bsgs98's video: Tommy Weir - Beloved 1928

Beloved Words and Music by Gus Kahn and Joe Sanders Tommy Weir , Vocal March 30 1928 Harmony 625-H Thomas (Tommy) Weir, born in 1889, was a boxer in his youth but in 1909 he joined the George Primrose Minstrels and sang tenor with the Church City Quartet. In a newspaper review he was described as having "an unusually pure and velvety tenor." In 1911 he married Jessie Keller, a vaudeville trick bicyclist and they formed an act, "Venus on Wheels" in which he accompanied her with his vocal talent. A newspaper review of the act called her the "perfect formed woman" and him a "dandy little tenor." He was identified as a "countertenor" meaning a male singing voice in the alto range. The act performed in theaters across the United States. In 1918 he performed in a comedy act "Jack and Tommy Weir" (Jack was presumably his brother.) Tommy was the straight man and singer, while his brother was the comedian. The act consisted of dancing and singing often in black-face. In 1928 he opened a music store in Rochester New York with his partner and pianist Frank Nanna. Between 1928 and 1930, Weir made about 70 recordings for Harmony, Grey Gull, and other dime-store labels. He wrote several songs including some that he also recorded. In the late 1920s, Weir performed regularly on the radio, mostly in Rochester on WHAM. On the radio program, "Hoover Sentinels", he sang tenor with soprano Ruth Manning as the "Hoover Honeymooners." He also sang on a music request program accompanied by organist, J. Gordon Baldwin. He continued singing on the radio into the early 1930s but with less frequency. In 1936 he appeared in a local theater concert and was referred to as a "former NBC star." About the Songwriters Gustav Gerson Kahn (1886 -- 1941) musician, songwriter and lyricist was born in Koblenz, Germany. The family immigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890. After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk in a mail order business before launching one of the most successful and prolific careers from Tin Pan Alley. In his early days, Kahn wrote special material for vaudeville. In 1913 he began a productive partnership with the well-established composer Egbert van Alstyne. Later, he began writing lyrics for composer and bandleader Isham Jones. This partnership led to one of Kahn's best-known works, "I'll See You in My Dreams", which became the title of a movie based on his life. Throughout the 1920s, Kahn continued to contribute to Broadway scores such as Holka Polka (1925), Kitty's Kisses (1926), Artists and Models (1927), Whoopee! (1928), and Show Girl (1929). He went on to write several movies, mainly for MGM. His catalog contained some of the greatest collections of songs from the first half of the 20th century and it is for this very reason that he was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, nearly 30 years after his death. His most famous songs include "It Had To Be You" (1924) with music by Isham Jones and "Makin' Whoopee!" (1928), with music by Walter Donaldson. Danny Thomas played Kahn in the 1951 biographical film I'll See You in My Dreams. Joseph L. "Joe" Sanders (1896 - 1965) was an American jazz pianist, singer, and bandleader associated with Kansas City jazz for most of his career. Sanders was best known for co-leading the Coon-Sanders' Nighthawks along with Carleton Coon (1894--1932). The pair formed the group in 1920 in Kansas City under the name Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra, broadcast for the first time on radio the following year, and became known as the Nighthawks because of their frequent appearances on late-night radio. They recorded in Chicago in 1924 and held a residency at the Blackhawk club in that city from 1926. The ensemble toured as a Midwestern territory band, and after Coon's death Sanders continued to lead the band under his own name. Sanders worked mostly in Hollywood studios in the 1940s, and occasionally led performances at the Blackhawk once again. He was a vocalist for the Kansas City Opera in the 1950s.