Sivad !!!

[bloke]

[arpthark]

Sivad in full Dracula garb with the Memphis accent is great.

When can we tune in to the Regrebsnamlles show?

[bloke]

Sivad in full Dracula garb with the Memphis accent is great.

When can we tune in to the Regrebsnamlles show?

It's more of a central Arkansas accent (he and his people were from central Arkansas - yet distorted with fangs, and he moved back there after retirement) than a Memphis accent (NOT denying that there is a "Memphis accent").

Watson Davis' brother was John ("Johnny") Davis. Johnny was a really fine jazz trumpet player who could play dixieland, straight-ahead jazz, big-band lead, and specialized in (although it wasn't marketable for all that long) bebop.

I played quite a few gigs with Johnny. At one gig, a trombone player was the bandleader, they called up the first tune, Johnny did not like that tune, Johnny immediately interrupted, stating, "That tune SUCKS. We're going to play FOUR in E-flat. 1..2...1, 2, 3 ta-da-dot...etc."

All the local musicians (including Johnny) used to tell me that he was Fred Smith's (FedEx founder) father-in-law, but I've never seen any evidence that is true.

"Four" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z23C9w0mUXw
...not patronizing...but quite a few people here are young, are not bassists, and have never played any bebop.


more:
Here is the weekly opening to the local/Sivad-hosted "Fantastic Features" (Memphis ABC affiliate...the "budget" channel, at that time)
The music is stolen from Leigh Stevens' score from the 1950 sci-fi film "Destination Moon".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QgwgDvq3t4

[tofu]

It’s a shame all that great locally produced tv is just a thing of the past. Our local version of Sivad was/is Svengoolie and it’s been around a long time. Sadly pretty much the last of all the great local and locally produced tv shows for kids. Chicagoland had scores of local tv just aimed at kids and 5 days a week. Before school - at lunch time (everybody walked home for lunch back in the day) and after school from 4 pm - 6 pm and on the weekends.

And those shows employed a huge number of actors, comics, magic acts, jugglers, circus performers and scores of musicians. The stuff that was on WGN (and all the local network stations also had several shows) - but WGN was an early local superstation - which gave many of it’s shows a bigger reach to other parts of the nation such as Bozo’s Circus. Bozo started out with a full stage band and stayed that way for decades until the 1990’s when it started shrinking and by the end was like a 3 guy combo. These guys were all local studio musicians - so a five day - year round 12 pm - 1 pm gig - was a nice steady piece of change - you did have to wear a marching band uniform straight from the Music Man . I played in a group with one of the original trombone players maybe 20 years ago. All those shows and jobs gone. And there is no great local tv shows for kids.

The stuff was also really entertaining. Saturday mornings were all cartoons and then on Sunday there was Frazier Thomas and family classics at 6pm. During the week Frazier hosted Garfield Goose for 2 hours - a crazy puppet goose who lived in puppet stage castle and his various co-horts. The puppeteers were very good and pretty famous. The banter between Garfield and Frazier Thomas (the straightman) was very funny and very convincing - you kind of believed Garfield was real. It’s a shame all those jobs in the arts aren’t still around and it’s too bad that kind of engaging more cerebral stuff isn’t available to kids now.

[MiBrassFS]

We had “Sir Graves Ghastly.” Days gone by…

[bloke]

@tofu Svengoolie has gone national...He's a major part figure on a set of TV channels (network?) called METV.

He has an old guy (Doug Scharf) and his daughter (Natalie Scharf) who (respectively) play jazz piano and tenor sax on the show (often, now always). He uses them to accompany him when he makes up dumb lyrics to familiar songs to summarize the plots of the B-C grade horror movies he shows (during "intermission").