Well folks, we now continue with our final chapter, Part VII of my interview with Rich Conaty from WFUV. He has been the host of the Big Broadcast radio program for over 30 years. For the Jolson and Friends blog community, who live in the New York Metropolitan area, you can tune in to 90.7 FM; The Big Broadcast every Sunday night on WFUV from 8:00 pm to midnight (EST).This spectacular Sunday night radio show features only classic songs from the '20s and '30s. He will be sharing his thoughts on Al Jolson, Cab Calloway, Connee Boswell, tips on buying 78's, the new DVD release of the Jazz Singer, the Ziegfeld Follies, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks and more.

Next Stop, Jolson Blog Goes to the Talkies

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. In case you're wondering what's next for the Jolson and Friends Blog, I have just finished recording and transcribing an engaging and informative new interview with Ron Hutchison from the Vitaphone Project. This engaging new interview series on early talking films. Join me on March 30th as we travel down memory lane and talk about the 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, The Jazz Singer, Plantation Act and the legendary Al Jolson, Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Sybil Jason and many, many more.

Richard Halpern’s Roaring Twenties Revue

8:00 PM Sunday, March 9, 2008

Mr. Halpern sings a fabulous selection of prohibition-era tunes with a variety of guests who join the madcap mayhem. take a musical excursion back to the era of the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, flappers, jazz babies and prohibition with special guests: Dean Mora on the piano, John Reynolds - guitar, Benny Brydern - violin, Jim Garafalo - bass and Danny Glass on drums plus much, much, amazingly much more!

Maxwell Demille's Cicada Club - 617 S. Olive Street - Los Angeles, Calif. 90014

Cicada Club dinner reservations: 213-488-9488

Information and voicemail Line: 213-361-6186

Free Jolson and Friends Podcasts

You can listen to the entire series of interviews including my current seven-part interview with the Rich Conaty of the Big Broadcast radio show, Asa the Magnificent Minstrel, the Vaudeville series with author Trav S.D. and Sybil Jason.

To listen to the free Jolson and Friends Blog Podcast published audio files,

just click on the listen to podcast icon on bottom of this post.

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Jolson Blog: The Big Broadcast Interview with Rich Conaty Part VII Conclusion



"Of course in the early Follies you had scores written by Berlin and Gershwin, so I would gravitate to those. But as you know, there weren't all that many cast recordings, it was hit or miss. I mean, you might have had Ruth Etting might have recorded some of the Berlin songs from the '27 Follies, or you might have had Etting again in 1931 doing Shine On Harvest Moon, which Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth (which the pair debuted in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies of 1908)."

Brian Marcus Decker: You're obviously a major league fan of Vince Giordano's Nighthawks. Which I believe I read somewhere that you consider to be one of the most revered of all the contemporary 1920 style jazz orchestras. In fact, I was talking to Brian Gari, whose Eddie Cantor's grandson, who clearly shares your opinion of The Nighthawks. What is it about Vince and the Nighthawks that should drive every person in the Jolson and Friends blog community to see them perform live?

Rich Conaty: Well, Vince simply, does it right. He goes back to the original records, he goes back to the original orchestrations and he really doesn't stray from them. And he's got the caliber of players who can execute the charts like no one else can. There's simply nobody around who has that much talent on the bandstand. So there are the Nighthawks and then there's everybody else.

Brian Marcus Decker: Outside of your radio show, you have some ongoing association with the Film Forum in New York City. They've done special series on classic films from the '20's and '30's, including Paramount Before The Code. When did this association start and can you talk about some of these recent events, what was some of the songs that you featured on The Big Broadcast?

Rich Conaty: I'm trying to remember because I used to live in the neighborhood of Film Forum, so I went originally as a fan. Then I guess it was around the time that they started doing the Vitaphone events, which were always sellouts, and Bruce Goldstein, who programs the shows there, knew about my radio show and I can't remember the first one I did but I worked on a book on Jack Benny, I did introduce, I think, Artists and Models Abroad. I can't think of the other Benny picture, might have been one of The Big Broadcasts, I'm not sure. But I did two Benny pictures, I've done The Big Broadcast, and I think I've done three or four events. I think there was some Betty Boop contest, I think I was there for that as well.

And it's a nice opportunity for me because when you're doing the kind of show that I do, which is a big exception to WFUV formats, and you're playing music that is comparatively little known, anything that I can do, whether it's the time that we're spending together today or getting something in the paper, or doing an appearance at Film Forum, or having a MySpace page. It all helps, it's not so much about me and my ego, which is not insubstantial, but it's largely about what can I do to attract people to the radio show. That there are plenty of people out there who care about this music and are potential Big Broadcast fans, what can I do to attract them to the show.

Brian Marcus Decker: Jolson recorded with many talented studio orchestras, but just only a few, just a handful of popular orchestras such as Cab Calloway and his orchestra, obviously from The Singing Kid in 1935, as well as his last Brunswick recording with Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians in 1932. Why do you think that Jolson just didn't collaborate with many of the big popular bands, including bands like Paul Whiteman?

Rich Conaty: Well I think maybe he didn't need to. I think sometimes when they would team up people with Jolson like Crosby and Lombardo, who were both pretty big, the joint effort was during the Depression where record sales were hurting. So I think it might have been more a matter of what could Brunswick put out that would attract both the Jolson fans and the Lombardo fans.

A lot of the Crosby records were house bands, whether it was Bennie Kruger or Victor Young. Of course you had Jolson with Isham Jones early on, but for the most part, and I can't remember his, one of them was a pseudonym, was Carl Fenton a pseudonym name? Maybe Fenton was real but it was one of the guys that was not an actual band. But that's my, that would be my impression that someone of Jolson's caliber didn't need a name band to help sell records for him.

Brian Marcus Decker: You recently did a tribute show on the Ziegfeld Follies, can you give us some background, what was your motivation, who were some of the musical performers and featured songs that were on The Big Broadcast Show?

Rich Conaty: Well, it's my motivation was to get something in the paper and I got a nice write up in the Daily News. Actually the case of the Follies, I would have just completely missed the anniversary but I had a listener, a sharp listener, called me up and said, "You know the 100th anniversary of the Follies is coming up and it's on a Sunday." So I started digging and went through each of the additions of the Follies. There's a wonderful record label, Archeophone, which has a fair number of Jolson recordings sprinkled throughout their phonographic yearbook series, so they were invaluable.

Of course in the early Follies you had scores written by Berlin and Gershwin, so I would gravitate to those. But as you know, there weren't all that many cast recordings, it was hit or miss. I mean, you might have had Ruth Etting might have recorded some of the Berlin songs from the '27 Follies, or you might have had Etting again in 1931 doing Shine On Harvest Moon, which Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth (which the pair debuted in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies of 1908).

So that was the challenge in doing the show. I mean, you had a song which was after Ziegfeld had died in the '36 Follies; you had I Can't Get Started, which Bob Hope and Eve Arden introduced. Of course they didn't record it so they're not exactly settling with Bunny Berigan but you try to find period versions of the song. There was a beautiful Vernon Duke song from, I think, I want to say the '34 Follies, which Rudy Vallee did a lovely record of What Is There To Say, great song. So that was part of it. The actual anniversary of the Follies, of course, Eddie Cantor and Fannie Brice, it was just an excuse to hang a show around because there was just so many great songs and great artists and it was a good hook for an evening. I was so grateful that that listener pointed out that the anniversary was coming up.

Brian Marcus Decker: One of the people you didn't mention was Bert Williams who was considered a fantastic and also the highest paid performer in Vaudeville. If you were to ask who were the two biggest influences on Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson would have been one and Bert Williams clearly would have been the other. And I have to say that I recently picked up an interesting collection of material on Bert Williams (The Early Years, 1901-1909), and the recording qualities by Archeophone were just absolutely atrocious, in fact almost unlistenable. It is quite sad that we haven't been able to preserve some of that great stuff from that specific era. And it is also sad that Bert Williams did die at a fairly young age.

Well, on behalf of the Jolson and Friends blog community, once again, I'd like to personally thank you, Rich Conaty for your ongoing contribution for keeping the memory of the great American song book and the spirit of the music of Al Jolson alive. And remember you can tune into 90.7 FM in the New York Metropolitan area, or listen live or the archive radio show via the Internet, The Big Broadcast, on WFUV Public Radio every Sunday from 8:00pm to midnight. You can find it on the web at www.WFUV.org.

This is Brian Marcus Decker and thank you once again for joining us on the Jolson and Friends blog. This is the first and most important blog dedicated to the life and musical influences of the legendary Al Jolson, the world's greatest entertainer. Please come visit us again any time at www.JolsonBlog.com and feel free to listen to our audio podcasts.

Jolson Blog: Vitaphone Project Interview Part I: March 30, 2008

• Tell us about the origins, some of the founding members and many of the important accomplishments of the Vitaphone project?
• What is your perspective on the historical importance of The Jazz Singer?
• The Jazz Singer has also been referred to as the "First Movie Heard around the World". What impact did this film have on the global film business?

Jolson and Friends Blog Required Reading List

No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous (Paperback) by Trav S.D.

Click here to shop and buy this book from Amazon

My Fifteen Minutes: An Autobiography of a Child Star of the Golden Era of Hollywood (Paperback) by Sybil Jason

Click here to shop and buy this book from Amazon

When Jolson Was King: (Paperback) by Richard Grudens

Richard Grudens has written an entertaining and informative (must read) book for anyone interested in the legendary, Al Jolson "The World's Greatest Entertainer".

"The book contains many facets of Jolson' career including those around him, his competition, employers, and comments from those he inspired enough to form their own careers, the issue of minstrel, blackface performers, fabled stories of the famed Friar's Club, a chapter of the infamous Shubert Brothers, and chapters covering Jolson's experiences in film, radio and his extensive USO travels. Covered too are vignettes of the theatres in which Jolson performed, and of those great theatrical competitors like the Barrymore's and where they were voicing their talents while Jolson was pulling them in at the Winter Garden, and a full feature on Jolson's films from the first talkie, The Jazz Singer to his famed bio-pics The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again." - Richard Grudens

Click here to shop and buy this book from Amazon

Changes to Jolson and Friends Blog

In the upcoming months I am looking to continue to evolve the Jolson and Friends Blog and wanted preview some upcoming changes. I am continuing to promote the sale of Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Houdini, History of Baseball and several other unique Limited Edition T-shirt designs (featured above) and matching gift cards (all with free U.S. shipping). The sales from these items help offset the cost of maintaining this blog. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and besides they are great T-shirts.

Due to the time intensive nature of ongoing research, content development, production and maintaining and the Blog, the next blog update will happen on March  30th. I am starting to work on several future Jolson and Friends projects including:

• Jolson and Friends Recommended Reading and Viewer Lists including cost-saving shopping links to find unique books, videos and more.
• Expanded global coverage of local events.
• Future podcasts of upcoming interviews and special performance-based content.

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