Klarinet Archive - Posting 000141.txt from 2008/10

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] The Boy Friend (musical)
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:26:52 -0400

On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:40:39 -0700, "Dan Leeson"
<dnleeson@-----.net> wrote:
> I remember seeing the show, though I never played it. The music as best as
> I can recall it, is a lot ricky-ticky stuff, not very far displaced from
> Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm.
>
> I am pleased to have brought my substantial and magnificent musicological
> talents so as to shed light on Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm, the band
> responsible for the cymbal smash (not crash -- that's something else).

Well, your musicological contribution inspired me to look into this
band, with whose name I was not familiar. In doing so, I have now
learned that Sid Caesar was their saxophonist for a time, that Bob Hope
was the announcer for their radio show ("The Rippling Rhythm Revue"),
and that Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm was the band that premiered
"Thanks for the Memory," now and forever associated with Bob Hope. I'm
confident this information will win me many bar bets in the future --
probably more than I will win from knowing why "Gran Partitta" is
misspelled.

Wikipedia even brings us this tidbit from the Washington Post:

"Los Angeles <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles>, January 16,
1939 (United Press <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Press>) Mrs.
Myra Wallace, wife of a music publisher, learned tonight the $10,000
banknote which she tossed to Shep Fields, orchestra leader, for
playing one her favorite numbers might be legal -- not stage money
as she had thought."

--
Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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