The Cook Sisters

The Cook Sisters were a rather nice sounding sister act whose origins are unknown and produced only one known Brunswick record in 1926. Unless the Cook Sisters performed under another pseudonym, their entire musical output can be found here. All we know of the Cook Sisters (Nellie and Lucile) is that they wandered into the Brunswick recording studio in New York City on September 28, 1927 to record these two tunes on Brunswick 3668 (click to play):

• (Just Make My Cot) Where the Cot-Cot-Cotton Grows
  
• A Shady Tree

The Giersdorf Sisters

The Giersdorf Sisters, Elvira, Irene, and Rae (L to R in the photo on the left) recorded commercially for Columbia in 1927. The rather nice looking Giersdorf Sisters (sometimes known as "The Three Giersdorf Sisters") appear in a 1931 short "Footlights" with the gals as birds on a telephone wire! They also did a Paramount short in 1929. Their career extended in the mid-1930s where they can be heard a on 12-inch Victor Medleys recordings of "Red, Hot and Blue", "Forbidden Melody", and "Revenge With Music".

• St Louis Blues - Test Pressing c1927
  

Banjo Buddy

Banjo Buddy is a very entertaining personality from the 1920s with a pleasing vocal style while accompanying himself on the banjo. The two recordings below represent one-half of his solo Brunswick recording output. Banjo Buddy was also the vocalist on four sides of a 1927 Pathe session with the California Ramblers. Banjo Buddy’s recording of Cole Porter’s "Let’s Misbehave" is immensely popular even today for Jazz Age listeners.

The amazing fact about Banjo Buddy is that he is still alive and well today at 102 years young! Banjo Buddy real name is Harold Sandelman and currently resides in Southern California. The JazzAge1920s web site wishes Banjo Buddy many more happy birthdays and thanks for the fine music that have left us with today. [And thanks to Randy Skretvedt for finding out that Banjo Buddy is still with us today.]

[Update: July 2008] I’m sorry to report that Banjo Buddy passed away peacefully on July 15, 2008. His daughter writes: "He was a wonderful man who had a great sense of humor and we all miss him very much. He had his driver's license renewed for 2 years at age 96. He loved to play golf and duplicate bridge and did both until his body was too weak to do so. He loved to play cribbage and was victorious almost every time. He was a great joke and story teller. His mind was extremely sharp right up to the end of his life."

• Miss Annabelle Lee (Brunswick 3637, 1927)
  
• Let’s Misbehave (Brunswick 3865, 1928)
  

Bobbie Grice

Parisian Red Heads

From the 1927 sheet music, the Parisian Red Heads are billed as the "World’s Greatest Girl Band". But who are they? I do not know anything about their origins (other than they apparently were from Paris, Indiana) or who was in the band. Rust lists only one recording - Brunswick 3795 recorded in Chicago in 1928 - "I’ll Think of You" and "I Still Love You". Vocals may be by band member Bobby Grice. Perhaps one of our Jazz Age 1920s readers will know about these girls and will email me with this information.

From one of our JazzAge1920s readers comes this info and anecdote on Parisian Red Head Valerie Pohlmeyer:
“One of the saxophone players was my grandmother, Valeria Margaret Evenson Pohlmeyer. Her grandfather, Aloysis Stahl had been a bandmaster in Luxemburg Wisconsin. Her father Ole Evenson had played in the Stahl band and music was always a part of her life. In the photo you have here, she is in the back row, third from the left. She told many funny stories about being on the road with the band. Unfortunately, Valeria died in 1978 and so her stories are gone with her.

“You may enjoy one of my favorite stories from Grandma Valeria. She was from Wisconsin and her family would send her ‘stinky’ cheeses from her hometown. She would have them with her on the train and bus as they traveled from town to town and her bandmates would complain about the smell. One night when they had a performance, she told us that she snuck onto the stage before the performance and smeared the mouthpieces of all the girls’ instruments with one of her smelliest cheeses. When the girls got on stage, they turned their noses up at the smell, but of course, they had a show to do!! So all the girls took a deep breath and put their mouths to their horns and played. I’m sure they got Valeria back with one of their pranks, but Grandma never told us that story!”