Photographer Don Jim’s photos of the series at KABC TV.
Stars of Jazz was created by a group of channel 7 KABC employees including producers, directors, writers, cameramen, and assorted technicians who were serious fans of jazz. They were keenly aware of the absence of a dedicated TV show featuring jazz. The petition to develop and present a show devoted to jazz was led by Peter Robinson, Bob Arbogast, Norman Abbott, and Jimmie Baker who had been badgering the station’s executive in charge of programming, Selig J. Seligman, for years. He finally relented and in the spring of 1956 gave Peter Robinson and Jimmie Baker, the producers who would shepherd the show, a green light to proceed. He told them there was no budget for the show but they could have dead studio time and a bare bones staff, no frills. They would have to stick to musician scale, write their own material, scrap together their stage sets, and they could produce four shows. If they didn’t land a sponsor by the end of the fourth show it would be cancelled. Jimmie Baker recalled the circumstances in an interview with Ray Avery and Will Thornbury in February of 1992.
“We were on for three weeks and were told the fourth would be the last show. So I figured we had to do something. I called Bob Petersen, my friend at Petersen Publishing. He had a new book by Woody Woodward called Jazz Americana. I said maybe you could give us a few copies, I have an idea. So he gave us a few hundred copies. On the fourth show Bobby Troup said unless we can come up with some kind of rating this will be our last show. But we have a little book called Jazz Americana and for viewers who write in, we’ll send you this book as our gift to you for our final show, the supply is limited. So that was at the end of the fourth show. By the end of the week we had over 7,000 pieces of mail requesting the book. I went down to the post office and got them to give me one of those U.S. Mail canvas bags. I stuffed all of the mail into it, took it to Young and Rubicam Advertising who had Budweiser Beer, and told the receptionist I wanted to see someone who handles the beer accounts. I got into their office, put the mailbag down and said we’re doing a show called Stars of Jazz. He said, oh yes, I’ve seen it. I said we’re going to be cancelled next week because we don’t have a rating but I want to mention here’s 7,000 pieces of mail that we got that proves we do have an audience. Budweiser bought the sponsorship and continued for two years.”
Jimmie Baker contacted club owners and record labels to secure jazz musicians to perform on each show. Monday night was selected as the broadcast slot as most jazz clubs observed Mondays as the off night for musicians performing at the club so they were available to appear on Stars of Jazz. The first two shows tapped musicians currently performing at Zardi’s Jazzland, the Stan Getz quartet on June 25, 1956, and the second show on July 2nd featured the Erroll Garner trio. The first show also featured Kid Ory and his Creole jazz band. Presenting two jazz groups was unwieldy and Baker decided to go with one instrumental group plus a vocalist. The second show with Erroll Garner included Faith Winthrop.
The third show presented the Chet Baker quintet who were performing at Jazz City. The vocalist on that program was Thelma Gracen. Chet Baker was under contract to Pacific Jazz Records and his albums for the label featured photography by William Claxton who was Artistic Director for the label. Jimmie Baker contacted Claxton early on as a consultant for the program. Word soon spread in the Los Angeles jazz community that the new jazz program at KABC allowed several photographers to attend each show. Ray Avery became aware of the program and attended the Chet Baker show, the third in the series on July 9th. Ray was also present at the fourth show on July 16th featuring Shelly Manne and His Men.
A new photographer attended the fifth show on July 23rd, Don Jim. Born in Hawaii, of Chinese-American heritage, Jim had served in the Army during WWII and settled in Los Angeles where he enrolled at the Art Center College of Design to study photography. Don Jim was one of the first photographers working the show to shoot 35mm color film. He also shot b&w film, but his color work excelled in capturing many of the jazz artists appearing on Stars of Jazz, the only known examples of these artists in color.
The Dave Brubeck quartet followed Stan Getz and Erroll Garner at Zardi’s Jazzland. Joe Dodge on drums and Norman Bates on bass rounded out Dave’s quartet with Paul Desmond. Don’s photos of the quartet reveal some difficulty on this first outing, a problem that he would work out during future programs.
The sixth presentation of Stars of Jazz featured Matty Matlock and His Rampart Street Paraders with special guest Jack Teagarden. The show was extra special as it also had the King of Jazz, Paul Whiteman, make a brief appearance to reminisce with Teagarden about the early days of jazz. Don Jim was at the studio again, still favoring 35mm Kodachrome and having the same problems.
Jimmie Baker tapped Zardi’s Jazzland again for the seventh program that featured the Buddy DeFranco quintet with guest vocalist Lucy Ann Polk. Don Jim had worked out the difficulties he was having with 35mm Kodachrome film and also captured some b&w photos of the musicians.
Two of the b&w photos of Lucy Ann Polk were taken from positions showing the audience area that was only four rows deep in this rehearsal studio. The photo taken from backstage reveals how close the audience members were to the performers, an intimate glance at the mechanics of live television.
The eighth program on August 13th featured Billie Holiday and the Pete Jolly trio. Jolly’s rhythm section, Bob Bertaux on bass and Bob Neel on drums accompanied Corky Hale on piano for Billie Holiday’s vocals. Corky Hale backed Billie Holiday during her engagement at Jazz City which was concurrent with her appearance on Stars of Jazz. Don Jim captured some remarkable photos of Holiday’s performance in color.
Don Jim was present at over three dozen broadcasts of Stars of Jazz. Future posts will present more of his work capturing rare color photos of the jazz musicians featured on this innovative program. Viewers can purchase my history of Stars of Jazz at the publishers site, McFarland Books, or Amazon. If you would like a signed copy please fill out the contact form (at the top) and I will email you with price and availability.
Don Jim’s photography may be licensed for commercial use via CTSIMAGES.
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