Frank Beacham's Journal

Chubby Checker is 81 years old today

Chubby Checker is 81 years old today.

Born Ernest Evans, Checker is a singer-songwriter known for popularizing the Twist dance style with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit, "The Twist.”

In September, 2008, "The Twist" topped Billboard's list of the most popular singles to have appeared in the Hot 100 since its debut in 1958.

Ernest Evans was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina. He was raised in the projects of South Philadelphia, where he lived with his parents and two brothers. By eight, Evans formed a street-corner harmony group, and by the time he entered high school, learned to play the piano.

He would entertain his classmates by performing vocal impressions of popular entertainers of the day, such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Fats Domino. One of his classmates and friends at South Philadelphia High School was Fabiano Forte, who would become a popular performer of the late 1950s and early 1960s as Fabian.

After school Evans would entertain customers at his various jobs, including Fresh Farm Poultry on Ninth Street and at the Produce Market with songs and jokes. It was his boss at the Produce Market, Tony A., who gave Evans the nickname, "Chubby.”

The store owner of Fresh Farm Poultry, Henry Colt, was so impressed by Ernest's performances for the customers that he, along with his colleague and friend, Karl Mann, who worked as a songwriter for Cameo-Parkway Records, arranged for young Chubby to do a private recording for American Bandstand host, Dick Clark.

It was at this recording session that Evans got his stage name from Clark's wife, who asked Evans what his name was. "Well," he replied, "my friends call me 'Chubby’.” As he had just completed a Fats Domino impression, she smiled and said, "As in Checker?" That little play on words ('chubby' meaning 'fat', and 'checkers,' like 'dominoes,' being a game) got an instant laugh and stuck, and from then on, Evans would use the name, "Chubby Checker.”

Checker privately recorded a novelty single for Clark in which the singer portrayed a school teacher with an unruly classroom of musical performers. The premise allowed Checker to imitate such acts as Fats Domino, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Cozy Cole, Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon and Fabian as The Chipmunks, each singing, "Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Clark sent the song out as his Christmas greeting, and it received such good response that Cameo-Parkway signed Checker to a recording contract. Titled "The Class,” the single became Checker's first release, charting at #38 in the spring of 1959.

Checker introduced his version of "The Twist" at the age of 18 in July, 1960 in Wildwood, New Jersey at the Rainbow Club. "The Twist" went on to become the only single to top the Billboard Hot 100 twice, in two separate chart runs. (Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" had done so on Billboard's earlier chart.)

"The Twist" had previously peaked at #16 on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart, in the 1959 version recorded by its author, Hank Ballard, whose band The Midnighters first performed the dance on stage.

Checker's "Twist," however, was a nationwide smash, aided by his many appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, the Top 10 American Bandstand ranking of the song, and the teenagers on the show who enjoyed dancing the Twist.

In 2008, Chubby Checker's "The Twist" was named the biggest chart hit of all time by Billboard magazine.

Here, Checker talks about the twist

On September 14, 1927 — 95 years ago today — dancer Isadora Duncan was strangled in Nice, France, when the enormous silk scarf she was wearing got tangled in the rear hubcaps of her open car

Photo by Barbara Morgan

On September 14, 1927 — 95 years ago today — dancer Isadora Duncan was strangled in Nice, France, when the enormous silk scarf she was wearing got tangled in the rear hubcaps of her open car.

"Affectations," said Gertrude Stein when she heard the news of Duncan's death, "can be dangerous."

Duncan was born in 1877 in San Francisco and moved to Europe to become a dancer when she was in her early 20s. She had always loved to dance — in her teens, she worked as a dance teacher at her mother's music school.

However, Duncan was not a classically trained ballerina. On the contrary, she was a free-spirited bohemian whose dances were improvisational and emotional. They were choreographed, she said, "to rediscover the beautiful, rhythmical motions of the human body."

In contrast to the short tutus and stiff shoes that ballet dancers wore, Duncan typically danced barefoot, wrapped in flowing togas and scarves. Female audiences, in particular, adored her: In an era when classical ballet was falling out of favor with many sophisticated people (and when the scantily-clad dancers themselves were, more often than not, "sponsored" by wealthy male patrons), Duncan's performances celebrated independence and self-expression.

Duncan lived a self-consciously bohemian, eccentric life offstage as well. She was a feminist and a Darwinist, an advocate of free love and a Communist. For this, her American citizenship was revoked in the early 1920s.

Meanwhile, her life was a tragic one, especially when it came to automobiles. In 1913, her two small children drowned when the car they were riding in plunged over a bridge and into the Seine in Paris, and Duncan herself was seriously injured in car accidents in 1913 and 1924.

On the day she died at age 50, Duncan was a passenger in a brand-new convertible sports car that she was learning to drive.

As she leaned back in her seat to enjoy the sea breeze, her enormous red scarf "which she had worn since she took up communism," one newspaper reported. blew into the well of the rear wheel on the passenger side.

It wound around the axle, tightening around Duncan's neck and dragging her from the car and onto the cobblestone street. She died instantly.

Thanks History.com

Marge Champion, dancer, choreographer and actress, was born 103 years ago today

Marge Champion dances in the 1952 film, Everything I Have Is Yours

Marge Champion, dancer, choreographer and actress, was born 103 years ago today.

At a young age, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later she performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a TV show based on song and dance. She has also done creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialog and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley.

Champion was born Marjorie Celeste Belcher in 1919 in Los Angeles to Hollywood dance director, Ernest Belcher, and his wife, Gladys Lee Baskette. She had an older half sister, Lina Basquette, who was already acting in silent films at the age of twelve. She was the daughter of her mother's first husband, Frank Baskette, who committed suicide.

Marjorie began dancing at an early age as her sister had done. By the age of twelve, she became a ballet instructor at her father's studio. She was hired by Walt Disney Studios as a dance model for their animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Her movements were copied to enhance the realism of the animated Snow White figure.

Belcher later modeled for characters in other animated films, including the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940), Maid Marion in Robin Hood and the Dancing Hippo in Fantasia.

In 1947, she married another dancer, Gower Champion (1919–1980). They had two sons, Blake and actor, Gregg Champion. They divorced in 1973.

She married director Boris Sagal on January 1, 1977. He was killed on May 22, 1981, in an accident during the production of the miniseries, World War III. He was the father of actress Katey Sagal.

Together as a dance team, the Champions performed in MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s, including Show Boat (1951) and Everything I Have Is Yours (1952). MGM wanted the couple to remake Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, but only one, Lovely to Look At (1952), a remake of Roberta (1935), was completed. The couple refused to remake any of the others, the rights to which were still owned by RKO.

During the summer of 1957, the Champions had their own TV series, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, a situation comedy with song and dance numbers. Marge played a dancer and Gower a choreographer. Real-life drummer Buddy Rich was featured as a fictional drummer named Cozy.

Champion has also worked as a dance instructor and choreographer in New York City.

In 1982, she made a rare television acting appearance on the dramatic TV series, Fame, playing a ballet teacher with a racial bias against African-American students. In 2001, she appeared as Emily Whitman in a Broadway revival of Follies.

Champion died on October 21, 2020, at her son's home in Los Angeles. She was 101.

Here, Marge and Gower Champion perform “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” from the 1952 film, Lovely to Look At

Donald O’Connor was born 97 years ago today

Donald O’Connor was born 97 years ago today.

A dancer, singer and actor, O’Connor played Gene Kelly's friend and colleague, Cosmo Brown, in 1952’s Singin' in the Rain. He was also in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan and Francis the Talking Mule.

Though he considered Danville, Illinois to be his home town, O’Connor was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago. His parents, Effie Irene and John Edward "Chuck" O'Connor, were vaudeville entertainers.

O'Connor began performing in movies in 1937. He appeared opposite Bing Crosby in Sing You Sinners at age 12. Paramount Pictures used him in both A and B films, including Tom Sawyer, Detective and Beau Geste. In 1940, when he had outgrown child roles, he returned to vaudeville.

In 1941, O’Connor signed with Universal Pictures, where he began by appearing in seven B-picture musicals in a row, starting with What's Cookin'? (1942) and ending with Mister Big (1943). Peggy Ryan and Gloria Jean were in four each. Before Mister Big (1943) was released, O’Connor’s popularity soared.

Universal added $50,000 in musical numbers to Mister Big (1943) and promoted this B movie to an A. His subsequent films were all A’s. In 1949, he played the lead role in Francis, the story of a soldier befriended by a talking mule. The film was a huge success. As a consequence, his musical career was constantly interrupted by production of one Francis film per year until 1955.

It was because of the Francis series that O'Connor missed playing Bing Crosby's partner in White Christmas. O'Connor was unavailable because he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule, and was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye.

O'Connor's role as Cosmo the piano player in Singin' in the Rain earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical. The film featured his memorable rendition of Make 'Em Laugh. O'Connor said he smoked four packs of cigarettes a day during filming.

A regular host of NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour, O’Connor hosted a color television special on NBC in 1957, one of the earliest color programs to be preserved on a color kinescope. An excerpt of the telecast was included in NBC's 50th anniversary special in 1976.

In 1954, he starred in his own television series, The Donald O'Connor Show, on NBC. In 1968, O'Connor hosted a syndicated talk show also called The Donald O'Connor Show.

O'Connor had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1990, and he nearly died from double pneumonia in January, 1998. He died from complications of heart failure on September 27, 2003 at age 78 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California.

Here, O’Connor performs with Noreen Cocoran in “I Love Melvin” in 1953

The origins of the "Swing"

The sound of swing, which utterly dominated the American popular-music scene in the late 1930s and early 1940s, instantly evokes images of tuxedo-clad Big Bands and dance floors crowded with exuberant jitterbugs.

While the roots of swing music clearly lie in earlier forms of jazz — and particularly in African-American jazz performance styles — swing as we know it may just have been born at a specific time and in a specific place, with an electric performance by one particular big band for one particularly enthusiastic audience.

The time and place was August 21, 1935 — 87 years ago today — at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, where Benny Goodman and his band emphatically opened the Swing era with an exuberant performance witnessed by thousands of young fans in the live audience and millions more tuning in to a live radio broadcast.

Benny Goodman had been a successful featured soloist in various prominent bands and the leader of his own trio and big band for several years before making his breakthrough at Palomar.

The ninth of 12 children in a large Jewish family in Chicago, Goodman had been sent by his father at the age of ten in 1919 to the local synagogue for clarinet lessons in the hopes that a music career might provide him a way out of poverty.

By his early teens, Goodman had proven his father correct by becoming a working professional, and by 24, he was successful enough to land his band a regular gig on a weekly radio program broadcast out of New York City called Let's Dance.

It was there that Goodman began performing "hot" arrangements by African-American bandleader Fletcher Henderson — arrangements that departed from the more romantic style of the day by employing loose, upbeat, syncopated rhythms that had been common in African-American jazz ensembles for years.

Goodman's band would often appear well past midnight, New York time, on Let's Dance.

And while this limited their exposure on the East Coast, Goodman would soon discover a huge new fan base when he took his group west to California.

Already familiar with Benny Goodman's exciting new style from his Friday night radio appearances, a huge crowd of young people turned out for his Palomar Ballroom debut on this day in 1935.

It was a promising start to an engagement Goodman hoped would salvage a summer tour otherwise judged a failure. But Goodman stuck to relatively staid, stock arrangements during the first part of that night's show, and he began to lose the young crowd.

Before their return from the first intermission, the band's drummer, Gene Krupa, is said to have urged Goodman, "If we're gonna die, Benny, let's die playing our own thing."

It was at that point that Benny Goodman famously pulled out Henderson's arrangements along with all the stops on his talented orchestra, to the crowd's immense delight.

Thanks History.com

The Palomar Ballroom, Los Angeles, where the swing dance craze took hold

On this day in 1960 — 62 years ago — Chubby Checker appeared on American Bandstand and performed “The Twist”

Conway Twitty, Chubby Checker and Dick Clark do the Twist

On this day in 1960 — 62 years ago — Chubby Checker appeared on American Bandstand and performed “The Twist.”

The song went to #1 on the U.S. chart and again 18 months later in 1962.

It is the only song to go to the top of the charts on two separate occasions.

American Bandstand began broadcasting nationally on this day in 1957 — 65 years ago

Television, rock and roll and teenagers.

In the late 1950s, when both television and rock and roll were brand new and when the biggest generation in American history was just about to enter its teens, it took a bit of originality to see the potential power in this now-obvious combination.

The man who saw that potential more clearly than any other was a 26-year-old native of upstate New Yorker named Dick Clark, who transformed himself and a local Philadelphia television program into two of the most culturally significant forces of the early rock-and-roll era.

His iconic show, American Bandstand, began broadcasting nationally on this day in 1957 — 65 years ago — beaming images of clean-cut, average teenagers dancing to the not-so-clean-cut Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" to 67 ABC affiliates across the nation.

The show that evolved into American Bandstand began on Philadephia's WFIL-TV in 1952, a few years before the popular ascension of rock and roll. Hosted by local radio personality, Bob Horn, the original Bandstand nevertheless established much of the basic format of its later incarnation.

In the first year after Dick Clark took over as host in the summer of 1956, Bandstand remained a popular local hit, but it took Clark's ambition to help it break out. When the ABC television network polled its affiliates in 1957 for suggestions to fill its 3:30 p.m. time slot, Clark pushed hard for Bandstand, which network executives picked up and scheduled for an August 5, 1957 premiere.

Renamed American Bandstand, the newly national program featured a number of new elements that became part of its trademark, including the high school gym-like bleachers and the famous segment in which teenage studio guests rated the newest records on a scale from 25 to 98 and offered such criticisms as, "It's got a good beat, and you can dance to it."

But the heart of American Bandstand always remained the sound of the day's most popular music combined with the sight of the show's unpolished teen "regulars" dancing and showing off the latest fashions in clothing and hairstyles.

American Bandstand aired five days a week in live national broadcast until 1963, when the show moved west to Los Angeles and began a 24-year run as a taped weekly program with Dick Clark as host.

Ginger Rogers was born 111 years ago today

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire

Ginger Rogers was born 111 years ago today.

An actress, dancer and singer who appeared in film, on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century, Rogers made a total of 73 films. She was best known as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre.

She achieved great success on her own in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940). She ranks #14 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of actress screen legends.

Here, Rogers and Fred Astaire dance in Swing Time, 1936

Audra McDonald is 52 years old today

Photo by Van Wezel

Audra McDonald is 52 years old today.

An actress and singer, McDonald has appeared on stage in both musicals and dramas. Her credits include Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, Porgy and Bess and as Billie Holiday on Broadway in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill.

McDonald maintains an active concert and recording career, performing song cycles and operas as well as performing in concert throughout the U.S. She has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win all four acting categories.

Born in West Berlin, Germany, McDonald is the daughter of American parents, Anna Kathryn, a university administrator, and Stanley McDonald, Jr., a high school principal. At the time of her birth, her father was stationed with the U.S. Army. McDonald was raised in Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters.

She began to study acting at a young age to counteract her diagnosis as "hyperactive.” McDonald graduated from the Roosevelt School of the Arts program within Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno. She got her start in acting with Dan Pessano and Good Company Players, beginning in their junior company.

McDonald was a three-time Tony Award winner by age 28 for her performances in Carousel, Master Class and Ragtime, placing her alongside Shirley Booth, Gwen Verdon and Zero Mostel by accomplishing this feat within five years.

McDonald has also made many television appearances, both musical and dramatic. In films, McDonald has appeared in Best Thief in the World (2004), It Runs in the Family (2003), Cradle Will Rock (1999), The Object of My Affection (1998) and Seven Servants by Daryush Shokof which was her film acting debut in (1996).

Here, McDonald discusses her role as Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill”

George M. Cohan was born 144 years ago today

George M. Cohan was born 144 years ago today.

An entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and producer, Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudeville act, "The Four Cohans."

Beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, Cohan wrote, composed, produced and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals. He published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards "Over There," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "The Yankee Doodle Boy" and "You're a Grand Old Flag,"

As a composer, he was one of the early members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He displayed remarkable theatrical longevity — appearing in films until the 1930s and continuing to perform as a headline artist until 1940.

Known in the decade before World War I as "the man who owned Broadway," he is considered the father of American musical comedy. His life and music were depicted in the Academy Award-winning film, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and the 1968 musical, George M!

A statue of Cohan in Times Square in New York City commemorates his contributions to American musical theatre.