He died twelve years ago this week. His parents fled the unrest along the border between France and Germany, and settled in the U.S., where he was born. He dropped out of school in the 4th grade, and at age 13 was performing as a professional musician. He convinced his parents to buy him his first musical instrument by promising to turn over to them all his earnings as an artist. By 21, he was a full-time performer, and three years later decided to take his band to New Orleans in search of work -- but they never made it there. Instead, they were hired by a radio station in a small town, where they remained for the next ten years, going through several name changes, including at one point the Honolulu Fruit Gum Company.
Over the next three decades he went on to greater and greater prominence, becoming a musical fixture in Chicago and becoming known nationwide in 1951. He had already scored modest hits with "Don't Sweetheart Me" and "Shame on You" in 1944. But he didn't have a No. 1 single until 1961, with "Calcutta," his only song to reach the top of the charts. He did, however, have a number of Top 10 LPs. He retired a wealthy man, controlling a very successful music publishing business and a resort community in Santa Monica, California.
Who was this tunesmith?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a box of new, beta-test Turmeric Altoids (nearly flavorless, they merely dye the mouth a powerful orange color). No Googling or taping together several computers with masking tape (a la My New Filing Technique). Only one guess per comment, but you may comment as often as you like.
Oh lordy, this is not looking good, is it? Is everyone waiting for someone else to make some sort of guess to try to shake out a hint?
I have no idea if he's dead or alive, and I doubt he's of Alsatian or Lorrainese descent, but for the sake of getting the ball of a mind to roll, I'll guess. . .
Herb Alpert!
Posted by: Scott on May 21, 2004 11:13 AMI'll try to "Rise" to the occasion:
Gene Autry
Wow, that's a better guess than mine. Though "ALF" would be a better guess than mine.
OK, is it "ALF"
(Short for Alien Life Form.)
Posted by: Scott on May 21, 2004 11:25 AMActually, I think in the original pilot script for ALF it stood for "Alsatian Life Form," in which an talking dog hosts a radio show out of KDKA Pittsburg, but the network execs shot it down as being totally unrealistic.
Posted by: Jonathan on May 21, 2004 11:54 AMMitch Miller?
The alsatian that saved Pittsburgh?
Liberace?
Some good guesses, but none right yet.
Posted by: BT on May 21, 2004 12:02 PMPlease don't hold the random nature of my subsequent guesses against me. I know I'm flailing, folks, but I do hope that it is somewhat redeemed by my self-awareness.
Jim Nabors
Posted by: Scott on May 21, 2004 12:26 PMI do google behind myself to see how absurd my guesses actually are. Jim Nabors is still alive, it seems: "When he is not performing, one can find Jim at his home in Honolulu or on a tractor in Hana, Maui, on his macadamia nut farm where he also grows tropical flowers."
As is ALF. "When he is not trying to catch and eat cats, one can find Al duck hunting with Dick Cheney or ruling on important cases in the U.S. Supreme Court."
Posted by: Scott on May 21, 2004 12:30 PMDamn -- that's some great googlage. Macadamia nut farm? Oh, how I wish Jim was the answer, or an answer to any question that I'd ever asked.
Posted by: BT on May 21, 2004 12:32 PMLawrence Welk.
I don't think I would have been led in this direction by the clues, but "Calcutta" is a giveaway.
Posted by: Scraps on May 21, 2004 12:32 PMI wonder how long a guy sitting a block from the White House waits between conflating ALF and Antonin Scalia before being arre
s
I guess it's only a giveaway if you, well, know it. Good work to our scholar of "Champagne Music."
I thought of Welk's bubble-machine-powered TV show after a random mention of Don Ho had brought the song "Tiny Bubbles" swimming back into consciousness.
Posted by: BT on May 21, 2004 12:39 PMI didn't mean to be rude or anything! I should maybe recuse myself from any question that involves the name of a number one song, though. I was seriously chart-obsessed as a teenager.
Posted by: Scraps on May 21, 2004 12:42 PMNot to worry -- I was aware that I was taking a risk posting the title of his No. 1 hit, but that's the nature of such things. It wouldn't be a trivia quiz if people couldn't win because they, well, know trivia.
Here's my backup question -- I don't like to do "world records" so much, but this one resonates nicely with something I was just reading: what record was jointly set by Switzerland's Dr Jacques Piccard and U.S. military officer Donald Walsh in 1960?
Posted by: BT on May 21, 2004 12:47 PMBiggest tandem bubblegum blown from opposite sides of a body of water.
Posted by: Scraps on May 21, 2004 12:51 PMAltitude of a human.
As opposed to aptitude of a human, which goes to the quick wit who just nabbed Sc
jonathan couldn't be more wrong
Posted by: BT on May 21, 2004 12:58 PMI beg to differ; I could be a lot more wrong, but I'm not going to rise to your baiting and show you just how wrong I can be.
Well, okay:
Most macadamia nuts consumed in a minute.
Deepest depth to which descended?
Posted by: Scott on May 21, 2004 01:13 PMMost consecutive repetitions of "Yes it is!" "No it isn't!" "Yes it is!", adult division.
Posted by: Scraps on May 21, 2004 01:15 PMAnd here I've been composing a rhyming, anagrammatical answer to Jonathan (spelling out O-P-P-O-S-I-T-E with the first letter of each line).
But it was unnecessary. Scott's on it: the two men descended into the Challenger deep of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean in the submersible Trieste.
(Although that also strikes me as an excellent opportunity to shoot for the record described by Scraps. Maybe even bilingually...)
Posted by: BT on May 21, 2004 01:17 PM