We're all about the history of rock & roll at BoomtownAmerica.com!
Every week, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” a deep dive into the hidden history of rock & roll, the stories behind the artists and songs that changed the world. Join host, “Boomtown Bill” Cross each Wednesday at 7 pm (Eastern) with an encore broadcast on Saturday at noon (Eastern).
Join us this Saturday as we conclude the long, strange trip that was "The True Story of Fleetwod Mac - Part 2!"
The Origin of the Jitterbug
Like a great deal of American popular culture of the 20th Century, the jitterbug has its origins in black culture.
While the dance is quite frequently associated with the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, it actually got its start in the 1930’s. While the exact origins of the dance are lost to time, it’s believed to have evolved from the looser style of dancing that had begun in the Roaring 20’s.
The term “jitterbug” originally meant someone who had consumed too much alcohol. Gradually it came to mean someone who was a fan of swing music. Finally, it came to be associated with the style of dancing that was taking place at swing clubs.
The earliest reference to it in song is from a 1934 - Cab Calloway's tune, “Call of the Jitterbug.” Some also know that a song called “The Jitterbug” was written for the 1939 classic film Wizard of Oz. The song was recorded and shot, but was cut from the final film (although you still hear the Wicked Witch mention “a little bug she’s sent” ahead of the Flying Monkeys to take the fight out of Dorothy and her companions.) The footage has been lost to time, but a recording of the song still exists.
World War II help spread both American swing music and the jitterbug all over the globe.
It was still going strong when rock ‘n’ roll arrived on the scene in the mid-1950’s. It was easily adapted to the strong, fast beat of early rock hits and remained the teenager’s dance of choice until a little something called “The Twist” arrived on the scene in 1960.
But more about that later.
Those who subscribe to the “celebrity deaths happen in 3’s” can exhale. Following the sad news of the passing of Shelly Fabares and Dolly Parton, we can now add Tim Curry, who has passed away at the age of 80.
Curry is, of course, best known for originating the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter in both the stage and movie versions of The Rocky Horror Show. He was also well-known for playing the evil clown in Stephen King’s It and many other roles through a long, successful acting career. He was nominated for a Tony Award on three separate occasions, including his final role on Broadway, playing King Arthur in the Monty Python musical, Spamalot.
Curry was less well-known for his recording career, although he did release three albums.
We mourn the loss of all three of these gifted performers and hope that’s the last bad news we have to report for a while.
As we grow older, all of us experience some problems with memory. Don’t panic. It’s perfectly normal. We prefer to think that the data center we call our brains simply has so much more data to store than it did when we were in our twenties or thirties, that naturally, it takes a bit more time and effort to sort through all that stuff to find what we need.
One of the most common ways this manifests itself is when you get up to fetch some object or perform some task, arrive at what you know was your destination, but forget why you went there. Again, don’t panic. This happens to all of us. The cause is what memory experts call “the doorway effect.” In simple terms, when we walk into a new environment, our brains do something like a reboot, taking in all the new sights and sounds around us. That can cause us to temporarily forget what purpose we had in mind when we started out.
There are a couple of solutions to this problem, experts say. One is to keep repeating the task as you get up and move into a new room or location. The second is to return to the room or location you were in when you decided you needed to go someplace else. When you get there try to retrace as many of the thoughts and actions you had before you went on the move.
Most of all, try to relax. Stressing will only make it harder to remember.
It seems like a contradiction in terms: forgetting I Remember Mama, but only the heartiest of Baby Boomers are likely to remember this gentle sitcom from TV’s early days. Based on the book, Mama’s Bank Account, by Kathryn Forbes. It recounted her growing up in turn-of-the-century San Francisco as a first-generation American with Norwegian parents.
The first thing to note is that the TV series was not named “I Remember Mama.” Its official title was Mama. However, every episode began with a voiceover narration by the actress playing the eldest daughter Katrin Hansen. She always concluded the narration with the phrase, “…most of all, I remember Mama.” In addition, there was a Broadway play and feature film that preceded the TV series that WERE named I Remember Mama. So, most of us still called the show by the longer title.
Like the book, play, and movie, the show revolved around the day-to-day struggle of the family to both adapt to American culture and to make ends meet. Mama was played by veteran actress Peggy Wood. Papa was Judson Laird, Rosemary Rice was Katrin, and eldest son Nels was played by a young Dick Van Patten. (BTW - Rosemary Rice played Archie's girlfriend Betty - of "Betty & Veronica" fame - on the long-running Archie Andrews radio seies. Her resemblance to the comic book character is incredible considering a radio performer didn't need to look like her character!)
Mama’s first season was broadcast on CBS in 1949 and, like a lot of TV in those days, was broadcast live. For its first four seasons, the show consistently placed in the top 10 of the ratings. By the fifth season (1954-55), ratings had started to slip and by the end of its sixth season, CBS canceled the show. However, a mail campaign to save the show was launched. CBS received over 175,000 letters (quite a large sample in those days) and announced they would bring Mama back as a mid-season replacement in December 1956.
For the re-launch, they also decided to film the episodes rather than air them live. Unfortunately, by the time mid-season rolled around, there was no prime-time slot available on CBS. So, the network aired the show on Sunday afternoons at 5 pm. That was a disaster. The show generated almost no ratings and, although 26 episodes had been filmed, Mama was canceled by March 1957.
Those 26 filmed episodes were syndicated briefly in the late 50s and early 60s when there really weren’t that many reruns of prime-time series available, but with so few episodes and the fact they were all in black and white, Mama quickly vanished from TV land.
Today, a small handful of those later episodes can be found online or in DVD packages of early TV for those who still remember Mama.
