I asked about Thurl Ravenscroft's participation in the singing group, The Sportsmen. Tom Wagner, who sent me the earlier message I posted about Marty Sperzel, sent me this…
Thurl joined The Sportsmen shortly after they were formed. My best guess is that this is early 1938. He replaced Don Craig as bass. He stayed with the group until he left for the Air Transport Command in August 1942. He was replaced by Gurney Bell who previously had performed with a quartet called The Notables. The group after Thurl left was Bill Days, Max Smith, John Rarig and Bell. Thurl came back to civilian life in late 1947. He was supposed to get his job back. However, Gurney didn't want to give up the position and from what I can gather had the support of Marty Sperzel and Bill Days. Max Smith supported Thurl. Thurl did perform with the group on several recordings and a few radio shows but evidently Gurney's wife didn't want to see her husband lose such a profitable gig so she threatened to sue Jack Benny if Gurney was replaced. Jack then "fired" The Sportsmen (and this had no connection to the storyline firing in Feb/March 1947) for the summer of 1948 with the understanding that they would be hired back in the fall after they straightened out their personnel issues. Max and Thurl left the group and formed what was originally called The Java Jivers on the Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy Show with Bill Lee and Bob Hamlin. After a few weeks they changed their name to The Mellomen and the rest is history. Max also became a member of Meredith Willson's Talking People replacing Bob Stevens who replaced Max in The Sportsmen. Stevens later on replaced Hamlin in The Mellomen. Got that?
I think so. All of these guys had amazing careers not only in their respective groups but as background singers on records and dubbing other actors in movies. I'm still amazed at all the places Thurl turns up. Thanks, Tom.