**UPDATED PARAGRAPHS ARE MARKED WITH **. These were updated based on information received from jazz researchers, as credited below. Hello Friends! As you know, I not only write “stand-alone” posts, but I also have a few ongoing series of posts. (I know that I owe you a final post on Miles’s voice—no worries, I’m working on it.) Substack is now allowing video to be uploaded—as opposed to Youtube links— but one can only have one video, and only at the top of the page. No problem—that’s all I need to get started on this new series, where I will present every film or TV clip of Bird. Some of these are literally one second long (!), but there is an interesting story behind every one. I have lots to tell you, even about that Bird and Diz clip that you’ve seen before. I’ll present them in chronological order.
I can confirm one detail, namely, Bird in Detroit in 1954 or 1955, as told to me in a recent interview with Charles McPherson. Here is a link to my piece (go to the very bottom of it, it’s in the addendum)
Lewis -- I have some corrections and clarifications to add about Soupy Sales and Charlie Parker in Detroit. Contrary to Schaap, Bird absolutely appeared on Soupy Sales' late-night program in Detroit. Lots of evidence.
(1) I interviewed Soupy extensively in 1996 about his relationship with jazz and he clearly remembered Bird appearing on the show two or three times.
(2) The Detroit Free Press TV schedules say that Parker appeared on "Soupy's On" three times in 1954 -- April 7, July 16, and July 21.
(3) Around 2016-17, I also interviewed the late guitarist Joe Messina, who was a member of the house band on Soupy's show, and he remembered details of Bird's first appearance on the show as if they happened yesterday. He said Bird performed with no rehearsal, and as he walked on stage, he turned to the band and announced that he was going to play an eight-bar introduction to “Whispering,” He then played what Messina called “the most beautiful eight bars I’ve ever heard.” But the tune he segued into turned out to be “Groovin’ High,” which, of course, is based on the harmony of "Whispering." Messina told me that Bird called “Whispering” because he figured that a TV studio group might not know “Groovin’ High” but certainly would know its harmonic progenitor. Messina, by the way, would later find anonymous fame at Motown as one of the so-called Funk Brothers, the jazz-trained studio cats who made all those records.
All of this material was slated for a full chapter in "Jazz from Detroit" about Soupy, but I had to cut it at the 11th hour because the book was running long. I did write about Soupy and the discovery of the Clifford Brown video in '96 for the Free Press but the Messina interview and other Bird-related research came later.
Coda: In my chapter about Charles McPherson, he talks at length about witnessing Bird's final appearance in Detroit in early 1955, about six weeks before his his death.
Re the question regarding Bechet: ”Was he, like Milt Hinton, in the habit of documenting events that he participated in? Did Bechet shoot the film?” Apparently, he did not, but I can add that Sidney Bechet actually used film cameras from an early start. When he was in Moscow in 1926 he had lost his camera but not the projector. He then he heard that trumpeter Tommy Ladnier, who also was in Moscow with the Sam Wooding orchestra, owned a Pathe film camera that was for sale. So, the two musicians met for the first (!) time in Moscow and Bechet bought the camera. This is in described in my and Dan Vernhettes Tommy Ladnier biography ”Traveling Blues”. Unfortunately, the careless Bechet later on lost all his photos and films.
First off, I am very happy that you've joined Substack. As you may know, I have my own forum, The Eclectic's Corner, where I cover a lot of different subjects. I love your postings, and know how much time goes into them.
I would like to clarify the entire subject of television programs before video tape. There was in fact a lot of kinescoping during the years 1948 - 57, and in fact, a number of programs were transferred from video tape to film for rebroadcast through AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service). As you know, AFRS was created by the Feds during WWII when a decision was made to send a little bit of home to our fighting forces overseas via radio broadcasts (there were many radio stations throughout Europe and the far East sending programs to servicemen; it was thanks to that organization that we have so many big band broadcasts during the years of the recording ban. In fact, many of the sound portions of the late 1960s Tonight Show were transcribed by AFRTS and run as radio programs. There is a Facebook group that circulates them.
Kinescopes were the only way a show from the East Coast could be seen in the west coast before the coaxial cable connected both coasts; for several years, the farthest it went was Chicago. West Coast audiences saw 'live' shows a week after they were broadcast live. I've seen hundreds of them at this point; some were crystal clear (there are three volumes of Kukla , Fran and Ollie that are near pristine), and some are painful to watch. The fact is that many were destroyed when the networks ran out of room in their vaults. Kinescopes from Channel 5 in New York were thrown into the Hudson River, which is why there are only a handful of Soupy Sales shows that we both watched; Sandy Becker's shows are gone as well for the most part. It was thanks to the people charged to destroy them that several of them still existed, as they brought them home. Other kinescopes existed because the sponsor commissioned them. Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar has a high existence rate thanks to the producer Max Liebman and Sid himself getting copies as part of their contracts.
I Love Lucy broke the mold in that it was filmed with three 35MM cameras; kine's were 16MM filmed from a television monitor. The networks wanted a live show and wanted them to move to New York to do it, something they weren't about to do. Networks didn't think about repeat broadcasts at that time, and once again happily, the Arnaz's were pro-active in that they paid for everything and owned the shows. CBS later bought them for a pittance given that somewhere in the world, there is an I Love Lucy segment playing somewhere, to say nothing about world-wide home video sales.
The other show that is mostly missing that had a lot of jazz was Steve Allen's late night show. He thought nothing of bringing cameras into Birdland to broadcast the Basie band (and at least one segment exists). When Carson found out that the tapes of the Tonight Show had been thrown out, he was so furious that he formed a company to produce the show so he owned it. There is a large vault that has most of the Tonight Shows after 1980 or so. Many segments have been marketed on home video.
Excuse the long explanation, but I wanted to clarify what you said. We can certainly agree that the Clifford Brown and Parker segments are gold. I remember seeing them when they were first discovered. I believe they were in a private collection.
The tv clip of Steve Allen with Jack Kerouac is excellent. Legend. It is unfathomable even given the technical limitations of the era there weren’t more forward thinkers to record kinescope. Also didn’t soupy get canned for the silly truck joke in local nyc tv? Channel 5?
I got this link from Rick Pauloski. He has helped me get my book "Charlie Parker in Sweden - with a side trip to Copenhagen" translated into English. I wonder if you know the film that the photographer Bo Tak took with Parker backstage in Gothenburg in 1950. It is short, maybe a minute, and without sound. Parker is seen warming up, writing autographs and sitting on a couch with Roy Eldridge.
Bo Tak is still alive at 89. If you want to contact him, his email address is:
You kill me with the loving research and thoroughness of your blog. I take a very long time savoring each and every clip and web reference you offer. I can't thank you enough!
Hello Lewis Porter
Re: your current post on Charlie on film.
I can confirm one detail, namely, Bird in Detroit in 1954 or 1955, as told to me in a recent interview with Charles McPherson. Here is a link to my piece (go to the very bottom of it, it’s in the addendum)
https://myscena.org/marc-chenard/charles-mcpherson-the-artistry-of-linear-logic/
Glad to have a contacted a fellow writer and a more famous one than me,
Marc Chénard
Jazz Editor
La Scena Musicale
Montreal QC Canada
http://www.scena.org
Lewis -- I have some corrections and clarifications to add about Soupy Sales and Charlie Parker in Detroit. Contrary to Schaap, Bird absolutely appeared on Soupy Sales' late-night program in Detroit. Lots of evidence.
(1) I interviewed Soupy extensively in 1996 about his relationship with jazz and he clearly remembered Bird appearing on the show two or three times.
(2) The Detroit Free Press TV schedules say that Parker appeared on "Soupy's On" three times in 1954 -- April 7, July 16, and July 21.
(3) Around 2016-17, I also interviewed the late guitarist Joe Messina, who was a member of the house band on Soupy's show, and he remembered details of Bird's first appearance on the show as if they happened yesterday. He said Bird performed with no rehearsal, and as he walked on stage, he turned to the band and announced that he was going to play an eight-bar introduction to “Whispering,” He then played what Messina called “the most beautiful eight bars I’ve ever heard.” But the tune he segued into turned out to be “Groovin’ High,” which, of course, is based on the harmony of "Whispering." Messina told me that Bird called “Whispering” because he figured that a TV studio group might not know “Groovin’ High” but certainly would know its harmonic progenitor. Messina, by the way, would later find anonymous fame at Motown as one of the so-called Funk Brothers, the jazz-trained studio cats who made all those records.
All of this material was slated for a full chapter in "Jazz from Detroit" about Soupy, but I had to cut it at the 11th hour because the book was running long. I did write about Soupy and the discovery of the Clifford Brown video in '96 for the Free Press but the Messina interview and other Bird-related research came later.
Coda: In my chapter about Charles McPherson, he talks at length about witnessing Bird's final appearance in Detroit in early 1955, about six weeks before his his death.
Mark Stryker
Re the question regarding Bechet: ”Was he, like Milt Hinton, in the habit of documenting events that he participated in? Did Bechet shoot the film?” Apparently, he did not, but I can add that Sidney Bechet actually used film cameras from an early start. When he was in Moscow in 1926 he had lost his camera but not the projector. He then he heard that trumpeter Tommy Ladnier, who also was in Moscow with the Sam Wooding orchestra, owned a Pathe film camera that was for sale. So, the two musicians met for the first (!) time in Moscow and Bechet bought the camera. This is in described in my and Dan Vernhettes Tommy Ladnier biography ”Traveling Blues”. Unfortunately, the careless Bechet later on lost all his photos and films.
Hi Lewis,
First off, I am very happy that you've joined Substack. As you may know, I have my own forum, The Eclectic's Corner, where I cover a lot of different subjects. I love your postings, and know how much time goes into them.
I would like to clarify the entire subject of television programs before video tape. There was in fact a lot of kinescoping during the years 1948 - 57, and in fact, a number of programs were transferred from video tape to film for rebroadcast through AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service). As you know, AFRS was created by the Feds during WWII when a decision was made to send a little bit of home to our fighting forces overseas via radio broadcasts (there were many radio stations throughout Europe and the far East sending programs to servicemen; it was thanks to that organization that we have so many big band broadcasts during the years of the recording ban. In fact, many of the sound portions of the late 1960s Tonight Show were transcribed by AFRTS and run as radio programs. There is a Facebook group that circulates them.
Kinescopes were the only way a show from the East Coast could be seen in the west coast before the coaxial cable connected both coasts; for several years, the farthest it went was Chicago. West Coast audiences saw 'live' shows a week after they were broadcast live. I've seen hundreds of them at this point; some were crystal clear (there are three volumes of Kukla , Fran and Ollie that are near pristine), and some are painful to watch. The fact is that many were destroyed when the networks ran out of room in their vaults. Kinescopes from Channel 5 in New York were thrown into the Hudson River, which is why there are only a handful of Soupy Sales shows that we both watched; Sandy Becker's shows are gone as well for the most part. It was thanks to the people charged to destroy them that several of them still existed, as they brought them home. Other kinescopes existed because the sponsor commissioned them. Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar has a high existence rate thanks to the producer Max Liebman and Sid himself getting copies as part of their contracts.
I Love Lucy broke the mold in that it was filmed with three 35MM cameras; kine's were 16MM filmed from a television monitor. The networks wanted a live show and wanted them to move to New York to do it, something they weren't about to do. Networks didn't think about repeat broadcasts at that time, and once again happily, the Arnaz's were pro-active in that they paid for everything and owned the shows. CBS later bought them for a pittance given that somewhere in the world, there is an I Love Lucy segment playing somewhere, to say nothing about world-wide home video sales.
The other show that is mostly missing that had a lot of jazz was Steve Allen's late night show. He thought nothing of bringing cameras into Birdland to broadcast the Basie band (and at least one segment exists). When Carson found out that the tapes of the Tonight Show had been thrown out, he was so furious that he formed a company to produce the show so he owned it. There is a large vault that has most of the Tonight Shows after 1980 or so. Many segments have been marketed on home video.
Excuse the long explanation, but I wanted to clarify what you said. We can certainly agree that the Clifford Brown and Parker segments are gold. I remember seeing them when they were first discovered. I believe they were in a private collection.
All best to you, and I hope we talk soon.
Jeff
The tv clip of Steve Allen with Jack Kerouac is excellent. Legend. It is unfathomable even given the technical limitations of the era there weren’t more forward thinkers to record kinescope. Also didn’t soupy get canned for the silly truck joke in local nyc tv? Channel 5?
Hello,
I got this link from Rick Pauloski. He has helped me get my book "Charlie Parker in Sweden - with a side trip to Copenhagen" translated into English. I wonder if you know the film that the photographer Bo Tak took with Parker backstage in Gothenburg in 1950. It is short, maybe a minute, and without sound. Parker is seen warming up, writing autographs and sitting on a couch with Roy Eldridge.
Bo Tak is still alive at 89. If you want to contact him, his email address is:
takska@yahoo.com
Best Wishes
Martin Westin
Hello,
You kill me with the loving research and thoroughness of your blog. I take a very long time savoring each and every clip and web reference you offer. I can't thank you enough!