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About Guys Who Beat the Band
By ED SULLIVAN
Little Old New York
NEW YORK MIRROR or
NEW YORK NEWS (no date)
This is the story of
a choir singer who clicked on New York's Big Apple, the Main Stem. By way of
Akron, O., where he was born, and Jeanette, Pa., 40 miles this side of
Pittsburgh, where he lived most of his life, big Vaughn Monroe is
illustrating, to Strand Theatre audiences on Broadway, just why his 22-piece
band has climbed to one of the top band spots of the nation.
...At the Strand, 6
feet 1 Vaughn has organized a stage presentation that shows big league
construction and big league entertainment results... It was at the
Jeanette, Pa., Methodist Episcopal Church that Monroe sang in the choir, and
got voice lessons from choirmaster Jay Hunter Smith, now a Chicago business
exec...Gov. Thomas E. Dewy, reading this, may think back to his own days as
a choir singer in Owosso, Mich.
Monroe spent two
years at Carnegie Tech before the depression forced him to go to work
to earn some dough for the family. He played trumpet in a series of bands,
but it was not until 1937 that Jack Marshard persuaded the 185-pounder to
front his own small band at Cape Cod... From then on, Monroe played at Cape
Cod in the Summers and played for Benny Gaines in Miami Beach. Two other of
Gaines' acts have done O.K., too, Billy De Wolfe and Carol Bruce!
Intelligent, show-wise and not at all hammy, Monroe has kept surging ahead
while famous bands have faded from the picture..."I knew that we were
clicking, " he tells you, "when mimics started kidding my voice, I'll know
that I'm on the way out when they stop doing their imitations."
Article submitted by Jerry Furris.
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