TV REVIEW : ‘Precious Memories’ of ‘40s Jazz

“Precious Memories: Strolling 47th Street” (at 9:30 tonight on KCET Channel 28) recalls an era of glamour and entertainment excitement in Chicago’s black community. At one time or another, such greats as Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Count Basie, B. B. King, Louis Jordan and Joe Williams performed on 47th Street in such venues as the Regal Theater and the Palm Tavern.

The hourlong show, directed by Dick Carter, is composed of interview footage intercut with a nightclub revue, the latter featuring members of Chicago’s Kuumba Theatre Company.

Though 47th Street has never received national acclaim the way New York’s 52nd Street has, interviews with several of the people who frequented the area suggest it was the place to be in Chicago during the ‘40s and ‘50s.

The interviewees, including tavern owners, theater managers and a tailor who was known as “the mayor of 47th Street,” all give some description of the street and the type of nightlife found there.

Most of their reminiscences tend to be laundry lists of the artists who performed or were seen there, though the comments of Finis Henderson Jr., a dancer and manager, and producer Ron Boyd, about the role of integration and the advent of housing projects--both of which they said tended to undermine the area--are certainly provocative.

At least half of the show is devoted to the revue, which is mainly snazzy, show-biz renditions of great tunes of the time. Of these, a number, including “Solitude,” “Handy Man,” “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” “I’ve Got Bad News” and “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens,” are pulled off with pizazz, but they are not enough to make “Precious Memories” a must see.