Wednesday, August 23, 2006


Well, today, good friends is the 80th anniversary of the first appearnce of George Burns and Gracie Allen in vaudeville at the Palace Theatre in New York City in 1926. This was the big time! This was every comedian's dream It is also the year that they were married. In their act, Gracie played the scatter-brained wife and George her hapless (read "straight man") husband. George claimed all he had to do was to ask Gracie "So how's your brother doing" and the great Gracie Allen could go on and on for twenty minutes while George rolled his eyes, mugged to the audience and smoked his cigar! George was born in New York in 1896. They were together until Gracie retired in 1958. Their first movie together was the classic "Big Broadcast of 1932." This was a great team and a great love affair. After Gracie died in 1966, George visited her gravesite every single day, telling "her" all the news and the gossip of the day as if she were standing there listening to him. So a happy day! Tim and I completed the recording for "Traveling Companion". I've learned a lot from these recordings, but most of all I learned that I must plan in composition a song's range while I'm creating it much more carefully from now on. Singers have limits and the more I learn about those limits the better the songwriter I will be. I must also plan on what kind of singer I need throughout a musical and not exceed the limitations of a tenor and invade the barritone (or any other) singer's range. Of course, had I been given the opportunity to study music and to play the piano none of these problems would ever be here, but that's okay. I must simply plan a song better and listen much more closely to my amazing partner, Tim Doran. Well, thats it for today!

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