NAT "KING" COLE - Year by Year - Part 3

This was just posted to ebay. Very interesting and I think sheds some light on how the group changed over time to an employer/employee arrangement between Cole and the other members.

 

Yeah, I just bid on that last night. A pretty cool artifact with a signature that's reasonably likely to be legit!

 

Yep, it definitely looks legit. I noticed that it has Cole's Hancock Park address on it. Here's a google maps link to the location. From there you can zoom in and go to street view and look at the house and neighborhood.

 

Very cool letter! Do you guys know how much it sold for?

 

It hasn't sold yet. Recently an autographed Copa Cabana program sold for $103. Pretty cool.

 

A little more information on The Biggest Show of '51. Found this on an auction site for a past auction. Too bad the picture was taken down. At least we now know who else was on the bill.

Note Ellington's inscription.

Here's a reference made to the show. I didn't know this about Granz. Likewise, I didn't know this about Ellington.

 

A few years ago, I saw a guy on ebay selling a beat-up "autographed" copy of Nat's "Thank You Pretty Baby" album ... which, as we know, was an album that was first released after Nat's death.

I sent the seller a message pointing out that there was no way Nat signed that album post-mortem. He didn't respond, and neither did ebay when I complained. Ultimately, the guy sold the album for something like $60, as I recall.

 

Buyer beware. There are plenty of forgeries out there. Anyone buying signatures should do their homework or opt for one that has been authenticated by a known, third party organization.

 

I just ordered a 78 of Nat Meets June on the Columbia label. I don't know which take is on it, since it is reported that Columbia issued 78's with two different takes. Now I must fix my 78 player.

 

Thanks for the information, coleman. The text next to the photo of Ellington is an indirect confirmation of a '51 show in Atlanta that was not on the list I posted. It probably happened when they were going from the Carolinas to Houston. Maybe someone will find the date eventually on microfilm from an Atlanta newspaper.

 

Just happened to see this on Facebook in the Nat King Cole group.

Here's the link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/92nd-birthday-video-ep-limited/id426214684

Get 'em while you can. All seven videos for $5.

 

I asked from what episodes these clips were taken. Here is the response:

• Stardust - from the October 1st 1957 episode of The Nat King Cole Show(guest star was Tony Bennett)
  
• Raintree County - from the October 1st 1957 episode of The Nat King Cole Show (guest star was Tony Bennett)
  
• I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter - from the October 1st 1957 episode of The Nat King Cole Show (guest star was Tony Bennett)
  
• Blueberry Hill - from the February 18th, 1957 episode of the Nat King Cole Show.
  
• Dance Ballerina Dance - from the February 18th, 1957 episode of the Nat King Cole Show.
  
• I'm Sitting On Top Of the World - From the January 28th, 1957 episode of the Nat King Cole Show (Guest star was Count Basie)
  
• Just In Time - From the January 21st, 1957 episode of The Nat King Cole Show.

 

That letter signed by Cole sold on ebay for $490. A lot more than I was willing to pay!

Here are two interesting Cole-related pieces of memorabilia from 1945: An ad agency's directive to design a print ad with the King Cole Trio and other Capitol artists, including a few white women. As the memo indicates, the problem was how to give the trio top billing in the ad without having their likenesses appearing above the pictures of the white women -- the fear being that to do otherwise would "bring down the house." (The attitudes back then...)

The second document is one artist's suggested rendering of the ad, with the trio off to the side but still dominating the ad.

 

That is getting into the price range of some autograph dealers.

 

Sidetracks

Here are a couple of different labels that feature Nat King Cole with Capitol's blessing.

A NARAS label [the Grammy group] from 1962:



This was put together by NARAS for Chevrolet. I wondered which version of Route 66 was used. It is the one from The Nat King Cole Story sessions. The notes are by George Simon.



I wonder if it was featured in ads for the car?

 

This album is in pretty good shape and still has the shrink wrap and price label. I don't know the year, but is probably after the Pickwick version.



It is the same LP as the Pickwick Love Is A Many Splendored Thing including the cover list that mentions the ghost-song But Not For Me. A new cover photo has been attached for this client. The price stamped on the sticker on the shrink wrap is $1.49.

 

~

Who else can say they have heard this album in AUTHENTIPHONIC TRUE DIMENSIONAL SOUND ?

 

Authentiphonic?!! That's priceless.

As poorly packaged as this Sear/Pickwick album was, I really like the song selection. It's a great mix of classics and rarities.

 

OK, I need some help from our resident Cole experts.

I set about re-sequencing "The MacGregor Years" 4-CD set, which is a compilation of the radio transcriptions the King Cole Trio did for the MacGregor label between 1941 and 1945. (I wanted the stuff in chronologiocal order.)

But in doing this, I noticed some of the dates in the liner notes seemed off -- so I pulled out Klaus Teubig's discography on the trio to double-check. Teubig's book and the liner notes to the MacGregor CD don't agree on almost any of the recording dates for this material -- and the differences can be a year or more. Also, there are a lot of specific recording dates mentioned in the liner notes that are nowhere to be found in the book. Normally, I'd be inclined to favor the book as the more reliable source, but the CD liner notes seem so detailed in terms of players, precise dates, release numbers, etc. (Of course, there are the unavoidable typos to contend with in the CD liner notes, such as recording sessions in "1994" rather than 1944...)

Any idea what the best source of the MacGregor recording dates really is?

 

Sorry, I don't know who would have the best information regarding the dates. Who was the notes writer on the MacGregor set ?

 

Looks like Leslie Gourse wrote them in 1995. Teubig's book came out in 1994, and there are several MacGregor sessions he assigns to "circa May 1944" and the like. So the liner notes seem more precise -- although that doesn't mean they're more accurate!

 

I read somewhere that the Nat King Cole Trio started in Las Vegas in 1948 at the Thunderbird. Does anyone have more information on his start in Las Vegas?

Before he started working at the Sands, I guess conditions were pretty bad in Vegas for blacks.

 

This photo was undated.



Bunny Briggs was a tap dancer, described by Duke Ellington as "the most superleviathonic, rhythmaturgically-syncopated tapsthamaticianisamist”

 

From a color postcard:

The Thunderbird, Las Vegas

 

After the Thunderbird, I think Nat next played the El Rancho Vegas.



The site had this ad dated January 9, 1954.