Page 10 - ISI_143_AugustSeptember

PAGE 10 ENTERTAINMENT
The Rockin’ National Anthem
BY RANDAL C. HILL
Bill Haley and His Comets recorded the
first rock ‘n’ roll hit—“Crazy, Man, Crazy,”
a now-forgotten piece of swing-based fluff
that employed teen-oriented catch phrases of
the day (“solid,” “crazy,” “gone”). Issued on
Essex Records, the ditty reached Number 12
on Billboard’s 1953 singles chart. The success
of “Crazy, Man, Crazy” caught the interest
of industry giant Decca Records, who quickly
wooed Haley away from tiny Essex and onto
their powerhouse label.
On April 12, 1954, Haley and his band
nervously entered Manhattan’s cavernous
Pythian Temple studios to tape two songs for
Decca that would become the Comets’ debut
offering. Top-notch veteran Decca producer
Milt Gabler focused his energy on the “A”
side, a novelty called “Thirteen Women (and
Only One Man in Town),” a droll tale of 13
women and one (lucky) man who somehow
survive an H-bomb explosion.
The second track scheduled was an upbeat
12-bar blues dance tune called “Rock Around
the Clock.” Haley wasn’t the first to record
it; “Clock” had originally been done by a rock
aggregate called Sonny Dae and the Knights.
Dae’s disc failed to catch fire, but Haley liked
the song and played it on the road for two
years as a hot dance number.
IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT • AUGUST // SEPTEMBER 2018
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
Young Peter Ford, the only child of Glenn
Ford and Eleanor Powell, was playing some
of his favorite records—at full volume—when
director Richard Brooks dropped by the Ford/
Powell home in Beverly Hills one evening in
early 1955. Brooks had come to chat with Ford
about a movie they were working on, called
Blackboard Jungle, a gritty tale of inner-city
juvenile delinquents based on Evan Hunter’s
hit novel of the same name.
Brooks had been looking for a teen-ori-
ented tune to use over the film’s credits. As
rock ‘n’ roll was just gathering momentum,
the pickings for just the right song were slim
back then. But when Brooks heard “Rock
Around the Clock” blasting from the younger
“Thirteen Women” took longer than Ford’s room, he knew he had the perfect
expected, and the studio clock showed only musical insertion for Blackboard Jungle. Brooks
30 minutes of the three-hour session available borrowed the lad’s 78 rpm platter, promising
for the “B” side. Haley’s quickly recorded to return it later (but never did).
two attempts proved less than perfect. But On his website peterford.com, the now-re-
when time ran out, Gabler, in a deft display tired actor/singer/businessman states, “I
of recording-studio wizardry, grafted the two played a small but pivotal role in launching
tracks onto one now-usable master tape. a musical revolution. Thanks to a unique set
Decca promoted “Thirteen Woman,” of circumstances, the musical passion of a
but deejays soon preferred the back side fifth grader helped ‘Rock Around the Clock’
of the single (which was absurdly labeled become, as Dick Clark called it, ‘The National
a Fox Trot, a smooth ballroom dance). Anthem of Rock ‘n’ Roll.’” ISI
Haley’s disc squeaked onto the Billboard
Top 30 for one week in 1954, then faded
into oblivion. Temporarily.
Book Review: Dragon Teeth
(MICHAEL CHRITON, HARPER/COLLINS, 2017)
BY BERNICE KARNOP
The year 1876 was notable for several events, including the celebration
of the 100th birthday of the United States at the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia, and for the defeat of General Custer after his unfortunate
decision to attack an Indian encampment that summer. Readers are probably
aware of those events, but who knows about the Bone Wars of the 1870’s?
I learned about this historic rivalry between paleontologists Edward
Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh in the fiction book, Dragon Bones by
Michael Crichton, published posthumously last year.
He tells the story through the eyes of a fictional Yale student, William
Johnson, who signs up to go west with Professor Marsh.
The rich and spoiled 18-year-old goes because of a bet with a fellow
student, not because he has any interest in either fossils or the West. On the
train to Cheyenne, he learns the paranoia Professor Marsh feels against Cope.
This was the golden age of fossil hunting, where ground-breaking dis-
coveries were literally being dug up in the West. The men were competing
with each other to find and identify the new creatures.
Their fierce, bitter, and public rivalry became known as the Bone Wars.
Readers may check Wikipedia for a long article about the bone wars and
will find that Crichton’s story follows the facts.
Marsh suspects Johnson of being a spy for Cope and ditches Johnson in
Cheyenne. Johnson then apprentices himself to Cope, who takes him out to
the Judith, where they camp for the summer and dig fossils.
Along with the dangers and discomforts, they unearth a major discovery,
brontosaurus teeth. The story continues the tale of Johnson’s adventures
bringing them back to the States with all the surprises and plot twists one
would expect from Crichton.
Crichton’s wife, Sherri, discovered the manuscript on her husband’s
computer. “It has Michael’s voice, his love of history, research, and science,
all dynamically woven into and epic tale,” she notes on the website.
Michael Crichton (1942-2008) is a New York Times bestselling author of
The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Jurassic Park and many others.
Jurassic Park readers and movie fans will enjoy Crichton’s return to pale-
ontology in Dragon Teeth. ISI