IT’S CRUMMY TRIVIA TIME…with DALE EVANS!
By Steve Crum
My childhood heroes were always cowboys–not a cowgal like Dale Evans. However, The Queen of the West, who died Feb. 7, 2001 at 88, was a contender. For over half a century, she was literally, in movies and real life, partnered with The King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers. On top of that, she had her own famous horse, Buttermilk. And she could sing western songs just about as well as Roy. Like King Roy, she even starred in her own line of comic books. So to me and the neighborhood boys who teamed up to play our favorite western stars, Miss Dale only semi-qualified as honorary cowboy hero.
A dialogue never heard: “OK, Donald, you are Johnny Mack Brown. Bobby, you are Lash LaRue. And I’m Dale Evans.” Playing cowboy was never a drag.
But Dale Evans was more of a Renaissance person than her saddle pard Roy. In addition to acting and singing, she was an author and composer. The Queen of the West was well labeled. No other female outside of Annie Oakley is so identified as a positive role model of the West, albeit in Evans’ case the romanticized West of movies, recordings and TV.
Strap on those spurs and saddle up. Gallop down that canyon pass again with THE DALE EVANS TRIVIA TEST. Answers are either TRUE or FALSE, and are listed at the end of this piece, pardners!
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1.] Unlike Roy Rogers, who hailed from Ohio, Dale Evans was actually born a Westerner.
2.] Evans made only 15 movies.
3.] She starred in three TV series.
4.] Dale Evans wrote a song featured in a John Wayne classic movie.5.] Roy Rogers was her first and only husband.
6.] The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum is in Southern California.
7.] The song, (How Do I Know) The Bible Tells Me So, was written by Dale Evans.
ANSWERS
1.] True. Lucille Wood Smith was born Oct. 31, 1912 in Uvalde, Texas.
2.] False. Her 41 movies began when she played a girl at the soda fountain in 1942’s Orchestra Wives, starring Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, and ended in 1951’s Pals of the Golden West.
3.] True. Included are The Roy Rogers Show (1951-57); The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show (1962); and A Date with Dale (1996).
4.] True. For John Wayne’s Rio Grande (1950), Dale’s song Aha, San Antone, was sung by co-stars Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., and Claude Jarman Jr. Carey recalls: “That thing about Aha, San Antone was a spur-of-the-moment idea. It was written by Dale Evans and wasn’t in the plans at all. The Old Man (director John Ford) just threw it in. Claude, Ben and I actually sang it ourselves. Ford would never overdub or pre-record, we did it live. It’s a little ironic that Victor Young (the film’s composer) picked it up for Ben’s theme.”
5.] False. He was Numero Four. A mother at 15, Dale was first hitched to Thomas Fox (1927-29); then August Johns (1929-35); Robert Butts (1937-46); and lastly to Roy (1947-Roy’s death in 1998).
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6.] False. It’s no longer anywhere since it is nonexistent. It was for many years in Victorville, California before it was all moved, including the late Buttermilk, Trigger and Bullet, to Branson, Missouri. Son Dusty Rogers performed there, and ran the museum. Sadly, due to poor attendance, the museum closed a couple of years ago. (Roy would always become outraged when someone called his displayed animals “stuffed.” His horse Trigger, dog Bullet, and Dale’s horse Buttermilk are “mounted.” There is a difference, you know.) NOTE: When this article was first posted, the museum was still in Branson. I have done some updating.7.] True. As most of the world knows, she also wrote Happy Trails to You, the couple’s theme song.
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If you scored at least four correct, you are Top Buckaroo, so treat yourself to a finger dip of saddle soap. Until we meet again, Dale and Roy.
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For Mr. & Mrs. Rogers singing Happy Trails, follow this link down the pass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcYsO890YJY
IT’S CRUMMY TRIVIA TIME…with GLENN MILLER!
By Steve Crum
It was 1954’s The Glenn Miller Story that really got me into big bands. Although I did not see it until it was on TV when I was into young adulthood, hearing that great Miller sound was an immediate hook. Not that I was totally unexposed before that time. There were a handful of 45 rpm records I had purchased during jr. high years. The one I recall best, which I still have tucked away behind DVDs and CDs, is an RCA extended play 45 of Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust performed by four big bands: Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller. Shaw’s version remains my favorite. No doubt I originally got this record to please my parents and grandparents. In those days, most of my age group had long since gyrated into rock ‘n roll land, which I never did. For the most part, I actually preferred my past generations’ music. By the time I was 12 (in 1959), WWII big band music seemed a leap forward to me. That was because my #1 musical preference was the Elvis of the Stone Age, Al Jolson. All it took was one glance and a listen to The Jolson Story (1946), and I became Jolsonized. But that is another blog entirely. My only transition back to big bands is that I have a recording of Jolie, singing both April Showers and Ma Blushin’ Rosie, accompanied by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. That said and hummed…
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What was the FIRST GOLD RECORD awarded for any song selling a million records? Hint: It was awarded to Glenn Miller. Choose one:
A. Moonlight Serenade
B. In the Mood
C. Chattanooga Choo Choo
D. Pennsylvania 6-5000
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ANSWER: CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO. RCA Victor, Miller’s one and only recording company, gave him the symbolic gold record in 1942 when the 78 rpm disk reached 1,200,000 in sales. For the record, so to speak, Chattanooga Choo Choo was #1 on the Billboard charts for nine weeks. Its matrix code on the RCA Bluebird label is B-11230-B. More importantly, the recording features Miller regulars Tex Beneke, Paula Kelly, and The Modernaires. A rarely heard 2-Channel stereo track of the song played on-screen by the Glenn MIller Orchestra is a plus to the laser disk release of 1941’s Sun Valley Serenade. Unfortunately, no DVD version is yet available. Written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, Chattanooga Choo Choo was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996.——————-
GLENN MILLER [March 1, 1904-Dec. 15, 1944] was serving as major, and heading his Army Air Force Band, when his plane evidently crashed over France during WWII. Neither his body nor the plane and its crew and other passengers were ever found.
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Dedicated to my truly dear Aunt Ada Holley, who did indeed sing with a big band and is now the youngest 85 year-old ever and #1 Glenn Miller fan, please enjoy Glenn Miller and his Orchestra performing Chattanooga Choo Choo in this scene from Sun Valley Serenade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XQybKMXL-k
Disney team-up should mean a Marvel-ous Main Street, USA
By Steve Crum
The newspaper headline tells all: Spidey hangs in Disney’s web now. Mega entertainment buzz is all a twitter and a blog over the Walt Disney Company’s announcement Monday of its purchase of Marvel Enterprises for $4 billion. No MIckey Mousing about it, this adds nearly 5,000 Marvel characters to the Magic Kingdom conglomerate.Does this sound like a set-up for strained, corny jokes about Marvel superheroes and villains changing the venue of Disneyland and Disney World? You bet your Spidey sense it does. Therefore, with Marvel’s main artist/creator Stan Lee in mind, welcome to…DISLEELAND & DISLEE WORLD!
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While in Anaheim, California and Orlando, Florida, DON’T MISS these Disleeland and Dislee World attractions for young and old comic book geeks:
Amusements
FRONTIERLAND SHOOTIN’ AT MARVEL VILLAINS EXPOSITION
MAD TEA PARTY WITH SILVER SURFER SILVERWARE
SPIDER-MAN’S WEB SLING FROM TARZAN’S TREEHOUSE
Big Thrills
HULKING AROUND SPACE MOUNTAIN
SILVER SURFING DOWN SPLASH MOUNTAIN
Family Adventures
BUZZ LIGHTYEAR/CAPTAIN AMERICA ASTRO BLASTERS
ENCHANTED TIKI-THOR ROOM
HAUNTED GREEN GOBLIN MANSION
DR. DOOM’S JUNGLE CRUISE
X-MEN OF THE CARIBBEAN
Fun For Little Ones
AVENGERS IN WONDERLAND
“IT’S A SMALL VULCAN WORLD”
PLUS…Character Greetings from
GOOFY, PLUTO, DEADPOOL AND PALS
WINNIE THE POOH & IRON MAN TOO
Be sure to visit
MINNIE’S AND MAGNETO’S HOUSE
And to make your visit complete, DON’T FORGET to take a ride on
THE DISLEELAND WOLVERAIL
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For a 15 minute Disneyland visit to IT’S A SMALL WORLD (featuring that never to be forgotten but we try song), please go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APmHR2bmQgw
IT’S CRUMMY TRIVIA TIME…with CINDERELLA!
By Steve Crum
Is it deja vu when you see Enchanted, 2007’s very delightful Disney musical spoof of classic fairy tales? It should be, since several familiar children’s stories are lovingly and cleverly blended into one script, and gently spoofed. Enchanted’s primary tale, however, is Cinderella, which the Disney studio itself produced as a successful animated film in 1950. Enchanted marks the 60th time the Cinderella story has been produced for motion pictures. CINDERELLA, as a matter of fact, has been remade the most times of any story in film history. Beginning in 1898 with Great Britain’s silent Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother, there have been Cinderella ballets, cartoons, operas, parodies, and *gasp* porno versions produced worldwide. An oddity, and a particular favorite of mine, is Cinderfella (1960), in which Jerry Lewis plays the title character with Ed Wynn as his Fairy Godfather.
There were 21 silent Cinderella films, most notably Mary Pickford’s starring role in 1914’s Cinderella. Other quiet era titles were 1913’s Cinderella’s Slipper; a Dinky Doodle cartoon, Cinderella (1925); and the live action Cinderella and the Boob (1913). Note: The latter title was not an early porn flick.
Catch these sound era titles: First Love (1939) with Deanna Durbin; Cinderella’s Fella (1940) with Juanita Quigley; a Krazy Kat cartoon, Cinderella (1930); The Slipper and the Rose (1976); Sepia Cinderella (1947), a black version featuring Billy Daniels; and 1940’s Bright Path, a Communist take produced in the USSR. [Perhaps the glass slipper becomes property of the state?]
Will this Prince Charming, foot fitting madness ever end?!
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Sing along with Cinderella here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjIssqHQJ6o
July and August cannot be too hot: Teddy, JFK & Vaughn Meader
By Steve Crum
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s passing this week was a sad affair, but even at his family and friends-filled wake there was joy and laughter in celebration of his vibrant and focused life that was so accomplished. Teddy’s death marks the end of the idealistic era known as Camelot, a name associated with his late brother, President John F. Kennedy. The president and his wife were enamored of the Broadway musical Camelot, the press picked it up, and the Kennedy years at the White House were forever linked with Camelot’s King Arthur and his dream of a better world.
Those of us 50 and older remember another link with JFK and his family, Vaughn Meader. Meader was the alternate JFK, the one whose deft impression of him on The First Family comedy record album sold 7.5 million copies during the first year of its release–until Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. That day, all records were pulled from the shelves due to extreme sensitivity over the JFK tragedy. During the same year, a sequel album, The First Family Vol. 2, was released and sold millions as well. It was also removed from stores the same day. Vaughn Meader’s phenomenal career as the premiere Pres. Kennedy imitator ended Nov. 22 too. Meader died in virtual obscurity on Oct. 29, 2004.Meader will never be forgotten by at least 7.5 million of us who listened, listened, listened to his albums, memorizing the numerous funny lines, and reciting them in mock New England/JFK dialect. We heard them everywhere those days–on radio, TV, and in department stores selling The First Family albums. As a high school kid, I did my impression of Meader-JFK every time I spoke to friends and relatives on the phone, and I was good…at least they told me so. It was a pervasive thing, and the kidding of our president was done with love and respect. There were some great lines, delivered with Kennedy accent: “The rubber shwan (meaning swan) is mine,” “Move ahead with great vigah (vigor)”, and “I would like to thank Richard Nixon for making this whole thing possible!” In 1963, President Kennedy introduced a Democratic Committee meeting with: “Vaughn Meader was busy tonight, so I came myself.”
Ted Kennedy, while only mentioned on the albums, was nonetheless part of the worldwide Meader madness prevailing. When asked at a press conference if he either enjoyed or was annoyed by The First Family album, JFK joked, “I listened to Mr. Meader’s record and, frankly, I thought it sounded more like Teddy than it did me.”
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An NPR tribute to The First Family and Vaughn Meader, including excerpts from the album, is linked here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4137273
Notice comic-impressionist Rich Little’s misquoting of JFK’s line about Teddy.