Cab Calloway Now "Spanks The Plank

NEW YORK CITY—(TYP)—Cab Calloway and

his orchestra with the Palmer Brothers, give us their version of Buck Ram’s popular hit song, "Spank the

Plank,” which now has been successfully introduced

as a “hep-square” dance by Cab Calloway. A couple | is dancing in the foreground, going through some I movements of this new jitterbug swing-frenzied dance which it has been predicted will outlive all

dances of swiny: variety.

News Of Theatres helps Troops

Miss Leonore Cox, formerly as-

sistant supervisor of a recreation project in New York City hos-

pitals sponsored by the Juvenile Aid Bureau, has been assigned to Fort Huachnca, Arizona, as a

Red Cross hospital recreation worker. Miss Cox has done ex-

tensive research, lecturing and magazine wrriting on the contribu- tion of Negroes to the dance. In 1940-41 she danced with the Negro company of the American Ballet Theatre at the Center The- ater in New York. Her mother, Mrs. Creole Cox, and her sister, Miss Frances Cox, live in Atlantic Citv.

Porgy Enlivens

City Summertime By ERNEST JOHNSON

NEW YORK—(ANP)—Summertime rolls on and the folks along Du Bose Heyward’s “Catfish Row” are still sun-

ning themselves and doing the day’s work with a minimum of exertion. This is by way of saying that the revived oper- *

etta, “Porgy and Bess”, to which Gershwin puts some beau- tiful lyrics, is now in its seventh month and apparently cher- ishes no thought of abandoning Broadway any time soon.

There’s Georgette Harvey rock-

ing and puffing on her pipe. There’s Harret Jackson minding the baby while Edward Matthews tells tuc?

boys “It Takes a Long Pull To Get There.” And Ruby Elzy losing her man over a crap game while Warren Coleman continues to turn in a fine performance as “Crown.”

Avon Long’s “Sportin’ Life” is an entertaining piece of work. Only once during the show do you see

him use the “happy dust” he

peddles, but you can’t lose the

impression that he’s just full » of the stuff. Helen Dowdy is selling

Rating The Records Bv FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS

for ANP

BOUNCING ALL AROUND Taken as a whole, the platters

received these days are better than those obtained before the recent government order cutting produc- tion to 30 percent of the 1941 total. Of course, it could be that this reviewer is exercising more

care in selecting records, but it’s also a fact that the companies can’t afford to waste shellac on

as much trash as formerly.

Among the good new discs is a Bluebird pairing by Erskin.e Hawkins of JUMPIN’ IN A JU- LEP JOINT and BICYCLE BOUNCE, both gutty and in the groove. Ida James sings cutely on

the first but the second is the better side_One of the best hot tunes ever waxed by Jimmy Dorsey is SORGHUM SWITCH, Decca, an even more torrid ver-

sion of Doc Wheeler’s recent opus. Dig that weird and sending guitar start and the leader’s alto sax.

Arrangement is topnoteh and the bays swing solidly. Other face is MY DEVOTION, pashy sweetness with Bob Eberle out to make femi- nine hearts flutter.

Quite a bit of commotion was

created over Les Hite s Hit record-

ing of JERSEY BOUNCE. It’s

good, but Goodman remains tops. However, Hite does have piano and guitar percolating with a

freakish and somewhat exciting trumpet heard. Plipover is I REMEMBER YOU, a pop tune tiressed up with good piano be- hind the vocal_

Strictly for the jitbugs is ST. LOUIS BLUES as played by John

Kirby on Victor. Shavers’ muted

trumpet, Kyle’s chording piano stand out and Bailey holds a long note as the boys riff out a couple of choruses behind him-Other side is NO BLUES AT ALL, a fast ride tune with everybody getting off ...On the Elite label are some

yeissues by Harry James of hoi

tunes made in his pre-string sec-

tion days. He jumps torridly through HODGE PODGE and gets slow and low down on FOUR OR FIVE TIMES with the whole gang singing. On COME AND GET IT the boys bounce meanly in a style reminiscent of his later “Music Makers.” Paired is a jitbug version of IT’S THE LAST TIME I’LL FALL IN LOVE. All four faces are

splendid with generous doses of the brilliant James trumpet.

In a medium slow but solid

fashion, Bob Chester riffs through STRICTLY INSTRUMENTAL on

Bluebird. Other side is a jump version of the famous World War 1 tune, KEEP THE HOME FIRES BURN NG, with sevic vl gC-CO singing chores including a rhyth- mic bit by the entire glee club ...

When the Crosbys, Bing, and Bob, combine the results are generally

} worth hearing. On Decca, aided by the Bob Cats, the Groaner smashes through WALKING THE FLOOR OVER YOU and WHEN MY DREAMBOAT COMES HOME. The band, In a strictly Dixieland groove, swings strongly with Yank Lawson driving the boys and Eddie Miller getting in some strong licks_Another sharp arrange- ment makes the Ray McKinley Hit platter of GOT THE MOON IN MY POCKET stand out. It has whistling, jive, singing and bounce. Plattermate is THIS IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR, a slow and sen- timental war song.

To aid in aiming cameras a Mis- sourian has invented a wooden support resembling a gun stock that is equipped with a trigger for op- erating a camera shutter.

Mexico has prohibited the expor-

tation of crr ’.e rubber and rubber

products of all kinds except under permits already issued.

strawberries with the same delicate touch in her voice, only to break it up when business doesn’t de-

velop. The outside work that Wil- liam Woolfolk has picked up is suitable testimony to the personal success he has registered as the “Crab Man.”

You’d hardly find a more en-

gaging “Porgy” than Todd Dun- can nor a more zestful “Bess” than Etta Moten. Miss Moten was to have created the role but circum- stances interferred and so Ann Wiggins Brown did the first por- trayal, and admittedly did it well. Miss Moten’s first entrance let’s

1 you know immediately that here’s

Helen And Ernie Charm Atlantans At Top Hat Club Caravan Swings To Lexington, Then Naptown

By HAYWARD JACKSON LEXINGTON, Ky.—(S N S)-

Helen Humes and Ernie Fields, sensational combination being booked by the Allen Johnson Agency are setting such a terrific' pacr that dance fans whenever thej play are being dazzled by the spec- tacular performances.

This 18-artist-combination em-

bracing three top-notch vocalists— Helen Humes, Melvin Moore and

Estelle Edmerson—with variations of trios, glee club and what noi is just about the finest piece of

w'ork that any booking agency could afford to place on a tour.

Fans have been left cheering at all points .and everywhere the Humes-Fields attraction has per- formed the great thrortgs have

lingered long after the last note

just to catch another glimpse at the dazzling performers who are

l making the Humes-Fields Band- 1 wa-gon the greatest aggregation i ever placed on a dance tour.

With deafening cheers in their wake the great caravan swept in- to Atlanta last Sunday night and

| blasted the lid off at Franklin : Bailey’s famed Top Hat Club. They roll on this week to the very heart of the Blue Grass State in the Dixieland here at Lexington, Ky., pride of the state and beau- tiful show spot owned by C. F. Call. The rumbling wheels of this tuneful group roll on to Indiana- polis to the Hoosier State’s great Sunset Terrace,

Walter White, Willkie Feted In

Eddi South, D^rk Angel Th Violin, Cafe Society Fixture Famed Musician Tells Of Career

By DOLORES CALVIN NEW YORK—(Calvin’s News Service)—When you see

his fingers gliding swiftly over the violin strings with ease

and grace, you know it could be none other than Eddie South. This fiddler is one of the most unassuming persons in the music field, at least that’s the way he appeared when inter- viewed at his home, 409 Edgecombe avenue, last Saturday.

And Eddie South can tell you a lot of interesting things. You would know he had been abroad. But just watching him and listen- ing to his conversation, you wouldn’t believe that he was one

of the race’s greatest swing violin- ists.

Mr. South had just come back from a plane trip to Chicago to appear at the Negro Festival July 12. He is currently on an extended contract at Cafe Society Uptown and has been for the past two years.

37 YEARS OLD Even though born in Louisiana,

Missouri, Eddie probably knows every nook and crook in Chicago because he lived there since he •was very young. Incidentally, he didn’t mind telling his age as 37 and proudly talked of his 16-year- old son.

“The Dark Angel of the Violin” first started in 1923 at the Green- land in the Windy City with Charlie Elgor. In 1929 he toured eleven countires in five months, studying particularly in Paris and Budapest. While abroad he performed at the famous Exposi- tion.

Later, after returning to Ameri- ca, he played the French Casino and was the only Negro ever to play Ben Marden’s Riviera, across the river in New Jersey. Marden, who recently celebrated his forty- first birthday, made much of his success through the Negro and is known as the Fox on Broadway. QUIET HOME LIFE

Eddie has a quiet home life, and his charming wife, Catherine South, intends to keep it that way. They have been married nineteen years and whenever he travels, she goes along. Although he has not had a vacation in three years, they do have Sundays together. The fiddler loves base- ball, horses, golf and swimming.

Aa his favorite songstress, Eddie

a “Bess” that really knows her way around. She smiles gayly, steps sprigthly and switches with

I a certainty. Of course, if there were ever

any rough edges on the perfor- mance turned in by Mr. Duncan,

I they’ve disappeared by now. Tho- roughly conditioned to the stage floor and environs, he huns the gamut of emotions as though he enjoyed the extra assurance, that comes from standing on one’s foot while delivering.

Yes, “Porgy and Bess” is on Broadway “mornin’ time and ev’nin’ time, and summertime” and to all intents and purposes will probably be there this wintertime.

chose Ella Fitzgerald, our First Lady of Swing, and Billy Eckstein of Earl Hines’ band for the male vocals. But his number one or-

chestra belongs to Duke Elling- ton. Classics is another question, but Eddie said tops meant Marian

I Anderson and Paul Robeson and he was very hurt over Roland

.Hayes’ recpnt. misfortune in Georgia.

Eddie writes original composi- tions too, the most famous prob- ably being “Black Gypsy”, which along with others is published by Robbins Music Publishers. On file at Columbia, is one of his record- ed albums. More recently, however, Eddie has been studying with Ro- land Murat of the Julliard Insti- tute of Musical Art. He doesn’t play anything but the violin and doesn’t have to. He’s been fiddling since 1923.

Eddie is very worried about the war too. Although he’s a 3A man, he thinks he can be called any minute to serve his country And he’s willing to go.

So if anyone should ever re- mark that Missourians don’t amount to much, Eddie South can

proudly say, “I'm from Missouri,”

A hand operated machine has been invented to pack either roller or ball bearings with grease quick- ly.

Ready mixed paints formerly im- ported from the United States are now being manufactured in Argen- tina.

Dark Angel With His Pianist

Eddie South, the Dark Angel of the Violin, who is now com-

pleting the second year of his Cafe Society engagement, is shown here conferring with his pianist about his latest composition.

Record Drive Gets

Off To Good Start NEW YORK—(ANP)—The Records For Our Fighting

Men—American Legion drive for 37,000,000 old phonograph records, to he collected in a nation-wide house-to-house can-

vass, got off to flyng start Friday with the Legion head- quarters in Indianapolis reporting Cleveland leading the country with 175,000 records collected in the first day of the campaign. The drive will continue through August.

The campaign was inaugurated j officially in New York with the j opening of a large booth on Tunes

square. Caricatures of Hitler, Mus- solini and Hirochito were promin- j

Says Religious Music

High In Public Favor NEW YORK— (C) — Dorothy

Maynor, our world acclaimed so-

prano, feels that there is a new

interest in religious music. This, she first realized when people sent her numerous letters of thanks for the Bach chorales and Negro spirituals she used in her concert programs.

“I believe,” says the charming star in a honey-toned voice, that

unquestionably the worship of the church is growing daily deeper in- to our lives. And why shouldn’t it?

It’s the only truth we have left.”' Miss Maynor, who is also the

wife of Rev. Shelby Rooks, of the Lincoln University faculty has been devoting a lot of her spare time in the last year to visiting churches, and particularly the musical serv- :ees at vespers.

Thus she is noted for the honesty of her approach to sacred music With her a Bach religious air never becomes a show piece, but a sincere and moving interpretation.

They Make Debut At Camp Livingston

Pictured above is the chorus of the 350th Field

Artillery of Camp Livingston, La., which made its initial appearance at the regiment recreational hall

Tuesday evening. Reading from left to right, last row: Col. T. G.

M. Oliphant, regimental commander; Capt. Charles Hodler, special service officer; 1st Lt. Charles F.

Golden, chaplain; Pvt. Franb Ferrell, director; Corp. Wm. p. Arnold, accompanist; J. J. Hickman, guest accompanist. Second row; Pvt. Charles Evans, Pvt. Maston Breeden, Corp. B. Haggle, Pvt, Hilton Wil-

kerson, Pvt. Earl Morris, Pfc. Wayman Thompson, Pvts. Morris Hunt, Harold Butler, Corp Joe Belcher, Pvt. Melvin Gault, Pvt. Jas. Henderson, Pvt. Adolph Horaze, Pvt. James Boyd, Sgt. Victor Knight, Pvt.

George Wilson, Pvt. Linwood Grimes, Sgt. Joseph H. Harriston, Pvt. Wm. Payne, Pvt. Luther Perry. Last row; Pvt. John' H. Brown, Pvt. Samuel Good- loe, Pvt. John R. Jones, Pvt. Stanley Jones, Pvt. W.

A. Stinson. Not on photo; Pvt. Prentice Hardiman, Pvt. Linel Leary, Pvt. Troy Cummings, Pvt. Edward H. Dean, and Pvt. Charles Mack.—— (ANP)

nently displayed, each with about three feet of open mouth into which costumed principals and members of Michael Todd’s “Star and Garter’ ’chorus, officials of the American Legion, soldier, sailors and the general public tossed their contributions of thousands of records.

The drive got an additional spurt on Saturday when Records For Our Fighting Men went on

their first coast-to-coast radio hook-up via CBS with Harry James and Ginny Simms broadcasting ;

from Hollywood, Lynn U. Stam- baugh, national commander of the American Legion, from Minneapo- lis, Kay Kyser from Detroit, and Kate Smith from Lake Placid, N. Y.

The records collected will be sold as scrap for an estimated $937,000 which will be used to pur- chase new record libraries and record players at cost, for distri- ;

bution to our armed forces in every United States army camp,, fort, Naval station and marine base here and overseas.

This is a plea to every Ameri- j can. Give generously of your ole | records when the Legion repre- ; sentative calls—or better still don’t wait, but get your records together now and deliver them yourself or drop a card to your local American Legion post telling them when to call. _

Ivie Ends 12 Years With Duke

By DOLORES CALVIN

NEW YORK—(Calvin’s News Service)—Miss Ivie Anderson, who can proudly boast that she is not only the only female chirper, white or colored, to stay with a band for twelve years, but is also the first girl to ever be featured regularly with a band. It all amounts up to exceptional!

Ivie was hired for a four-week job with the Ellington band by the Balaband and Katz organiza- tion to tour B and K Theatres but then stayed on through twelve years, and hasn’t finished the job yet!

But at this moment, according to a report from Hollywood, Ivie has dropped out of the Ellington band for this particular tour which started at the Panther Room of Hotel Sherman in Chicago July 17th. The complaint is a very serious throat ailment which needs the California sunshine. Both she, Herb Jeffries, known as the Bronze Buckaroo and who did some of the male vocals, and Barney Bigard, clary man in the reed section stayed in Hollywood

A novel play table and two stools for children can be converted into a four wheeled cart for holding toys.

Ecuador imported 22,235,860 cig- arettes from the United States last year, compared with 13,942,000 in 1940. j

Waller While Asks Change In Picture Roles NAACP Secretary, Wendell Willkie Heard at Banquet

By HARRY LEVETTE

HOLLYWOOD—(ANP)— Seven- ty leaders of the motion picture industry heard Wendell L. Wil- lkie and Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP, tell of the great contribution the industry can make to democracy and the actual winning of the war for the preservation of the democratic way of lift, at a luncheon given in their honor by Walter Wanger and Col Darryl F Zanuck at the 20th Cen- tiu-y-Fox studio cafe.

The gathering was one of the most distinguished in all of Holly- wood’s history. Among those pres- ent were, Will H. Haye, president of the Producers and Distributors of America Inc.; Y. Frank Free- man. president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers; the neads of the three creative guilds, Edward Arnold of the Actors; Sid- ney Buchman of the Writers; and George Stevens '&t Directors; Chairman Kenneth Thomas and Vice Chairman Mark Sandricn of the Hollywood Victory committee, important executives of every studio; and other leaders of every phase of the gr^at motion picture industry.

RESrONSIBH ITY, OPPROTUNITY

In introducing the honored guests, Walter H. Wanger, presi- dent of the Academy of motion picture arts and sciences, said, “This Is one of the greatest mom- ents this industry has ever had for doing the job we have ail dreamed of doing for our country and the world We have a great responsi- bilitv and opportunity in using the most valuable means for communi- cation the world has ever known for spreading the American way of life.”

In introducing Walter White, Wanger said, “The new day Is here. One of the great representatives of the nev/ day is Walter White, one of the first citizens of this coun-

try.”

In his speech the leader of the NAACP told these assembled of “the part you can play, the part you have played in forming the attitude of the people of this coun-

try and throughout the world by using this great medium which reaches the eyes and minds as no

other medium in the history of the world has done.

WHITE SPEAKS

; “You car make a magnificent ; contribution, which you nave al- | ready started to make, by correct-

ing the misinformation which is the basis of the entire problem of

| the Negro ra?e By avoiding the perpetuation of the stereotypes and broadening the tieatment, you can

lessen the load of misunderstanding from which the Negro is suffering.

“I w'ant you to know the tremen- dous eagerness of the Negro sol- dier tc win this war for the preser- vation of the democratic way of life. It is my earnest hope that with your great skill and with this great medium, yours will be one

of the greatest contributions made to raise the morale of the Negroes of this country and throughout the world.”

Wendell L. Willkie paid high tri- bute to White as ‘‘one of the most effective American citizens of this day w'ho, at great personal sacri- fice. has devoted his life for years to the advancement of his race. URGES PRACTICE OF DEMOCRACY

He urged the complete practice of true democracy in this nation which now' is fighting to preserve democracy, and stressed the nec-

essity of unity of all our peoples to assure the victory which must he won. He told stirringly of the "noble contribution this industry can make to democracy.’'

Both speakers were given an

ovation. In closing the meeting Colonel

Zanuck voiced his confident belief that the motion picture industry will do its part to further dem- ocracy and to improve the morale of all peoples of this nation and our allied nations.

At the speakers’ table were Will- kie. White, Darryl F. Zanuck, Will- iam Goetz, Y. Frank Freeman, Walter Wanger, David O. Selznick. Will H. Hays. E. J. Mannix, Hal Wallis, Edward Arnold and Ken* neth Thomas.