Showing posts with label William S. Paley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William S. Paley. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Louise Brooks (or Louise Fazenda) on Sing it Again radio show

Well, here is something of a minor mystery in my ongoing research into the history of Louise Brooks and radio. It begins with these two 1950 clippings from the San Francisco Examiner newspaper.







Sing It Again was a weekly one-hour Saturday-night music variety quiz show that featured home viewers trying to identify songs with the help of special clues that were performed by the show's regulars. (The show has been described as a kind of audience participation version of Name That Tune.) If the player answered correctly, he or she received a chance to identify the "phantom voice" for a jackpot prize.

The program first aired on CBS radio in September, 1948. Musical quiz shows were the rage and CBS decided to out-do them all with a program that would feature popular performers and the largest jackpot ever offered. Musical conductor Ray Bloch assembled a cast consisting of handsome crooner Alan Dale, songstress Eugenie Baird, and pianist-singer Bob Howard. The master of ceremonies was the affable Dan Seymour.

Like most game shows, this show had a gimmick: A song would first be performed straight, then sung again  -- hence the show's title -- with new lyrics describing a famous celebrity. If the contestant (or a listener phoned at random) solved the puzzle, they would have the opportunity to try to identify the "phantom voice" from clues offered during the preceding weeks. (If you are interested in here an episode of the show from 1949, visit this PAGE. Spoiler alert, the famous celebrity sung about in this episode is Claudette Colbert!)

In 1950, Sing It Again became one of the few programs ever to be simulcast (broadcast on both radio and television). However, the move to TV resulted in changes in format: the size of the jackpot was reduced, and everyone was replaced except for singer Alan Dale, who by then had become the show's top attraction. Comedian Jan Murray became the show's master of ceremonies.

1950 press photo of Eugenie Baird and Alan Dale on Sing It Again



Could Louise Brooks have been the "phantom voice" mentioned in the two clippings shown above. It's possible. In 1950, the former silent film star was living in New York City, which was also the home to Sing It Again. (The show, produced by Lester Gottlieb Productions, was made at the CBS Playhouse #3 in New York.) Brooks had done a bit of radio work for CBS in the early 1940s, prompted by her friendship with William S. Paley, the head of CBS.

Sing It Again was broadcast nationally, and newspapers across the country carried listings for the show. However, the only paper I've been able to find which took an interest in identifying the "phantom voice" was the San Francisco Examiner. Here is another clipping from earlier in August, 1950 which mentions Irene Castle and Gloria Swanson.



Could Louise Brooks have been the "phantom voice"? We may never know. This time in Brooks' life is poorly documented, and few pictures of the former star dating from this period are known. Except for one, I couldn't find any recordings of the Sing It Again show online. Perhaps they exist in an archive or OTR collection somewhere. Or perhaps there still exist old records for the show identifying who the various guests and "phantom voices" were. Old radio magazines might also be useful in solving this minor mystery. If any reader of this blog has access to such records or archive or audio recordings, please let me know.

Louise Brooks in Central Park in NYC

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Louise Brooks Society visits the William S. Paley Collection


The Louise Brooks Society visits the William S. Paley Collection at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. (Brooks and Paley had an affair in the 1920s, and later in life, Paley - the founder of CBS - secretly supported the destitute Brooks as she wrote "Lulu in Hollywood.")

Monday, September 3, 2012

Man Ray, Lee Miller, William S. Paley and Louise Brooks


File this under "all roads lead to Louise Brooks:" The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are currently hosting the exhibit "Man Ray | Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism" (through October 14) at the Legion of Honor. And forthcoming is "The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism" (September 15 - December 30, 2012) at the M.H. de Young Museum.

Curiously, both of these exhibits bear a relationship with Louise Brooks. Man Ray, for one, long admired Louise Brooks; it was an admiration which likely dated from her brief celebrity in Paris in 1930. Later in life, he sent an admiring letter and small painting to the former actress. His lover, Lee Miller, also had a close encounter with Brooks. As a teenager, Miller saw Brooks dance while Brooks was a member of the Denishawn Dance Company. 

William S. Paley, founder of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), was a leader in communication, entertainment, and broadcast journalism. His innovations in radio programming and advertising, his  commitment to entertainment and news dissemination, and his acute awareness of popular trends revolutionized broadcasting’s business model, and set new standards in broadcast journalism. He also secretly supported Louise Brooks, giving her a monthly stipend, while she was living in her later years in Rochester, New York. He did so because he and Brooks had likely been lovers back in the 1920s.


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