On The Town

Chuck Benedict

A prominent Glendale impresario is Joe Graydon, who succeeded Frank

Sinatra as soloist on radio’s famous “Your Hit Parade” in 1946. Since

then, Graydon has produced concerts and conducted orchestras in hundreds

of live appearances from Glendale to the east and around the world.

Recently, we talked with Joe about his memories of the late Steve

Allen and about Joe’s plans to salute the veterans of this area next

weekend.

* Benedict: Everyone in show business seems to have a Steve Allen

story.

Graydon: I have dozens of them. When I left the Hit Parade, I came to

Hollywood and often was a guest on Steve’s late night program, which was

the forerunner of the “Tonight Show.” I was amazed at the intensity of

his interest in the ambitions of all the people who were on their way up

the ladder. He helped them climb it.

Once I saw him swimming for exercise and he had a tape recorder at

each end of the pool. Many times he stopped and recorded the thoughts

that had come to him since he left the other end. That way, he was able

to write hundreds of books and thousands of songs.

CB: He knew the value of time.

JG: In fact, he had a form of narcolepsy and needed to sleep 12 hours

out of every 24. Think how many thousands more songs and books he’d have

written with four more working hours a day.

CB: Didn’t you produce some of Allen’s coast-to-coast tours?

JG: Two. On one of them, shortly before we opened, Steve had a severe

sciatica injury and we had to rush him to the hospital. He came out in a

wheelchair and for a few days he was in great pain and couldn’t walk, but

we wheeled him to the mike and piano. He stood at the mike and he sat at

the piano and played and never complained... never missed a show.

CB: “The show must go on.”

JG: I had hoped he would attend the Salute to Veterans we’re doing at

the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium Sunday. Steve would have had a special

reason for being there. You see, our salute is anchored by our Big Band

Alumni Orchestra, performing the hit songs of World War II.

We’ll be playing the actual arrangements of four great bands of that

era. Here’s the irony of Steve’s death last week. The Benny Goodman

arrangements will be led by Abe Most, one of the all-time great clarinet

players, who did such a super job of playing the Goodman solo music roles

in the movie “The Benny Goodman Story.”

Abe can come closer to sounding like Goodman than anyone else alive.

Now, if you remember, the guy who did such a super job of acting the

Benny Goodman role in that movie was Steve Allen.

CB: That would have been a great reunion. Who will conduct the other

bands?

JG: Rex Allen will conduct the Tommy Dorsey arrangements. Rex has a

bright and personable stage personality and also happens to play a great

trombone. He’s worthy of sitting in for the late Tommy Dorsey.

Fred Radke will do the Harry James arrangements. Fred was an

outstanding musician before he grew up. At age 18, he was first chair

trumpet for Harry James. Fred never was intimidated by James, who was the

best known trumpet player of that day.

I will conduct the Glenn Miller book, and it will be an honor to do

some of those wonderful old Jerry Gray arrangements. I may even sing

again.

CB: If you sing with the Miller band, we’ll have to call you Ray

Eberle, but you don’t look at all like Eberle. By the way, don’t forget

to introduce yourself when you come on stage. Last time you did a big

band show, you were the emcee, but no one, not even you, ever mentioned

your name. It’s a good thing so many of us recognized you. We had to

start a “whisper tree” in the audience: “Pass the word. Yeah. That’s

really Joe Graydon!”

JG: Who knows. I may remember the Miller arrangements and the history

of the big bands long after I forget my own name.

CB: Who else will sing?

JG: A great gal from the Alvino Rey days, Marilyn King of the famous

King Sisters. She sings as well as ever, and she really fits the program.

Every song she sings, like the rest of the music, is from World War II

days. That’s the whole idea of the program -- to salute the World War II

GIs for what they did for this country.

CB: How is it that the arrangements of these great bands are

available? Is there one special source for them?

JG: You can copyright a song and the lyric, but there’s little history

of copyrighting arrangements. Radke has the entire James book, but others

have copied familiar charts from recordings. They’re available, one way

or another.

CB: How can Glendale folks find out more about your salute?

JG: It’s at 3 o’clock Sunday at the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium. The

phone to call is (626) 308-2868.

CB: For years, this column has saluted World War II veterans on

patriotic holidays, like Veterans Day. There are many such heroes still

living in Glendale, and we salute them individually. Now, you’re going to

salute them all at once.

JG: That’s the whole idea. They saved America for us and we’re saving

their songs for them.

* Reach CHUCK BENEDICT at 241-4141 (voice mail 974), by 24-hour fax at

549-9191 or by e-mail: [BChuckbenedict@aol.com].