My Little Margie, another lost TV show rediscovered

Many of the TV shows and stars of the 1950s seem to have faded away. Time to turn the light back on and showcase one of them called "My Little Margie" starring Gale Storm. It started off as a summer replacement show for "I Love Lucy." It ran for two years on CBS, then moved to NBC.  Just like Lucy, Margie was rather scatterbrained and conniving but instead of Ricky, her foil was her father, played by former silent movie star Charles Farrell.

I saw this show in reruns back in the 1980s on CBN Cable, so the films do exist. Too bad some station doesn't pick them up and show them. Maybe Margie hasn't been forgotten. That is probably the wrong word to use. The tv programmers of today probably don't even know about the show!

If you are ready to re-discover or discover "My Little Margie" click here.

 Gale Storm was also a recording star and had some big hits. Click here or here to listen to them.

And of course the obligatory 1950s comic book:

The Amazing Story of Singer Jill Corey

Many talented people hone their craft for years hoping for fame and fortune. I imagine most never attain it. The rags to riches/nobody to star scenario is always fascinating and intriguing. An example is the Jill Corey story (that rhymes pretty nicely, doesn't it?)

Apparently she loved to sing but didn't have any connections to help her in the music biz. In the early 1950s she won a local Lions club competition and was a local success. She put together a tape recording to send to Columbia Records on the fat chance that somebody would listen to it.  Mitch Miller did and summoned her to New York. Within a few weeks she was on the cover of LIFE magazine!

 Jill soon had several hit records and appeared on TV with Ed Sullivan, Dave Garroway and Johnny Carson.

 I'm not sure if Hugh Hefner heard this song, but it could be an early Playboy reference.  Click here to listen to the 1950s version of sexy.

 Click here to listen to Jill sing one of her prettiest songs in my opinion. Here's a cool clip of YOUR HIT PARADE with Jill including an interview of Jill with Richard Dawson (I didn't know Richard did a talk show....)

It looks like Jill is still doing well and you will probably enjoy visiting her website here.

I wanna hear the Olympic Fanfare!

It's time for the Winter Olympics. I've been watching a bit but am not an avid sports fan.  Of course that got me a bit nostalgic for the Olympics of the past so here are a few pics you might enjoy... Wow look at the price of postage...

Watching NBC's coverage I have to say I miss the original Olympic Fanfare that ABC used for all of those years it had the TV rights. From what I understand John Williams wrote the music we hear now which included parts of the fanfare by Leo Arnaud, which we used to hear much more of. Here and here are a couple of links if you're pining for that song....

Tell Him No! Travis and Bob

It's already the middle of January so it's about time I post something for the new year. The problem with loving the things of the past so much is sometimes it seems like there is nothing new to discover! I've posted so many of my favorite things on this blog and don't want to repeat myself and bore all of my millions of readers....well maybe hundreds....well maybe all ten of you.........well maybe a hand full anyway.

All the more fun that I discovered a "one hit wonder" late 1950s duo called Travis and Bob. They hailed from Alabama and their hit "Tell Him No" sounds a bit like the Everly Brothers. I don't know much about them and from other internet sources there isn't much of a story to tell other than they hit it big with this one song and then faded.

Listen to the song on Youtube here and enjoy the Nostalgic Rambler's latest discovery. If he offers his ring, tell him NO!
It's another 1950s fun song.

Perry's back, but....Missing those old Christmas specials

Run to Amazon or your local mall store and pick up the Nostalgic Rambler gem find of the month, the dvd release of Perry Como's Christmas Show. It looks like its already on backorder at the official website, so maybe that's a good sign that they are selling?

 

This CBS classic from 1974 features Perry, The Carpenters, ice skating star Peggy Fleming and Rich Little (doing an impression of Jack Benny as a mall Santa Claus!). This release is done by mpi home video and is not your usual public domain blurry crapola we usually have to put with to see a good old show. We are even treated to a commentary by Richard Carpenter about Perry Como and his Christmas legacy. It features some COLOR excerpts from Perry's television shows (nice to see they are locked away someplace and not lost...now if we could only see ALL of them and not just a few snippets!). Anyhow, hope you buy this dvd so we can get more them. It's copyrighted by Perry's company Roncom, so maybe there is still a light in the office somewhere and we will see more of this in the future. One can only hope. 

 

It was good to see Perry as well as the Carpenters again.

 

It's been a while since we've had some really good CHRISTmas specials on television. In fact, it's been years.  Too bad some of the old "specials" aren't shown on TV anymore. Bing Crosby's CHRISTmas specials were always stellar. Bob Hope was one of my favorites. I guess some people still must recall those glory days of CHRISTmas programming. There is even a Bob Hope ornament out:

 

 

 

 For years Bob's show was on for Texaco and he did a lot of the commercials. Of course his wife Delores usually made a cameo appearance as he sang "Silver Bells" to her.

It's a few weeks off but since things usually get a bit hectic around here, I want to wish you a very merry CHRISTmas!

I'm a TV Producer?!: The Mark Raisch Show

 Anyone who knows me knows that if I had the money I would buy a radio station.  Now I will have even more lofty goals and become a TV producer. Recently we spent a wonderful evening at the Ocala Hilton to enjoy the music of Mark Raisch. The guy is very entertaining in the spirit of the great singers of the past such as Bobby Darin or Dean Martin. 

Why no one picks up a guy like this and fashions a musical variety TV series around him is beyond me. Since everything old is new again eventually, I am using this edition of my blog to create such a series in my mind. Hope you enjoy the vision and perhaps enjoy the fun I had thinking of this new TV series "The Mark Raisch Show".

"The Mark Raisch Show" premiering December 14th 2013 on CBS produced by: Nostalgic Rambler Productions/Jeff Borger
Guest stars: Susan Boyle, Michael Buble',  The original cast of The Waltons, Lucie Arnaz, The Punchy Players

Mark opens the show with a rousing rendition of Bobby Darin songs

Mark welcomes the audience and viewers to his show, tells a little about himself and the fact that he hopes to bring great music and entertainment back to American television. He then says his producer has re-created several iconic sets from previous singers which will be used on his new weekly show. The first set is the 1960s living room set used by Dean Martin on his TV show.

Dean in his living room

Mark shows the audience the re-created Dean set and his first guest Michael Buble' joins him to talk about Dean and sing a duet of Dean's songs.

Buble'

Punchy Players

Next they both talk about what it would have been like to work with Dean. Through the magic of the Punchy Players, a clever fantasy segment is created with old footage from Dean's show used to incorporate Mark and Michael into the picture. 

The show continues with Mark talking about the upcoming CBS "I Love Lucy" color Christmas special. Lucie Arnaz talks to Mark about the show, they watch an excerpt and they both sing a duet of Christmas favorites.

Lucy Christmas

Mark says the last part of the show is going to be a tradition old fashioned Christmas. The original cast of the Waltons joins him on a re-created set of the Walton's living room. They reminisce a bit about the beloved show and read the gospel story of Christmas from the Bible (What? The Bible being read on network tv in 2013? Hey, it's my fantasy so why not do it the way I want it!?)

The Waltons reunited

Susan Boyle sings a solo on O Holy Night, then the entire cast join Mark and Susan for a sing a long of Christmas favorites.

 

Mark thanks the audience as the credits roll. The show is rated #1 for the week and the series is off to a great start. Upcoming shows will include guests such as Carol Burnett, Kathie Lee Gifford, Harry Connick Jr, and from the UK Matthew Long who will join Mark on a re-created Perry Como set to sing some Como favorites.

Perry's set featured these big letters, a music stand, stool, and rose in a vase

I hope you enjoyed this look at the Mark Raisch Show. While we wait for CBS to give us the go ahead, you might want to visit Mark's website and order a cd or two.

Here is a pic of me (left) with Mark (far right) along with Gene Martin and the other Daystar Radio announcers at the Ocala Hilton that night.

Eden Ahbez, 1940s Nature Boy

One of my favorite songs is "Nature Boy" written by Eden Ahbez. You can listen to the Nat King Cole version by clicking here.

Ahbez was quite a character. In the 1940s he had what was the 1960s hippie look. He was cast into the limelight and even made LIFE magazine.

Here's a rare video featuring Ahbez followed by Nat singing with Pat Boone singing the famed composition. 

I don't need to try to provide any info on Ahbez. As I was researching this blog I found out that he inspires a whole blog alone!  Well worth an interesting visit, you can visit that here.

The main thing I hope you get out of this Nostalgic Rambler posting is that "the greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just be loved and be loved in return...."