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Read about and hear Martin Block
Glenn Miller role in Wartime Entertainment
Glenn Miller Orchestra –Moonlight Serenade
Category Archives: Music
Noting the 100th anniversary on Dec 12 of the birth of Frank Sinatra. Click on link below to recall his WNEW days.
The Gigs That Begat The Chairman
And, below, is Bill Diehl’s Sinatra special running on ABC this weekend.
A Sound Tinny and Golden
Sandy Becker
To view video clips, click on link below.
Sandy Becker Show – WABD-TV New York
“I’m Martin Block, a radio announcer from California.”
Click on the images below to enlarge for easier reading
Dan McCue is Content Editor for Renewable Energy magazine.
Renewable Energy Magazine
Happy Birthday Jooolie! It’s #84
Happy Birthday, Julius LaRosa.
Bill Diehl, seen above with Julie in a late 90’s conversation, sent word today(1/2/14) by phone that Julie, on his 84th birthday, is recovering from a fractured ankle. “Otherwise,” says Julie, “I’m in OK health.” Says Bill, “I reminded him that my wife, Lorry, met his wife, Rory, back in the 1950’s when Rory was Perry Como’s secretary, and Lorry was president of the Perry Como fan club in New York.(and Julie was Perry’s summer TV replacement.) Julie recalled that when he told Como that he was engaged to Rory and gave her a ring and they’d soon be married, Julie quoted Perry as saying, ‘you (bleep), now you’ve taken my wonderful secretary.’ Julie and Rory have been married 57 years”
Mimi Sings Our Song
Bill Diehl (a WNEW alum) writes:
A couple of months ago I interviewed Mimi Hines for a feature I was doing for ABC News Radio. She had recently turned 80 and on July 19 did a special 80th birthday show at “54 Below,” the Broadway nightclub. Mimi, who used to perform with Phil Ford, who’s gone now,(they made their debut in 1958 on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar) had fond memories of WNEW and those wonderful station breaks. So with a little help from her pianist Russ Kassoff, she performed one of the jingles for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuwZE_jxkcY&feature=youtu.be
from PLAYBILL — Hines made her Broadway debut when she replaced Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, performing the lead role for 18 months. Since that time she has starred in several national tours, recorded numerous albums, and returned to Broadway as Miss Lynch in the Tommy Tune production of Grease!. Hines was also seen in the York Theatre Company’s production of 70, Girls, 70, part of its “Musicals in Mufti” series, as well as the City Center Encores! production of Follies.
mimihines.com
playbill.com
The Gigs that Begat the Chairman
The Sinatra/Williams audio is from “The Home Front,” a documentary broadcast on WNEW in February and March, 1983.
all photos added by: WNEW1130.com
Dick Clark: His First Bandstand
“I Love Rudy Ruderman”
Variety Headline – Wednesday, July 14, 1963
“I Love Rudy Ruderman, ” a song composed by WNEW listener Addy Feiger was performed by her on July 14, 1963 at Madison Square Garden before a crowd of 18,000 attending WNEW’s 30th anniversary party. Click on link below.
http://wnew1130com.web.siteprotect.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/i_love_rudy_ruderman.mp3
We asked Rudy Ruderman, a News Editor at the time and Nat Asch, who was then Director of Special Projects, to add a few details of that long, glamorous evening and we’ve strung together their separate e-mail comments into a long-distance conversation.
RUDY I remember Addy. She was a neighbor in Westchester of Giants coach, Allie Sherman.
NAT Addy had written to the station saying she was “addicted” to the sound of WNEW and so, she wrote the song.
RUDY And when she sang it, everybody cheered, especially me.
NAT Varner Paulsen, was the PD at the time . . . I used to say of him, “Behold, the pale Norse”. . . anyway, he reluctantly accepted the suggestion that we open the show with Addy at the Garden . .
RUDY . . .the old Garden at 50th and 8th. . . .
NAT. . .that we open with Addy on a dark stage under a single spotlight. . .
RUDY . . . dressed as a maid and holding a feather duster. She suddenly sees the piano on center stage, looks around furtively, then dusts the keys and sits down and starts the song. . .
NAT . . .followed by the Cy Zentner orchestra on the main stage. . .there were three revolving stages . . .playing the WNEW theme as the Garden lit up to the delight of eighteen thousand People.
RUDY . . .Jack Jones and Count Basie were on the program,Vic Damone. . .Bobby Darin . .
NAT . . .Helen Forest, Tommy Dorsey. . .
RUDY . . .Billy Taylor, Della Reese. . .
NAT . . .Dave Brubeck. . .the show went on for five hours . . .we had very little experience putting on a show of such magnitude…every ticket sold included the opportunity to win a new house. . . .
RUDY . . . artiste issues?
NAT . . .only one. Nina Simone and her trio.
RUDY . . .right. . .
NAT . . .she had a rep for being difficult and was most unhappy about being put on one of the smaller stages. She wanted bigger. But her manager, her husband, Ernie, a former detective, calmed her down and she was brilliant. . .sang “I loves You, Porgy,” “My baby Just Cares For Me “. . .as scheduled . . .on the smaller stage. Up until the last moment we expected to get Frank Sinatra to close the show. We didn’t get him. We got Frank Sinatra Junior instead. The night was a complete success . . .except for the fact that Buddy Hackett punched out Freddie Robbins at the post show party at the Americana Hotel.
Editor’s Note: WNEW staged an encore show at the Garden on June 10, 1964, starring all the station’s personalities with (among others) Tony Bennett, Steve Lawrence, Eyde Gorme, Trini Lopez, Buddy Greco, Jerry Vale, and the Smothers Brothers. Proceeds benefited the Greater New York Fund.
