Number one in a series…
Monthly Archives: September 2011
From the E-Mailbag
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.
Something Smells
Just after Christmas, Warner Home Video will be releasing a DVD full of Pepe Le Pew cartoons. Great! I hope they don't forget to include the one where a female cat gets a white stripe down her back, then Pepe chases her around thinking she's a lady skunk.
Seriously, isn't this like a whole DVD of the same cartoon over and over? It wasn't a terrible thing that Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese used the identical plot every time back when they made one or two of these a year and audiences saw them many moons apart. But they weren't made to be seen one right after the other. I can't think of a way to make people bored with Pepe Le Pew cartoons better than to package all of them together like this.
By the way, you may not be able to make it out in the illo above but the packaging says the DVD contains 15 Cartoon Classics. The contents list has 17 cartoons on it. Is this someone's bad math or is it their way of telling us that two of them aren't very good?
Today's Video Link
If you watch Glee, you often see my pal (and occasional songwriter partner) Brad Ellis tickling them ivories. He's an amazing person and an amazing musician…and here he is, accompanying and dueting with cabaret superstar Judy Butterfield…
All Right…
Now that I've checked around, I've discovered there are no great photos of Eric Sevareid so that idea is out. I can't seem to do Great Photos of Myron Cohen, either.
I have one other idea and I'm going to start it tomorrow on this site and post another entry every day I post on this site, as long as it's humanly possible. Don't try to talk me out of this one, folks.
Okay…
So nobody likes Great Photos of Bud Collyer. Fine. Starting tomorrow, I'm doing Great Photos of Eric Sevareid. I hope some of you will like that better.
The Sav-On Hit Parade
Back in this post, we talked about the jingle that Southern Californians used to hear incessantly on their radios for Sav-On drug stores. And on that page, you'll even find an audio link so you can hear it.
I knew nothing about it other than that it was on every channel every hour of the day for twenty-some-odd years. Today, I received this e-mail from Tom Wagner…
I came across a post of yours from 2009 regarding the Sav-On Drug Store jingle. I have some info and background on it.
It was written by a gentleman named Marty Sperzel. Mr. Sperzel was best known as the baritone of The Sportsmen Quartet notably featured on The Jack Benny Show on TV and radio shows doing the Lucky Strike cigarette commercials. He started performing as a teenager as a member of "The Three Ambassadors" with Gus Arnheim in the Cocoanut Grove (they replaced a group called "The Rhythm Boys"). The Ambassadors traveled the country in the 1930s with the Phil Harris and Jimmie Grier orchestras. They then became regulars on Kate Smith's radio show.
He joined The Sportsmen in August 1943. Mr. Sperzel left The Sportsmen in early 1957 to form an advertising company with Don Quinn (long time writer of Fibber McGee and Molly and Halls of Ivy) and Henry Russell (composer, arranger, and musical director) called "AdStaff". Mr. Sperzel was VP and helped write the lyrics and even performed some of the jingles. He took over the company in 1963. He wrote the music/lyrics for the Sav-On jingle. I'm sure he wrote plenty of other jingles but the only other one that I know he wrote both music/lyrics for was a jingle for Rayne Soft Water Service in 1964 called "Come on in, the water's fine."
Sad note is that Mr. Sperzel passed away on August 7, 2011 at the age of 98. I tried contacting him around 1995/96 and he was not happy to talk about the past. Didn't want to talk about his career. He didn't even get a L.A. Times or Variety obit. His second wife, actress Barbara Eiler, passed away in July 2007.
I believe I'd heard that numerous Jack Benny fans had contacted Mr. Sperzel, particularly when he became one of the last surviving cast members of that radio program, and been similarly rebuffed. He apparently just plain didn't want to talk to people about his career.
So how did Thurl Ravenscroft fit into the lineage of The Sportsmen. I thought I read that he lost his place in the group when he went into the service during World War II. Did that coincide with Sperzel's arrival?
Thanks, Tom. And everyone…Tom was nice enough to send me an audio clip of a Sav-On radio commercial which features the jingle — and which even mentions Blue Chip Stamps. My first typewriter was acquired with Blue Chip Stamps so I guess I owe them my career. Here's a little audio player with the commercial…
Great Photos of Bud Collyer
Number two in a series…
Recommended Reading
Ari Berman on how Republicans expect to win in the next election: By making it impossible for many Democrats to vote.
Jerry News
I think we're going to hear a lot about Jerry Lewis this weekend even if he goes unmentioned on the telethon. Here, my pal Eddie Deezen gives us 11 Facts You May Not Know About Jerry Lewis. Thanks to "Devlin," who sent me the link.
Today's Video Link
Hey, remember we were telling you about D23, the big Disney fan convention down in Anaheim a week or so ago? Well, among the events was an appearance by Dick Van Dyke with his a cappella musical group, Vantastix. Here they are singing a song we know and love…
Recommended Reading
In 1976, writer-actor Harry Shearer skulked about the Jerry Lewis Telethon — yes, the year Dean did his famous walk-on — and wrote a long article about it for Film Comment magazine. Wanna read it? You can read or download it as a PDF file here.
Recommended Reading
Fred Kaplan on how the military has changed since 9/11.
Great Photos of Bud Collyer
Number one in a series…
Recommended Reading
Kevin Drum has a plan to create jobs and improve this nation's infrastructure. Will it work? Very likely. Will it be implemented? Very unlikely. Hey, but at least someone has a plan that doesn't involve making the rich richer and hoping they create a few new jobs that right now, they don't seem to have any reason to create.