Kenneth Kendall R.I.P.

Kenneth Kendall was not the first newsreader for BBC Television, but he was the first newsreader to actually appear on the screen. He died yesterday at the age of 88. Kenneth Kendall was born on 7 August 1924 in British India. When he was ten years old his family moved to Cornwall where he would spend the rest of his childhood. He studied at Felsted School in Essex and attended Oxford University. During World War II he served in the Coldstream Guards and was wounded during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. He left the service in 1946 with the rank of captain. Following the war he was a teacher at a prep school in Sussex. It was a friend, who thought he had a good voice, who suggested he apply for a job at the BBC.

Kenneth Kendall joined BBC Radio in 1948. He made an uncredited appearance in the film The Reckless Moment (1949). In 1954 he moved into television. In the early days of BBC Television newsreaders did not appear on screen as it as thought that their facial expressions could give the impression of bias on the part of the newsreaders. It was in 1955, not long before the launch of ITN (the first competition in television that the BBC would have), that the corporation decided to have a newsreader on the screen. It was then on 4 September 1955 that Kenneth Kendall became the first newsreader at the BBC to appear on the television screen. He appeared as a BBC announcer in the film Evidence in Concrete (1960).

 In 1961 Kenneth Kendall left reading the news and joined the BBC programming department. He disliked the job and did not remain with it long. Throughout the Sixties he presented the quiz show Pit Your Wits and he appeared on such programmes as A for Andromeda, Suspense, Here and Now, Doctor Who, Adam Adamant Lives, and Mogul. He narrated Seawards the Great Ships (1961) and appeared in the films The Brain (1962), They Came from Beyond Space (1967), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

 In 1969 he returned to the BBC as a newsreader. He appeared on Dead of Night and The Morecambe & Wise Show. He left the BBC in 1981. In 1982 he started a seven year stint as the host of Treasure Hunt. He went onto appear on the shows Executive Stress and KYTV.  He returned to Cornwall where he opened an art gallery, then moved to the Isle of Wight where he opened a restaurant named Kendalls. Discovering his disliked the restaurant business, he closed it and opened an art gallery on the same spot.

As an American I never saw Kenneth Kendall read the news live, much less host Treasure Hunt. I only know him from archival footage and his appearances on television shows and in movies. That having been said, I saw enough to be impressed with Mr. Kendall as a newsreader. He had a great voice and perfect diction, and he appeared imperturbable regardless of the news he was reading. The fact that he was always impeccably dressed lent even more weight to his words as he read the news. Speaking as an American, Kenneth Kendall seemed like the British equivalent of Walter Cronkite or David Brinkley, television journalists from an age when television journalism was a serious business. That having been said, Kenneth Kendall was one of a kind, a dignified newsreader who always gave his best to his job.

14 December 2012

Tonight I was going to eulogise legendary British newsreader Kenneth Kendall, but events today have left me in little mood for a blog post. Today 20 children and 6 adults were murdered in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Also today, at a primary school in the Henan province village of Chengping, China, 22 children and an adult were stabbed. While several injured were taken to hospital, fortunately there have been no deaths thus far. My thoughts and prayers tonight are with those who lost loved ones in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, as well as with the victims and their famlies of the stabbings in Chengping, China.

TCM Remembers 2012

Today Turner Classic Movies released their 2012 edition of "TCM Remembers," their annual tribute to those figures in film who have died the past year. Every year I promise myself that I will not cry. This year I made it as far as Davy Jones before I broke down. I honestly believes that no one does tributes to those movie celebrities who have died as well as TCM--the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science should take notes from TCM! Anyhow, without further ado, here is "TCM Remembers 2012."

The 32nd Anniversary of John Lennon's Death

It was on 8 December 1980 that John Lennon died. I have written many times about the impact that Mr. Lennon had on my life, probably more than other artist. Rather reiterating what I have already said many times, I will simply leave you with some of his music.

Dave Brubeck Passes On

Legendary jazz pianist Dave Brubeck died on 5 December 2012 at the age of 91. It was the day before his birthday (6 December).

Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, California on 6 December 1920. His father was a cattle rancher, while his mother was an English expatriate who had planned to become a concert pianist. Mr. Brubeck then not only learned to play piano, but various other instruments as well. He first performed publicly when he was only 14. He attended the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California with the intention of becoming a veterinarian, but within a year switched to music.  In 1942, following his graduation, Mr. Brubeck joined the United States Army. He played in the Army band at Camp Haan, North Carolina for two years before he was made a rifleman and eventually sent to Metz, France, in the expectation that he would serve in combat. He was saved in combat when his commanding officer heard him playing piano with a Red Cross travelling show one day. His commanding officer made certain he was assigned to a band that would entertain the troops.

Following World War II he attended Mills College where he studied under French composer Darius Milhaud. It was in 1946 that Mr. Brubeck formed his first jazz group, an octet. It was in 1951 that he formed The Dave Brubeck Quartet. The group toured colleges and had success with their recordings. In 1954 Mr. Brubeck became only the second jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time (the first had been Louis Armstrong). It was in 1954 that he signed with Columbia Records. His most legendary album, Time Out, was released in 1959. The album featured what may be Dave Brubeck's best known piece, "Take Five." The album also featured  another hit, "Blue Rondo à la Turk." Time Out was followed by the similar albums  Time Further Out: Miro Reflections (1961), Countdown: Time in Outer Space  (1962), Time Changes (1963), and Time In (1966).  In 1967 The Dave Brubeck Quartet disbanded.

Following the disbanding of The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Mr. Brubeck began concentrating on longer, orchestral pieces. He formed another quartet in 1968. He would both record and perform with them often. Dave Brubeck continued to work into 2011.

Dave Brubeck was easily one of the most successful jazz musicians of all time, one of the few who saw success on the pop charts in the Fifties and Sixties. "Take Five" would be ubiquitous in those decades, even serving for a time as the them to the Today show. He was very innovative, incorporating ideas from European composition into American jazz. He was also exceedingly versatile. He not only composed shorter jazz pieces, but oratorios, concertos, and musicals as well. What makes all of this even more remarkable is that Mr. Brubeck never made a big deal of his success. His reaction to Time featuring on their cover was that Duke Ellington should have had a cover before he did. He led a relatively quiet life. He never drank nor did drugs. and he was married to the same woman for years. A man of great modesty, he was also a man of great talent.

Mickey Baker Passes On

Legendary rhythm and blues guitarist Mickey Baker died 27 November 2012 at the age of 87.

Mickey Baker was born on 15 October 1925 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was only eleven when he was placed in an orphanage. He ran away from the orphanage often, being retrieved in each case. When he was 16 he moved to New York City and worked menial jobs before becoming a pool hustler. At 19 he enrolled in the New York City School of Music to study guitar, but eventually dropped out. Instead he taught himself guitar and by 1949 he had formed his own jazz combo. It was not long before he switched to rhythm and blues.

Starting in the early Fifties he served as a session musician on many recordings. He played guitar on hits produced by such artists as The Drifters, Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, Big Maybelle, Little Willie John, and others. He also released a few singles under his own name. In the mid-Sixties he formed Mickey & Sylvia with his student Sylvia Vanderpool. The two would have a top twenty hit with the song "Love is Strange"  in 1956. The duo would break up in the early Sixties, although they would continue to record together on and off for years to come.

In the mid-Sixties Mickey Baker moved to France, where he recorded for such French performers as Francoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, and Ronnie Bird.  He would also write a number of instruction books on playing guitar.

Although not as well known, Mickey Baker can be counted alongside such greats as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry as having an influence on guitar in both rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll. His influence would be felt not only on rhythm and blues acts of the Sixties, but even the British Invasion bands of the same era. His book Jazz Guitar has remained in print since it was first published over fifty years ago.

Dann Cahn R.I.P.

Dann Cahn, a film editor who made his career working on such classic television shows as I Love Lucy and The Beverly Hillbillies, died on 21 November 2012 at the age of 89,

Dann Cahn was born on 9 April 1923 in Hollywood, California. Both his father and his uncle were film editors. He served in World War II, as part of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Force  in Culver City at the Hal Roach Studios. His first editing work came while he was in the military, editing the training short "Airborne Liferaft."

After the war Dann Cahn followed his father and uncle into film editing. He started editing in television with an episode of Your Show Time in 1949. It was in 1952 that he became the editorial supervisor for Desilu, working on the classic sitcom I Love Lucy. In the Fifties he would also work on such series as Our Miss Brooks, The Lineup, Cavalcade of America, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Make Room for Daddy, and U. S. Marshal.  He also edited the film Forever Darling. In the Sixties he also edited such series as The Beverly Hillbillies, Many Happy Returns, Branded, My Mother the Car, and The Guns of Will Sonnett. He edited such films as Heaven with a Gun (1969), The Phynx (1970), and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970).

In the Seventies he edited such shows as The Delphi Bureau, Police Woman, Man From Atlantis, and 240 Robert. He directed such films as Zero to Sixty (1978) and The Octagon (1980). In the Eighties he worked on such shows as The Fall Guy, Remington Steele, My Sister Sam, and DEA. He worked on the films Tough Enough (1983) and The Elite (1989).

Dann Cahn also served as a producer on such shows as Branded, The Mothers in Law, and Shaft. He also directed episodes of Rescue 8, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, M Squad, Leave It to Beaver, Coronado 9, and Man From Atlantis.

I Love Lucy  was not the first American filmed series. It was not even the first using a three camera system. That having been said, it was among the earliest American filmed series and among the earliest to use a three camera system. This made Dann Cahn a pioneer in the area of television editing. Not only did he work on I Love Lucy, but other early filmed series such as Our Miss Brooks and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Dann Cahn then paved the way for television editing to this day.