Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1942)

Vera Barton, CBS' new singing discovery, features this month's Radio Mirror song hit, "Mound Bayou," on her show with Walter Gross. BY KEN ALDEN MARRIAGE of the month in bandland was Benny Goodman's union with attractive Alice Hammond Duckworth in Las Vegas, Nevada. Benny's bride was married once before and is the sister of John Hammond, noted swing music critic. * * * Baby of the month is Harry James' new little boy. The trumpet playing leader's wife is former vocalist Louise Tobin. . . . The Al Donahues also have a new baby boy. * * * Artie Shaw is doing his bit in the war as an ordinary seaman in the U. S. Navy. He didn't even try to get an officer's commission. * * * Glenn Miller rented Leslie Howard's former Beverly Hills home during the filming of Glenn's new 20th Century-Fox film, "Orchestra Wife." * * * Tommy Dorsey's new picture, "Ship Ahoy," in which he shares star billing with Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, will be released this month. It was held up for needed improvements. Another film-bound bandleader is Vaughn Monroe. He checks in at 20th Century-Fox the end of this month. * * * The annual crop of new bandleaders is smaller than usual but two new ones are the units of Jerry Wald and Sonny Skyler. The former is a 23year-old clarinetist from New Jersey. He has already won a hotel spot — the Hotel Lincoln— and a Mutual network wire, and first reports are favorable. Skyler used to sing with Vincent Lopez and his new band features Jeanne D'Arcy, who used to sing for Johnny Messner. THIS CHANGING WORLD: Betty Engels is the new singer with the Macfarland Twins' band. . . . Ronnie Kemper, formerly associated with Horace Heidt and Dick Jurgens, plans to organize a band of his own. . . . Connie Haines is off the Tommy Dorsey payroll. . . . Muggsy Spanier's singer, Edythe Harper, has retired temporarily to have a family. Her husband is Spanier's trombonist, Vernon Brown. . . . Lee Bennett has left Jan Garber's band to sine solo on // was bandleader Johnny Long who encouraged a bell-hop to turn himself into a composer. WGN, Chicago. . . .'John Kirby is planning a South American tour. . . . Ray McKinley's band now at New York's Hotel Commodore. . . . Will Osborne installed at Chicago's Edgewater Beach hotel with a CBS wire. * * * Dolly Dawn's venture as ,a bandleader evidently didn't pan out so well because the chubby and capable little singer is now playing in theaters as a single act. * * * No more home cooking for Dinah Shore. Dinah's sister, with whom the songstress has been living ever since she came to New York from Nash ville, Tenn., has returned to the old home town, leaving Dinah with the prospect of eating hotel meals from now on. Dinah goes to Hollywood for film work this summer. * * * Walter Gross, CBS musical director, has surprised everybody by turning out to be a talented radio actor on the side. This heretofore unrevealed talent helped Walter get the band spot on "Duffy's Tavern." * * * After shunning girl singers for years on the grounds that they're more trouble than they're worth, Les Hite has finally succumbed, hiring Rosetta Williams. * * * Ed Hamelberg is an energetic bell hop at the Hotel New Yorker, with song writing ambitions on the side. The assignment he liked best was paging hotel guests in the New Yorker's Terrace Room. Then he could always steal a few minutes from his work listening to such big bands as Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, and Johnny Long. The latter learned of Ed's writing talent and encouraged him, promising that if Ed wrote a good tune, he would plug it. Ed turned out such a song — "I Need You My Love" — and when Johnny returned to the New Yorker this month he kept his promise. The tune was first printed in Radio Mirror's May issue, as a "Song Hit of Tomorrow." A check of best-selling song charts now indicates that "I Need You, My Love" is a song hit of today and bellhop Hamelberg is busy writing another. RADIO AND TELEVISION MIRROR