MORE ON THE REVELERS

My father sang with The Revelers quartet in the late 1920s.

As you may recall, back in 2015 I was contacted by Craig Phillips, who was doing his doctoral dissertation on male quartets of the 1920s. (See my post from 7/19/15.) We have been in touch over the years, and I am thrilled to report that there will be a presentation of "The Revelers Project" in  New York City, at the National Opera Center on July 11th.  For those of us who can't make it to NYC, the concert will be live streamed at 5:30 on that date, and here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/user/NatOperaCenterLIVE

Craig has also gotten some nice local press (out in Oregon, where he is a professor at Oregon University).  Here are some links:

http://www.registerguard.com/news/20180706/uo-prof-preps-for-revival-of-revelers-after-discovery-of-rare-music
 and
https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2018/05/24/resurrecting-the-revelers

And you'll find all sorts of interesting material at https://www.instagram.com/revelersproject/
Enjoy!

See also my blog post of 7/6/17.

Postscript to the Indy 500

After posting about the Indy 500 a few days ago, I received several interesting photos from John J. O'Leary IV, with whom I have been in touch in recent months. (He is writing a book about Gustav Reuter and Reuter Coachworks, the premier car restorer who handled many of my father's cars over the years. More about John and his project in a later post.)

Anyhow, I would love to know how and why Clark Gable and my father were at the Race together, and what year it might have been. I imagine my parents got to know Gable when they were living in Hollywood in the 1930s while my father made several movies.  Oh to be a fly on the wall...

Any idea who the guy in the hat might be?

Indy 500

Always around this time of year I think of the Indianapolis 500 and my father singing "Back Home in Indiana" before the start of the race. In 1946 he supplied several antique cars from his collection for a pre-race lap. There's also the story that for one race, with the cars revving furiously behind him, he got a bit flustered and started to sing "My Old Kentucky Home" instead of "Back Home in Indiana."
He did this pre-race gig for a number of years, although I am not sure how many. Does anyone out there know?  He started this tradition which was later carried on by Vic Damone, Mel Torme, Dinah Shore and Jim Nabors.

Scale Model of 1901 Curved Dash Olds

This, the 57^th anniversary of my father’s death (4/21/61), seems an appropriate place to re-start my on-again-off-again James Melton blog. (I do apologize for my laxity, the result of traveling and later recovery from hip replacement surgery.) My absence has not been for lack of material—far from it! There’s something new to talk about almost every week.

For instance, remember that half-size 1901 Curved Dash Olds my father carried on our yacht? (See blog entry July 19, 2010.) Just last week I heard from the grandson of the fellow who built it—Richard H. Francis. As his grandson, Jon, remembers it, his grandfather Dick built one to drive in the 1949 Mummers Parade in Philadelphia. My father saw it, and asked Dick to built one for him!

Thanks to Jon, who sent me photos of “Mabel,” the original car, which Dick copied for my father.

Ford Festival TV Show

A scene from "La Traviata" on James Melton's TV Show, Ford Festival (1951)

A couple of weeks ago CBS’s “60 Minutes” did a rerun of their show about the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and what happened to them after their parents were executed for espionage in 1953.

Robert and Michael were adopted by Abel Meeropol and his wife Anne. What does this have to do with James Melton, you may ask? 

About six months ago I was contacted by David Newstead, who is writing a biography of Abel Meeropol. Meeropol, under the pen name of Lewis Allen, was a songwriter and social activist. He wrote the Billie Holiday song “Strange Fruit,” and the Frank Sinatra song “The House That I Live In” …and he worked on my father’s TV show “Ford Festival.” In fact, he wrote the theme music for the show.

Life is full of amazing discoveries!

1901 Frisbee "Red Devil"

Back in January I heard from Diane Davis in California, who was looking for information on the 1901 Frisbie Red Devil car that was in may father’s museum. She is a Frisbie descendant, and was in the midst of putting together a book about the Frisbie family of inventors.

Her project has come to fruition and the book is out! Red Devils & Penny Shooters.  (The Penny Shooters refers to the cast iron mechanical toy banks made by the J&E Stevens Company, owned by the Frisbee family.)

As Diane says on the back of the book, “Russell Abner Frisbie would create and manufacture gasoline motors, Frisbie marine engines, and take part in the birth of the automobile industry with the creation of his Frisbie ‘Red Devil’ car.”

I did find a small photo of the Frisbie that my father owned. The photo is only about 3”x5” and there is a date of 1949 on the back (meaning it was in the Melton Museum in Norwalk, Connecticut).  I looked at the sign in front of the car with a magnifying glass, and here is what it says:

1901 Frisbie

1 cylinder water cooled planetary transmission

Built in Cromwell, Conn. and presented to the Melton Museum by its builder R.A. Frisbee

More on The Revelers

My email conversation with Craig Phillips continues. He’s the fellow, you may remember, who was a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The focus of his dissertation is The Revelers, the male quartet my father sang with in the 1920’s.  (See my July 19^th, 2015 post.) The actual title of his dissertation is: The Vocal Arrangements of Ed Smalle and Frank J. Black: Seven Performance Editions of Songs for Male Quartet Made Popular By The Revelers.

Craig has just received his doctorate this Spring.  Congratulations, Dr. Phillips! He also writes, “I'm happy to report that this Fall I am joining the music faculty of the University of Oregon as assistant professor of voice and vocal pedagogy. It's a big move for my family (swapping coasts!) but a great gig.”

In the two years since he first contacted me, Craig has been able to locate a number of other Revelers’ descendants, and has found marvelous materials that he has generously shared with me.

Here is a rare gem, a live performance photo of The Revelers (circa 1930) performing in NBC Studio H, showing their orientation to the microphone, where the piano was situated, the audience in front and the orchestra all around. And of course they're all wearing tuxedos!

This photo is from the collection of Craig Arnold, who is the grandson of Lewis James, one of the Revelers.

Helen Keller

Today is Helen Keller's birthday. Born in 1880, she would be 137 years old.

I am lucky enough to have known Helen when I was a small child, and to have at least one lovely memory of her.

The Meltons lived on a 40-acre hilltop gentleman's farm in Weston, Connecticut for the first eight years of my life.  We had an apple orchard, grape arbor, and a variety of fruit trees and bushes -- blueberries amongst them--as well as a large vegetable garden.  We considered Helen Keller and her companion, Polly Thompson, our neighbors, although their home in Easton was about 15 miles from ours in Weston.  Helen and Polly came annually  in mid-summer for a day of blueberry picking.

Helen's magnetism radiated so that even our dignified German shepherd, Caesar, usually slow to make friends, sat at her feet accepting loving pats.  It had somehow been explained to me,  age three, that Helen would "see" me through her hands -- not to be afraid, but just to stand still and quiet while Helen touched my face, my hands, my hair.  I remember standing there awed while this large shadow in slacks with a huge sun hat bent down to meet me.  Afterwards she said through Polly: "Beautiful!  Slender, pretty, lovely hair."

Then she and Polly and our dog would go off for the berries, while my mother prepared a lunch of freshly picked corn on the cob and hamburgers cooked to order on the outdoor stone grill.  Someone would ring the big old Navy bell on the back porch  to call everyone to chow.  Afterwards, Helen loved to wander through the vegetable garden, gently touching the sun-warmed tomatoes, bell peppers, squash.  They resumed their berry picking in the afternoon.

My logical mind now wonders:  How did she know which ones were ripe?Was her touch so delicate that only the ripes ones fell into the bucket on a string around her neck?  Or did she simply pick everything for someone else to sort out later?  Or didn't it matter?  Was it the sun and activity and a meal with friends that were the only important thing?

Apologies...

Many, many apologies for not posting here for such a long time. It's not for lack of subject matter. In fact, some very interesting things have happened in the last six months, with regard to both my father's musical career and his antique car hobby. Believe it or not, even all these years after his death (fifty-six years to be exact), people still remember. Stay tuned. More to come, I promise!

Merry Christmas!

I received a wonderful Christmas card from my friend Conway Stone (who helped me over the years with much research for my book). It features the front of my father's 1907 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

I share it—and the wishes it brings—with all of you.  Cheers!  Margo

2016 Glidden Tour

What a fun day I had yesterday!  Barbara Fox, Tour Director of the 71^st Revival Glidden Tour invited me to attend their luncheon at the Mount Washington Omni Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH. I had a grand time meeting new friends (several of whom own cars of my father’s) and reconnecting with old friends. I shared a lunch table with Pat Swigart, whose late husband started the Swigart Antique Auto Museum in Huntingdon, PA.

As you may recall, in 1946 my father my father instigated and personally arranged a post-war revival of the Glidden Tour, a prestigious endurance test for autos in the early part of the century. Members of the Veteran Motor Car Club of America turned back the pages of history when they gathered on the morning of August 17, 1946, at 9 a.m. at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, in front of the Plaza Hotel, to begin the revived tour’s first leg, the 151-mile journey to Albany. Cars had to be older than 1919 vintage. The original tours, funded by financier Charles Jasper Glidden, an ardent early advocate of automobiles as viable transportation, were primarily “reliability tours” to show that cars could complete arduous journeys with relatively little strife. They were held annually from 1905 to 1915 and were the most grueling tests for automobiles until the Indianapolis 500 Race was introduced in 1911. “We brought the Glidden Tour back again,” said my father, “not to test the performance of our cars, but more or less as an excuse to polish ’em up and take them out of the garage.”

Nineteen forty-six happened to be the Golden Jubilee of the automobile industry and the tour was partly to celebrate this milestone. So as not to be embarrassed by cries of “Get a horse!” tour officials arranged for two service vehicles to accompany the group on its 1,200-mile run. One of the major events that made the tour possible was a post-war agreement by Firestone Tire & Rubber Company to resurrect their old tire molds; that agreement, instigated by my father, literally put antique autos back on the road. He also negotiated with Firestone, Texaco, Ford, General Motors, Thompson Motor Products, and International Harvester for assistance to tour participants in return for suitable publicity opportunities. He’d done radio shows for several of those companies—Texaco Star Theater, The Voice of Firestone, and Harvest of Stars—and some years later would host Ford Motor Company’s Ford Festival on TV. His singing career and his car-collecting hobby were never far apart.

New James Melton CD

 I am delighted to announce that Frank Bristow (with the able assistance of Andy Pope, Bill Park and James Drake) has produced a fine new CD.

One of the highlights for me was the inclusion of selections from the "soon to open" Irving Berlin musical Annie Get Your Gun, along with brief remarks by Berlin himself. This took place on a "Texaco Star Theater" radio broadcast in the spring of 1946 (seventy years ago!)

 The CD can be purchased by contacting Frank in Australia at franbris@optusnet.com.au. Be sure to check out his website too:  www.musicfromthepast.com.  So much interesting stiff there!

(There's a second new CD, which I will detail in a later post.)

"September in the Rain"

Recently I heard through a mutual friend that Michael Feinstein (yes, the Michael Feinstein) was looking for James Melton's arrangement of "September in the Rain." (The song is by Warren and Dubin, from the 1937 movie "Melody for Two," in which my father starred.)  I was able to direct him to the University of Wyoming archives, where the bulk of my father's orchestrations reside.  How they got to Wyoming is another story which I will post at a later date.  At any rate, I am so delighted (and flattered) that Michael thinks enough of that music to want to include it in his Great American Songbook Project.

Happy Birthday

Today is my father's 112th birthday.  Here's a nice photo of him and his mother, taken probably in the late 1930s or early 1940s.

Although I haven't posted anything here for a while, I continue to hear from folks who have some connection to my father, and I continue to keep in touch with my "network" of friends, fans and family as new material emerges.

Most recently, I heard from Gary Melton, who is my father's great (or is it grand?) nephew!  I was able to send him a few family photos, including one of all the Melton siblings (including his grandfather, Guyton).

I also had a lovely email from a gentleman in Baltimore who called my father his "boyhood hero," and described in detail a concert in Philadelphia in 1945, during which my father forgot the lyrics to "Soliloquy" from Carousel.  A rare occurrence!

It really warms my heart when people rake the time to track me down with these recollections!

Happy New Year to all!

1911 Speedwell

 postcard of the Speedwell from the Autorama

I often hear from folks who own one of my father's cars. But recently I heard from someone whose family sold him a car. They wondered if I had any information about the car (sadly I did not) or any photos of the car (which I did).

The car in question was a 1911 Speedwell, which my father bought in 1941 for $350.  Richard Cook, nephew of the seller (and a teenager at the time), wrote a story about the transaction in the September/October 1995 issue of Horseless Carriage Gazette.

The Speedwell was displayed in both the Melton Museum in Norwalk, and later at the James Melton Autorama in Florida. Subsequently, it went to Dr. Samuel Scher's collection (in Mamaroneck, NY) and then to Bill Harrah's collection.  I wonder where it is now.

 The Speedwell on parade in Framingham, Massachusetts, Autumn  1941

 

The Revelers

Lately I have been in touch with a fellow who is a doctoral candidate in music performance at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The focus of his doctoral dissertation is on male quartets of the 1920s and the transition from the acoustic recording process to the electrical process.

We have been having a wonderful time exchanging information, photos and recordings of The Revelers.

Here is the latest photograph he sent (from the University of Texas-Austin historic photo archives). It is one I have not seen. 

The Revelers were born in 1925 from an older group called the Shannon Quartet, so named because Irish songs were very popular 1918 when they first came together to make recordings for the Victor Company. Until 1925, they were only heard in recordings and on the radio, but in the summer of that year they started making concert tours, including one to Great Britain where they sang for the Prince of Wales and Princess Mary. The original group consisted of Lewis James and Charles Hart (tenors), Elliott Shaw (baritone) and Wilfred Glenn (bass). In 1925, Charles Hart left the group, and was replaced by Franklyn Bauer. In due time he too left to pursue a solo career, and the quartet went in search of another tenor. In 1927, Dr. Frank Black became their accompanist and arranger. And they hired James Melton as first tenor.

A Motorsport Mystery

Last week I had an email from a fellow in the UK. He recently bought, at an auction in Wales, a group of motorsports memorabilia, amongst which is a trophy awarded to the winner of the "James Melton Museum Sprint Race 1949." He is trying to track down information on the trophy and contacted me.

Where was the sprint race? And why was the trophy named after the museum and not simply James Melton?  Was it to publicize the museum? Could the race possibly have been at the museum property (unlikely)? Evidently sprint races were held at the Thompson Speedway in Thompson, Connecticut, which is not too far from the museum's location in Norwalk, Connecticut. I am not aware that my father had any particular association with that racetrack, but who knows?

At any rate, I’m hoping that someone out there can shed some light on this mystery.  

54 Years ago today....

Fifty-four years ago today my father died. This is the appreciation his friend and fellow automobile collector Sam Scher wrote in Antique Automobile magazine.

VMCCA Award

I had a lovely surprise the other day in the form of an unexpected parcel.  It contained this award plaque given to my father in 1959, and came from Dick King of Redding, Connecticut.  What a gift! I am thrilled to have it.  The 1907 Rolls Royce was one of my father's (and my) favorite cars. It was painted dark green and had red leather seats, hence the license plate XMAS.

1925 Rolls Royce

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1925 Rolls Royce

Back in November, I visited a friend in Bethesda, Maryland. As part of our sightseeing tour around the area, we went to visit Hillwood, Marjorie Merriweather Post’s estate (now a museum) in northwest Washington.  Quite a fascinating place.

It wasn’t until I got home that I remembered that Mrs. Post GAVE my father a car, a 1925 Rolls Royce Town Car.  He wrote about it in his memoir of car collecting Bright Wheels Rolling.  [I do intend to contact a curator at the museum to see if there is any information in their archives about this gift to my father.]

Here is what he wrote in the book:

“Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post Davies owned this Twenty Town Car, and believe it or not, she gave it to me. Not only did she give it to me, complete with solid ivory interior fittings, but she put brand-new tires on it first. And when I said I would send a man for it, Mrs. Davies said certainly not, she’d send it to me. And she did!”

And there’s another connection (tenuous as it may be). Mrs. Post’s first husband was Edward Bennett Close, who is the grandfather of my Rosemary Hall school mates artist Tina Close and actress Glenn Close.