Ethel Smith
(November 22, 1910 - May, 10 1996)
It becomes increasingly evident in my old age that there is little to be gained by denying the joy that is inherent in many of the things that I love - uncool though they may be. We have all gone through phases when our devotion to a particular type of food or music or genre of film seems like it would be unending. Then, the very something for which we were sure our love would ever be fervent is replaced in relatively short order by something newer/better/more interesting. One of the few passions that has survived the tumult of my many manias is organ music. I'll listen to recorded organ music but I've also been known to travel far and wide for anything from sacred to secular, classical to jazz - as long as it's played on the organ.
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| The Spreckels Organ Pavilion at Balboa Park in San Diego offers free weekly organ concerts, usually in a classical style. |
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| Mary and world-renowned theater organist, Bob Salisbury, at the console of the Avalon Theater's Page Organ on Catalina Island. |
The roots of this interest are firmly planted in the front room of my great-grandmother's home where an electric organ took pride of place. The bilevel keyboards, the flips and switches, the hum of the console as it whirred to life - what was there not to love? Being an abject failure at any musical instrument more complex than the kazoo (which still manages to trip me up on occasion), I knew there had to be someone who could make the best use of all the knobs, keys, and pedals. As a child, my heart was filled and my mind was blown when I first got a glimpse of Ethel Smith. Smith's appearance alongside Donald Duck and Jose Carioca in Walt Disney's Melody Time proved that the organ was for far more than playing hymns at church!
"Blame it on the Samba" - Ethel Smith & The Dinning Sisters
from Melody Time
There is something about those 1940's shoes skittering effortlessly over the pedals that just sends me. Yes, you may quickly file that under "Things I never needed to know about Mr. Tiny."
"Tico Tico" - Ethel Smith
In spite of her acclaimed tours of South America (including a residency at The Copacabana in Rio de Janiero), her famous Latin numbers, and the exotic lilt of her name, Ethel Smith was not quite the saucy senorita depicted in Melody Time. Born in Pennsylvania, her skill as an organist landed her work in nightclubs, on the radio, and eventually in Hollywood movies.
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| Bathing Beauty (1944) (Source) |
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| Easy to Wed (1946) (Source) |
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| Melody Time (1948) (Source) |
Smith, "Empress of the Hammond (the Hammond B-3 Organ)" earned her status as, what I like to call, a "novelty star." A novelty star (see Edgar Bergen, The Nicholas Brothers, et al) isn't a movie star in the traditional sense. A novelty star also wouldn't fall into the category of character actor (see Eugene Pallette, Mary Wickes, Allen Jenkins). An anomaly of 30's and 40's filmmaking, the novelty star was a performer (usually untrained in acting) brought to Hollywood for a unique talent that could be wedged, however awkwardly, into the plot of a movie for a dash of non sequitur flavor. The novelty star, as a device of filmmaking, might be odd and totally disruptive to a film's narrative but that is precisely why we love novelty stars, particularly Ms. Ethel Smith.
"Para Pan Pin" - Ethel Smith
"By the Waters of Minnetonka" - Ethel Smith
"Lero Lero Bem Ti Vi Atrevido" - Ethel Smith
Briefly married to actor Ralph Bellamy, Smith seemed to find more success in music than in love. She parlayed her movie mojo into a career as a recording artist and publisher of music arranged for the electric organ.
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| Ethel gettin' groovy (Source) |
We love Ethel Smith because she was an ambassador of both the Good Neighbor Policy and of electric organ music. She paved the way for many amazing female organists including one of our favorites, Perry Blackwell. She played with amazing flair and an abundance of joy that radiated off of the screen.
"Toca Tu Samba" - Ethel Smith
So, how'd I do? It is kind of a minefield writing at such length about organs without including some sort of cheesy double entendre. Have you become a fan of organ music too? If not, don't tell me; just watch every video in this post over and over until you've been converted. Consider us your organ donors.
Cheers!
Mr. Tiny
I love Ethel Smith and have at least a dozen of her albums, collected back when I played records. (I'm also a big fan of George Wright, who played the Wurlitzer.) It IS campy by today's standards but audiences of the day ate it up. And she was a true virtuoso, truly an amazing musician.
ReplyDeleteOrgan music just makes me happy and George Wright is tops! Most instruments have a built-in personality, but an organ can be whatever it wants - scary, dramatic, funny, thrilling. Theater organs in particular wow me with all of the additional percussion and whistles, etc. Ethel made her Hammond dance!
DeleteMod Betty is a huge fan of the Hammond B3 sound - and now I'm so happy you hepped me to Ethel Smith! Thanks as always Mr. Tiny, always good to know we're not alone in our love of all that is vintage and cool.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you're hep to the jive! Ethel was a fantastic musician but a great performer as well - watching her is just as fun as listening to her!
DeleteI love organ music. When I was a student at UCLA my ethnomusicology professor took us to Royce Hall on campus, which has a huge organ. The pipes for the organ are in a room that runs along the entire length of the top of the proscenium. He took us up there and let us crawl around and check out the pipes and then brought us down into the auditorium, sat us in what was the sweet spot with the best acoustics in the house, and played for us 15 students Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. I still remember it as vividly as if it happened yesterday. I went to an organ concert when I was in England at St. Paul's Cathedral. There's something about an organ that can just send chills down your spine.
ReplyDeleteA good family friend is a classical, concert organist and having heard her play was a real treat! There is something magical about music performed on the organ - Hammond B3, calliope, or giant pipe organ.
DeleteWow-I never enjoyed organ so much! Thank you! I loved that wacky cartoon, you just can't beat Walt Disney cartoons! And the TicoTico one - I remember that song-we may have had a 78 rpm with it and I think I may have danced to it in jazz class waaaay back in the day! In that second video-I thought the girl on the left playing the tambourine looked like Mary. I also love that it was an all girl orchestra playing that Latin rhythm. Totally fun!!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fun?! "Tico Tico" is a brilliant song that was performed by many a wacky tacky icon - Carmen Miranda, Ethel Smith, Jo Ann Castle, and many more! I hope that there is home movie of your dance performance somewhere!
DeleteSweet fancy Jesus! That clip of her playing Tico Tico with all those fabulously dressed and coiffed AND TALENTED ladies is just TOO MUCH. That was an assault on the sense in the very best way. I think you have infected me with your fandom now.
ReplyDeleteIf you and Mary ever come up to the San Francisco area, you must visit the Stanford Theatre in downtown Palo Alto (Yes, near the college of the same name). It's not only beautiful and shows old movies still, but they have a fantastic organ player who entertains the audiences for a good 30 minutes before each show. And on Christmas Eve, they show It's a Wonderful Life and the organist plays Christmas carols. It's one of the single most life-affirming moments I've ever experienced.
Dazzling, isn't it?!! There are few things that I love more than a theater organ. Whenever we go to Catalina we go for the pre-movie concert at the unbelievable Art Deco theater on the first floor of the Casino. I'm glad that other theaters carry on the same tradition and I am DEFINITELY adding the Stanford to my must-visit list! That sounds like an amazing Christmas tradition that I would love to participate in someday. THANKS!!!
DeleteThank you for the introduction to Ethel Smith! This sure brightened up my day at the office. I can remember the giant Wurlitzer organ my grandparents had in their front room as a kid but I never heard it played like that!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to be the bearer of good tidings! I own the movies from which the clips are taken and I can still watch them over and over again. I think there must've been some very clever door-to-door organ salesman; an organ seems to be a mandatory fixture in grandparents' homes.
DeleteI had an Ethel Smith 45' record that my mother LITERALLY took away from me because I played it over and over and over. Because of her I went into a phase where I only listened to organ music, and while i've branched out now I still love a samba or park concert!
ReplyDeleteShe's that good isn't she?! When I was young I wore out a few records myself!
DeleteHave you ever been to a movie at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood? There's an organist who plays Disney music on the organ before the show...and then the organ DISAPPEARS INTO THE GROUND!
ReplyDeleteNO but that sounds heavenly!!! The only time I've spent at the El Capitan was as a hand and back of the head model. We explored the whole theater but we didn't get anywhere near a disappearing theater organ. LET'S GO!!!
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