Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1941)

Facing the Music (Continued from page 9) too long. Gosh, when I was only thirteen days old, my folks had me on the road. If the depression hadn't delivered a knockout blow to most circuses, the sensational trumpet playing of tall, thin Harry James might be blaring forth beneath the Big Top and not in New York's Hotel Lincoln. He would wear a scarlet and gold braided uniform and have little use for a smartlytailored dinner jacket. The dancers would be a pack of prize pachyderms, not joyful jitterbugs. There would be quantities of pink lemonade but few scotch-and-sodas. And Mrs. Harry James might be some daring young gal on the flying trapeze, instead of brunette Louise Tobin, Benny Goodman's former vocalist. k^OST of the circus blood is out of •v' the brown haired trumpeter's system. Seven years of swing changed all that. However, Harry's business manager still fears that one of these days his charge will hear a calliope, and dash to the nearest circus booking office. fiver since he bade a hesitant farewell to the sawdust, Harry has been tabbed a "comer" in the dance band world. His tightly-knit 19-piece band, featuring able vocalist Dick Haymes, stays at the Lincoln until July and returns to this spot in October, after a summer road tour. They can be heard on the NBC-Red network and on Columbia records. Harry was born 25 years ago in Albany, Georgia, the son of Everett and Maybell James, two important cogs in the Mighty Haag Circus. The father played trumpet and led the band while Maybell "doubled in brass." She was the circus prima donna and star aerialist performer. "You should have seen mother hang by her teeth from a top trapeze," Harry recalls. Practically raised in a circus trunk, Harry remained aloof from other lads his own age, who gazed enviously at the little boy who knew the clowns so intimately. Harry's system of education would have also appealed to other children. He spent only three winter months in school. The rest of the time his mother served as teacher. By the time he was six, the circus kid had a small role in the Christy Brothers' show as a contortionist. A serious mastoid operation curtailed his acrobatic ambitions and his father taught him how to play drums. Pretty soon he could roll off a drum flourish as his mother flirted with death at the canvas top. This accomplished, Harry began to study the cornet. In those days the land was cluttered with roving circuses and it was a lucrative and time-honored profession. But in 1929 the people were sad from financial reverses and circuses began to fold up like their tents. Only the big Ringling Brothers outfit was left. The James family returned to Beaumont, the only city they could really call home because it was near the erstwhile Christy winter quarters. Harry's dad began to teach cornet and the boy got a job with a dance band. In 1934 he joined Art Hicks' band. Singing with Hicks was a lovely Texan named Louise Tobin. "It was one of those love at first sight affairs," says Harry. In six months they were married before a sleepy justice of the peace. A few days later Harry left his new bride to join Herman Waldman's band. Shortly after he left to go with Ben Pollack. He attracted a lot of attention and finally Benny Goodman sent for him. Harry thinks he might have made better strides than other trumpet players because he wasn't working under pressure. "Other chaps I knew had breathed swing since they could talk. It made them tense. I came to it casually and learned to like it." As Goodman roared to success, many of his men got bitten by the band bug. First it was Gene Krupa, then James, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson and Vido Musso. Harry organized his crew in 1939. Recognition came to them when they recorded such novelties as "Flight of the Bumble Bee," "Music Makers," and the Jewish chant, "Eli Eli." TO make sure his modern treatment of "Eli Eli" would not offend, Harry invited a prominent cantor to advise him. The cantor not only approved but sang the ancient song over and over so that the trumpeter could copy the proper inflections. As soon as he was sure his band had made the grade, Harry made his wife retire. She had been singing with Goodman and Will Bradley. In March of this year a baby was born, Harry Junior. They live in a rented cottage in New Jersey. Early this year Harry's mother died. His father intends to come to New York where his son will set him up as a music teacher. "Then we'll all be together for the first time," said Harry, "that is, except for Fay." SayMMZ' CONSTANCE COLLIER — the internationally famous actress who plays Jessie Atwood in the Kate Hopkins serial over CBS. Constance has been acting ever since she was three years old. Her parents were both English actors, and she learned to read on a book of Shakespeare's plays. Now she's 63 and has gained fame as an actress, a playwright, and author of her own autobiography, "Harlequinade." She's immensely friendly, knows hundreds of celebrities intimately, and would rather entertain at parties than anything in the world. She has been married, but her husband died in 1918. 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