Dark Monday • Stagedoor Canteen

To continue with my special look at Veteran's Day, I thought we might all enjoy the 1943 movie music, 'Stage Door Canteen.' The movie was really an effort to capture some of the sentiment of the real Stage Door Canteen, with locations in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles (the Hollywood Canteen). The clubs were a place where American soldiers and their Ally counterparts could go to be entertained and be safe while on leave. Often, the stars of stage and screen would stop by and volunteer time, as the Canteen was run by The American Theater Wing, who also handle the Antoinette Perry Awards, better known as the Tony Awards.

The film offers a scripted look at life at the Canteen, with plenty of cameo appearances by movie stars, as well as performances by some of the best music had to offer. In a note, since the 'real' Stage Door Canteen in New York City was busy entertaining the servicemen, a replica was built in Culver City, California, which had the added bonus of being more convenient for the stars. One of the many stars to appear in the movie is the amazing Miss Peggy Lee, who graces us all with a beautiful performance of "Why Don't You Do Right?" with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

While Ray Bolger might have been best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow in 'The Wizard of Oz;' he was also known as a great song & dance man, both on screen and on Broadway. For the movie, he came on to sing "The Girl I Love To Leave Behind."

Ethel Waters is joined on stage by the Count Basie Orchestra ti perform "Quicksand." Of course, I do have to stop to think about whether or not the great Ethel Waters or Count Basie had to use the servants entrance to get in, it still being the early 1940s. But they shared this wonderful song.

American-born singer Lina Romay performed with Cuban bandleader Xavier Cugat and his orchestra on "A Bombshell from Brooklyn." Cugat was perhaps best known in later years as the husband of Latin bombshell Charo. But in the 1920s through the 1980s, he could be heard playing with the band, with his own very special Latin flavors.

You can purchase the original soundtrack album for 'Stage Door Canteen' from iTunes and Amazon.

She's Singin' The Blues...

Clockwise: Doris Day; Rosemary Clooney; Ethel Waters; and Ella Fitzgerald.

Well, it is Saturday night at the S2MD Club, so pull up a chair, order yourself a stiff drink, and see if the Cigarette Girl carries your brand, cause it is going to be one of those nights, kids. Here comes some ladies singing the blues, and these ladies are bringing it tonight. And when I say singing the blues, I mean it. They all have songs with blue/blues in the title, and ladies that can sing them well. We can open the evening with a star who burned bright on the big screen and small, wherever she appeared, the lights shone a little brighter. In 1955, Miss Doris Day appeared in the movie Love Me Or Leave Me, a loose biography of singer Ruth Etting. Of course, Miss Day played the lead, and had several songs, including the only uptempo blues of the night, Shaking The Blues Away.



I know it might be hard to believe, but there was a time when George wasn't the most famous Clooney. You see, George had an aunt who was pretty well known. By the time she was 18 years old in 1946, Rosemary Clooney was singing with a big band, and starting to record. In 1951, she scored a bit hit with the song Come On-a My House, gaining national attention. This gave her a bit more latitude, and soon she was singing on television shows. And she had another hit in 1952, when she sang Blues In The Night.



There are some singers who have, over time, shown that they could sing just about anything. You have to think Ella Fitzgerald is one of those singers. She is a brilliant jazz singer, a great interpreter of the Great American Songbook, and give added depth to any ballad. Her performance of the 1958 classic I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues is added proof that Ella could do no wrong.



When you hear someone like Ethel Waters sing, you are transported. Perhaps it was because she was such a gifted actress as well as a singer, being only the second African-American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award (after Hattie McDaniel), but whatever it was, she told the listener a story, giving a little more heart than most could. Take, for instance, this version of Am I Blue? from the 1929 movie On With The Show. Amazing.



Well, that is it for tonight. Hope you had a good time, and leave with a slightly lighter heart.