Interview: Ginny Mancini

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Some of Artie Shaw and Mel Torme's finest recordings came in 1946, when both were signed to the Musicraft label in Los Angeles. Torme at the time fronted a vocal quartet known as the Mel-Tones. What set the Mel-Tones apart was their with-it spin on the band vocal groups popular at the time. Torme wrote the vocal arrangements, and their jazz sensibility impressed Shaw. The Mel-Tone who sang the "hot notes," giving the group its hip harmony, was Ginny O'Connor, who later would marry Henry Mancini.

When I had an opportunity to interview Ginny several weeks ago on her husband for a Wall Street Journal piece, I couldn't help but ask her about her Mel-Tones days. Ginny was taken aback: "How do you know about the Mel-Tones?" she asked with bemused surprise. When I told her how much I admired her and the group and told her about the Mel-Tones Soundies up on YouTube, she was flattered and wanted to see them. I sent them along and our chat began. [Above, Mel Torme and the Mel-Tones in 1946. Clockwise from center, front: Mel Torme, Bernie Parke, Ginny O'Connor, Betty Beveridge and Les Baxter]

Here's Ginny's recollections of the her recordings with Mel Torme and Artie Shaw:

"The early 1940s was a pretty innocent time in Los Angeles, even though there was a war going on. The city was so alive and everyone was on the same page with the war effort. [Above, street scene at Hollywood & Vine in 1944]

"I attended Los Angeles City College, where four of us started a vocal group in our senior year called the School Kids. We sang around town, anywhere we could get attention. It was me, Bernie Parke, Diz Disruhd and Betty Beveridge. In 1944, we worked with Harry Schooler, a bandleader who was known as the Swing Shift Dance King. During the war, when people worked shifts at plants around the clock, Harry had figured out that by holding dances at midnight or later, you’d attract all the young single people in their early 20s who were just getting off in the early morning hours and had nothing to do. We worked with him at the Aragon Ballroom on the Lick Pier in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica. One night in early ’44, while we were singing, he was arrested for statutory rape and that was the end of him.


"In college, I loaded up my schedule in the morning with heavy courses so I could be in mixed chorus in the afternoon. We sang traditional choral music in the class, and we loved it. It’s hard to explain why but it was everything for us. It made us feel so good.

"When the School Kids’ performed outside of school, our arrangements were written by Tom Kenny, a singer and vocal arranger. At the time, we were singing lots of patriotic songs. All four of us hung out together all the time. We couldn’t get enough of each other. Then Tom was drafted.


"In the early 1940s, orchestra leader Ben Pollack had heard us sing and convinced Mel Torme’s family to move out to Hollywood from Chicago. Ben sensed Mel was a talented youngster and should be where the action is. Mel finished high school at Los Angeles High and then at 18 was in Frank Sinatra’s first film, Higher and Higher (1943).


"Ben arranged for us to meet Mel in ’44 and we hit it off. Mel took us on at face value based on Ben Pollack’s say-so. Mel arranged our vocals, and we started doing more sophisticated stuff. We loved singing Mel’s arrangements of hot tunes of the day. [Above, Ben Pollack]


"Then Diz was drafted in ’44, and we replaced him with Les Baxter, who later became a bandleader and recorded all those exotica albums in the ‘50s. Les was pretty worldly even then. He was a saxophonist who had played with Freddie Slack on Cow Cow Boogie and had traveled and was knowledgeable. He turned us on to that world. After we’d rehearse, he’d tell us to lie on the floor and close our eyes, and he’d put on Ravel or Debussy. He introduced us to classical music. [Above, Les Baxter]


"We were enamored of Mel and his talent. He could do everything and do it all so well: sing, play, arrange, write—everything. We began recording tighter in 1944, things like Where Or When and A Stranger in Town. Around this time, with Mel on board, we made a couple of movies, including Let’s Go Steady. There was one for Columbia and one for Universal. They were cute teenage kind of movies. It was a very innocent time. [A clip from Let's Go Steady...]

"We were up for any opportunity that came along. In 1945, we recorded a series of Soundies, including Lullaby of Broadway, which were early music videos. Mel wasn’t in them. He had just signed with Musicraft Records, and the label wouldn’t let him appear. So Bernie pretended to be Mel and lip-synched to Mel’s vocal. [Here's Lullaby of Broadway, with Ginny in the middle with dark hair....]

"Actually, now that I think about it, those Soundies were done on Aug. 14, 1945, VJ day. I remember we were in the studio and after we were done, we walked out on Sunset Blvd. and saw throngs of people. We asked what was going on. Someone told us that the Japanese had surrendered. People were everywhere.

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Used with permission by Marc Myers