

Tennessee was not one of those hot spots where these acts traveled on a regular basis. On January 5, 1950  the senator from Tennessee introduced Senate Resolution 202, AKA, “the investigation of organized crime bill”. In time, many clubs around the country were shut down only to find solace in LAS VEGAS, Nevada.

The BIG BAND acts peaked in the 1940’s and 1950’s with Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington Orchestras all rotating into the NYC Broadway houses: The Capitol, The Music Hall, and of course The Paramount (the home of Frank Sinatra and the bobby-soxers booked by not so clean William Morris Agency). A few years later Martin and Lewis are huge hits at the 5500 seat Roxy,

These shows as well as the coffee house folkies, and the comedians will make a smooth transition over to the newest AUDIO/VISUAL medium, the Television.

The radio networks of yore now become TELEVISION NETWORKS with Milton Berle’s TEXACO STAR THEATRE hitting the airwaves in 1948 as did Ed Sullivan’s TOAST OF THE TOWN .

At that time there was a total of 19 television stations in only 12 cities: Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angles, Milwaukee, NewYork, Philadelphia, St Louis, Washington, DC, and Schenectady-Albany and over 200 different advertisers vied for airtime.

Keep in mind that there were only 750,000 TV sets manufactured by then. Advertisers knew this television thing could be huge if it catches on. And how could it not. People could actually see people, different people, from different regions, males and females, the audience could not only hear the news but actually see footage.

A huge cultural shift is about to happen in America and the world. And that’s part of my story. How my generation benefitted from the vaudevillians, the club circuit, the radio, and ultimately the television to get our entertainment and the news.

See you next time… Chapter 8:BEFORE THE BEATLES . Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 6-THE RADIO

Last outing I wrote:

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, known as “Black Tuesday” (October 29), actually began the previous Thursday on October 24 (Black Thursday).That incident was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, one causing massive lay offs followed by years of extremely hard times. Radio audiences grew as a result of those unemployed folks having lost their disposable income, therefore not having the cash or in some cases the desire to leave home for their entertainment.

Fact: During and immediately after the Great Depression and Recovery the radio gained in popularity becoming the main source of family entertainment. But how?

The beginning of radio:

The Italian inventor and engineer Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) developed, demonstrated and marketed the first successful long-distance wireless telegraph and in 1901 broadcast the first transatlantic radio signal.

Radio wouldn’t have been “RADIO” without  Guglielmo Marconi and two other gentlemen: Owen Young and Ed Nally, Jr.

Owen Young, originally from GE and using his GE assets was instrumental in forming The Radio Corporation of America ( RCA). In 1919 Young acquired  a company known as American Marconi. In doing so, Ed Nally, Jr., the former vice president of American Marconi became the president of RCA.

Let’s talk about the machine itself. Prior to 1925, virtually all radio receivers cost about $65.00 and were powered by large batteries not electricity: a single 1.5v dc dry cell battery and a 22.5v dc B+ battery.

One also needed a set of earphones, a suitable antenna and ground wire.

An amplifier could be purchased at the additional cost  of $60.00 to gain a stronger signal so that with a horn speaker  also purchased with additional cost, one could allow the entire family to enjoy “the radio”.

A few years later the invention of the A.C. rectifier tube made “plug in” (electric) radios possible.

In 1923 there was about 3 million radio sets (all battery operated) being used in the United States. In 1925, RCA introduced the all-electric receiver set, a game changer. By 1936, America had over 30 million radio sets all AC-powered.

The GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO, the time when radio reached its peak popularity with the general public is considered the period from 1933  throughout most of the 1950’s. Strange as it may seem this period started when most Americans had few luxuries, many with fewer necessities. For these depression era folks the radio was their escape as it supplied cheap, “affordable” entertainment.

While radios units were considered a “luxury” most could be bought “on time”. Even a hard pressed family struggling made their required radio payments, sometimes in lieu of other necessities.

These radios of The Golden Age weren’t small, they were large, tubular devices usually built into a cabinet and utilized as a piece of furniture in the family room.

By1935, automobiles were being equipped with radios.This radio phenomena was catching on. So, now that you have one of these new fangled inventions, what was there to listen to?

At first, radio programs were produced “live” in house. Imagination was the key, radio was strictly audio, not visual. The bike riding unicyclist telling tired jokes once a star in vaudeville would not make it on radio. To make it one had to come up with an idea, a concept or be a “star” attraction to have a show developed around you.

Most radio shows were about an hour in length and a bit expensive to produce depending on the salaries of cast members, the audio equipment, staffing, rent, etc. So sponsors, patrons of the arts so to speak, were needed.

Radio programs of that era were typically produced by a singular sponsor. There was The EVER READY HOUR, THE CHASE AND SANBORN HOUR, MAJOR BOWES AMATEUR HOUR, THE BAKER’S BROADCAST(with Rudy Vallee) and THE KATE SMITH HOUR. With the sponsor “owning” the show, the sponsor also controlled the show’s content.

In 1932 Ed Wynn pioneered the idea of performing LIVE in front of a studio audience.

But first a word about the development of radio networks. In 1923 two east coast radio stations thought it would be cost effective, that is more profitable, if they could share a few programs by linking two stations via telephone lines thus broadcasting one show on two stations at the same time, a revolutionary idea. Soon more stations linked in and the first radio NETWORK was born.

Well…NOT SO FAST, as AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph stepped in attempting to monopolize the “wireless telephone service”.

The Department of Justice decided this infringement by AT&T was a monopoly and this being the era of TRUST BUSTING, AT&T had to pay dearly by selling off their radio company. Stepping in was RCA for a piece of that action. AT&T not to be outdone by the DOJ  banned all competitors from using AT&T lines.

GE, WESTINGHOUSE, and RCA decided to sidestep this ban by starting their own network of stations The National Broadcasting Company and THE NBC RADIO NETWORK and it’s Affiliates with David Sarnoff as their President is born.

The local affiliates were given the authority to run their own local commercials around network programming, a practice still found today in TV land. Another regional network The CBS RADIO NETWORK started to show signs of struggling financially.

WILLIAM PALEY thought that purchasing CBS would in turn help his father’s profitable cigar company sell more cigars.(Yes, folks you could not make this up and it is THEE William Paley). Once up and profitable CBS became a rival to NBC.

When NBC’s monopolistic tendencies were challenged, the NBC network was forced to split into two parts, NBC RED and NBC BLUE. NBC BLUE was later sold and became ABC RADIO NETWORK.

Let’s not the leave the newspapers out. Before radio, news print was the way most citizens received their news, however slanted that news might be, this being the era of Muckrackers, Yellow Journalism, etc, etc.

So these new fangled radio networks start to do public service news reports, mostly local news with a bit of national flavor tossed in.

However, more importantly was the radio’s “breaking news” flashes and “news as it was happening” reports. Advantage in news reporting moves from newspapers to the radio and with that advantage those precious advertising dollars also shifted over to the radio. The only problem was newspapers controlled all the teletype machines which supplied the radio stations with their news, features, weather and up to date bulletins from around the world. In an attempt to side step this teletype issue William Paley of CBS set up its own news gathering agency.

The newspaper men became irate and sued CBS to cease .The paper unions also threw NBC under the bus for good measure by demanding that NBC News could broadcast only 2 five minute news summaries each day AND only after the morning edition of the newspapers hit the street AND again later after the evening’s edition of the paper was out. Also, to stymy the radio’s revenue, the radio news programs were prohibited from having sponsors. Newspaper men were “Giants of the Earth” at this time and won out.

Well, may be not in the long run. The radio stations found the chore of seeking, gathering, and producing news was not profitable so they reverted to music. Music being a lot cheaper than supporting a news staff. Ratings also supported the fact that most listeners were more interested in hearing music than the news.

In this The GOLDEN AGE of radio it must be asked how did a program grab and keep the interest of its listeners? Answer is simple : By imagination and a little thing called soap operas (sponsored by soap companies).  The brain trusts of radio networks started to develop good family oriented programs like: “AMOS ’N ANDY” (racist as it might have been), GUNSMOKE,  THE SHADOW, DICK TRACEY, BUCK ROGERS and  then the “SIXTY FOUR DOLLAR QUESTION” a game show where the prize was not 64 thousand dollars, not 64 hundred dollars, just 64 bucks. THE 64 DOLLAR QUESTION was such a success it fostered the rise of other quiz shows:STOP THE MUSIC, BREAK THE BANK, all offering numerous cash prizes to participants.

Most ad agencies controlled the radio shows into the late 1940’s,  hence we had Geritol, Evaporated Milk, and the proverbial “9 out of ten doctors recommend Lucky Strike cigarettes”.

See you next time…. Chapter 7:  MORE THIEVERY . Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: THANK YOU MARCONI

 

Sitting with my brother one evening, over a glass of wine, chatting about the hundreds if not thousands of concerts we saw, the albums we played, the singles we bought and/or the songs we had heard on the radio he suggested that I write some of “that shit” down. Hence,”that shit” from the last half century plus, as best as I can remember it and then some. Who said there was nothing better than “sex,drugs and rock and roll”? Not me.

This is dedicated to my best friend, my roommate for our teen years, my brother KEVIN PATRICK HODGKISS (April 17,1954-Feb 10, 2018). I love you all the money in the world.

CHAPTER 1: THANK YOU MARCONI

It just might be the two AM radios that I remember most. Two radios exactly the same model except one was black which was in my parent’s bedroom on Dad’s nightstand, the other a white model on top of the Frigidaire in the kitchen. Very rarely if ever would either be on but when one was, especially “whitey” in the kitchen, the sounds would be amazing. The magical tunes seemed to send the cares and woes of this seven year old far away. When I was tall enough to switch it on that one in the kitchen got a good workout.Then Christmas of 1959, I received a small transistor radio all for myself.The first tune I heard was MACK THE KNIFE by Bobby Darin and life would never be the same.

“Oh, the shark babe has such teeth, dear,

And he shows them pearly white

Just a jack-knife has ole MacHeath, babe

And he keeps it out of sight”.

In 1865 Guglielmo Marconi was credited with inventing the “wireless” that is the first practical signaling system, therefore he was later granted the title of the “inventor of the radio”.

To me it seems humorous and somewhat prophetic that the town I live in, Copiague, New York, a small hamlet located on the south shore of Suffolk County, Long Island would once have been named Marconiville.  There is still a large iron awning in the center of town proudly declaring “MARCONIVILLE” to all visitors. And of course, there is the obligatory Marconi Blvd, which years later in my story will be the location of The Record Rack, a short lived but interesting shop where I purchased many of my vinyl wares. Yes, at one point in his life Marconi resided in my town, however so short a time it was.

My folks were not rich by any means, as a matter of fact we were poor, as in welfare poor. Thank God for welfare, as little as it was at that time, because with welfare and the good graces of family and friends we survived. Our poverty was not self inflicted as Dad who was a true worker, contracted POLIO. In fact Dad, later in life, was working three jobs to pay off the bills which mounted due to his extended stay in the hospital with polio. Dad paid off not just hospital bills but all the bills. Pop was medically famous being one of the last men in The United States of America to contract that dreaded disease and he was one of the last victims to be placed in an “iron lung” while in the hospital. Fortunately, being one of the last victims in the long history of the disease had a huge upside as most of the treatments and actions taken to combat the disease were by now perfected, Finally after many moons in the hospital Pop was released. I remember the “WELCOME HOME” party as vividly as I remember the Sunday morning he had fallen and the ambulance that took him away. I was just a babe then, but not so much when he came home almost two years later.

Seems Pop and a group of his friends were digging dry-wells for each other’s homes with ours being one of the last to be finished. These dry wells were not sunk for drinking water but rather for drainage of washing machine waste water and yes, as additional cesspools. This was  a time before sewers appeared in suburbia. I remember the men finishing ours only a few weekends before Dad took ill.

This one Sunday Mom had dressed me up for church, and with my baby brother in tow Dad drove us to church for mass but he did not go in, which was unusual. Years later I found out that he had not been feeling well for a few days time and needed to beg off this one Sunday.  After mass he picked us up, drove home, and with Mom walking Patty, my brother, up the front steps (which we never used) Pop lagged behind. I walked with him for a few steps before he collapsed on the sidewalk which lead across our suburban lawn. He looked up at me and as little as I was…. I knew he was in pain. Mom ran Patty into the house probably placing my baby brother in his playpen and was back outside in a flash instructing me to go across the street to fetch “Aunt” Ruth, our neighbor. In what seemed like seconds an ambulance arrived and my Dad was gone so was my Mom. My brother and I were in the company of “Aunt” Ruth to whom I would always be grateful to ,“Aunt” Ruth the good neighbor and family friend.

Doctors were unsure if the digging of the wells aided in Pop contracting Polio but most neighbors thought it had something to do with it.

Mom did not drive, she walked everywhere and with Dad being in a hospital about 20 miles away, in an area without public transportation, Mom’s visitations would be dependent on others. During the mid 1950’s most folks in suburbia did not have a dedicated land line aka phone but rather used a party line, one which we shared with “Aunt Ruth” and our next door neighbor who was related to Aunt Ruth.

Mom’s visits to the hospital were day long affairs and she didn’t get there as often as she wanted. In the hospital, since polio was considered a “contagious disease” Dad was in “isolation” with a thick protective glass wall separating him from the visitors. Mom would find Dad laying on his back in the “iron lung” facing into his room. Mom could only see the top of his head as the iron long ran the length of his torso, and most of his legs.There was a mirror stationed over his head so he could look out into the hallway. Visitors spoke to him through a microphone. Now of course I did not know any of this until years later for as kids we were not allowed in hospitals, and women had to follow a dress code, that is to wear a dress, no slacks. This was the 1950’s.

One particular Saturday my paternal grandparents who lived in Brooklyn arrived as they had many weekends before and took us to the hospital in their car. I was so excited anticipating being near my Dad even thought it was only me being in the parking lot. I loved to be with Nana and Papa and this day would be special as they told me my Dad would wave to us from his window. Anxiously we waited in the fresh air while Mom visited. AND then, there it was, a hand, a wave….my Dad. Or so I thought. Years later I found out it was just Mom pretending to be Dad. Yet my heart was overjoyed at that moment and for days to come. To this day passing by that hospital I can pin point exactly where I was standing at that moment.

Note:After remission and many good decades later Dad was one of the first people to be diagnosed with what was labeled “post-polio syndrome”. Ultimately, polio led to his demise.

So, during Pop’s extended hospital stay the television and the radio were our escape. We might have been poor and on welfare but we had TV, a glorious television located in the living room, the only TV in the house, one which took a good couple of minutes to “warm up” before we could get a picture, a clear picture from one of the seven available channels. The screen was small, and the picture was black and white but it was ours and it was our family time together with Mom who despite her husband being seriously ill never wavered from her beautiful smile and the loving care she had for her two boys. Truthfully she was a bit over protective and used some pent up anger against a few neighbors who told their kids to stay away from us as we were “contagious” with polio.

Besides the two radios and the aforementioned TV we also owned a very small “victrola” and an even smaller record collection. Our “collection” consisted of what The Columbia House Record Club had to offer, mostly big band stuff that Dad had accumulated and of course  some “little kiddie records”. So that was ENTERTAINMENT 101 in the Hodgkiss household for those months of polio and years of welfare. Also, there was reading. Mom taught me how to read before I hit Kindergarten. Not deep insightful stuff, mostly sight words with me guessing what the other words were or should be. Reading was a game or so I thought.

So what’s all this psycho banter have to do with Marconi? Well, it’s now 1964 and my black and white TV world becomes stereophonic and ultimately “in living color”. My TV didn’t change from B/W but the way I viewed it certainly did. Ed Sullivan, Shindig, Hullabaloo, Where The Action Is, American Bandstand, Upbeat, Lloyd Thaxton, Clay Cole, The Shindogs (later known as The Wrecking Crew), The Blossoms, The Animals, James Brown, Roy Head, The Yardbirds, the Zombies, and The Kinks all changed my world.I could not get enough of this music. I started to buy 45’s, singles preferably with a picture sleeve. And the collection grew in leaps and bounds. While I loved to read it was mostly the newspaper and a few novels. Music became my escape, not the Hardy Boy mysteries.

My radio listening habits changed throughout the years going from the traditional New York  “AM  TOP FORTY” stations which included WMCA, WABC, 1010WINS, and WWRL, all featuring disc jockeys known as Murray the K, BMR, Cousin Brucie, and the legendary Rosko  and years later to glorious free-form FM but I digress…