An Evening With Wanda (Wanda Schafer)

 

❤

Beginning in Anderson, Indiana, Wanda started singing on radio station WHBU when she was ten. Her stage career began at fourteen in Anderson with her uncle who Wanda describes as "stand-up vaudeville comic."

The entertainment career she began so early was postponed while she raised six children. The urge to sing again was strong, and she resumed singing at the Shamrock in Anderson where she played for nine years before coming to Indianapolis in 1957. There were seven nine years at LaRue's Supper Club before she moved to Al Myers. Later she went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to be the songbird in the Gilded Cage.

Wanda « retired »  in 1965 to marry Otto Schafer, a well-known Indianapolis Motor Speedway figure….

That's My Desire

 

 The Krazy Kords

That's My Desire

American Records

EP-45-103
Box 1051, Muncie, Indiana
1960

The Krazy Kords revisiting the classics. Other tunes on this EP are : Malaguena, Return To Me and Ol Man River.  That's My Desire was first recorded in 1931 by Russell Wooding and His Grand Central Red Caps.

You probably want to hear the 3 other songs and also know who were these Krazy Kords ? Yeah, me too.

The Devil's Old Suitcase

 

Pam Thum
Three Year Old Indian Princess

The Devil's Old Suitcase

Sunshine Party
Indianapolis
1961

Pam Thum was the only child of traveling evangelists Bruce and Ruth Thum. Reverend Chief Bruce Thum, a Cherokee Indian, launched with Charles Verness their first revival crusade in Springfield. and created the Sunshine Evangelistic Party.

Pam Thum released four albums in the 90's. You will find more info HERE

 

Humpti Dumpti

The Kingsmen
F.D. Arnold 2105/2106
South Bend, Indiana
1963

    John Chappelow - Lead & Rhythm
    Rick Webster - Lead & Rhythm
    Ron Bennett - Lead Singer & Sax
    Dan McLean - Drums
    Paul Romine -?
 

Humpti Dumpti


Good Night Sweetheart (Bonsoir, Cheri)

He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

 

Wanda Schafer

 

He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

Mighty as He is, surely He will do something about the poor state of the world. 

And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28-31

But, in the other hand, are we sure about the translation? . Was He really speaking to Man ?

Anyway, thanks to St. Peter's Church for the picture.

Song is from the album "An Evening With Wanda". And thanks to http://themotellounge.blogspot.com/2019/07/an-evening-with-wanda.html for the following information:

Production and Engineering: Jan Eden
Photography: Bob Doeppers
Liner Notes Notes: Art Harris
Jacket Design: Jane Ford
Garden Of Eden Records - Indianapolis, Indiana

Jan Eden Recording And Sound, Inc.
pressed by Mus-I-Col Recording Services, Columbus, Ohio

From the back cover: Across from the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway on West 16th Street where the 500 Mile Race is held each May is the unofficial home of one of Indiana's best-known supper club songstresses... Wanda Louise Schafer. Wanda, who belts out songs like the late Sophie Tucker while accompanying herself on the piano, has worked with some of the great names in music... Jack Teagarden and Dizzy Gillespie... "Even Dan Rowan and Dick Martin when they were making $500 a week apiece. "One of her memorable engagements was in the Mermaid Room of the Park Sheridan, in New York.

Beginning in Anderson, Indiana, Wanda started singing on radio station WHUB when she was ten. Her stage career began at fourteen in Anderson with her uncle Wanda describes as a "stand-up vaudeville comic."

The entertainment career began so early was postponed while she raised six children. The urge to sing again was song, and she resumed singing at the Shamrock in Anderson where she played for nine years before coming to Indianapolis in 1957. There were seven great years at LaRue's Supper Club before she moved to Al Myers. Later she went to Fort Wayne, Indiana to be the songbird in the Gilded Cage.

Wanda "retired" in 1965 to marry Otto Schafer, a well-known Indianapolis Motor Speedway figure. It was through him she began her "love affair" with the Speedway and its personages. This close association with the Speedway was on of the reasons Wanda decided to "stay close to the track" when she returned to the Indiana entertainment scene.

Bye Bye Blackbird

Wanda Schafer - Bye Bye Blackbird

From "An Evening With Wanda", from The Garden of Eden (1972)

Indiana supper club songstress. Some info from the album back cover can be found here

If you like what you hear, her full album can be downloaded from http://alleternalthings.blogspot.com/2017/01/lonely-wine.html

All Grown Up

Darby Anne
And The Jay Jay Kay Trio

All Grown Up

Herbert Baker, Carrie Music Co. ASCAP

Darby 45-609
Ellettsville, Indiana

1957 or later

Presumably, "All Grown Up" is a cover of the song previously recorded by Debbie Reynolds MGM 12560 in 1957. Not much can be found on Darby Anne.  Only thing I known is she recorded another 45 on the same label, also a King custom pressing, backed by the Johnnie Wattles Orchestra  (Betwixt And Between , Darby 45-D3)

Dance

Jerry De Lon & The Redcoats

Dance

MAE 45-1002

1963

The flip is "Cobra" an instrumental by the Redcoats a band based out of New Albany, Indiana

The Redcoats

The picture above was found at indiana45s
The names of the band members are, from left to right: Larry Hawkins – Bass, Jerry Schleicher – Lead vocalist (kneeling), Bill Heinz – Lead Guitar, Dennis Heinz – Rhythm Guitar, Gary Wallbaum – Keyboards (lying on the piano), Brian Strange – Drums. The Redcoats also had two background singers: Leslie Brockmeyer & Kristine Balgeman (not shown).

Jerry De Lon (De Leon?) name is not mentionned.

Long Tall Sally

Lincoln Rand

with The Reveliers

Long Tall Sally

Adona AD-1444

(1961)

This is the first record of this Hammond, Indiana native whose real name is Robert Dolan.   Dolan founded the short-lived Guild Craft Studios in 1964 and studied philosophy at St. Meinrad Seminary College.   In his seven years of monastery and seminary, Dolan got involved in recruitment films for the priesthood and convent. He starred in a slick film — as a rock singer — but people became more interested in him as a rock singer than as a priest.   In 1972, he got the music bug again. “I simply went and started a single act and by October of 1972 the Celery' Road Show blossomed."

Father Bob Dolan (1965) 

Bob Dolan as Elvis (1977)

★

Adona Records

East Chicago, Indiana

Owners Frank Dudek, Robert Billen

Years active : 1960-1962

1441 Bob Bilen 
1442 Little Satan and the Easy Rocks
1443
1444 Lincoln Rand
1445 The Jades
1446 Dick DeWayne Combo  

The Goatee's Gotta Go

Dick Summer

Bill Coe and the Escorts

The Goatee's Gotta Go

(Coe-Simon-Summer)

K-W Records #502

1959

Spoken word. 

Dick Summer was dee jay at WIBC at the time. Then, he was the MC of a Bandstand-type program called "Rhythm Carnival" on WISH-TV. until he was hired by WBZ Radio in Boston.  His radio show was unpredictable. He read poetry and short stories, and sometimes he played old radio dramas - listeners loved it.

The background music is provided by Bill Coe and The Escorts.  Bill Coe is believed to be the brother of musician Jimmy Coe.

WIBC radio booth on the roof of Merrill's

Merrill’s Hi-Decker was another popular spot for both locals and visitors, featuring a $1.59 steak special that could be enjoyed in the restaurant’s “Two Beautiful Dining Rooms” or in the customer’s own car. Younger patrons preferred the latter option so they could listen to disc jockey Dick Summer playing the newest rock-and-roll hits from the WIBC radio booth on the restaurant’s roof. His show featured a “make it or break it game” where he would ask patrons to honk their car horns to vote on whether a new record should be played again or broken in half.

from http://historicindianapolis.com/indianapolis-collected-the-accidental-tourist-guide-collector/

 

Read Dick Summer interview http://www.grubstreet.ca/articles/index/495/the-grub-street-interview-dick-summer-mouth-to-ear

Yellow Pages

Don Reno, Bill Harrell and the Tennessee Cutups

Yellow Pages

Jim Goodman-Jerry Fender

Brownboro Pub. Co. SESAC

 Derby Town SR 34/35

Produced by Ray Allen

1966

Bluegrass banjo player Don Reno began a new partnership with singer/multi-instrumentalist Bill Harrell in late 1966 and it continued for a decade, a period which coincided with resurgence in public interest in bluegrass as a result of a growing festival circuit.

They have bought into Derby Town Records and Cuzz Publishing Co. and added Don Reno-Bill Harrell Enteprises to the corporation for booking purposes and handling personal management of artists. Derby Town Records and Cuzz Publishing were operated by Kenny Sowder, whose main claim to fame is to have co-written "Lonely Street", a classic country song, first recorded by Carl Belew, an artist whom he managed.

Baby Blues Rock

Carl Simpson

Baby Blues Rock

Betty J. and Paul E. Hertel

Cedarlane BMI - Jenks

Caveman Supersonic Sound #503

Wolf Lake, Illinois

1964 or later

Quite intriguing re-issue on a song-poem label of a record previously on Paul Hertel's Valli Records (out of South Bend, Indiana). 

Likewise intriguing is the re-issue on Caveman of Jimmy Evans' " The Joint's Really Jumpin'" previously on Clearmont Records in Memphis, Tennessee.   

All other releases on the label are song-poem records.  

Jenks, publisher name added on the re-issue is Fat Cat Music today,  according to the BMI database :

Fat Cat Music Co
Contact:     William J Jenks
DBA Fat Cat Music Co
C/O Reilly & Jenks Inc
100 Hanover Street
New Oxford, Pa 17350

I bet that Jenks has somehow something to do with these re-issues. . .

 

Valli 304, first issue in 1963

Fannie Mae

Seventeens

Fannie Mae

(Jim Dye , Tronic BMI)

A Tommy Hill / Starday Studio Production

Nashville Records

1964

Ted Dye, back left, Jimmy Dye, back right

Bill Smith, center, drummer

plus two

In Bill Smith's words : 

We played around Vincennes and in Terre Haute at the Club Idaho in 1963. We were the house band there for awhile and opened for a group called “The Champs” (that had out Tequila), with Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts, later to become “Seals and Crofts”. They were there with us for a week. We also played in Evansville in ’64 on the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars, opening for, Johnny Tillotson, Paul and Paula and Gene Pitney. In late 1964, “The Seventeens” went to Nashville and made a record.. It was on the Starday [ed. actually Nashville, a Starday subsidiary ]  Record Label and the first side was called I’m Not talking and the flip side was Fanny Mae...    The songs were sung by our band’s leader, Jimmy Dye. We went on tour after that and played in Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and back to Indiana.    We came back home to Vincennes and reformed the band as “The Jimmy Dye Combo” and played locally at the Showboat across the river from Vincennes until I was drafted into the US Army in May 1966.   

Jimmy Dye died in 2005.   Bridget Ikerd remembers :

I read with interest and sadness Dave Kyle's letter about Jimmy Dye. Dave, who is a great musician himself, spoke with good words about this wonderful icon of the Idaho Club in the '60s. I also was friends with the Jimmy Dye band, as I worked at the Idaho Club myself for seven years. We became good friends, all of us, and I as well as many others thought the world of him.

As Dave said, Jimmy never drank, smoked or did drugs, and that alone was to be admired at that time. But above all, his beautiful clear voice is what we will all remember. He sang with such clarity and fullness that he made every song special, especially his ballads. He was friendly to everyone and tried to fulfill everyone's requests. His band followed in the tracks of such musicians as Hoover Baker and the Embers and Jim Foley and the Invasions when he started playing at the Idaho Club.

Jimmy's music and voice caught on immediately at the Idaho Club and before long, that was where all of us wanted to go. Sure, we had good bands everywhere at that time, we had Boone Dunbar at the Hyspot, Sam Swayze at the Alibi Lounge and several great bands of the time at the Sixth Avenue (at that time it was a respectable place to go to hear bands and dance).

But far and above all was the Jimmy Dye band at the Idaho Club. People came from all around to hear his velvet voice and to hear the talented musicians who played with him; Ted Dye, Steve Ridge, Denney Jewell and John Lamb, just to mention a few. They were all talented in their own right as well. John and Steve could also sing as well as play keyboard and drums. But Jimmy was the great one; without him and his music, the Idaho would have been just another place to drink and dance. His friendliness and personality, besides his voice, drew people from far and near.

As my husband Bill says, “Anyone can sing a song, but nobody can sing a ballad like Jimmy Dye.” Goodbye my dear, dear friend. You will be missed by all of us.

Ode to Billie Joe

Steve Greider (Drums)

with Henry Ade (Steel guitar)

Ode to Billie Joe

Midwestern Records 112
(Indianapolis, Ind.)

A Glenn Scott Production

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The Meanest Man In Town

Lonnie was born in Dorena, Missouri in 1937, the oldest of thirteen children. In 1946 his family moved to Gary, IN. Encouraged by his grandmother, he started singing in church at the age of six. As a teenager he performed with doo-wop (a style of music popularized in the 1950's sung in harmony) groups in and around Gary.

In his early twenties he cut two R&B singles "You Can't Go" & Ain't That a Shame" in Chicago with the Chuck Danzy band on the NuTone label. (These records are current dance floor favorites in England & Australia, and much sought after by R&B collectors).

After being on the road with Bill Nixon and Jr. Walker, and serving a stint in the U.S. Air Force, he ended up in San Francisco in 1959. While there he opened for R&B stars, Sam & Dave; the Drifters; Aretha Franklin; Johnny Mathis; Little Willy John and many others.

When he came to Indianapolis in 1969, he performed at the Honey Dripper Lounge, the End Zone, and the Vineyards. During the early 70's, he formed a five-piece band "Lonnie Lester & Touch".

In the 80's he traveled the country with his band in addition to performing in the Indianapolis area. Over the years he has donated time to the Women's Prison, Riley Children's Hospital, Veterans Hospital, and many other community organizations. He retired from the music business full-time in 1991, but continues to perform part-time, appearing at clubs, weddings, corporate parties, etc.

(from the Lonnie Lester website)

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"So This Is Love"



"The Meanest Man In Town"


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