IN THIS ISSUE: ★ An interview with ★ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR HELEN FORREST about THE DORSEYS, HELEN FORREST, BOBBY ★ Sidelights about BYRNE, ARTIE SHAW RAY ANTHONY, FRANK & OTHERS SINATRA, & AL COHN ★ Reviews of BIG BOOKS AND RECORDS to consider B A X IP ★ A NICKNAME PHRASE TRIVIA QUIZ jim p ESSSSS® NEWSLETTER BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER FIRST-CLASS MAIL Box 52252 U S. POSTAGE PAID Atlanta, GA 30355 Atlanta, GA Permit No. 2022 1SIG ISAM) JUMP VOLUME LXV_____________________________ BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999 HELEN FORREST INTERVIEW THEBACKGROUND There’s not much doubt about Helen Forrest’s rank as a vocalist. Most musicians and listeners place her as the number one Big Band and single vocalist of her time, a position confirmed in Metronome and Down­ beat polls of 1942, both ranking her as the top female vocalist of that year. Her work with Artie Shaw was notable, she was not featured a great deal during her tenure with Benny Goodman and probably recorded her most memorable Big Band songs with Harry James. When Helen Forrest left the Big Bands to become a single performer, she recorded often with Dick Haymes, with whom she also appeared on the radio in a long-running series of programs. In 1982, the Helen Forrest autobiography was pub­ lished by Putnam, titled I HAD THE CRAZIEST DREAM after the song with the same title she re­ corded in the early '40s with Harry James. The book is now out of print. Helen Forrest glamour shot from mid-forties She continued to work until the early 1990s, when HF: Inradio. IstartedonWNEWinNewYorkCity. rheumatoid arthritis began to make singing difficult. I was doing all kinds of little commercial things, As mentioned in the last issue, we were making ar­ spot commercials. I was called Marlene, Helene ... rangements to interview Helen Forrest before she was anything that rhymed with Helene or Helen. I stayed on hospitalized on April 13th. In late July she died at age WNEW for about a year and then I was sent to CBS. 82. Through the kindness of author and broadcaster There were music pluggers in those days. Remember? Fred Hall, we’ve been given permission to re-print a BBJ: Sure. late ’70s interview he conducted with Helen Forrest. The interview is from his latest book, MORE DIA­ H F: And of course I got very close to all of them and LOGUES IN SWING, where it appears along with they told Mark Wamow about me. He is no Hall’s informative conversations with a host of other longer living. He had a program called the Blue Velvet musical greats. (The book was reviewed in the last Hour. I auditioned for him and he said “Yes, you would issue of this newsletter.) be great.” But what he did, he called them the Blue Velvet Musicians. The Blue Velvet Hour with Bonnie THE SCENE: Helen Forrest was appearing at a Blue. I was Bonnie Blue. concert when Fred Hall interviewed her. He wouldn’t let anybody know who I was. He said, BBJ: Before Artie Shaw, where were you? ‘You are going to be the mystery lady.” And I said, “But NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999 V O LU M E LXV BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER Mark, that is ridiculous.” So for one year I was Bonnie BBJ: It seems to me that your first record with the Blue and nobody knew who I was. He would make me Shaw band was something like YOU’RE A come in the back door and go out the back door. It was SWEET LITTLE HEADACHE. ridiculous, but it was a great show. Fantastic show. HF: Oh, no! You’re right! BBJ: How did you get involved with Shaw? BBJ: The first hit was DEEP IN A DREAM? HF: Well, from there I went to Washington, D C. My brother moved to Washington and the HF: Yes, you’re right. I haven’t thought of that in whole family went. There was a job open for a singer years. in a Spanish American restaurant which was THE place to eat for all the politicians, the congressmen. I BBJ: You don’t get requests for those things these went in for two weeks and I stayed for two years. days? While I was there Ziggy Elman told Artie and he told HF: No, in fact they don’t ask for anything with Benny about me. Well, Artie came in to hear me and Artie. offered me a job. But I didn’t go. I was going with the drummer, so I stayed. Benny came in to hear me and BBJ: Not even DEEP PURPLE? he said, “whoever said she could sing?” and turned around and walked out. That was just Benny’s way. HF: No. Once in a while. Then I know that’s a true But Artie told me, “When you’re ready to leave, send fan. me a wire and a demonstration record, that’s all.” He was working in Baltimore on a one-nighter, and I had BBJ: You were with Shaw a couple of years? just about had it after two years, so I sent him a telegram which said “I’m ready.” I sent him the record. He said, HF: Right. Two years. “Meet us in New York.” And that was it ... I joined him. BBJ: Did you leave at the time Artie retired and the BBJ: There was a period when you and Billie Holi­ band broke up? day were both singing with Artie Shaw. H F: The minute Artie broke up the band, I left and HF: Yes, Billie would sit on one side and I would I kind of pouted. I didn’t know which way I sit on the other and it was fantastic. Of course, wanted to go, and then I joined Benny Goodman. Billie would get very angry with Artie because he wouldn’t let her sing. He said he didn’t have any BBJ: I’ve always heard he can be a difficult man arrangements for her. I said, “Well, give her mine.” to work for. BBJ: Did you learn from her? HF: Yes. I stayed with Benny for two years. He was a great taskmaster. He was a perfectionist, HF: Oh, yes, she was a beautiful person. Abso­ that’s what made him the great clarinetist that he was. lutely fantastic! I didn’t really get into Billie’s He was truly very hard to get along with. The only two singing because that was not my style. Billie was more things that I did with Benny that I really liked were blues and I was strictly ballad in those days. MORE THAN YOU KNOW and THE MAN I LOVE. BBJ: Who among the singers did you most admire? BBJ: Did you go directly from Benny to James? Mildred Bailey? H F: No, I wouldn’t say directly. Maybe I was off a H F: Yes, you just hit it and of course the queen, Ella month or something. In those days you went Fitzgerald. I think Ella was my complete favorite. directly. If you didn’t have a job every week, everybody 2 V O LU M E LXV BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999 dies. Well, I guess I took a month or so off and then I we heard on record the first time you did it? heard that Harry James was auditioning singers, and at that time Harry had Dick Haymes with him. He wanted HF: Well, the thing I loved about Harry.... he didn’t a “jump” singer, he didn’t want a ballad singer. When just get the song and then walk into the record­ I went to audition for him, he said, “I know your work, ing studio and do it. We would play it on the bandstand Helen, and it’s not because you’re not a great singer for at least a month, maybe two months and then we and I really think you are great, but I really want a jazz would record it. singer.” He said, “Dick Haymes is doing all the ballads and I need a jazz singer.” I said, “O K. Just let me BBJ: You were with the James’ band in the picture audition.” SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES. He had strings then, so I said, “I’ll make a deal with HF: Right, with Betty Grable. That’s where they you. If the boys in the band vote me in, do I have the met. job?” He knew he was dead because I knew every boy, every musician in the whole group I’d already worked BBJ: You did some other pictures, too. with them. He had a brand new arrangement of BUT NOT FOR ME and I sang it. He cued me in and it was HF: Yes. We did TWO GIRLS AND A SAILOR. a gorgeous thing. Of course, the band applauded. They I did I CRIED FOR YOU in that. all stood up and he said, “Well, it looks like you’re in.” He didn’t really fight too hard. BBJ: Did you make a lot of money in those days, working with the bands? Martha Tilton said, It BBJ: Do you get the most requests for I DON’T was mostly for kicks because we didn’t make that much. WANT TO WALK WITHOUT YOU? HF: Actually, I disagree. When you say “make a lot HF: That one, I get requests for that one and I HAD of money.” In those days, yes. THE CRAZIEST DREAM. They’re not too familiar with BUT NOT FOR ME.