MIZMARILYN'S MISSIVES

MIZMARILYN'S MISSIVES... THE MANIACAL MUSINGS ON THE MEANDERINGS, MISADVENTURES, AND MISHAPS OF A MISGUIDED MISCREANT...

Friday, January 13, 2006

Sweet Adeline... My Adeline...



If you don't know it by now, it's time to learn. I love music. While I love playing music on various instruments, my favorite music is singing... even better than whistling. I have no idea when I started singing. My father loved music, but had no time to even indulge a fantasy had he had one. He sang occasionally, but mostly he whistled. I sang. It may have been the only reason I ever attended church. I may be a godless heathen, but BOY I love the music... I took piano lessons, and my piano teacher started a small singing group. We sang for Jimmy Durante... in his home. his home. We sang on the Milton Berle Show in 1955. I had such a wonderful time! Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were on the show... it must have been one of the last ones they did together. I remember hearing that they made $25,000 each... a princely sum! They fought during rehearsals, and I was surprised to see that Dean Martin was the funny one, and Jerry Lewis was in charge and controlling. Dean Martin came to our dressing room and chatted with us... it was such a gracious thing for him to do. There was a sandwich machine, the first I had ever seen. You could put in money and get a sandwich or an apple or some milk... DOWNTOWN!! They PAYED me $85.90 to sing on television!! Damn...
I had arrived.

Unfortunately, I had arrived jussst a little late. I was 12 at the time. I never sounded like a 12 year old, at least not a 12 year old GIRL. I am a baritone. No longer a whiskey tenor, I have a deep voice, made deeper by misuse over the years. You should hear me on "Old Man River"... I can put Paul Robeson to shame... .... Ok, that's an exaggeration. So I was asked to leave the group. They all had to join the union for $200 and never made another cent. Karma...

In High School I sang in the choir. My best friend got all the lead parts because she was a soprano... damn her soul... I made up for it by um... dating her boyfriend (albeit much later). I sang in the choir in College. I was in the group that became the 'Young Americans", but was out of college when they formed. I would have loved to sing in a group.. any group... preferably a folk group, but I was working, and lazy and not of an age where I knew how to speak my own mind as well as I do now...

sigh..

The last group in which I participated was Sweet Adelines. Man, I loved the music. Boy, I hated the group! This was worse than church! Large groups of women with not a bit of testosterone to allay or temper them... not a pretty sight.

We competed (the picture) at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Many things wrong:
1. I am dressed like an aging hooker, in hot pink with big hair and enough make up to disguise any good features I may have had.. Not so bad when I was with the group, but very difficult to explain when caught in the elevator ("no, you see, I left the last john in the room, and I'm just going down to check on my corner... no really")
2. We come in FIRST in sound but 5th overall because our makeup wasn't bold enough and our choreography wasn't sharp enough... silly me, I thought this was a SINGING contest...
3. We have been bitchfighting for months, yet are asked to 'come together' for this concert... yeah... right... just as soon as you pull that tiny knife out of my back I'd be more than happy...
4. They don't want me to wear my glasses. I am legally blind without my glasses. Finally they decide that it's better for me to actually be able to see to get up on the stage rather than lead my bunch off into the darkness, singing boldly as we go...

but boy I loved the music... not the female version as much, because they don't allow women to sing the same kind of harmony as the men... nor do they get all the good songs... but I love the music.

I finally quit when a small group of us got together after a rehearsal one night and went to a local pub... at one point, of course, we started to sing... and arrived at the next gathering to stern looks and a copy of the RULES... which stated... "Sweet Adelines shall refrain from poor quality singing in public places"... I kid you not..

Don't know about you, but I reserve the right to sing as badly as I want any time, place or where I want.

Can you find me in the picture... I'm the rebel...

1 Comments:

At 2:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bwah ha ha! Verdugo Hills? Joni Bescos? Circa, what? The 70s sometime? You ought to try it again. It's not that bad. We have great arrangements now. Check out Harborlites chorus in Anaheim. They are probably the best chorus in the country. Look 'em up on the web.

 

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