Two Nat King Cole Discoveries!

A Rather Amazing Photo and a Previously-Missing Number From One of Cole's most important TV appearances

First, I wanted to thank guitarist and writer and bon vivant Nick Rossi for sharing this photo with me. (It had been shared on Facebook a few years ago by a veteran dancer-entertainer named Dusty Sage.) Here we have the company of the 1937 touring production of Shuffle Along. Flournoy Miller, one of the creators of the breakthrough 1921 Broadway smash, put together a new revue—which was planned to start in Chicago—that used the title and we don’t know how much else. Another of the original creators, Noble Sissle, apparently recommended his longtime tuba and bass player, Eddie Coles (that was the family name at the time) to serve as musical director (arranger and conductor) for the production. The plan was originally for Eddie and Nat, who was already regarded as one of the most capable pianists in Chicago, to co-lead the orchestra, but Eddie, who had already spent many years on the road - including several tours of Europe - with Sissle’s band, decided he didn’t want to leave Chicago at the moment. Thus Nat, who turned 18 on St. Patrick’s Day 1937 and had already been leading his own successful big band, ambitiously assumed the role of musical director.

This shot was probably taken while the company was still in Chicago. Unfortunately, we don’t have identification for anyone other than Nat, still under his original birth name of Nathaniel Adams Coles, who is already over six feet tall and prominent in the back row. Nick believes that Nadine Robinson, the dancer who was soon to become Nat’s first wife, is standing in the row ahead of him, a couple of people over to the right.

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For Nat’s birthday this past March, I did a whole Substack on his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, then still in its first season and still known as Toast of the Town; this was on Sunday, March 27, 1949, shortly after Nat’s 30th birthday. Nat and his Trio, with guitarist Irving Ashby, bassist Joe Comfort, and the newly-hired percussionist Jack Costanzo, did four numbers—and since one was a medley, it was a total of five songs. Now, as of this week, the fourth and last of these clips has at last been made available on youtube.com.

This is “Flo and Joe,” which the Trio had recorded for Capitol in November, 1947. The song is co-credited to Milton Leeds and Ted Varnick. Leeds (1909-2005) is most famous for writing English lyrics to two classic foreign songs, the Mexican (Spanish language) “Perfidia” and the Greek “Miserlou.”

Back in March, I had suspected that the Sullivan channel might be deliberately not sharing this number because it’s so aggressively politically incorrect. As you can see, the well-intentioned Sullivan channel folks got the title wrong—they call it “Down in Mexico.” But no, the song does not make fun of Mexicans or Hispanics. Rather the song itself is in the tradition of of Al Hibbler’s 1946 “Fat and Forty (You Are My Meat)” as well as Doc Wheeler’s 1941 “Big and Fat and Forty-Four”; they’re indulging in what might be called body shaming, having a few laughs at the expense of a woman who is “fat and over 40.” Still, it’s so sublimely musical and hysterically funny that I hope it’s okay to enjoy it. And I salute the Sullivan channel for sharing it. (Now I wish they would go back and give us the complete, uninterrupted edit of the “Moon” medley, featuring the great dancer Hal Le Roy.)

Down in Mexico
You’ll find a gal named Flo
Flo’s in Mexico
To find a guy named Joe

Joe’s in Mexico
To get away from Flo
He took all his dough
Way back in Idaho

She was fat and over 40
But he held her in his arms
And he told her that he loved her
For her charms

Then he said he needed money
So she gave him all her cash
And he headed for the border
Like a flash

Down in Mexico
You’ll find a gal named Flo
Flo’s in Mexico
To get her hands on Joe

Joe’s in Mexico
Hе’s spending all her dough
Poor Flo’s full’o woe
Sincе Joe left Idaho

[Instrumental Break - piano solo, scat solo]

They were ready to be married
She was waitin’ at the church
But he hit the road and left her
In the lurch

Down, down, down, in Mexico
You’ll find a gal named Flo
Flo’s in Mexico
To try and get her dough

Joe left Mexico
One step ahead of Flo
He spent all her dough
On everyone but Flo

Poor Flo.

Pre-Christmas-bonus:

Here are some additional body-positive songs (I did a whole show of these for Sing! Sing! Sing! last spring.)

Fat Daddies & Skinny Mamas - The Body-Positive Show
(SSS #109 2024-08-17)
Download: <or> play online: + playlist

(As someone who is 64, 220 LBS and 6’ 1”, I approve of these messages.)

Coming Soon: Guess what song becomes the de facto Rodgers & Hammerstein Christmas classic? (And still coming soon: “Rock and Roll” with The Boswell Sisters! )

(Very special thanks to Elizabeth Zimmer, Dan Fortune, & Rob Lester for their expert proofing, hey!)

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; 1:00 PM Eastern.
To listen to KSDS via the internet (current and recent shows are available for streaming) click here. Here is the running list of recent shows.
The whole series is also listenable on Podbean.com; click here.

THIS JUST IN! THE OFFICIAL ALL-NEW
“SING! SING! SING!” T-SHIRT!

“IT’S TRUE!
IT’S TRUE!
IT’S ALL TRUE!”

SING! SING! SING!

Frank Sinatra sings the Cole Porter Songbook
(FS 2025-12-05)
Download: or play online: + Playlist:

Frank Sinatra sings the Irving Berlin Songbook
(FS 2025-12-02)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Sinatra sings Burke & Van Heusen REDUX
(FS 2025 01 2025-12-01)
Download: <or> play online:

The Paul Williams Jazz & Traditional Pop Songbook
(SSS #176 2025-11-29)
Download <or> : play online: + Playlist:

Kinds of Blues Pt 1 - Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?
(SSS #175 2025-11-21)
download: <or> play online:

Psychedelic Vaudeville with Trav S D
(SSS #174 2025-11-15)
Download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

“Just the Contrafacts, Ma’am”
(SSS #173 2025-11-08)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Finding NEMO (“’Tis Autumn - The Henry Nemo Songbook”)
(SSS #172 2025-11-01)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist

Halloween with HANNAH GILL: SPOOKY JAZZ!
(SSS #171 2025-10-25)
Download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Arthur Schwartz & Howard Dietz Songbook - The Bandwagon - Part 1 (1929-1932)(SSS #170 2025-10-18)
download: <or> play online: + playlist

QUINN LEMLEY interviews WILL FRIEDWALD “Secrets of the Stage”
download: <or> play online: <or> video

Goodbye Columbus: Indigenous Peoples’ Day
(SSS #169 2025-10-11)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Channeling the Living - Young Artists & New Releases (Pledge Drive) with Matt Silver
(SSS #168 2025-10-04)
download: <or> play online:

Halloween Special: ”Frank-and-Styne” (Frank Sinatra & Jule Styne)
(SSS #70 2023-10-28)
download: <or>play online:

Halloween Spooks - Blues For Dracula
(SSS #18 2022-10-30)
download: <or>play online:

Jazz & Baseball Pledge Drive DARN YANKEES
(SSS #167 2025-09-27)
download: <or> play online:

Afro-Centric: In Honor of Jazz at Lincoln Center "Mother Africa”
(SSS #166 2025-09-20)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

The MEL TORMÉ Centennial Special - Mel sings Mercer
(Mel Tormé sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook)
(SSS #165 2025-09-13)
Download: <or> play online: +Playlist:

The Dog Days of Summer (or “Mama Will Bark!”)
(SSS #164 2025-09-06)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

The MARTY PAICH Centennial Special
(SSS #163 2025-08-30)
Download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Snug as a Bug - At the Insect's Ball
(SSS #162 2025-08-23)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

A-Tisket A-Tasket - Swinging Nursery Rhymes!
(SSS #161 2025-08-16)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Johnny Mercer Au Naturel
(SSS #160 2025-08-09)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Tony Bennett @ 99! 70 Years of Great Moments LIVE ! (1947-2016) (SSS #159 2025-08-02 )
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

Frank Loesser & Burton Lane
(SSS #158A 2025-07-26)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist

Frank Loesser & Hoagy Carmichael
(SSS #158B 2025-07-26)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist

Frank Loesser & Jimmy McHugh
(SSS #158C 2025-07-26)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist

The Oscar Peterson Centennial - Oscar Meets the Swinging Singers!
(SSS #157 2025-07-19)
download: <or> play online: + Playlist:

ALAN BERGMAN at 97: A Birthday Present!
(SSS #011 2022-09-10)
download: <or> play online:

With Seth McFarlane: “Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements”
(SSS #154 2025-06-28)
download: <or> play online:

SLOUCHING TOWARDS BIRDLAND is a Substack newsletter by Will Friedwald. The best way to support my work is with a paid subscription, for which I am asking either $5 a month or $50 per year. Thank you for considering. (Thanks as always to Arlen Schumer for special graphics.) Word up, peace out, go forth and sin no more! (And always remember: “A man is born, but he’s no good no how, without a song.”)

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