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MAY 22, 2013

Love in a Tornado (Listen -Thanks Don Graham)

POOR ATTEMPT AT DJ LIST

CNN's Todd Leopold ( www.cnn.com ), recently ran a story about popular Disc Jockeys, which showed the writer's lack of understanding for the Broadcast industry.

"The Kings of the Radio: All-time great DJs" , can be accessed by clicking the link, but be ready to be disappointed.

Claude Hall put the feelings of many on the "front lines" in this brief note to the Editor of CNN:

"Ed,

I'm afraid that Todd Leopold doesn't have the slightest idea about disc jockeys. You can't make a list from their press releases".

Claude Hall, columnist

The Hollywood Hills

THANKS DON GRAHAM

Dear Don Graham:

Thanks again for making the time to get together for lunch — it was a pleasure. Simply wanted to keep you in the loop — we are now for sale at CD Baby and they are submitting the tracks and EP to Amazon, iTunes and all the other paid download and streaming services. CLICK FOR CD BABY Kent Anderson

PAUL DREW

"Don Graham, I wanted to be sure and send you a heartfelt thanks to you for all you did to help Paul. You truly stepped up and offered a helping hand at a critical time and I (among many others)will be forever grateful. Love Ya" DUKE

"Dave: Don has been a true friend to both Paul and me. I don't know how I would have gotten through the weekend and gotten everything done without the support of Don, Jack and Rosie. I also thank all you guys for your support. I hope Paul realized how many friends he had." ANN DREW

"Ann, So appreciate this message from you and please know that Debbie and I and our family send you our deepest and sincere sympathies. And though I'm sure they don't expect any special acknowledgement certainly Don, Jack and Rosie earned that many times over. Of course I think all of us know the devotion and unbelievable support you gave Paul for so many many years. I will always treasure some wonderful times we shared and I certainly do trust, like you, that Paul knew he had the friendship and admiration of so many of us. Like a lot us guys I will forever be in his debt for always being to help and guide my career". DAVE SHOLIN

"Good afternoon my friend. It is a beautiful day ! I have been out back all day playing with my plants. There are at least a hundred of them out there. Each one is like a precious child to me. So much color ! I walked in about an hour ago and checked in with Hollywood Hills. I was appalled, not surprised, but appalled, by what I read.

For decades I have thought that Ron Jacobs was merely the biggest $%#@ in Top Forty Radio. I have read his comment about Paul Drew. It is really beyond the pale. He denigrates, for no good reason, the memory of a dead man. He quotes, undoubtedly, incorrectly, another dead man. One wonders if he thinks he will make any friends with this kind of behavior. Belittling others to aggrandize himself. He doesn't.

He only alienates all who read of his hatred. Witness 'Gursky's' response. The Cretin says "sorry to slam a dead man " He is not sorry at all, he revels in slamming everyone. It makes him feel important. " I hate, therefor I am ". Jacobs is indeed a sad case. Why you boys continue to give him a forum to spew his madness is beyond me." LEE BABY SIMMS

"Jack, I not only honor Lee Baby's wisdom when it comes to radio and radio people, but value it. I consider him very perceptive. In touch. So did a mutual friend of his and mine -- George Wilson. Both George and I valued Lee Baby's friendship.

You see, a lot of people who worked under Paul considered him not just a good radio program director, but a great one. People I respected. People that I liked.

Paul was helpful to me, in my role at Billboard, many times. I used to make fun of his culinary tastes (he liked a certain McDonald's in Tokyo), but not his radio abilities. Nor his appearance in spite of that porkpie hat.

I'm afraid that Ron Jacobs is extremely wrong. Living a few days longer doesn't give you the right to putdown those who go on before. His looks had nothing to do with his programming skills. Ron made a statement without documentation to back up his claims, thus it appears as if he were merely spouting hogwash. Childish hogwash." CLAUDE HALL

The recent, sad passing of Paul Drew has triggered an avalanche of comments and emails from some of the biggest in the industry. You see some of their names and comments above, and still many others made their opinion known and asked not to use their name, as the resulting email campaign often is very disrupting.

For my part in posting the unconfirmed comment, that is a serious error and I apologize. Sometimes it is necessary to read every single line of content which is submitted.

Paul was always very kind to me and taught me a lot. Don Graham introduced us a few years ago following the death of George Harrison. We needed an expert for my daily national radio show, and Paul agreed to do the interview. He was very close to George and knew most people in show business, as we are finding out.

The three of us would have lunch together (Don, Paul, Jack) and he would recall many great radio stories. Yes, he could be difficult at times, but always treated me with respect, credibility and dignity. It became evident that he was a great radio professional and felt that way.

(Les Garland, Dave Sholin, Charlie Van Dyke, John Long, Mel Phillips, John Rook .. and many more).

Bill Drake & Paul Drew WAKE

The comment about he and Bill Drake can not be verified and most likely did not happen. Hollywood Hills has a responsibilty to present accurate info. We should have checked. Considering the fact that Bill Drake and Paul were lifelong friends and worked together as jocks in GA, and based on people who actually knew Bill Drake personally, the comment is unlikely. (Don Graham lived with Drake for quite some time and never heard anything about it. According to Radio & Records, Robert W. Morgan even apologized to Drew for a misunderstanding.

Ron Jacobs has sent Hollywood Hills a follow up to yesterday's quote and his comments follow below.

"ALOHA, JACK, YOU MENTIONED ON OUR FONE CHAT THAT SOME READERS WERE UPSET RE. PAUL DREW ONLINE COMMENTS MADE BY OTHERS ARE INCORRECT: I HAVE BEEN CALLED MANY NASTY THINGS BUT AS I HAVE SAID: I NEVER MET THE MAN. AND HE WAS ALWAYS NICE IN HIS COMMENTS ABOUT ME. TO PARAPHRASE CLAUDE HALL: "WE COME, WE BE LIVIN' AND WE DIE" IF ANYONE HAS COMPLAINTS, SUGGESTIONS, ERRORS THEY CAN ADDRESS THEM TO ME AT rj@hawaii.rr.com RON JACOBS

SOUPY SINGS

MUCK-ARTY PARK - SOUPY SALES (CLICK)

Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark.

From 1968 to 1975, he was a regular panelist on the syndicated revival of What's My Line? and appeared on several other TV game shows. During the 1980s Sales hosted his own show on WNBC-AM in New York City.

Sales was born Milton Supman, in Franklinton in Franklin County, North Carolina, to Irving and Sadie Supman. His father, a dry goods merchant, had immigrated to America from Hungary in 1894. Sales had two siblings, Leonard Supman (deceased) and Jack Supman (born 1921). His was the only Jewish family in the town; Sales joked that local Ku Klux Klan members bought the sheets used for their robes from his father's store.

One of the fans of the Soupy Sales show was Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra started his own record label, Reprise Records, he signed Sales to a recording contract. Two albums were produced with Reprise, "The Soupy Sales Show" in 1961 and "Up In The Air" in 1962.

Sales' novelty dance record, The Mouse, dates from the mid-1960s period of his career, when his show was based in New York. Sales performed The Mouse on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1965, just prior to The Beatles' segment of the show.

Sales signed with Motown Records in 1969 releasing a single, "Muck-Arty Park" (a play on the 1968 hit "MacArthur Park"), as well as an album "A Bag of Soup." Soupy and Frank Nastasi also cut and recorded a comedy and song story disk "Spy With A Pie" for ABC/Paramount. "Spy With A Pie" was rereleased by "Simon Says" children's records.