DANCING TO LIVE BANDS IN THE 1960s.

By the late 1960's, a new venue for dancing to live bands, came in the form of..... neighborhood Beer Halls. 

America's first real discotheque, The Whisky A Go Go, on the Sunset Strip, declined in the late 60's, followed by the Cheetah and the Kaleidoscope.  Soon there was no place to go but the Shrine Auditorium, if you wanted to dance to live bands.  However, If you wanted a more intimate setting, local Beer Bars. were the answer.

An article featured in Eye Magazine, about the LA Scene in the late 1960s talked about one of the most popular neighborhood beer halls in town.  "Mom's" was a bar in Westwood Village, two blocks from UCLA, that was comprised of 5 rooms of an old warehouse. The floor was sawdust covered, and the decor was.... Halcyon, Frat-House-Renaissance ..... toilet bowls, wash basins, traffic signs, Beatles posters, wagon wheels and old hairdryers. Over the doorway hung a full length portrait of Mom, a red hot cartoon travesty of Little Annie.

Al Hall on the right, with his brother Gary.

Most every weekend you could find me at Mom's dancing, while my boyfriend Al Hall, and his band, the Graven Image, played to a rip-roaring mob, gyrating to deafening electric guitars and over-the-top drumming. Even though the Graven Image was a very talented and popular band in 1968 and '69, it was difficult for them to fit the "long-hair" band image at that time because Al and Gary were in the Marine Corps Air Wing Reserve..... and their hair and sideburns had be trimmed each month before their drill weekend to comply with Marine Corps regulations.

Here's Al and Gary Hall with Graven Image lead singer, Joan Coogan, who was TV & film star Jackie Coogan's daughter and who was also half sister to actor, Don Stroud.) Jackie and Don would often come see the band play as well as Jan and Dean and a few other name bands.


It's been 40 years since I've seen Al Hall, but we talked on the phone recently and he told me the whole short hair story. Here is a letter the band's management company, Century Artists' Ltd, wrote to Al and Gary's commanding officer.

Al also wrote a letter to his Congressman, Charles H. Wilson in 1968, explaining their plight: "We want to serve our Country, but we also want to look professional in our chosen occupation."

An excerpt from the Congressman's reply letter read....

"Your only recourse is staying in the reserves and complying with their grooming regulations, or file a formal application for a hardship discharge. Should you decide to make such application I will do everything possible in your behalf."

The Graven Image once had an opportunity to be the opening band at a concert featuring "Spirit,"....
 (I Got a Line On You Babe,) but the promoters decided against them, evidently because of their short hair. Over the next year this, plus their 2-week absence each summer for active duty, caused friction and growing discontent with the other band members who did not have to serve in the Military. The constant turmoil caused the breakup of the Graven Image near the end of 1969.

Had Al and Gary been able to grow their hair, they might have looked like this.... and Graven Image might have gone on to be a serious Rock group. However, love of Country came before career.

Al Hall, drummer Gary Green, and Gary Hall in the 1970's, when they were the U.S. Males.

Al contacted former band mates and soon had the U.S. Males back together again. A while later Al and former drummer John Acquarelli purchased their own bar in Playa Del Rey, called The Gallery, and it became a very popular bar/dance hall in the early 1970's.

The U.S. Males 20 year Anniversary Reunion in 1985.  In this picture, Gary Hall, Al Hall, Gary Green, Neil Gunny and John Acquarelli, (the original drummer) singing, "Blue Moon," acapella. 

The party was invitation only, and once everyone arrived, there were over 500 in attendance. The bar manager told the band afterwards, "We have never poured as many drinks for ANY event in the entire ten years I have been here, and they were the nicest, most well behaved group of people I have ever seen."

During those fun years between 1967 and 1971, you could find me sitting on the stage, watching my boyfriend, Rock Out... I danced most every dance, and was called, Little Surfer Girl, Little Queenie and The Dancing Queen. Al and I split up when my parents moved to Newport Beach. We both married and had no contact until now.

Here is an earlier post about Al and Sharrie.

http://www.maybellinebook.com/2012/03/sale-of-maybelline-co-was-blessing-and.htmlbook.com/2012/03/sale-of-maybelline-co-was-blessing-and.html

Read more about my life in the 1960's.... and after the sale of the Maybelline Company, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.
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Dick Clark's AMERICAN BANDSTAND in the 1950 AND 60's.

In the 1920's, 30's and 40's, Big name Band Leaders, played their music from Ballrooms, broadcasting live, over the radio..... but by the 1950's and 60's, Teenagers were dancing to their favorite music on American Bandstand.....

American Bandstand was a major success, running daily Monday through Friday until 1963, then weekly on Saturdays until 1987.

In 1964, the show moved from Philadelphia to Hollywood, California. Dick Clark interviews,

 Bobby Darin. click for video of Mack the Knife.

Dick Clark became the full-time host on July 9, 1956.

Clark would often interview the teenagers about their opinions of the songs being played, most memorably through the "Rate-a-Record" segment.

Dick Clark interviews Bobby Rydell.  Featured artists typically performed their current hits by lip-synching to the released version of the song.  Click here to hear Bobby Ryell sing, Forget Him.

The program was broadcast live.

The shows popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his Dick Clark Productions company.

The Beach Boys, played live on American Bandstand.

a review of the 1960's..... with American Bandstand.

American Bandstand 30 year special.

While Black artists were permitted to perform, only white dancers were allowed. They feared the backlash that might happen if Black boys danced close to white girls. Black teenagers were banned. There was a protest in the early 60's, Eventually Black teens were allowed.

In 1959, Maybelline featured an African American model in their ad's. The Maybelline Company sold to Plough Inc. in December of 1967.


Read more about the 1950 and 60's and how Maybelline influenced American culture, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

RITA HAYWORTH... DANCING WITH THE STARS...1940's..

There is NOT ONE Female in Hollywood today to compare with Rita Hayworth.  She was The Dancing Queen.

While the Palladium Ballroom, in Hollywood,  was being filled to capacity every night, during the 1940 War Years, Rita Hayworth, like every teenager of the time, was dancing her heart out to raise morale, for the boy's going overseas.

One of Maybelline's top Stars, Rita Hayworth's glamour brought teenage girls into the drugstores by the thousands, hoping to capture Rita's, Star Quality, before going dancing at night.

Dancing with the Stars, 1940's style, with

 Rita Hayworth... exuding explosive, sex appeal.

                                     Rita Hayworth Is Stayin' Alive!!!

You must watch this video, which has gotten almost one million hits.  It is the most remarkable, example of Rita Hayworth's dancing ability and the most incredible editing job on a video, I've ever seen.

Read more about Rita Hayworth, The Palladium Ballroom and Maybelline, during the 1940's, in my book,
The Maybelline Story and the Spirited
 Family Dynasty Behind It.

TOMMY DORSEY BAND WITH FRANK SINATRA, OPENS THE PALLADIUM IN 1940

In the 1940's, all the great bands played the Hollywood Palladium, including Freddie Martin, Phil Harris, Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Bob Crosby, Stan Kenton, Harry James, Kay Kyser, Les Brown, Artie Shaw, Wood Herman, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, Alice Faye, the Andrew Sisters and Gene Krupa.

During WW2 the Palladium hosted a radio broadcast. Betty Grable and other Stars would greet servicemen and ask for their favorite song to be played, while kids listened on their car radio's, while cruising Sunset Blvd.

Betty Grable without makeup, in a before and after Maybelline ad, 1940, made girls aware of what a difference Maybelline made in their sex appeal.   

A big Star like Grable, brought thousands of girls into the dime stores to purchase Maybelline.... before going dancing at the Palladium that night.

Maybelline print ad's like this were placed in all the movie magazines during WW ll.

Hedy Lamarr like many other big Stars, were featured in Maybelline ads in the 1940s.

Servicemen, were regulars at the Palladium during the War and Maybelline helped sell War Bonds with ads like this placed in movie magazines.

The Hollywood Palladium opened with vocalist Frank Sinatra playing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

 A few weeks later, they recorded an album at the Palladium.

The Palladium that night must have seemed like a dreamy refuge in a world that was growing darker

 by the day."

Yet the excitement must have blown the top off the Ballroom..... with six bars serving liquor and two more serving soft drinks and a $1 cover charge and a $3 charge for dinner.

Dorothy Lamour was there to snip the ribbon, spangled with orchids, and as Jack Benny, Judy Garland and Lana Turner looked on, hundreds of couples danced the jitterbug.

During WW ll, radio shows originated from the Palladium to raise funds to aid war sufferers in Britain. Celebrities guest included; Ronald Coleman, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Jack Benny, Claudette Colbert, Myrna Loy and Charles Boyer.

 

Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra,

"I'll Never Smile Again," 1940.

Read more about the Palladium during WW ll, and all the big Stars that were featured in Maybelline ads, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

BIG BANDS JUMP STARTED IN CHICAGO BALLROOMS.

"The Maybelline Hour, is brought to you live, from the lovely Ballroom, at the Edgewater Beach Hotel.... in  beautiful Uptown!.....  With the danceable tunes of Freddie Martin and his orchestra."

 The White City Ballroom on the South Side of Chicago, was the place to be in June 1922.  (Chicago Tribune.

The popularity of the hotel dance bands of the 1920s was also an important factor in the evolution of Big Band's being heard on the radio. 

Band leader, Freddie Martin

The main source of revenue for budding band leaders, like Freddie Martin, came from playing for ballroom dance crowds and doing radio remote broadcasts in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Freddy Martin and his Orchestra, was featured on, The Maybelline hour in 1935-1937.  The one hour radio show, called Penthouse Serenade, often included, Maybelline founder, Tom Lyle Williams and his family, riding up on the elevator, and entering the Ballroom on the top floor. 

This video of Freddy Martin and his orchestra, gives a bit of the flavor from a 1940s radio show.

Recording of Tom Lyle Williams doing his radio show, Penthouse Serenade, with the Williams family.

Read more about Freddy Martin and The Maybelline Hour's, Penthouse Serenade in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  

1956, with Sharrie Williams, author of The Maybelline Story

Just middle class little kids in 1956, we had no idea our great uncle Tom Lyle Williams, was involved with such high profile stars that year.  We still believed in the Easter Bunny, colored Easter Eggs, and hoped for Baskets, filled to the breaking point, with Chocolate See's candy.

Sharrie, holding a stuffed Easter Bunny,  Donna and Billee Williams, Easter, 1956.


As children, we were quite sheltered, in Parochial  school, living average lives within our family and playing in the backyard.  At the same time, Maybelline commercials were being shown on all the network stations and our parents went bonkers every time one came on the TV.

That year uncle Lyle, as we called him, was involved  with The Princess Grace, Prince Rainier lll, Wedding, The Miss America Contest, Chuck Berry's single, Maybellene, The Perry Como Show, The Loretta Young Show, and Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher's splash in all the movie magazines.  But for us kids and all our cousins, it was playing as usual, and waiting for the Easter Bunny to bring us live bunnies, chicks and Easter Eggs.

Read all about my life, in the 1950's, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Maybelline's Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher will be loved forever

Debbie Reynold's with Maybelline founder, Tom Lyle Williams, (on the right,) Arnold Anderson (on the left,) and Sparky the dog.  Photo taken at TL's home in Bel Air California, 1950.

Married in 1955, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, known as the perfect couple.  Both equally famous, they were the couple..... to wanna be.

 Hollywood's Prince and Princess, expecting their first child....This was the stuff fairy tales were made of. 

 A 1956,  Maybelline ad, appeared in movie magazines, the same time Debbie and Eddie were expecting their first child, Carrie Fisher.

Goodbye Debbie and Carrie you will be greatly missed RIP.
Read more about Debbie Reynolds the day she visited Tom Lyle and Arnold in Bel Air for a photo shoot, in..... The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW TRANSFORMED WOMEN'S ROLES.

The Loretta Young Show, put women front stage and center, and created a vehicle for Maybelline to reach a larger target market in the 1950's.

The Loretta Young Show ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to come through a door dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns.

Maybelline capitalized on Loretta Young's fashionable image.... with a series of ads that illustrated her persona..... and affirmed postwar ideas, that true happiness, was possible, within the domestic/heterosexual

sphere of the middle-class home.

The Lorette Young, TV series, worked through the image of the glamorous Hollywood star, and would forever remain a phenomenon of 1950s television, the period in which the Hollywood studio system that had created larger-than-life stars came to a close.

Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years, the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time.

In 1988, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the

entertainment industry.

Young was married to actor Grant Withers from 1930 to 1931. After that she was involved in affairs with Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable and in 1935 had Gable's child, a daughter.

View video of "The Loretta Young Show" US TV series (1953--61.)


Read all about Maybelline's influence on Women's culture in the 1950s, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.