Fifties Fotos

[Brian Henson]

Bernie has sent me a cutting to upload here. As the caption says, it was taken at an ABC studios session for 'The Jack Jackson Show'. Ruby and Dickie would have been singing their latest recordings, while Joan Savage (along with Glen Mason) was resident on the Show providing comedy links.

I know Bernie loves to test us with his teaser questions from time to time - but let me try one on you. What was the title of the single that both Ruby and Dickie released in competition with each other?



Meanwhile, here's another TV related cutting which I've just come across in the magazine TV Mirror - edition dated 27 October 1956. Ruby's appearance on 'Off The Record' was scheduled for Monday 29 October 1956. I wonder if she sang 'True Love' - which was about to be released.



Brian

[Graham Bunn]

Brian,
Thanks for posting the nice photographs........Always good to see new ones........I do have a copy of Dickie Valentine singing "Get Well Soon"...........This was Rubys first release I think the other side of the 78 was Two Kinds Of Tears which Joan Regan covered.

I remember Ruby once saying that this record did not sell well and all copies sold were bought by her mother.......Her next release "Heartbeat did much better.

Take Care
Graham,

[Brian Henson]

You can have a bonus point for 'Get Well Soon', Graham - because it wasn't the song I was thinking of. I'd quite forgotten about 'Get Well Soon', but there was a second song several years later that they both recorded and issued as a single. It wasn't a hit for either of them - in fact Ruby's at least may well have been a B-Side as I seem to think the other side was the more popular song.

Anyway, let's leave this open and see if anyone comes up with the Dickie/Ruby song that I actually had in mind.

Brian

[Graham Bunn]

Brian,
Can I have one more go at this..........Dickie did also record "In My Life"........Rubys version which I do like had the more popular "Nora Malone" on the reverse side

Take Care
Graham.

[Bernie Burgess]

Graham,

It's great to see your name appearing again on the forum.

Whether your answer is right or wrong I must congratulate you for coming up with these two tracks. I am going to wait on the sidelines for a while because there are bound to be some more postings on this 'Teaser'.

Adios Amigo. Bernie.

[Brian Henson]

It was indeed 'In My Life' that I had in mind. Good on yer Graham. How about putting yourself forward to 'Mastermind' with Ruby Murray the specialist subject!

Brian

[Bernie Burgess]

Of course I knew the answer all the time - ahem!

Adios Amigos. Bernie

[MARTIN FOSTER]

Well done Graham, I wouldn't have got that in a million years.

What great pictures of Ruby, I especially like picture number 2. Would Ruby have been singing live with an orchestra on these shows?

Best wishes.

Martin

[Graham Bunn]

Hello Martin,
A couple of years back I was very interested in getting cover versions of songs that Ruby had sung ,in fact I managed to get two C.D's completed of these songs thats why I could remember the Dickie Valentine versions of those songs.

I mentioned the song Nora Malone if you ever get the chance to listen to the version by Teresa Brewer you will find it completly different from Rubys version.

I can't remember if Ruby would sing live with an orchestra on the Jack Payne show if it was like the Jack Jackson show the artist would mime to their latest record and I have a feeling that it would have been the same on the Jack Payne show.

Nice to talk to you once more
Take Care
Graham.

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends,

Well done Graham,

You are also right concerning whether artistes were singing 'live' or miming. The studio situation at Foley Street for 'The Jack Jackson Show' was such that it really was like perfoming in a living room and as a result there was no room at all to be able to use musicians, everything was tracked. The Jack Payne Show was different, that was in a sizeable studio with plenty of space but even so there were occasions when artistes would sing 'live' and times when they would mime to the original recording backing.

I can remember one occasion at the Riverside studios in Hammersmith when we were using a 'live' orchestra in the studio and we had planned to start the the number with our backs to the camera and swing round to face the cameras for the start of the vocal. We were scheduled to sing two numbers - 'Rocking Thru the Rye' and 'The Trolley Song' The problem was that when we were introduced the audience applause obliterated the musical introduction and we couldn't hear it. Immediate chaos was avoided when one of the group took a chance and commenced singing, fortunately he started in the right place and we joined him. This was depite the fact that there 'fold back' speakers were strategically placed around the studio for the artistes. Sometimes planning went astray and errors occured but of course those situations do not occur today.

I cannot recall whether Ruby sang with a 'live' orchestra on 'Jack Payne's Off the Record' or whether she mimed but my guess is that her appearance would have been linked to the release of one of her records.

Adios Amigos. Bernie

[Gerald Lawrence]

Nostalgia may be just a thing of the past ( ) but what fun it is to look at these two photographs. I remember very clearly being an avid follower of "Off The Record". I am not sure if it was on when Jack Payne was also doing his "Bandbox" on the radio on Sunday afternoons, but I know I never missed either programme. It had to be total silence in our house if Ruby was appearing on a Monday evening!

The Jack Jackson show is a different situation. We got our family TV in 1953 for the Coronation, and of course it was only BBC, so we could not pick up ITV programmes. The man next door to us built a converter out of a kit, in order to receive ITV but none of us was impressed with the quality of the picture he got so my dad never bothered. He said we had enough TV to watch with just one channel (I don't think he could have coped with the hundreds that are around today). But I had an uncle who bought a TV with a channel tuner built in, and quite often we would go to visit him on a Sunday afternoon. So I came to know Sunday programmes on ITV, such as "Sunday Night at the London Palladium", and "Dragnet". We always watched if Ruby was on because they were all very kind to me, but if it was on a different night, then I just had to miss it. Aaahh.

I left home before dad bought a new TV (in 1961) and it wasn't until I was married in 1965 that I was able to regularly watch ITV. So I am quite sorry that through the 50s and early 60s, I probably missed most of Ruby's TV appearances. But at least I listened every night to Radio Luxembourg and caught her records there.

Thanks again Brian for the photos.

[MARTIN FOSTER]

Hi Graham,

Yes I actually have Teresa Brewer's version of "Norah Malone" on a 45 and it is quite different with additional verses. I think Ruby just sings the chorus several times in her version. I do prefer it to Teresa's though.

Bernie and Gerald thanks for the info regarding the Jack Jackson show and "Off the Record". I wonder if there are any recordings of these gathering dust in the archives that might turn up one day.

Best wishes.

Martin.