Radio and television mirror (Jan-June 1942)

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PreparationB. TALC POWDEB NETWIIfiHT i 01 i'if E0LC4TE fAlMOUVE-P£ET E£L ' JtflSEV EHY,* J THIS CHANGING WORLD: Jerry Summer has replaced Phil Brito as Al Donahue's chief vocalist . . . Gene Howard is Charlie Barnet's new singer, succeeding Bill Darnell, now a soldier . . . Suzanne, a seventeen year old professional model, is warbling with Al Ravelin's band. . . . Jane Fulton is Joe Reichman's new thrush. . . . Charlie Spivak's click in the Hotel Pennsylvania early this year has won him a return engagement in May. . . . Eddy Duchin takes over the bandstand in Chicago's Palmer House April 1 when Xavier Cugat moves on. The tango king is a sure bet to return to the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in early summer. . . . He'll have Tommy Dorsey as a competitor. T. D. gets the roof spot at New York's Hotel Astor. • * * Paul Whiteman, after a long absence from phonograph records, has signed a new contract with Victor. * * * Johnny Messner has concocted a novel way of answering requests for autographed photos of himself and his vocalist. 'The bandleader asks his fans for a ten cent defense stamp. Upon receipt of the stamp, Johnny sends the photo and presents the stamps to the American Red Cross. This scheme has helped fill up six stamp albums to date. FAMILY TREE ALVINO REY, master of the electrical guitar and major domo of one of the country's fastest-rising dance bands, has successfully mixed business and marriage. Not only is Alvino's wife, Louise King, an integral part of the organization's vocal department, but so are three of his sisters-in-law. Donna, Alyce, and Yvonne. The latter's husband, Buddy Cole, is Alvino's pianist. And just to make the cycle complete, Alvino is sure to get a curt note from his father-in-law every time the band broadcasts a program not up to the usual standard. The King Sisters' dad is a music teacher. In such a closely-knit family corporation, there is always the danger of who has the last word. "We girls are always trying to boss each other," admits Louise, "and when we fail in that we gang up and try to boss Alvino. But in his quiet way he just ignores us and takes command." This group owes its formation to Horace Heidt, who discovered in 1933 that he had to hire a new girl rhythm team and a guitar player. The girls he employed were the Kings, a quartet of comely Mormons from a Salt Lake City radio station. Alvino Rey was the guitar player Horace selected. He was a retiring young man who had merged two hobbies — music and electricity — and developed a streamlined guitar. "It was purely a bandstand rom.ance," says Louise, who likes to talk as much as her quiet husband likes to eat. "We were always caught holding hands during rehearsals and whispering sweet nothings to each other between sets. It became a stock gag with the boys in the band. But Horace didn't mind. In fact, he en couraged us." When Alvino was a youngster he thought more about gadget tinkering than rhythm making. But the wail of a local musician's saxophone attracted him and he asked his prudent mother to get him one for Christmas. "Definitely not, Alvin," she said. "It's unsanitary." Instead she purchased a banjo for her son. Alvino reconciled himself to the i banjo and started taking lessons. ' However, he didn't neglect his first love — electricity. "At that time," he explains, "electrical plug-in radios were just getting on the market. I figured I could adapt the same principle to the banjo or guitar. I hooked a wire to the instrument and connected it to our radio's speaker. This electrical amplification produced a new effect. Later on I improved upon the effect by removing the guitar's soundboard and replacing it with a built-in microphone." Rey didn't bother to patent his idea. "I didn't see enough money in the venture," he says simply. "There just aren't enough guitar players to worry about. You have to be a combination musician and electrician." His new-fangled instrument got Alvino plenty of jobs in bands. When the banjo lost favor in dance circles, Alvino switched to the guitar. A publicity-minded friend suggested that Alvin Rey didn't sound romantic enough so he added an o to his first name. He played for a spell with Phil Spitalny's all-MALE orchestra, replacing the great Eddie Peabody, then joined NBC's San Francisco house band, a post he held until the Heidt offer came. When the King sisters left their Utah home they ruined a plan their father had been nursing for years. He had dreamed of his own all-family band, with himself playing the saxophone, his wife the cello, his two sons, Karlton and Billy, the pianos, older sister Maxine the violin, Louise the harp, Alyce viola, and Donna the drums. "The two babies, Yvonne and Marilyn, were being tutored in their musical A-B-C's before rounding out the ensemble. "Now four of us are singers," Louise says; "Karlton is a mortician and Billy is an art student. Maxine has retired to a family life." Louise and Alvino stayed with Heidt a year after they were married. First to quit was Alyce who decided to become a soloist on the west coast. Yvonne left to take a rest and avoid a nervous breakdown. Louise and Donna missed their sisters and turned in their notice to Heidt shortly afterward. Alvino followed the Kings westward three months later. On the west coast the girls and Rey were reunited and Alvino got the post of musical director of KHJ, Los Angeles. He used the girls in his own band, hired Skeets Herfurt, formerly with Tommy Dorsey, and Dick Morgan to form the nucleus. Air time won them a following and they headed east again where there is more activity for new bands. The Rey band clicked by stressing the attractive King Sisters, Alvino's guitar work, and plenty of novelty numbers. They jolted the juke boxes RADIO AND TELEVISION MIRROR 64