Sunday, February 9, 2025

Yvonne & Yvette, The Siamese Twins

 


The story of Yvonne & Yvette has been told at The Sideshow World website

Norton Records issued in 2010 (Norton EP-156) their four sides originally issued on Twins and on C & S Records.


Spectators show varying expressions on seeing Siamese Twins



The real show is not where we think it is.


 


Thursday, February 6, 2025

Larry Bird

 

Larry Bird on the cover of Sports Illustrated
November 28, 1977

Larry Bird nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" [his birthplace in Indiana] and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. I had no idea who he was until I heard Imelda Whitten praised him on one side on a LAM records single recorded by Allen Cash in Nashville.  This was the starting point, as is often the case as I always want to know more, for a search for other songs. So here are a total of six songs about Larry Bird, the NBA legend.




Imelda was born November 1, 1925, in Huntingburg, Indiana to John and Rosalie (Hess) Lasher; and married Robert F. Whitten on November 10, 1949.  Imelda was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Huntingburg and the Daughters of Isabella.  She was an accomplished vocalist who sang at numerous weddings and funerals.  Imelda loved to entertain, whether 58 years entertaining at the Y.M.I. Christmas parties or every Halloween when she would open her home and entertain the neighborhood children.  She died in 2019.

Imelda  also recorded an album issued on Sounds Inc. and two Christmas-themed 45s on Romel Records. See details at discogs.  I would be glad to hear that album.



 

" Disco Bird" by Larry Trimmer/WPFR from Terre Haute, Indiana. This was made in 1979 when Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores were having their undefeated season. This record was a parody song of a previous novelty hit (Disco Duck) done by another disc jockey.


Willie "Loco" Alexander (born 1943) is an American singer and keyboardist based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His biography can be read at Wikipedia here,

Tom Montgomery recorded "Indiana, Has A New State Bird" at J & K Custom Recordings (Fontanet, Indiana) which was issued on Country Gould Records.

Davey B. Thomas wrote Bird Rap with William Patterson in 1984. Issued by Dena and Dave Record Co. (Arlington, Mass.). The sleeve has lyrics on the back. "Larry, Larry Bird (Larry Bird), his game is so well-rounded it is almost absurd."
 
  

Finally, Larry Bird is from a YT video by I4NI (Hip-Hop Tribute to Boston Celtics NBA Legend). I4NI is a music group signed to Thirteen Skulls Entertainment pioneering a new sound called Ameriflow.  I have the impression that the creativity of hip-hop groups mainly consists of finding names, for lack of having something to say.  



Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Miriam (and Clu Gulager incidentally)


 

Miriam

Catwalk

"In 1967"

Both wr. (created by) Clu Gulager, Excalibur Music, BMI
Prod. by B. Williams, R. Woods

    Tanqueray 20101
9808 Wilshire blvd. , Beverly Hills

1966

 

Cash Box, review, November 19, 1966

Miriam [Gulager]  also recorded previously with her husband Clu Gulager on DeVille Records in 1964, she can be (furtively) heard on one side only "Tennessee Waltz" (DeVille 116).


In 1971, there was "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh" with the Benny Carter's Orchestra recorded for Decca which was featured on the  "Red Sky At Morning" soundtrack (Decca DL7-9180). And that was the end of her recording career. 

She copyrighted several songs in 1972 : Child  Of  My  Own;, Don't  Know  Where  I  Am  Anymore ; Goin'  Home; and Windin'  Me  Down, all published by Denim Music, a publisher just as obscure as Excalibur Music, the publisher of the Tanqueray 45.

Clu, Miriam and son John (1962)

From Office Naps (article no longer available) :

“Catwalk” is the handiwork of the Hollywood actress Miriam Byrd-Nethery and her husband Clu Gulager, an actor, too, and later an aspiring filmmaker.

Miriam Byrd-Nethery (born 1929 in Arkansas) and Clu Gulager (born a year earlier in Oklahoma) met in the theater department at Baylor University, married and found their first professional theater and television work in New York City. Relocating to Hollywood in the late ‘50s, Gulager would go on to distinguish himself as a prolific genre actor in both movies and television, including deputy sheriff Emmett Ryker in TV’s The Virginian, rig-hand-and-ladies-man Abilene in The Last Picture Show and contract killer Lee in The Killers. Starting with 1985’s Return of the Living Dead, Gulager’s work as horror movie stock character revived an acting career that continues today, albeit at a subdued pace.

Miriam, too, managed her own small-time acting career in Hollywood, but if it was Gulager who enjoyed the spotlight, theirs would first be a marriage, then family, energized above all by a spirit of collaboration and the noblest of artistic endeavors: filmmaking. Their obsession with producing films - including the family’s eight years in Tulsa trying unsuccessfully to realize their grisly serial killer horror noir Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! (its saga detailed in an engrossing 1997 LA Weekly article) - put them on the brink of starvation.

None of this does anything but increase the charm of this maverick and quintessentially American couple, whose lust for creative, budget-minded expression reached early fruition on “Catwalk,” a slice of pure Sunset Strip eccentricity from 1967 [1966 actually]. Ever wonder what really goes inside the actors studio? This is it.

Miriam Byrd-Nethery passed away in 2003. 

 

Miriam (directed by her husband in his unfinished masterpiece)

Regarding the movie Clu Gullager tried to realize [I quote from Beautiful Dreamers, the LA Weekly article linked above  :

At its end, a young serial killer named Jake, played by Tom Gulager, enters an old lady's home at night. He falls asleep watching TV while she slumbers in her room. When she awakens the next morning, a now naked Jake orders her to strip and shoots her in the stomach, then in the face. As she lies on the floor gurgling blood, the killer urinates along her nude body and into her mouth.

and 

Addressing complaints about the scene in which Tom urinates on Miriam, Clu says, "To be perfectly candid, I think penises are pretty good to put on film. An artist's compulsion is [what's] really pornographic - not the penis pissing on the old lady, or forcing the child into sexual abuse. What's pornographic is the artist's nature to gamble everything - everything - to destroy everything to get the art. The work is the important thing."

That's it. I think it's enough to give you a good idea of the Clu Gulager's artistry. If not, you can also watch this interview which includes "new found footage".  A legend, they say.


Further reading :

Into The Night With Clu Gulager

From Shakespeare to Shoot-em-Ups: The Remarkable 70-Year Career of Clu Gulager

Miriam Byrd-Nethery: Meet Clu Gulager’s Wife And Kids 


 

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Tommy Clayton

 

Tommy Clayton
pic is from Pacific EP 90100 (France)

Tommy Clayton has covered the hits of the day for Eli Oberstein's various budget labels. Some twenty Varsity tracks can be heard at Internet Archive here; unfortunately the sound clips are of very low quality.

Apart Varsity, his records are found on W&G (Australia & New Zealand), Pacific (France), Royale (USA) and World Record Club (UK), all either way related to Eli Oberstein. He recorded budget albums too for Acorn (Tommy Clayton and his Polkateers, Tommy Clayton -Square Dance Band)), for Choo Choo (Tommy Clayton Singers).

At least several covers were recorded in Europe by Pacific, a french label (in Paris or Brussels?) by Philippe-Gérard while Tommy Clayton was in the US Army, stationed in Belgium.

4 by Tommy

Cindy Oh Cindy (W&G 345, Pacific EP45.104)
Rock Around the Clock (Pacific EP 90.100)
See You Later Alligator (World Record Club 18)
Tennessee Saturday Night  (Varsity 8016)
 
Tracks perhaps never issued in the USA, except Tennessee Saturday Night.




 



Boom Boom Boom Boom

 


Boom Boom Boom Boom

Sakura Teng aka Ying Hua was one of the more popular female Mandarin song singers from the 60s era. She sang in a variety of languages, from Mandarin to Bahasa Malaysia, English and even Japanese. Many of her recordings were accompanied by The Quests. A household name in RTS' Chinese Variety Show in the evenings.

"Boom Boom" was issued on Columbia Records (Singapore)