Teresa Brewer was a terrific singer, especially once she got past what she herself called "my ootsy-poo period" and got to serious pop and jazz. (In fact, the last recording project Duke Ellington had in his lifetime, before his illness finally took him out of action and to his reward, was a collaboration with Ms. Brewer, It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, for Columbia Records . . . )
I lost a lot of respect for Red Skelton over the way he treated his writers. He wasn't unusual in refusing to give his writers credit, he was merely among the most flagrant and abusive about it. (His most famous character, Clem Kadiddlehopper, was a creation of one of his writers, and Skelton could never bring himself to give credit where due.) I respect the ones who did give their writers their due: Jack Benny, Fred Allen (who wrote about ninety percent of his stuff as it was, but still . . . ), Bob Hope, Henry Morgan . . .
What an interesting TV show it might have been, maybe bringing a little improvement to the vast wasteland, some of which is better appeciated with hindsight, and much of which fading memory has thankfully obscured.
Teresa Brewer was a terrific singer, especially once she got past what she herself called "my ootsy-poo period" and got to serious pop and jazz. (In fact, the last recording project Duke Ellington had in his lifetime, before his illness finally took him out of action and to his reward, was a collaboration with Ms. Brewer, It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, for Columbia Records . . . )
Just so. She left some 600 recorded songs as a part of her legacy, and some of her Dixieland work is among the best in the genre.
I lost a lot of respect for Red Skelton over the way he treated his writers. He wasn't unusual in refusing to give his writers credit, he was merely among the most flagrant and abusive about it. (His most famous character, Clem Kadiddlehopper, was a creation of one of his writers, and Skelton could never bring himself to give credit where due.) I respect the ones who did give their writers their due: Jack Benny, Fred Allen (who wrote about ninety percent of his stuff as it was, but still . . . ), Bob Hope, Henry Morgan . . .
I now reside in and plied my trade as a newspaperman in the town in which Red Skelton grew up, and an interview with him was one of my first assignments for a crusty old editor who had expected me to fail. There are a couple of darker stories about him from his Travelin' Show days, however, that are not repeated by his pals at the local Chamber of Commerce and such. Accordingly, the local junior college has named their new performing arts center after him...after a donation/infusion of cash from the Widow Skelton. But Red was nevertheless a talented and prolific composer, as well as a great comic.