Hello. Hope you are having a lovely Sunday. Praise our God for this Spring day. Happy April 11th...National pet's day ! Give your furry friends some extra attention today and be glad you have them in your life. Had my doctor visit on Wednesday and it was both good and bad... He has told me I can finally make plans to schedule my cataract surgeries as my blood levels and blood pressure are holding steady. However, I still have to schedule a Mammogram and a new test...a colonoscopy ! Oh, dear me...am certainly not looking forward to that one ! LOL Have filled out the paperwork and am now waiting to be put on someone's procedure schedule. I also went to my pharmacy to get my 2nd pneumonia vaccine and causually mentioned that the doctor and I agreed I needed to sign up for Covid-19 vaccination. Before I could say anything more or ask about the procedure, she said she had had 2 cancellations and would I like to receive it right then? She had 2 extra doses to spare. I was shocked, but decided that God had led me there and opened the door easily for me, so I went ahead and had the one time J&J shot. Have not had a single reaction from it thus far...not even muscle soreness. Have rescheduled my pneumonia shot for 2 weeks later. I am restless and want to be out and about more. Maybe I'll begin to feel safer about it now, without getting careless about the ongoing risks. And so goes my life...every day an unknown. Hope you all are taking care of your health needs and that all in your life is progressing smoothly. Want to be together, as friends, long after this pandemic ends. Well, no more for now. Enjoy the upcoming new week. ~ Marcia
Evening my friend., was a nice day when the sun was out but kept playing peek a boo all afternoon., its cloudy now expecting rain tonight into tomorrow. i meet the girls for coffee., that was it. hope you had a great saturday and did all you had planned to do. have a good night. have a good night.
Catherine Annette Hanshaw was born in Manhattan on 18 October,
1901 and died on 13 March, 1985. In the years from 1926 to 1937 she was
a top radio and recording star, but more than a little reluctantly,
retiring at the height of her career.
That career was, I believe, a love story.
From her earliest years Annette loved to sing and was encouraged to do
so by her parents. They were basically hoteliers and their sweetly
pretty daughter was often co-opted to sing at parties for their guests.
But, although she taught herself to play the piano and the ukulele she
had no thought for a singing career. Her natural nervousness did not
seem to fit her for show business and, despite being offered two music
scholarships she opted for studying art. Her father set her up in a
record shop, “The Melody Shop” and she seems to have been quite
contented until at one of his parties in 1926 she met a man called
Herman (Wally) Rose and fell in love with him. I have a vague memory of
Annette telling me that Herman Rose was not his original name and also
that “Wally” was short for Waldemar. He was an Artist and Repertoire
Manager for Pathé Records and was so impressed that he asked Annette to
audition to make records. Had he been anyone else she would probably
have turned him down but, thankfully, she agreed and on 28 July, 1926
made a self accompanied test record at the Compo studio. When she had
finished singing, not knowing what to do, she announced “That’s All”.
The shrewd Wally spotted a gimmick and had her, somewhat against her
wishes, sign off most of her issued records with that phrase. He also
took 10 years off her age. It sounds outrageous but if one views the
only extant piece of film of her made in the early 1930‘s when she was
about 30 years old, she could easily pass for 20.
Wally Rose was certainly a jazz lover (in 1932 he was responsible for
making The Rhythm Makers sessions widely regarded as among the hottest
of all jazz records) and had already made the first recordings by Red
Nichols and the Red Heads, using them also as a backing group for
several of his artists such as Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, Jay C.
Flippen (whose record closing gimmick line was “Turn me over!”) and Lee
Morse. Now he used them toaccompany Annette on her first Pathé session.
The results showed that she, more than most girl singers of the time,
was at her best with jazz flavoured backings. Soon Wally had become her
manager and on 12 June 1929 he also became her husband.
In the meantime the old Pathé company had been swallowed up by Columbia
Records (who would in turn, be swallowed up by ARC). Wally and Annette
moved on to Columbia along with Cliff Edwards and Lee Morse and in 1932
Annette and Cliff both went to ARC.
But, since 1926 Annette had been doing whatever manager Wally had
thought best for her career and this included providing the vocal
refrains for some of Pathé’s, and later Columbia’s dance band records.
Few dance bands of that era had girl singers. It was not until Paul
Whiteman hired Mildred Bailey in 1931 that female vocalists became an
essential part of any successful band. The 24 sides that Annette made as
a dance band singer are quite a mixed bag. The first three find
herromping along very happily with The Original Memphis Five. The next
couple are amongst her best recordings. She’s obviously very happy in
the company of the Four Instrumental Stars, who swing mightly with
Annette riding the rhythm with ease. Many years later, in one of our
phone conversations she mentioned that she always loved working with
guitarist Eddie Lang. “Great Musician and a great gentleman” was how she
described him. She also admired, though was slightly scared of, Tommy
Dorsey (who referred to her as “a musicians singer” – a compliment that
she treasured) and among singers she singled out Ethel Waters and Connie
Boswell (she wasn’t that interested in “The Boswell Sisters”, just
Connie as a soloist) and thought that Lee Morse had “something
different”.
Following the Four Instrumental Stars come 2 sessions of 4 titles each
with the studio orchestra of Lou Gold. Gold made hundreds of sides with a
very competent, but usually rather dull band, using what were probably
“stock” arrangements and rarely featuring any interesting soloists.
However it’s nice to hear how Annette handles the varied songs, giving
each an individual reading.
Willard Robison was another colleague that Annette liked and admired
both as a person and a musician and told me she enjoyed working with
him. It shows. What also shows is the much more relaxed and interesting
sound of the orchestra and the choice of better material. Songs like
“There ain’t no sweet man’ suit Annette beautifully as does that great
1920 oldie “The Japanese Sandman”.
The three Ben Selvin sides are fine (some great sidemen) and very rare,
two having only been issued on the legendary Paramount Publix label.
These were of songs featured in Paramount films and were sold only in
cinemas showing the film from which the song came and then only during,
the film’s run. Average quantity of pressings was around 300 copies. All
three songs are excellent material forAnnette and include one of her
“take offs” of Boop-boop-a-do singer Helen Kane of which Helen said
“she’s more like me than I am”.
Our cd finishes with 2 songs by the not very interesting Jack Albin, but
both are well suited to Annette, and just to prove that statement there
is one song from Sam Lanin, which reprises one of those two tittles.
But as her popularity grew so Annette was becoming less and less happy
with her career. Aside from her busy recording schedule she was now a
major radio star and had received film offers from Hollywood (She told
me that she had made a couple of shorts, one for Paramount and one for
MGM, only the Paramount has surfaced). She admitted that she carried on
partly because of the excellent money she was making and partly to
please Wally, but she stopped recording on 3rd February 1934 and retired
completely in 1937. Surely somebody must have some radio
transcriptions??
I suppose one should also classify the dozen or so sides that she made with the most prolific and dullest of all
Hawaiian guitarists Frank Ferrera as “with vocal refrain”, but she hated
ma-king them and disliked Ferrera intensely calling him “a
bottom-pincher”, who’s wife would turn up at the studios and glare at
her.
So ended, much too soon, a career that only happened because she fell in love with the man who first discovered her – lucky us.
This cd is dedicated to the memory of Brian Rust, who’s championing of
Annette’s singing in the 1950’s and 60’s was really the beginning of the
now generally accepted realisation that she was far more than just one
of the many popular girl singers of her time.Love always, Annette, "That's All!
Evening., was a beautiful day high 50's tomorrow they say we might hit 70., but all returnes Sunday going to rain and 50's all next week... went to the bank, bj's, costco and coffee today.., my son brought home pizza for dinner.
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