HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PINETOP PERKINS!

 Legendary blues pianist Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins was born this day in 1913.  He began his career as a guitarist, but injured the tendons in his left arm in the 1940s in a knife fight with a chorus girl, and switched to the piano.  In the 1950s he recorded "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie," a song written by Clarence "Pinetop" Smith in 1928; because of the popularity of Perkins' version, people began calling him Pinetop.  Perkins played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll artists of his time.  He had a cameo in the film The Blues Brothers, in which he had an argument with John Lee Hooker about who wroite the song "Boom Boom."  When he was 91. the car he was driving was hit by a train, wrecking the car but leaving the driver uninjured.  He died in his sleep of cardiac arrest at age 97 on March 21, 2011.  At the time of his death he had more than 20 performance booked for 2011.  Perkins and David "Honeyboy" Edwards were the last surviving Delta Blues musicians, and Perkins was one of the last surviving bluesmen to have known blues great Robert Johnson.  His favorite meal waas a McDonald's Big Mac and apple pie.

"Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSv09tegacU

"Chicken Shack"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WozBrZia4A

"4 O'Clock in the Morning"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzbNUe5qGbQ

"Pinetop's Blues"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgRS5fvG4w0

"High Heel Sneakers"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-CrACAWh2I

"Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZFcJltLjqY

"How Long Blues"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZFcJltLjqY

"Blues After Hours"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsQJhcA84zo

"Chains of Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SWOLScC7nI

"Everyday I Have the Blues"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ybCYORoYvo

"Caldonia"  (with Muddy Waters)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ixr4s4bdQQ

"So Many Days"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiZFu9cfGgY

"I Keep On Drinkin'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd7UMtvUees

HYMN TIME

 From 1929, Peck's Male Quartet,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK-2a_ga6zY

ELLERY QUEEN #2 (JULY 1949)

"Ellery Queen," as both an author and a fictional character made his literary debut in 1929 with The Roman Hat Mystery, which began a remarkable career that spanned novels, short stories, anthologies, critical works, radio, film, television, board games, jigsaw uzzles, a play, and a mystery magazine which is now in its 84th year of publication.

In comic books, Queen began as a character in 1940 in stories published in Crackerjack Funnies.  In 1949, four issues of a self-titled comic book were issued by Superior Comics, and, in 1952, Ziff-Davis released two issues of an Ellery Queen comic book.  Ten years later, Dell comics released three issues of their own title.  In 1990, Queen was utilized as a guest star in Mike Barr's Maze Agency comic, and in 1996, he was referenced in Gosho Aoyoma's Detective Conan series of managa books.

In Superior Comics' Ellery Queen #2, Ellery is on hand to solve four intriguing puzzles (actually, three, but who's counting?):

• "Terror Tide" - where death omes to Surfside Manor in a weird and uncanny manner
• "Calamity Clock" - a deadly triangle and a murder in a quaint shop filled with clocks...and in which Ellery wear a perfectly ugly yellow-plaid suit
• "The Case of the Vanishing Phantoms" - a tale taken from "police files" and narrated by Ellery; the ghost wasn't a ghost and the redheaad wasn't a redheaad, but the diamonds were still missing...
• "The Devil in the Vault" - it was routine to open the bank vault for the day, but then up popped the devil...note that the bank vice president in this tale is wearing a perfectly ugly blue-plaid suit which could be kin the the ugly one Ellery wore two tales earlier; I suspect he got it from Ellery's evil twin brother

Stories and art by I. B. Cole and Maxfield R. Pater.

There's also a two-page text story, "The Bell That Screamed," about a woman murdered in a pot of molten metal use to mold a bell in Africa's Obangi country, and what happened to her husband who likely pushed her.  The story is credited to Maxfield R. Pater.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96885&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK; TO THE BRIGHT AND SHINING SUN

To the Bright and Shining Sun by James Lee Burke  (1989)

An early book from the author -- his second , this standalone focuses on seventeen-year-old Perry Woodson Hatfield James, descended from both Frank James and Anse Hatfield (of Hatfield-McCoy Fued fame).  Perry comes from an impovrished coal mining family; his faather, woodson, has been unable to work for ten years due to an accident in the mines, and Perry himself has been working in the mines since he was fifteen.  Appalachian coal miners in the Sixties did not have it easy.  The mine owners held all the power, paid low wages, did not care about mine safety, bled their workers through rents on their homes and through the company store, and basically tossed the workers aside when they begame too ill or injured to work.  To be a coal miner ws to walk hand in hand with devastating poverty.

Now the miners have organized and are on strike.  The mine owners have hired scabs to do the work, and have employed thugs to terrorize the union men.  Tensions run high and violence often occurs on booth sides.  Perry's uncle, who has a criminal record, takes him along as he and two sadistic union psychopaths as they attempt to blow up a mine.  A company man is unintentially killed in the explosion.  although Perry had nothing to do with the death, just his being there puts him in legal jeopardy.  Perry, the main bread-winner of the family -- his father pulls in a pittance clearing the forest for the government, can find no work anywhere.  Perry's older borther is dead, and his many siblings are too young to work, and the youngest child has tuberculosis and needs medical care the family cannot afford.  Perry signs up for the Job Corps, and is sent out of state for traiining and education (like many from his area, Perry is illiterate).

Perry is stubborn, proud, and quick-tempered.  At first, he fights the unfamilar regimentation he faces.  Slowly, he turns himself around, beginnings gaining job skills and an education, and is soon promoted.  Any extra money Perry earns, he sends to his family.  Then, with just a couple of onths of training to go before he can get a decent-paying job as a machine operator in Cincinnati, his father is mrtally injured in a bombing at the union hall. and Perry leaves the Job Corps to look after his family.  The bombing was done by three company thugs brought in from the outside -- no one knows who they are or where to find them.  That does not stop Perry from vowing to find them and kill them.

To the Bright and Shining Sun is a novel of contrasts, utilizing Burke's poetic vision to great effect.  the beauty and natural wonder of Appalachia is set aginst the squalor and desperation of  a people impoverished by a capitalist system that cares nothing for them.  The damge the coal companies do to the countryside is mirrored by the damage they do to the populace, as Perry struggles to find some sort of redemption as he enters manhood.

It is not a comfortable book, but it is a remarkable one.  Burke is one of the greatest prose stylists we have today, with an uncanny knack for both setting and characterization.  To the Bright and Shining Sun is highly recommmended.

I may be my personal prejudices, but I find many thematic similarities between the Appalachia of the Sixties as described by Jsme Lee Burke and the nascent authoritaianism we are experiencing today.  Your mileage may differ.

The book's title, by the way, is from a line in the old bluegrass song "Mollie and Tenbrooks."

THE MAGIC KEY: DEAR OLD DARLIN' (DECEMBER 29, 1935)

The Magic Key aired on the NBC Blue Network in the mid- to late 1930s and was sponsord by RCA.  "It was a prestigious program that showcased the cultural breadth and potential of radio.  The show was designed to highlight a wide varioety of musical and dramatic performances, featuring some of the most famous performaers of the time across a range of genres."

This episode features an interview with George M. Cohan at Pittsbuurgh's Nixon Theater as he rehearses his new play Dear Old Darlin'.  Today would have been Cohan's 147th birthday, who, despite his claims, was not actually born on the fourth of July.  Happy Birthday, George!

Also included in the program are Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, noted soprano Helen Jepson performing two arias, and classical guitarist Andres Segovia performing two selections.

Enjoy.

https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/variety/magic-key-the/magic-key-the-35-12-29-013-dear-old-darling

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: DARBY O'GILL AND THE GOOD PEOPLE

 "Darby O'Gill and the Good People" by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh  (first published in McClure's Magazine, December 1901, as by Herminie Templeton; reprinted in The Idler, July, 1902; reprinted  the collection Darby O'Gill and the Good People, 1903 [and in 1915 as by Heminie Templeton Kavanagh), later published as Darby O'Gill, 2006, as Herminie Templeton Kavanagh, and as Darby O'Gill and the Little People, 2006, as Herminie T. Kavanagh; reprinted in Fairies, edited by Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg, 1991; reprinted in Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown. edited by Marvin Kaye, 1883; included in The Adventures od Darby O'Gill and Other Tales of Supernatural IrelandHeminie Kavanagh, 2009)

"Although only one living man of his own free will ever went among them there, still, any well-learned person can tell you that the abode of the Good People is in the hollow heart of the grrat mountain, Sleive-na-mon.  that same one man was Darby O'Gill, a cousin of my own mother."

For some "mysterioue rayson". the fairies "soured on Darby, and took the eldest of his three foine pigs."  They next week, thry took a second pipg, and the following week, the thiord, leaving Darby forcced to sell his cow Rosie to pay the rent.  Before he could sell Rosie, the fsiries made away with her, too.  So Darby, bold and desperate ion his anger, sought out the fairies in Sleive-na-mon, challenging them to meet his wrath.  In his attempt to retreive Rosie, Darby found himself in the heart of Sleive-na-mon, trapped by the Little People.  The fairies marched Darby before Brian Connors, King of the Fairies, blowing on his bagpipes.  He was surrounded by thousands of fairies, but also by a number ofpeople from his own parish -- including his late sister-in-law, dead  these past three years.  "three things in the worruld banish sorrow -- love, whiskey, and music."  Darby, the finest reel-dancer in all of Ireland, began to dance.  The Fairie king was impressed with Darby but he could not let him go go; Darby was to spend the rest of his life among the fairies, who would nevertheless provide for Darby's wife and children by giving them a good sovereign every day of their lives.  

Darby's stay with the Good People lasted six month's.  His late sister-in-law bemoaned the fact that he was away from his wife, Bridget.  But can Darby, the silver-tongued con man, be able to escape the hordes of Fairie?

The Darby O'Gill stories have entertained readers for a centruy and a quarter, but the charaacter is best known for being the subject of the 1959 Walt Disney film, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, directed by Robert Stevenson, wriiten by Lawrence Edward Watkin, and starring Albert Sharpe as Darby and Jimmy O'Dea as King Brian, and featuring Janet Munro and a pre-James Bond Sean Connery (his first leading role).  The movie is considered one of Disney's best films, with Leonard Maltin calling it one of the best fantasies ever put on films.  Disney himself spent three months studying Gaelic folklore at the Dublin Library and received input from seanchaithe (traditional Irish storytellers) as he developed the film.

"Darby O'Gill and the Good People" is available to read on the internet at many of the usual places.

OVERLOOKED MOVIE: TEEN-AGE CRIME WAVE (1955)

 Kids today!  What's the matter with them?  And why don't those whippersnappers get off my lawn?

In Teen-age Crime Wave, Jane is falsely convicted of beineg an accesory to a robbery and is ent to an industrial school with cellmate Terry.  Terry's boyfriend Mike springs them, killing deputy in the process.  They hideoput in a farmhouse while waiting for Mike's friend Al to come with money and a getaway car.  Terry becomes interested in Ben, the farmer's son, while Mike becomes more and more unhinged.  They kill a neighbor and have to flee the farmhouse.  SPOILER ALERT:. In the socke finish, Ben sudbues Mike, and Terry is shot and killed, but not before attesting to Jane's innocence.

Tommy Cook (b. 1930) played Mike.  Cook was a child actor known for playing Little Beaver in 1940's Adventures of Red Ryder and Kimbu the young jungle boy in 1941's Jungle Girl.  He won a photoplay Award for "Outstanding Performance" for his role as a juvenile delinquent in The Vicious Years (1950).  Typecast in exotic roles, his career dwindles as he moved from child actor to adult actor, and his shiort staure did not help in the transition.  He was a stsndout junior tennis player and eventually became well-known as an organizer of celebrity gala charity events. In the 1950's he wrote a script for himself about cops who go undercover; the script eventully became the basis of the television show The Mod Squad.

Terry was played by Molly McCart (b. 1929), whose brief career lasted from 1955 to 1958.  Teen-age Crimw Wave was her first film.  She appeared in two others:  A Kiss Before Dying and Dino.  she also appeared in episodes of five television shows.

Jane was played by Sue England (1928-2018), whose career began in 1945 and lasted until 1974.  among her films were The Underworld Story, The Hidden City, The Women of Pitcairn Island, and Funny Face.  She worked extensively in episodic television from the 1950s on.  Her second husband, Larry Stewart, was the nameless Video Ranger in Captain Video, Master of the Stratospher (1951); he later became the head of the group that would become The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The role of Ben was played by Frank Griffin (1929-2024), who switched careers in 1969 to become an in-demand make-up artist.

Teen-age Crime Wave was directed by Fred F. Sears (Don't Knock the Rock, Utah Blaine, The Giant Claw).  It was scripted by Ray Buffam (The Brain from Planet Arous, Teenage Monster, of Lost Women) and Harry Essex (It Came from Outer Space, I, the Jury, Creature from the Black Lagoon).

They just don't make movies like this any more.  Perhaps that's a good thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut8vQnjSPwc