Kay Kyser

At 80 years old, Kay Kyser has this physical status:

James Kern Kyser (June 18, 1905 – July 23, 1985), known as Kay Kyser, was an American bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.

Early years

James Kern Kyser was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Emily Royster (née Howell) and Paul Bynum Kyser. Journalist and newspaper editor Vermont C. Royster was his cousin. Kyser graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928. He was also senior class president and was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity.

Owing to his popularity and enthusiasm as a cheerleader, he was invited by Hal Kemp to take over as bandleader when Kemp ventured north to further his career. He began taking clarinet lessons but was better as an entertaining announcer than a musician. He adopted the initial of his middle name as part of his stage name, for its alliterative effect.

Personal life

Kyser converted to the Church of Christ, Scientist sometime between 1944 and 1946, despite the fact his mother had been the first female pharmacist in his home county. Nevertheless, he had become interested in Christian Science when conventional medicine did not relieve his problems with arthritis. It was this arthritis which is often cited as one of the reasons he retired from performing in 1950. In the 1970s, Kyser ran the film and television department of the Christian Science Church in Boston. In 1983, he became its president, a one-year position. He referred to it as "honorary", joking that he hadn't "been elected Pope or anything".

In 1962, several members of the Kay Kyser team (including Babbit, Kabibble, and Simms but not Kyser himself) reunited at Capitol Records to record an album of new versions of Kyser's greatest hits. Comedian Stan Freberg, one of Capitol's regular artists, did an impression of Kay's original song introductions.

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Career

Kyser had two sessions for Victor in the late 1920s (Camden, New Jersey, November 1928 and Chicago in early 1929). These were among Victor's V-40000 series dedicated to country music and regional dance bands. Following graduation, Kyser and his band, which featured Sully Mason on saxophone and arranger George Duning, toured Midwest restaurants and night clubs and then built a following.

They were a hit at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant, where Kyser appeared with an act that mixed a quiz with music that became "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge." In 1938, the act first appeared on the Mutual Broadcasting System and then transitioned to NBC Radio from 1939 to 1949. The show increased in the ratings and spawned a number of imitators. "You're wrong," Kyser spouts while others with a degree of Southern American English: "You're wrong, you're wrong."

and "C'mon, chillun!

Le's dance!"

Despite the fact that Kyser and his orchestra gained notoriety through the "Kollege of Musical Knowledge," they were still a well-known band in their own right. They had 11 number one hits, including some of the most popular songs of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Unlike most other major bands of the time, which concentrated on the bandleader, individual members of Kyser's band became stars in their own right and would often take center stage. Among the more popular members of the British Parliament were singer Harry Babbitt and cornetist Merwyn Bogue (a.k.a. Ish Kabibble, trombonist Bruce King, saxophonist Jack Martin (who appeared on the number one hit, "Strip Polka"), Ginny Simms (who had a successful acting and singing career after leaving Kyser's band), Sully Mason, Mike Douglas (years before he became a well-known TV talk show host) and Georgia Carroll.

When she first joined the company in 1943, Carroll, a blonde fashion model and actress whose most well-known role was Betsy Ross in Yankee Doodle Dandy, was dubbed "Gorgeous Georgia Carroll." She and Kyser married within a year.

Kyser was also known for performing song titles, a feature that Sammy Kaye and Blue Barron replicated. One of the band's lead singers (usually Babbitt) sang the title word, and then the first verse or two of the song was performed vocally before the lyrics were restored. Several of his songs inspired catch phrases, such as "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition."

With the novelty song, "Three Little Fishes," his group had a major success. It has sold more than one million copies and was given a gold disc by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

During the Swing Era, Kyser, Hal Kemp, and Tal Henry performed in or near New York City, possibly triggering a reunion of North Carolina musicians. Later, after retirement, Kyser and Henry got together to share music world memories.

Kyser's band appeared in several motion pictures, most as themselves, starting with the hit That's Right (1939), Playmates, and My Favorite Spy. Some of the films had a plot to support the band. The band's international tours of military camps were fictionalized around the World (1943).

In Carolina Blues (1944), Kyser must replace his lead singer (Carroll) who has departed to get married. He reluctantly recruits the daughter of a major defense plant owner, played by Ann Miller, who is trapped in a jam. Two of the band's most well-known appearances came in 1943, when they appeared in the wartime films Stage Door Canteen and Thousands Cheer. In Barrymore's last film Playmates (1941), Kyser appeared as a light comedian; he performed with (and was billed above) John Barrymore. Kyser is the dupe in a scam where Barrymore pretends to teach him how to act in Shakespearean dramas.

In another Porky Pig cartoon, Africa Squeaks (1940), Kyser appeared in a Porky Pig cartoon. He sang of himself in the cartoon, "Cake-Icer," at the behest of director Bob Clampton.

After the war, Kyser's band began to hit records, with two of which featured Jane Russell as the vocalist. Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore appear on this album, although Kyser's presence on the record label shows Axel Stordahl as conductor. Following the end of the war, Kyser had intended to leave, but sales and steady contracts kept him in show business for another half decade.

During this period, Kyser made a cameo appearance in a Batman comic book. Kyser was the first to introduce the'sonovox,' a singing electronic voice triggered by music. PAMS and JAM Creative Productions will produce the Sonovox, and PAM and JAM Creative Productions will produce jingles, according to WABC, WMEX, WXYZ, KONO, WKDA, and WHTZ, which will be used in heavy rotation.

"Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge," NBC-TV, aired on 1949 and 1950. In addition to Kyser, the TV show featured Ish Kabibble and vocalists Mike Douglas, Sue Bennett, and Liza Palmer, as well as Diane Sinclair and Ken Spaulding's dance company. During the first season, Ben Grauer was the announcer. Normally, the businessman, Kyser, reunited his band for this series but then disbanded it as soon as it ended. The "Kollege of Musical Knowledge" was revived by Tennessee Ernie Ford, prior to the unveiling of his own NBC program, The Ford Show, which ran from 1956 to 1961.

On CBS radio's Silver Theater's Silver Theater, Kyser and Ginny Simms costarred in "Niagara to Reno" (described as "an original comedy") on April 6, 1941.

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