Ramblin' with Roger

The #1 hits of 1934

When Your Heart’s On Fire

Bing Crosby The #1 hits of 1934 were far less robust than five years earlier. But it wasn’t all bleak.

Per A Century of Pop Music by Joel Whitburn, the record market was boosted in “September 1934 with the American debut of the European company Decca Records, which startled the industry with an energetic promotional campaign built around its stable of top stars (led by Bing Crosby) and its affordable 35-cent record prices.”

You’ll note that 73 weeks are designated, a function of competing record charts. About half of these songs could be considered as part of the Great American Songbook.

June and January– Bing Crosby with Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (Decca), seven weeks at #1. From the Paramount picture Here Is My Heart

Love In Bloom – Bing Crosby with Irving Aaronson and his Commanders (Brunswick), six weeks at #1. From She Loves Me Not.

(When Your Heart’s On Fire) Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – Paul Whiteman with Bob Lawrence (Victor), six weeks at #1, from the musical Roberta.

The Very Thought Of You – Ray Noble with Al Bowlly (Victor), five weeks at #1

I’ll String Along With You – Ted Fio Rito with Muzzy Marcellino (Brunswick), five weeks at #1, from Twenty Million Sweethearts.

Murder at the Vanities

Cocktails for Two – Duke Ellington (Victor), five weeks at #1. Instrumental. From the Paramount film Murder at the Vanities.

Little Dutch Mill – Bing Crosby (Brunswick), five weeks at #1

Let’s Fall In Love – Eddie Duchin with Lew Sherwood (Victor), five weeks at #1. From the Columbia film Let’s Fall In Love.

I Saw Stars– Freddy Martin with Elmer Feldkamp (Brunswick), four weeks at #1

One Night Of Love – Grace Moore (Brunswick), four weeks at #1. From One Night In Love.

Stars Fell On Alabama – Guy Lombardo with Carmen Lombardo (Decca), four weeks at #1

The Old Spinning Wheel – Ray Noble with Al Bowlly (Victor), three weeks at #1

Stay As Sweet As You Are – Jimmie Grier with Harry Foster (Brunswick), three weeks at #1

The Object Of My Affection – Jimmie Grier with Pinky Tomlin (Brunswick), two weeks at #1

Carioca – Enric Madriguera (Columbia), two weeks at #1. Instrumental. From the RKP picture Flying Down To Rio.

The Continental (You Kiss While You’re Dancing) – Leo Reisman (Brunswick), two weeks at #1. From the film Gay Divorcee.

My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii – Ted Fio Rito with Muzzy Marcellino (Brunswick), one week at #1

Wagon Wheels – Paul Whiteman with Bob Lawrence (Victor), one week at #1. From the Broadway revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1934.

Moonglow – Benny Goodman (Columbia), one week at #1. Instrumental.

Solar eclipse 2024

Not waiting until 2044

There was a solar eclipse in 2017. I did not see it, as its path was too far away. It crossed the United States from near Portland, OR, to Kansas City, MO, to Charleston, SC. Nashville, TN, was probably the nearest place to me.

By comparison, the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, is just better. Per NASA: “Totality will last longer than it did in 2017. Seven years ago, the longest period of totality was experienced near Carbondale, Illinois, at 2 minutes, 42 seconds.

“For the upcoming eclipse, totality will last up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds, in an area about 25 minutes northwest of Torreón, Mexico. As the eclipse enters Texas, totality will last about 4 minutes and 26 seconds at the center of the eclipse’s path. Durations longer than 4 minutes stretch as far north as Economy, Indiana. Even as the eclipse exits the U.S. and enters Canada, the eclipse will last up to 3 minutes, 21 seconds.”

And closer. “Totality will be visible through… Upstate New York (including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown, the Adirondacks, Potsdam, and Plattsburgh)…” And there won’t be another one in the US until 2044, when I’ll be 91. I should try to experience this one.

Almost good enough

Albany, NY, will be at 96.6% of totality at 3:26 p.m., which is pretty darn good, and there are places to watch. Spectrum 1 News in the Capital District will be airing the eclipse starting at 2 pm.

But I wanted the full effect. The closest place with totality is Rome, NY, with 30 seconds. I thought to take the Amtrak out there, but the event is at 3;25 and the train leaves at 3:35, almost certainly loading too early.

I looked at trains farther west and also north, but they didn’t work out either. So I went with Plan B, which I’ll tell you about in due course. But it won’t be in Niagara Falls.

“Canada’s Niagara region has proactively declared a state of emergency ahead of a rare total solar eclipse on April 8 that is expected to gather massive crowds to areas in and around the region’s popular waterfalls.”

I had gotten the proper eyewear on March 2. They arrived during my hearts party, and I put the box aside. Three weeks later, I couldn’t find it, so I ordered more and accidentally had them sent to my sister in North Carolina, who has no use for them. Finally, I’m set for this.

Almanac.com notes this:

As we pass into Erie, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, NY, the chance of cloudiness settles around the mid-60s.
The further away from the Great Lakes, the better the chance of clear skies; Rochester, NY, has a 60% chance of clouds. But in Watertown and Plattsburg, the chance of cloudiness rises to 70%.

A new MLK biography, King: A Life

a committed radical

I am doing a new thing. Having credits on Audible, I’m listening to the new book, King: A Life, about the late Martin Luther King, Jr. I haven’t gotten very far in it as it runs nearly 24 hours, or over 550 pages, excluding copious notes.

Still, I’ve learned that his grandfather, James Albert King, married Delia, and both were Georgia sharecroppers. James became an alcoholic, in no small part due to the stresses of Jim Crow.

James’ son Michael managed to get a high school education and attended Morehouse College to study for the ministry. He also began to woo the daughter of a minister at an Atlanta church. And not just any church. Adam Daniel Williams had been the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church since 1894.

Adam and Jennie’s daughter Alberta began dating Michael in 1920 and married on November 25, 1926. The author suggested that Michael’s courting of Alberta was as much a function of ambition as love.

Shortly after marrying Alberta, Michael became assistant pastor of the Ebenezer church. Senior pastor Williams died in the spring of 1931 and that fall, Michael took the role.

By this time, Michael and Alberta had three children: Christine (m. Farris, 1927-2023), Michael Jr. (1929-1968), and Alfred Daniel “A. D.” (1930-1969).

Name change

This description from the Smithsonian dovetails with the book: “In 1934, [MLK Jr.’] father embarked on a religious journey around the world. The senior King traveled to Rome, Tunisia, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem before arriving in Berlin to attend the Baptist World Alliance meeting. The trip to Germany, which occurred only one year after Adolf Hitler became chancellor, would profoundly affect him. As he toured, the senior King gained a great respect for German monk and theologian Martin Luther, whose 95 Theses challenged the Catholic Church and ultimately split Western Christianity.”

Michael Sr. changed his name to Martin Luther King in August 1934, and his elder son was soon renamed.

Publisher’s description

This description of the book was on the MacMillan Publishers website:

“Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.

“He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

“In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.”

And still, we rise.

Eig spent about a quarter of the book about MLK before the Montgomery Bus Boycott years. I suspect that grounding will give the reader a complete understanding of the man as more than an icon.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recently wrote in the preview of his Substack page:

“Life is an endless series of making decisions, some easy and some difficult. But each of them causes some level of anxiety… That is why people turn to heroes and saviors to make their decisions for them. If we choose to follow someone else’s teachings, we abdicate responsibility for the outcome of following those teachings…

“I have had many heroes in my life, [including] Dr. King. However, the difference between heroes and the cult of personality is that I accept the flaws in my heroes. What made them heroes is that they were just ordinary people who were willing to risk personal comfort to make the world a better place. They didn’t have to be saints. They didn’t always have to be right.”

I thought this was a cogent analysis as I worked my way through the book. I’m looking forward to reading King: A Life in memory of the 66th anniversary of his assassination. Meanwhile, I’ll read a little Maya.

Movie review: Cabrini

Angel Studios

My wife took a too-rare weekday off, and we decided to go to the cinema. A good friend of hers had recommended the movie Cabrini, so we went to the Regal Cinema at Northway Mall.

Sister Francesca Cabrini (Cristiana Dell’Anna) from Italy wanted to set up an orphanage in China. After she rangled with the local cardinal, Pope Leo XIII (Giancarlo Giannini) acceded to her desire to expand her mission. But instead of her going east, he said she and her fellow nuns should go west to the United States.

Specifically, she and five other nuns headed to New York City in 1889, to the Five Points section of lower Manhattan, which “gained international notoriety as a densely populated, disease-ridden, crime-infested slum.” It was a ghetto of Italian orphans and the adults who would exploit them.

Yet, Cabrini, who was often quite ill, and her colleagues managed to win over the kids, even the wounded Vittoria (Romana Maggiora Vergano.)

But there were headwinds. The local archbishop Corrigan (David Morse) was cautious, not wanting to undo the church’s balance with the powerful and unsympathetic Mayor Gould (John Lithgow).

What Cabrini ultimately managed to accomplish was comparable with Carnegie or Rockefeller.

Critics

In general, I agree with all the critics, who were 91% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s solid, sincere, believable, and highlights a powerful and impressive woman. Cristiana Dell’Anna was very good. Steven D. Greydanus wrote: “As single-minded as its protagonist, Cabrini drives home in every scene its themes of human dignity—particularly the dignity of women and marginalized groups including immigrants and the poor—and solidarity in the face of prejudice and social injustice.” It’s mostly true.

It’s also a bit staged and affected, often looking drab. The dialogue is too modern; at 142 minutes, the film is at least 15 minutes too long. But still, it’s a thumbs up.

Once again, I must mention how much I hate seeing films at the Regal. The ads started at 11:53 for a purported noon start, but between the legit previews and the straight-out ads, the movie didn’t begin until 12:20.

Angel Studios

Two of the coming attractions were interesting. Like Cabrini, they were developed by Angel Studios, the makers of Cabrini. The filmmakers seem to use a more robust version of crowdsourcing/membership.

One preview was for Sight (May), “starring Greg Kinnear and Terry Chen, [which] follows the true story of Dr. Ming Wang, a Chinese immigrant who defies all odds to become a world-renowned eye surgeon. Drawing upon the grit and determination he gained from a turbulent uprising in his youth, Dr. Wang sets out to restore the sight of a blind orphan.

Also, Possum Trot (July 4) is “the true story of Bishop and First Lady Donna Martin, and their tiny Bennett Chapel church, in the town of Possum Trot in the woods of East Texas. Twenty-two families linked arms and courageously adopted seventy-seven of the most difficult-to-place children in the local foster care system, igniting a national movement for vulnerable children that continues today.” One of the executive directors is Letitia Wright, one of the stars of The Black Panther movies.

More Angel

Future films include Homestead -“Amid chaos, ex-Green Beret joins prepper compound; love grows, truths arise, and a community unites;” Bonhoeffer – “When a pacifist is called to a political act that could change the course of history, how will a man of honor respond?” and David – This animated musical is based on the biblical story of a giant slayer that inspired a nation.”

A previous movie, Sound of Freedom, is “based on the gripping true story of a man’s mission to rescue children from the world’s darkest corners. This action-packed drama shines a light on the harrowing reality of sex trafficking and the valiant efforts of those who work tirelessly to combat it.” The critics were lukewarm (57% positive), but the audience was 99% favorable. It played at Regal in August of 2023, but I did not see it.

Watching people work

Fargo?

Here’s another day in the life post: Tuesday, March 26. For some reason, many of these are on Tuesdays. Reflecting on it, I spent a lot of time watching people work. The ones I watched for the longest time were the half-dozen people taking down that tree across the street from my house, especially looking out my middle bay window. It was better than television.

The process involved a guy in the cherry picker trimming the branches of two trees and tethering the damaged section with rope so it would not fall too quickly. The guys below were putting the small branches in the wood chipper – wood chippers always remind me of the movie Fargo. The chips flew into the back of a truck like the one pictured. A guy was running a tractor-like vehicle that carried logs to the chipper. One fellow was carefully controlling passing traffic in both directions.

It fascinated me because I would have had no idea how to take down the tree without potentially damaging a house or car. And the tree is gone; there aren’t even signs of the roots. I love Men At Work.

Library

I helped facilitate the interview of author Ian Ross Singleton by educator Geri Walsh concerning his book The Two Differences, which is a lot about Detroit but especially Odessa, Ukraine.

They had invited the Ukraine Solidarity Capital District to table at the event. The group stands for the country’s “independence and territorial integrity.”

Kudos to reference librarian Susan, the new liaison with the FFAPL for Tuesday book reviews and author talks. Oddly, we went to library school simultaneously but only realized this a few months ago.

I saw the interim branch manager, Deanna, at the circulation desk. Librarians do it all.

Indian food

I agreed to order takeout from our nearby Indian restaurant. I usually order takeout to pick up around 5:30, and it’s relatively efficient. Because of my wife’s work schedule, I arranged for a slightly later slot. I called at 6 p.m. and was told it would take about 25 minutes.

When I arrived at the restaurant at 6:25, I was asked to sit at a table. People arriving after I got there were told the same thing. There was some confusion; the guy at the register was not a native speaker, I gathered, and it became incumbent for me to explain to them that we were all in the same situation.

However, an increasingly impatient couple was there before I was. He said repeatedly, “How long will this take?” with an increasing edge in his voice. She counted up: “It’s been 35 minutes!” “It’s been 40 minutes!”

When the next order came out, the guy at the register asked them, “Is this your order? Aloo gobi, chicken tikka masala, and lamb saag?” Er, no, that was mine, which made them more disgusted. I wondered, in retrospect, if they were walk-ins. I understood their frustration, but their attitude made me uncomfortable.

Still, the usual manager or owner might have diffused the situation with free mango lassis or another strategy.

And finally

Our daughter complained online that her parents hadn’t gotten her anything for her birthday. “I didn’t know what you wanted.” “I made a list online on Saturday!” That would have been useful to have known.

So, some mail-order workers will get some items to our daughter soon.