Brownsville Weekly News

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SATURDAY, APRIL. 4, 1942

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~Free: Joms P eople" |

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cast In Final

Program On Sunday

~Bllington Marks
His 20th Year
In Music Field

Started Career
In Washington

With Snowden

WASHINGTON, D. C~(C)~
Backstage at the Howard Theatre
here in Washington where the Duke
of music, Duke Ellington, first started 22 years ago. At that time, Duke
got his first musical job playing

all cafes and night clubs. He was
> weiter of the Elmer Snowden
~pahd. Otto Hardwick and Sonny
Geer, then with the Snowden band,
are with Ellington now. In 1923,
Duke came to New York to form
his own combo, with these two
men and Art Whetsel. Along came
Tricky Sam Nanton and guitarist
Eddie Guy. From this start was
built the great band of today.

Before the Duke was his Birthday
~ake and just before he blew out

~the twenty candles, he thanked the

whole band. He said that he was
lucky to have founded a band which
after 20 years could bring him such
wonderful memories. ~iI ~don't
think,~ he declared, ~that anyone
4n any profession could have been
~associated with greater artists or
finer fellows. I believe that a
great amount of our success is due
to the fact that the band has always been not just a business venture but more of a fraternal organigation where friendships are made
and kept.~

Smiling, the Duke ended the cere~mony and the boys hurried back to
~the stage to start their 21st year
with a bang!

Louis Back In

Casa Manana

~HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (C)~
Louis Armstrong returned to his

out here though~as changed as the

times since O~ Catchelmo appeared
here at the Cotton Club about 12
years ~ago.:

The héydey for the Cotton Club
is over, but when Louis played there
with Les Hite~s band in 1930, the

~fort was still going strong. At that:

time, with that band and the upstarting Lionel Hampton~s ork, that
Louie made some of his most famous records. These were: I~m In
The Market, Ding Dong Daddy,
Confessin~, If I Could Be With You,
Body and Soul and Shine.
__ When the Cotton Club closed, the
building was deserted until the ambitious Zucca Brothers came along,
s0tted it and called it the Casa
nana. Since then, it has become
one of the Coast~s major niteries.

S MOWEY $_.
- LOVE, JOB -
STARTLING FACTS 1N YOUR

READING

~Will you be happy in love?~ Successful
~in business? Win in games? Facts in regard to businéss, love, marriage, friends,
enemies, lucky and unlucky periods,
revealed according to astrology.
Get the facts now! Send me your name,
addreas, and birth date. SEND NO
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Day postman y $t plus few cents

accuracy of the predictions
of scientific astrology.

FREE with every order: Seal of High

Destiny and Power, believed

if

24 E. 21, New York, N.

~California engagement when
the iy

p. m., EWT.

~Freedom~s People~ is ~sponsored
by a national] advisory committee of white and Negro educators
with which the U. S. Office of Education cooperates.

Many churches are reported planning to make the broadcast part of
their services that day, and schools
and colleges are organizing listening groups, indicating that the final
broadcast will draw a larger listening audience than any other radio
program on the Negro. The program has been endorsed by the Department of Race Relations of the
Federal Council of Churches of
Christ in America, the Washington
(D. C.) Ministers Alliance, and the
Fraternal Council of Negro chutches.

LEE TO STAR

Opening -scenes of the broadcast
will sketch the evolution of democracy from the Bible to the Declaration of Independence and the Bill
of Rights, narrated by Canada Lee,

Son~ on Broadway and on tour.
Lee will also participate in a dramatic episode on the Emancipation
Proclamation.

plaving Porgy in the revival of
George Gershwin~s ~Porgy and Bess~
in New York. will sing ~Plain-Chant
for America,~ a ballad written by
Mrs. Francis Biddle, wife of the
U. S. Attorney General. It was set
to music by William Grant Still.

The Rev. W. H. Jernagin, president of the Fraternal Council of
Negro Churches, and the Negro
Baptist Young People~s Union and
Sunday School Congress as well,

who played the title role in ~Native:

Todd Duncan, Negro baritone now

Galaxy Of Stars 4
Booked To Appear

WASHINGTCN, D. C:~(SNS)~An hour-long program
April 19 will close the ~Freedom~s People~ segies of radio
broadcasts on Negro contributions to American life, the U.
S. Office of Education announced today. The program,

eighth in the~series, entitled ~The Negro and Christian Democracy,~ will be carried on the NBC network from 12 to 1

will describe briefly the place of

day.

J. Rosamond Johnson will read
~The Creation~ from ~God~s Tromones,~ a book of sermons in verse
written by his brother, James Weldon -Johnson. Rosamond Johnson
has written music for. Broadway
shows for many years and is credited with composing more than 2
thousand songs, including music for
~Lift Ev~ry Voice and Sing,~ the
Negro anthem for which his brother
wrote the words.

HERNANDEZ AS ~LAWD~

Other features of the broadcast
included Juan Hernandez as ~De
Lawd~ in a dramatic episode from
~The Green Pastures,~ and a montage summary of previous programs
in the ~Freedom~s -People~ series
which has depicted Negro contributions to American progress through
music, agriculture, industry, sports,
education, literature, and war work.
The 12-voice dePaur Chorus and the
35-piece NBC staff orchestra regularly participate in the broadcasts.

Grant from the Rosenwald Fund
and the Southern Education Foundation have made_ possible the
~Freedom~s People~ series. Broadcasting facilities have been contributed by the National Broadcasting Company. Dr. Ambrose Caliver, U. S. Office of Education specialist in Negro education, supervises the series, aided by William
D. Boutwell, chief of the Office of
Education~s radio service. Scripts
are by Irve Tunick, and musical ar
rangements by Dr. Charles Cooke.

-SEEIN~

STARS

ee

With DOLORES CALVIN
NEW YORK~(C)~BENNY CARTER TO TOUR, BUT NOT WITH
SULLIVAN..After a 6 months absénce from the field of big band
work, Benny Carter will tour, ~but
not with Maxine Sullivan, as previously announced through her
management. Instead, the saxist
will take Billie Holiday along to
pipe the vocals. It was quite a
sudden change of plans..Miss Sullivan, now at Ruben Bleu was forced
te cancel her South American éngagements 2 months ago because of
the war....It is expected that Loch
~ lassie will tour here in the

SO THIS IS BROADWAY.
Tyrone Power and Annabella were
backstage with congrats for stars
of ~Porgy and Bess~....Dorothy
Dandridge, most famous of the
Dandridge Sistérs,' deglamourizes
herself completely, almost making
a disguise, when ~she appears in
~Sundown~. Hattie McDaniel js
as funny as ~she usually is in the
maid role of ~The Male Animal,~.- ~Priorities of 1942,~ featuring
Hazel Scott, Phil Baker and other
top-notch comedians, have finally
taken the advise of critical newspaper folks, and this writer was
one of them, who advised that the
show throw ~away the microphones
since it was a vaudeville act......
Now the starts don~t have to peep
from: behind the mikes, ~like in a
nite club, but come right out and
show their sharpened wits..... pe
~Priorities~ is not the only top
vaudeville show, but one of the
best, equalling ~Porgy and Bess~:
on Broadway.

PLACES AND PEOPLE...When

Pvt. Billy Conn visited Pvt. Joe

Louis at} training quarters at Camp
Dix, New Jersey, one White cub
reporter made an ethical mistake
by saying that ~they were both
from the same camp; slept in the
same tent, both fighting for Uncle
Sam, but which one of them would
win the fite between themselves?~
Joe js in Camp Upton, L. I. and
Billy goes to Camp Wadsworth,
ES Bren ae Adorable is what they call
chic and sweeet Hazel Scott for
now she has her own air program.
on Thursdays.:..Her singing of
~Maybe~ is soothing to the ears.-.
Duke Ellington~s 20th anniversary
was celebrated jn Chicago last week..It was a bombshell!

a

HOLDS YOUTH ASSEMBLY

WASHINGTON ~ (ANP)~ The
Fifth Annual Youth assembly, under the auspices of the 12th Street
Branch YMCA ccnvened at that
irfstitutiory Saturday and Sunday
of this week, with an unexpectedly
large attendance. The theme~of
the conference was ~planning today for tomorrow~s world.

j
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TO VISIT CAMP LEE

WASHINGTON ~(ANP)~ The }
quartermaster general of the ~war
department has invited a group of
local newsmen, colored, representing several papers to visit Camp
Lee Thursday as the guests of the
war department. An inspection
tour of the camp has been alranged. Sevéral thcusand colored troops
are in training at this quartermaster replacement center.

3 Si

religion in the life of Negroes to-.

a> b
SAN DIEGO,Cal~(SNS) ~ Backed financially
by Eddie Anderson, better known to millions of radio
listeners as ~Rochester~, the Pacific Parachute Company, located here, this week became the nation~s
first Negro-financed and managed firm to obtain a

~Marquez after the new plant had been dedicated.

chutes are being

plant, is shown h

war contract; Smal} pilot, bomb and flare para
races are given employment.
merly an exhibition parachute jumper, manager of the

~| lose. In the movies he made a com-;

manufactured. Members of. both
Howard. Smith, for
ere inspecting the work of Virginia

writer.

ferred on a tunesmith.

In the ten years he has been an
orchestra leader, Cab has composed more than fifty songs, a fair
amount of which became hits.
Strangely enough, his first effort
was and still is his biggest hit. The
song is ~Minnie the Moocher~ and
it has become a jazz classic.

Other Calloway compositions are;
Lady With the Fan, Zaz Zu Zaz,
Jitterbug, Weakness, Chinese
Rhythm, Are You in Love With Me
Again, That Man~s Here Again,
Peck A Doodle Doo, A Minor Breakdown, I Like Music, Russle of Swing,
Three Swings And. Out, We're
Breaking up a Lovely Affair, Are

ou Hep to the Jive, Come on "with
ic Come On, Do I Care, Silly Old
~Moon, Sunset, Rhapsody in Rhumba,
Are You All Reet, Workers~ Train,
Boog ~It, Nain, Nain and Jumpin~
Jive.:

Having just completed suécessful
engagements at the Lookout House,
Cincinnati and Valley Dale, Columbus, in addition to. his regular se~ries of theatre engagements, Cab is
currently on a swing of one night

~dance engagements prior to his Te
peat stay in the famous Panther
Room of Chicago~s Hotel Sherman.

On Wednesday nights, via coast. to

coast chain of the Blue Network,

Cab. Calloway Gets Rating A As
Tunesmith; Now ASCAP

_ Hag Written More Than Fifty ~. Songs; First Is Biggest Hit

NEW YORK. CITY~(SNS)~Acclaimed as a first rate
orchestra leader and showman, few Cab Calloway fans are~
aware that the Hi De-Ho. maestro is an accomplished song
His prowess as a lyricist is sufficient to warrant
his being admitted into membership of the American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers, better known to the
public as ASCAP. ft is the highest honor which can be con
~

the Calloway company is still holding forth with great success with
the radio programm, ~Dr. Calloway~s
Quizzicale~..

(Army Truck Hit B|
| Train; 3 Killed

FORT CUSTER, Mich. ~(CANP)~ |

~Kellog airport for guard duty, Hiet
Grand |
Trunk line near! here. The truck |

| C.3 were members of Battery.E

ve

Tragedy stalked the 184th Field artillery Monday ~when: eight soldiérs,
enroute to the air corps prong ~of

with an accident ~on the

in which the soldiers were riding |
~was hit by a train. Three were killed
and five seriously injured.

The dead were Sidney Isador, 29,
of Chicago, who with Pvt. Willie
Cromwell, Louisa, Va., and Pvt
Eleck Mack,. Jr., James Island, =

4 curtain ~on the stage of a theatre

_ | but suddenly signs of life began ~to.|
#creep in.
| turning to make sure that. he was

Taken to station wa ae

"tor ~ of Baltimore.

lve Ace Movie Coonan Hopes

To Make New Career on Stage

- By DOLORES CALVIN. bas,
~(Special to Calvin. Service)

NEW YORK~(C)~The érowd was oeeiditiay \ 7

but only to the ears of Stepin Fetchit who, after
finally succeeded in getting his name on ~the |
Brooklyn Strand Theatre along with a sepia firat:
~with: ~Ethel Waters and Les Hite's orenaatee,

Tt wais like pulling up the musty
which had long ~since been deserted |
It Was like ~a ~ghost Te
not forgotten. So it was when the

clirtain unfolded and there stood}

Stepin Fetchit.. But. such

tre, as only this could.

| At orie tithe, Mr. Fetchit Was orie'|2

of the greatest colored ~actors in
~the business, being paid highly for}
~acting ~dumb. That look is a born

ore dnd one which he ean never

plete success of. his acting ability. |.
but after his marriage to dancer
Winnie- Johnson, He ~turned ~to the
declining stage of life. It was not
until he had filly lost every claim
to success that he realizéd that He
Was gradually becomiiig:a fadeout
and tried in yain to retrack ~his steps.
Shadows of his past succésses parad-.
ed in front of hith but it was s then
too late ~to do anything aboiit it. -
In ~Detroit, it was reported that he
filed for bank
ago. Then his manager failed to
get éngagemients promised him ~and
he. sued. Nothing ~else ~was hédrd{
of the actor and it was assumed
that he had given up. ~When, out
of the dark, he suddenly re-appeared to stake this claim on what suc
cess he could get. And he~s now here,
in in ews ~York for a. ap.
pearance, his eee on ae ie
in some time, to do, just that,; if
MM rig tors and ses he
| now Ha
) and,.

ane and a few others.

the |
tle neéd for him ~to thy Hollywood:
Se ee

the stag

4t for good!

ireakmeirt were. Sgt.. -Hillard..~.

Jones, Pvt. Amos Buell and Charles Ti

Roberson, all of Chicago.
eoucane riding in the truck but

th river; "Pvt... hichard

meee
Bough ~and ~Corp. ~John ~McGill, all

of Chicago, and -Pyt. Howard Whit-:

aor ees Re

PO

Seven- Year-Old Lad
Uses Vocal Talents
To Sell Wer Bonds

KANSAS CITY, Kans.~~ANP)~

Something unique in the way of

bond salesman is heralde ere 10
form of a seven-year-old boy who
has been instrumental in putting

$35 into U. S. savings bonds and
stamps dtiring the last month.

The boy ig January Sebron, Jr.,
son of Mr. and Mrs. John Sebron,
who-has been going from house to
house and in a melodic voice calling upon housewives to ~help President Roosevelt and Gen. MacArthur
win the war.~ Decked out in a neat
costume and soldier~s cap, Johnny
presents a striking picture of Negro |

RATING THE RECORDS |

~By FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS |, ~ (For ANP) Lc
EERIE MUSIC ee ion
/ Composed: by Saint-Saens, the
justly famous DANSE MACABRE
has long been one of this observer~s favorite numbers. It is now
being offered on poth sides of a
Victor 12-inch Red Seal by the
the piano duo. of Pierre Lubo-shutz and Genia Nenienoff ~in the
original keyboard version of the
composer. I believe these artists
catch the weirdness, the eerie mood
of this strangely moving ~Dance
of Death~ better than does any
full orchestration these ears have
yet heard. For a thrilling ~excursion into the realms of the sinister,
~this record is lew aimed recommended.

patriotism in aiding the war effort, |

Also. ~Teleased ~on ~Victor is Ro
CHICK,

So NOW IE HELL

| THINK
IT WORKED. HE THINKS
HE HEARD A DAmE'S: \>
} VOICE HERE IN THE DARK},

~OME CLOSER...

ONLY

/ DOWN. / iF HE
SUSPECTS ANYTHING:
WE'RE WASHED

QUICK CHICK.; Aj
Y

ae ~By. Ol Harrington

/ WHERE ARE YE
DARLIN~? COME

IN~ WIT PAPA =

ON AN! STOP PLAy-4

| thur Fiedler. This, ~too, takes two:
12-inch sides. It ~thas snatches of 4

bert McBride's MEXICAN ir
SODY; played by ~tie ~ Boston ~
~Pops~ orchestra conducted ~by Ar
familiar Spariish tunes stirred together into e. spicy and volatile |
mixture with the explosive Pops
orchestra serves in completely uninhibited mamner. Some -reactions
are quife suddued, but most ~have
a strong aroma of frijoles ard tamales,

of spectal interest to Duskymerican should be the recording of
LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING,
the Negro national anthem, by J.
Rosamond Johnson and the Juahita Hall choir ~on Decea. Coming
as it.
the souls of black men, Decea deserves high praise for making
number available.

~a few years} -

bet is
wales aupeshoen ent e

tests |

clas 3

| are expected to happén in the thea-: ies.

Noted Comporer a~
Appears at St 3 48

- George~ s coach ces

NEW. YORK,: Apr:: ney ae

the 48th consecutive year, Harry...

~hundreds of
Protestant Episcopal ~Church <4,:
The 75 year old grandson, a a

a:
go eee
U

~choir ~lft. toward the rid
~morning ~ ~sérvices - ana. ~aay ~t
anthem. in a Way
tears to the> ~eyes of the ~congregation. ee

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