"It Should Happen to You," and NBC's International Theatre

This is an image from the enjoyable 1954 film It Should Happen to You, which starred Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon. The film was directed by George Cukor.

The image is of Judy Holliday's character, Gladys Glover, in New York City's Columbus Circle. (In the scene, a billboard featuring her name is being painted; she discovers that her surname has been misspelled.) 

Yet this is why I am most interested in the image:  in front of Ms. Holliday is the marquee of NBC's International Theatre.  The theatre, which I have written about previously in this space, was the home of a number of NBC-TV programs during television's early years--including Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.  (In 1949 and 1950, my mother sang at the theatre, as one of the cast members of bandleader Kay Kyser's weekly TV program.)

I found out, in 2011 (via a 2006 newspaper article reproduced on the website of entertainer and writer Brian Gari), that the theatre was seen in It Should Happen to You.  (Here is the link for the article: http://briangari.com/nytimes.html. )

The article, from The New York Times, featured an interview with Gari, and in part concerned his late grandfather, Eddie Cantor, who had performed at the International Theatre in 1950 and 1951, when he was starring on NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour.  The show left the theatre, and was moved to California, not long after the start of the 1951-1952 television season.

The theatre was torn down in 1954, the year It Should Happen to You was released. 

(It Should Happen to You image, copyright 1954, Columbia Pictures; 2004 DVD release by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

A painting by Vernon P. Johnson

I am drawn, with some frequency, to stories of things lost, or found; to that which is forgotten, recalled; to things discovered.

And so I read with interest, this past week, a brief blog post by California-based writer (and communications consultant) Janis Johnson, about whom I have written previously, in this space. (She has also appeared, on a few occasions, on my weekly radio program.)

Johnson is the author of the 2010 book The Artist's Eye: Vernon P. Johnson's Watercolors of 1950s Small Town America, published by the Knox County (Ohio) Historical Society.  Vernon P. Johnson is her late father; the book's primary focus is the paintings he made, decades ago, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, the city where she grew up.

Johnson's recent blog posting concerns a painting by her father, found in a Columbus, Ohio thrift store. Here is the link:

http://theartistseye.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/another-found-vernon-johnson-painting-of-rural-ohio/

Here, too, is the amazon.com page for The Artist's Eye:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Artists-Eye-Johnsons-Watercolors/dp/B006U1LWNC/

AP story about the S.S. United States

From March 25th:  http://news.yahoo.com/ap-historic-ship-philly-short-funds-time-064434914.html

And here, as mentioned previously in this space, is the web address for the S.S. United States Conservancy:

http://www.ssusc.org/

A photo of my mother, and my brother

This has always been one of my favorite photographs of my mother.  In the picture, which is from 1954, she is holding my brother, who had been born the year before.  The picture is from an article in the Sunday magazine section of the newspaper The Boston Post.  At the time, she was singing on her own weekly television program, The Sue Bennett Show, on Boston's WBZ-TV. The show was seen in 1954 and 1955. 

My mother died in 2001, at age 73; today would have been her 85th birthday.

Singer Bobbie Smith

Bobbie Smith was one of the lead vocalists of the great singing group The Spinners.  He died last Saturday, at age 76.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/arts/music/bobbie-smith-voice-of-the-spinners-dies-at-76.html?ref=obituaries

Mr. Smith and Philippé Wynne were often both featured on the group's songs--including "Mighty Love," from 1973, "One of a Kind (Love Affair"), also from 1973, and "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," from 1972. 

Here's a video, from YouTube, of a 1973 television performance of "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love." Mr. Smith sings lead for the first few minutes; Mr. Wynne (seen at the far right, in the video) sings the lead for the latter part of the song. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dln3ifkCfXs

As the above obituary in The New York Times notes, Mr. Smith continued to sing with The Spinners until the end of his life; his last performance with the group took place a month ago. 

Mr. Wynne left the group in 1977. He died in 1984, at age 43.

"Great Day for the Irish"

Here is a segment of the song "It's a Great Day for the Irish," as performed on March 15, 1952, on Your Hit Parade, NBC-TV. 

My mother is the song's featured vocalist, and she is accompanied by the Hit Paraders vocal chorus.  The show's orchestra is led by Raymond Scott.

http://www.luckystrikepapers.com/images/Great_Day_For_The_Irish,_NBC-TV,_1952.wav

Another Cat Power video, 2006

Here is a video of Chan Marshall, a/k/a/ Cat Power, singing her song "Living Proof," on David Letterman's program, in 2006.  It is from her 2006 album, The Greatest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfx_81g8HkE