The Dinah Washington Centennial: A Complete Annotated Filmography, Part 4: At Home & Abroad
Her Final TV Appearances, 1959 and 1960.
Special Thanks to Mark Cantor for information and input in this series!
Of all the major singers at the very pinnacle of the jazz pantheon, perhaps the least represented on film and video is, surprisingly, one of the most popular - both in her own lifetime and since. Dinah Washington, whose centennial we celebrate this month, was no obscure artist in a garrett, but a hugely successful hitmaker, first as a band vocalist with Lionel Hampton, then as a solo star on the R&B circuit in the early postwar era, then as a true crossover sensation in the years leading up to her tragically early death at the age of 39.
Thus it’s curious that she was never captured on film in the same way that dozens of her colleagues were. Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Anita O’Day, and Peggy Lee are all represented in at least three incredibly prolific platforms for filmed musical performances of the ‘40s and ‘50s: Soundies, Universal short subjects, and Snader Telescriptions. One has to wonder why. (Side note: Nat King Cole qualifies as the rare African American artist who was documented extensively on all three of those platforms.)
Indeed, there are so few films extant of the woman who self-identified as “The Queen” that we can go through them all rather easily here on Slouching Towards Birdland. In fact, it’s technically incorrect to describe this as a “filmography” since Washington only appeared once in something that could be considered a theatrical film, the 1959 release Jazz on a Summer’s Day. The rest are all television productions, and other than the series of shorts described in this first installment, all of them were completely live performances that were fortunately captured via kinescope.
HERE'S DUFFY
CBC-TV March 19, 1959
Dinah Washington sings
“Lover Come Back to Me” (Sigmund Romberg, Oscar Hammerstein II)
“Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair” (George Brooks)
Unknown blues
This marks Washington’s second known appearance on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, again with info courtesy our buddy Mark Selby. Longtime variety show fans will remember Jack Duffy, who, a year or so after this broadcast, became a regular member of the stock company of comedians and singers on the Perry Como Kraft Music Hall - alongside Kaye Ballard, Sandy Stewart, and Don Adams. Duffy was pretty much kept around on the Kraft show for one reason: when called upon, he could do a very good visual imitation of Sinatra. He couldn’t necessarily handle the singing, but he could look exactly like Frankie.
Duffy isn’t in this clip, however. We get two full numbers by Washington, lasting only five minutes: her swinging uptempo version of “Lover Come Back to Me,” that rare jazz standard derived from an operetta (the 1928 New Moon) and a slow, tragicomic blues from her 1958 album, Dinah Sings Bessie Smith, “Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair.” These are both tremendous, some of the best Dinah ever, on audio or video. The CBC released these two numbers on home video years ago on a collection titled Black Magic, which featured performances by African American singers and musicians appearing on the BBC in the 1950s, among them Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, and Washington.
What’s surprising is that the description from the CBC mentions that Washington apparently came back for a third number, described as a “blues song,” with no title given. This is presumably still on the master reel in the CBC vault, and, with any luck, it will hopefully see the light of day at some point, along with the two numbers from the 1955 Frigidaire show on the CBC.
HERE'S DUFFY
A light comedy and music series featuring comedian Jack Duffy, Ed Karam and his orchestra, singing group The Crescendos, and announcer George Raymond. Guest: Dinah Washington. A) Duffy sings "Late Late Show" with The Crescendos. B) Washington sings "Lover Come Back to Me" and a Bessie Smith song called "Send Me To the 'Lectric Chair". C) Takeoffs on television shows and commercials including: Rifle Smoke, Hockey Night in Canada (with Larry Mann), The Untouchables, and commercials for Lucky Spike cigarettes and Dazzle toothpaste. (The toothpaste commercial is a pie in the face routine). D) Washington sings a blues song. E) A skit about the renounced basketball team The Dribbles, with Duffy, Larry Mann, and Alfie Scopp.
PROGRAM TITLE: HERE'S DUFFY
BROADCAST DATE: 1959-03-19
LENGTH: 00:30:00
THE GE (GENERAL ELECTRIC) THEATER PRESENTS:
“THE SWINGIN, SINGIN’ YEARS”
With host Ronald Reagan
March 6, 1960
"What a Difference a Day Makes” (María Grever, Stanley Adams)
“Makin’ Whoopee” (Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson)
Easily Dinah’s best appearance on American TV. This loving homage to the big band era was officially co-produced by the great George Simon of Metronome magazine, one of the all-time authorities on this music, and I suspect that he had a hand in the writing as well. For starters, it’s one of the only presentations of jazz of any kind on commercial TV - other than Ed Sullivan or Steve Allen - where the host isn’t patronizing or misinformed. In fact, emcee Ronald Reagan displays an enthusiasm for the music that is remarkably sincere, and of all the bandleaders and stars, the one that he has the greatest rapport with, perhaps surprisingly, is Louis Jordan.
Band (off camera) plays: "I May Be Wrong (But I Think You're Wonderful)"
Ronald Reagan: One of the world's most unique movie houses has always been the Apollo Theater 125th street in New York City. The show is already in progress as usual. The bill features two of the swinging stars of the day: Dinah Washington, who started out as a vocalist with Lionel Hampton's band, and a former Chick Webb saxophone player, Louis Jordan. Louis?
Louis Jordan: Yes!
Ronnie: I was just about to tell them how the Apollo Theater never bothers to advertise the picture.
Louis: Right! The management knows the audience only cares about the stage show.
Ronnie: Well I understand when the stage show is going real good they don't even bother to run the movie.
Louis: Right!
Ronnie: Is it true that the minute you finish one show, you have to get ready for the next one?
Louis: True! When Dizzy Gillespie played the Apollo, he said "They have no backstage. At the other end of the bandstand, they have a revolving door!"
Louis: Excuse me, Ronnie, I'm on!
Louis: Thank you so very much ladies and gentlemen! And now it's start time at the Apollo Theater! And what could be finer than my Dinah? Here she is, the queen of the blues, Miss Dinah Washington!
Washington starts with her biggest “crossover” hit, "What a Difference a Day Makes,” which was originally known as "What a Diff'rence a Day Made,” and before that, in Spanish, as "Cuando vuelva a tu lado." (The English language version might be the most successful lyric ever written by songwriter Stanley Adams, otherwise more famous as the long-term president of ASCAP.) The segment really captures what Washington might have been like in clubs in that she didn’t exactly sing a lot of medleys, but many times she would begin one song right before actually concluding the previous one. Here, just as she’s heading for the last line of "What a Difference a Day Makes,” she shifts gears, and informs the audience “There’s been a whole lot of changes made, Daddy, and it’s all on account of …. Another bride, another groom, another sunny honeymoon!”
After her two numbers, Jordan comes back on stage and, with a cut-down version of the big band, plays and sings one of his biggest hits - not otherwise captured on film or video - the 1946 “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie,” co-written by Jordan and his highly accomplished producer, Milt Gabler. (Andrew Hickey does an excellent history of the song, explaining in particular why it was an equally big influence on country music as it was on R&B, in his podcast, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. More info here.)
The rest of The Swingin’ Singin’ Years is well worth watching - especially Jo Stafford and Stan Kenton (not together) but this is a brilliant, seven-minute mini-segment, which makes me think that Ronald Reagan’s greatest talent wasn’t necessarily in acting or politics but in introducing jazz-R&B stars on television.
Unknown Concert Film, probably Swedish television, 1960
With Beryl Booker, piano; unknown bassist and drummer
“Lover Come Back to Me” (Sigmund Romberg, Oscar Hammerstein II)
“I've Got A Crush On You” (George & Ira Gershwin)
“They Didn't Believe Me” (Jerome Kern & Herbert Reynolds)
“Come On Home” (Juanita Hill & Dinah Washington)
We don’t have any of the details regarding the provenance of these four songs, apparently filmed in Sweden in 1960, other than that the company Reelin’ In The Years is representing the footage to documentary and other producers and would be very happy to license it to you. We can only assume RITY doesn’t have any more material from this appearance - if they did, they surely would have released a DVD in their excellent Jazz Icons series.
Washington, in a bright blonde wig, and a baggy dress that’s not nearly as stylish (or even avant-garde) as the frock she wore to Newport in 1958, sings three standards - two swingers and a ballad - followed by a blues. The first three numbers are on one link, in excellent a/v quality but an ever-intrusive watermark; the fourth and last, the blues, is on a separate clip and in fairly miserable a/v quality. (This video has watermarking at the start, including some titles in Japanese.)
In the main video, Washington enters from the back of the stage, walking down a platform with three stairs, singing “Lover Come Back to Me.” Two members of her rhythm section are shown, pianist Beryl Booker to her right, and an unknown (probably local) bassist to her left; the drummer is off-camera. After a chorus, Booker, looking radiant and jubilant herself, gets a solo. She introduces “I’ve Got a Crush on You” from her album Dinah In The Land of Hi-Fi, opening the verse with “How glad the many millions | of Percivals and Williams,” surely an unusual choice; the world will have to pardon her mush. It’s a sweet and soulful ballad; she interjects “Daddy” as often as Louis Armstrong spontaneously interjects the word “Mama.” She introduces “They Didn’t Believe Me” as from her album The Swingin’ Miss D, and lets everyone know it was arranged by Quincy Jones, who was already a star and a marquee brand name in Europe; it’s a rare example of a swing treatment of this early Kern classic.
“Come On Home” - no connection with the Horace Silver tune - is a swinging, sassy blues that served as the b-side to Washington’s biggest commercial hit, “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes.”
Let’s hope this material gets properly issued soon - especially the Swedish concert footage and the remaining tracks from the Canadian TV shows, as well as Swingin’, Singin’ Years in color. There’s certainly enough out there for a proper Dinah Washington Centennial DVD if anybody would take the trouble to put it together. I just hope we won’t have to wait another 100 years before that happens.
The Dinah Washington Centennial:
A Complete Annotated Filmography
Part One:
The Showtime at the Apollo Films (1954)
Part Two:
Bandstand Revue (1955)
”That’s All I Want From You”
Crescendo (1957)
”Birth of the Blues”
Part Three:
Jazz on a Summer’s Day (filmed 1958, released 1959)
”All of Me”
Part Four:
Here’s Duffy (CBC 1959)
”Lover Come Back to Me”
”Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair”
The Singin’, Swingin’ Years (1960)
”Makin’ Whoopee”
”What a Diff’rence a Day Makes”
1960 Europe (?)
“Lover Come Back To Me/I've Got A Crush On You/They Didn't Believe Me”
Remembering Russell Malone, a Jazz Guitar Great With a Larger-Than-Life Personality
Huge thanks to The New York Sun for allowing me to write this memoir of our dear friend Russell Malone, whose untimely passing a few days ago has both shocked and saddened the jazz world. The New York Sun story is here, but if you have a hard time accessing it, write me for a PDF. God Bless.
Very special thanks to the fabulous Ms. Elizabeth Zimmer, for expert proofreading of this page, and scanning for typos, mistakes, and other assorted boo-boos!
Sing! Sing! Sing! : My tagline is, “Celebrating the great jazz - and jazz-adjacent - singers, as well as the composers, lyricists, arrangers, soloists, and sidemen, who help to make them great.”
A production of KSDS heard Saturdays at 10:00 AM Pacific; 1:00PM Eastern.
To listen to KSDS via the internet (current and recent shows are available for streaming.) click here.
The whole series is also listenable on Podbean.com, click here.
SING! SING! SING!
June 29 - Americana - For the Fourth of July - Songs of Civil Rights & The African American Experience
July 6 - The Four Freshmen & Other Great Jazz Vocal Groups of the 1950s
July 13 - Bastille Day: Guest Co-Host ERIC COMSTOCK shares his favorite French songs! Formidable!
July 20 - The Margaret Whiting Centennial: “Happy Birthday Maggie!”
July 27 - “Calypso Blues” OR “It’s The New Calypso Bebop!”
August 3 - The Tony Bennett Birthday Special: Tony Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
August 10 - “A Little Moonlight & A Little Tenderness: The Harry Woods Songbook”
August 17 - “Fat Daddies & Skinny Mamas: The Body Shaming Show”
August 24 - “The Dinah Washington Centennial: Back to The Blues”
August 31 - “Songs in the Key of Sea - Nautical But Nice“
September 7 - “Lerner & Loewe - The Jazz & Pop MixTape”
September 14 - “The Mel Torme Birthday Special: At The Movies”
September 21 - “Pledge Week Special: Money, Money, Money”
September 28 - “Pledge Week Special: Dizzy Gillespie for President!”
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Duffy, Mann and Scopp were all well-known Canadian media personalities, and the latter pair would later lend their voices to Rankin-Bass holiday specials.