HOWDY, MY NAME IS BILL STRONG, I'LL BE YOUR "24 HOUR MAN", ROUTING YOU INTO THE PAST TO SEE WHAT THE CIRCUS WAS IN DAYS GONE BY. IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, AND MISS WHAT IT USED TO BE, THEN COME ON ALONG AS WE GO DOWN THE ROAD FOLLOWING THE ARROWS BACKWARDS, TO "YESTERDAY'S TOWNS"! IF YOU HAVE CIRCUS RELATED PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE POSTED, SEND THEM TO,,,,yesterday1@verizon.net,,,,AND WE WILL TRY TO FIT THEM IN. "24 HOUR MAN" WILL HAVE THE FINAL DECISION ON POSTING.
Three years at CWM made me a real traditionalist, and I keep remembering Bob Parkinson saying, "I want the people to see what the circus used to be, not what it is today. That's what this site is about!
If you said Harry James you were absolutely correct, Harry was born in 1919 on the Mighty Haag Circus, where his father Everett was the Band Leader, & his mother did Iron Jaw.
posted by 24-HOUR-MAN | 11:35 AM
4 Comments:
Everett James. James was the band director and his wife Mabel was a trapezist for the Mighty Haag Circus when their son Harry was born in 1916. That future great jazz trumpeter would grow up as a circus drummer and contortionist, and later learned to play the trumpet.
Christy Bros. Hippodrome 1919
Everett James was the Band Leader and his son Harry, was then three years old. Mrs. James did iron jaw, a sailor perch act and a black face act in the concert. Fay James did a ring act, Contortionist, swinging ladder and single trapeze.
JAMES, HARRY HAGG (1916-1983). Harry Hagg James, jazz trumpet player and big-band leader, was born to Everett Robert and Maybelle (Stewart) James on March 15, 1916, in Albany, Georgia. His stage life began as the circus contortionist in the Hagg Circus, which later became the Christy Brothers Circus. The gimmick was "the Youngest and Oldest Contortionists in the World," because young Harry worked with a seventy-year-old contortionist. His musical education began with the drums at age four in the circus band. He learned to play piano and trumpet with his father, the circus bandmaster. Though thought by many to be a native Texan, he did not arrive in Texas until the 1930s, when he and his parents moved to Beaumont. There he played trumpet and led a band. In 1934 he toured as a trumpet player with Joe Gill, and in 1935 he joined Ben Pollack's band. Early in 1936 he made his recording debut with Pollack's band. Fame came later in 1936, when he joined Benny Goodman's orchestra. He made a name for himself with fiery trumpet solos and an appearance in the band's 1938 movie, Hollywood Hotel. After he started the Harry James Band in 1940, his hit song, "You Made Me Love You" (1941), sold over a million copies. Other popular Harry James recordings included "Carnival in Venice" and "Flight of the Bumble Bee." He had a great technique that showed off rich, brassy tones. A true virtuoso, Harry, along with his band, developed the boogie-woogie style for big-band swing. His romantic ballads were the key to his success and shot him to fame as a big-band leader. In 1941 a national poll voted his band the number-one dance band in the country. He appeared on radio shows for Danny Kaye, Coca-Cola, and Jack Benny, and also on his own Chesterfield Cigarettes-sponsored series. Some of the famous musicians who performed with Harry James in the 1940s were Dick Haymes, Frank Sinatra, and Helen Forrest. Into the 1950s and 1960s Harry and the band were joined as well by Buddy Rich, Sam Firmature, Jack Perciful, and Ray Sims. James continued to be popular, appearing cameo or with Benny Goodman's band in many movies, including Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Young Man with a Horn (1950), The Benny Goodman Story (1955), and Anything Goes (1956). Still an active musician in the 1970s, he was quoted then as saying, "I don't look at people as changing, being old or being young. I just look down from the stand to see if people are having fun." James was married four times. His first marriage was to Louise Tobin in 1935. It lasted until he met Betty Grable, whom he married in 1943. He and Betty moved to Las Vegas, where Harry played for many years. He and Betty divorced in 1965. After the divorce he married Joan Boyd, a Las Vegas showgirl. The name of his fourth wife was not available. He had five children from his various marriages. Harry James died of cancer at the age of sixty-seven on July 5, 1983, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
I shoulda scrolled down more!! lol lol Mr.Lee
Me Too....Brandy
IT'S....AL...WAYS... GOOD.... TO....GO.....FURTHER......
IT...ALSO...HELP....ME...
Post a Comment
<< Home