E-MAIL MEMORIES, PAGE 10
DEBRA NAQUIN:
Shrimp Boats is a comin! Jo stafford 1951, a hit song about Louisiana, and
the bayou country. There is a reference to "Luzanna Moon shows on high,
as they wait for the day they can cry--Shrimp Boats is a Comin, there sails
are in sight,etc."
Jo stafford, her late husband Paul Weston, and friend Frankie Laine
loved new Orleans. In fact she recorded many songs about N.O. as did Frankie
Laine. Frankie has a great recording of a song called" New Orleans."
My dad has it on a 1962 Curtis Mathis record! It's a stereo demo from another
New Orleans memory, Labiche's, an old appliance store that featured Curtis
Mathis tv's and Webcor hi-fi's!!!. My parents still have the Webcor console
stereo purchased there. The only 45 we owned at the time, to try out on
the then new stereo was "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White,"
by Perez Prado. Check out an album recorded by Paul Weston called "The
Crescent City Suite," an instrumental album about New Orleans recorded
in 1957. The cover features a great color shot of New Orleans, at the time,
with the then new Mississippi River Bridge, under construction, which opened
in 1958! Zatarains used to use this music in their tv commercials.
How about the theme from Schwegmann's!!! It was really the "Poor
People of Paris" by Les Baxter, a number 1 hit from 1956!!!! Other
TV and radio jingles come to mind are "Buy your Chevrolet from Persia,
Mike Persia Chevrolet!"... and how about "Jacobson Young, where
the lights are strung!" Or Trader Joe Parretti!
I can remember during the summer listening to WTIX all day long, and
since we had a place in Waveland, we would always go to the Friendship House
in Gulfport. I used to here the jingle all the time on TIX! Well here goes
nothing---"Heave Ho the anchor now, and call out the captain and the
crew (ding ding) we're off to eat at the Friendship House, where the flounder
is so fresh, and the shrimp are too. (boat horn) and the steaks are great
and the chicken is the same, and the lobster and the crabs, have their very
own name. We're off to eat at the Friendship House, Friendship (pirates
whistle!) is their middle name!!!(ding ding!)"
BOB:
I loved that Friendship House commercial on TIX, and you remembered it perfectly.
When you heard it you knew it was springtime, since it always started running
on WTIX right after Easter. The Brennan family owned the Friendship House
and it would be nice if they opened it again on the coast. Remember Dixie
Beer commercials, which promised you "a bright, cheerful tomorrow?"
It seemed to imply that you wouldn't wake up with a hangover after drinking
Dixie Beer. Debra, you'd win a N.O. commercial trivia contest easily. First
prize would be a Webcor hi-fi. Oops, sorry, it doesn't come with a spindle
for the 45's. Have a bright, cheerful tomorrow!
WAYNE IN LAPLACE:
Hi Bob, Just discovered your site and enjoyed it very much.....I moved to
New Orleans in 1957 having just graduated high school in Meridian, Ms. I
lived in a rundown room over the "Monkey Bar" on Canal Street
and spent all my money at the Safari Room, Rockery Drive Inn, The Celebrity
Lounge (where Dave Barthomew played often), The President steamship, Mandino's,
Martin Brothers, Pontchartrain Beach. Of course I listened to WTIX, WNOE.
Later on in the early 60's I remember the Sunday jam sessions at Kass' Lounge
and Joy Lounge in Gretna. BTW the Joy Lounge in Gretna was converted from
the Joy bowling lanes and the dance floor was all of the lanes moved together,
a great dance floor. Again I enjoyed your site very much.
BOB:
That was money well spent. Look at the memories you wouldn't have if you
didn't hang out back then. I bet the Monkey Bar was a story in itself. "We're
not in Meridian anymore, Toto!"
ROBERT CAIRE:
Bob, I came across this other site not too long ago with pics of downtown
when the streetcars and "electric trolleys" (one was the Jackson
Avenue route) were around. Hope you enjoy looking at the pics like I did.
New Orleans Public Service: See
The Streetcars
BOB:
Thanks for the lead. I grew up on Maple Street in Carrollton with the St.
Charles streetcar line a half block from my door. The sounds of those trolleys
passing by on a hot summer night with our windows wide open still make me
smile.
ANN IN PLANO, TEXAS:
Hi Bob! I was probably the Biggest fan of C.C. Courtney and Lou Kirby. They
did the absolute best white boy show after midnight. Last I heard about
20 years ago C.C. Courtney was into computer programming, was married and
had two boys. I know about the award winning play "Salvation,"
(and by the way , my last name is Farley, which might mean something if
you know abvout the play) and I saw him in "Schizopolis" wihich
has the same director as "Traffic." Is there any way to get a
copy of some the airplay from WNOE when Courtney was on? Any idea if he
comes around on Mardi Gras? I understand that there is a station in N.O.
which plays nostalgia ' 60's from TIX and NOE AM? But do you know where
he can be sent e-mail, most of all. I am very very happily married but I
would love to let him know that I still wonder what he's doing these days.
If you should hear from him tell him some chick in Texas said, "I'll
let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." It was his way of saying
hi to me on the air.
BOB:
Hi Ann! I lost track of "the Duke of the Dial in Dixie" C.C. Courtney
over 20 years ago after his ill-fated return to WNOE with Buzz Bennett in
1978. John Fred told me once that C.C. was now a farmer somewhere up around
Virginia but I don't know for sure what he's up to. Maybe he'll see this
and let us both know what he's up to these days. Were you one of the C.C.
& Lou faithful who stood outside the WNOE building at 529 Bienville
Street at night when those two cut-ups were on the air and threw pebbles
at their studio window to get their attention? Hate to burst your bubble
but Charles Cane Courtney probably shared dream appearances with more gals
than you'd care to know of. :-) Update on C. C. at http:radio_courtney.html
I have no tapes of C.C. and Lou but I'm planning a N.O. radio audio
museum section on my site where you will be able to click on to WTIX jingles
and airchecks of old N.O. dj's and hear clips of their shows. If I get some
tape on them it will certainly be included.
MARGARET IN FLORIDA:
Great memories at your site. Just wanted to let you know that some of us
dancers from the John Pela / Saturday Hop, Hazel Romano Dancers are still
around and dancing. I lived in Lake Vista and went to Warren Easton.
Are we the only ones that went to the Fountain Lounge at the Roosevelt to
dance? Moved to Florida about 30 years ago but still visit family regularly.
No one has food like NO. My Aunt lived off Carrollton by the park.
BOB:
You have more energy than I do if you're still dancing like in the old days
on Saturday Hop! Y'know, some Saturday afternoons these days I still reminisce
fondly about the Frey hot dogs and 7-Ups they gave us while we were in the
studio dancing on Saturday Hop. And didn't Peter Toma and his orchestra
rock in that Fountain Lounge?? How's dem erster po-boys in Florida? As good
as at Bucktown or West End??? Oops, sorry! :-)
R.C. KLEIN:
Bob, some of my fondest memories are waiting for the WTIX and WNOE top 40
and top 50 surveys to come out every week in the 50's and 60's to see which
song was the top and just how my favorites ranked. It was also interesting
to see how some songs could be #1 in the nation and never really get air
play in New Orleans e.g. - Honky Tonk Women by the Stones and I Can't get
Next to You by the Temptations. 2 Huge hits which never got much (if any)
airplay in New Orleans. I remember also trying to get KAAY from Little Rock
on am at night, just to say we were getting another AM station.
By the way, if you can solve an argument, which station played "Bonita"
by Illinois Jacquet at midnight. We remember switching to hear it but couldn't
remember which station played it.
BOB:
I've never heard of "Bonita" or Illinois Jacquet, so I doubt it
was TIX that played it. NOE did more feature stuff like that. For example,
remember C.C. Courtney playing the "Kissing Tone" countdown, followed
by "Lovers Never Say Goodbye" every Saturday night at midnight
on NOE? Check it out on our C. C. Courtney page at http:radio_courtney.html
I think KAAY in Little Rock was everybody's "third" N.O.
rock station at night in the 60's, with WLS in Chicago at #4. And as far
as songs that were #1 in the nation, or even charted high in the nation,
and never got played here... oh boy... the stories I could tell you from
the inside about how songs got ranked on surveys in this city back then.
Another thought too...ever wondered about all the songs that got charted
here but never played on the air... ? 'Nuff said.