(402) DICK KLEINER "THE RECORD SHOP" : DICKS PICKS

Dick Kleiner mentioned me and a couple of my records in his nationally-syndicated column, called. "The Record Shop" which began in 1953. I don't think I ever met Dick, but I know that his column appeared in dozens of small newspapers around the country. I believe he went on to write Hollywood journalism. I haven't been able to find out too much about him but like so many others who influenced my life in good ways, I wish I had a way to find him and say hello and Thanks!

THANK YOU TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Just want to say "THANK YOU" to all of you who have been supportive of my efforts these last few years.
It means a lot to me. Wes

(401) MIDNIGHT EARL WILSON : HE ANNOUNCED THAT I LOOKED A LOT LIKE JAMES DEAN

An Evening News copy of an Earl Wilson Column that mentioned me! (We couldn't get it to enlarge so you could read it, but you can try!)

EARL WILSON was the syndicated columnist who announced that I'd been signed to United Artists and that I looked a lot like James Dean. One of the hardest working journalists that ever lived, Earl didn't just rely on contacts to give him information, he continued to interview even as the years went by. Being mentioned by Earl ever so briefly was a dream come true for the up and coming actor - singer - songwriter I was back in New York.

We're linking to his New York Times obit above which sings his praises.

We learned that Earl's son, Earl Junior, gave his father's papers to Ohio State college, the school he had graduated from.

(399) STRICTLY OFF THE RECORD : SALT LAKE TRIBUNE REVIEW :

Some newspapers used pictures of me supplied by United Artists and other's went without. Here's one that the Salt Lake City Tribune Review published with one of my publicity photos. Christine and me found this one in a newspaper database. My father was the person on the family who kept scrapbooks of my career when I was too busy on the road to keep track.

VETERANS DAY

(398) MEDIA HOLLYWOOD STYLE : HEDDA HOPPER

Who better to move their careers to writing about Hollywood than a once very pretty young woman who came to Hollywood from a small town in Pennsylvania to act herself?

We're linking to a Biography.com which has a comprehensive biography of Hedda, who made films from 1916-1940 and then hosted Playhouse type TV shows in the 1950's.

By the time I got to Hollywood I knew Hedda was a respected and feared personality, known for feuding with her counterpart Louella Parsons. Both probably made and broke the careers of a number of Hollywood personalities but I had nothing to fear. She was in her seventies when I met her and kept an office not far from where I would once set up my own.

"In 1937, the Esquire Feature Syndicate was looking for a Hollywood columnist and found one in Hopper. Untried, her column was sold to 13 papers and a career was launched... When the column began appearing in the prestigious Los Angeles Times, her status shot upward and her power grew. Her column appeared in 85 metropolitan papers, 3000 small-town dailies, and 2000 weeklies. When she replaced John Chapman at The New York Daily News, she picked up an additional audience of 5,750,000 daily and 7,500,000 on Sunday. She appeared on weekly radio shows and wrote two best sellers: From Under My Hat and The Whole Truth and Nothing But."

IT WAS GREAT MEETING AND GETTING TO KNOW

It was great meeting and getting to know some of the artists who were covered in these magazines. As a teenager I ate up the stories in magazines like these. But once I was a star myself, I learned that some writers made up sensational stories without even talking to the artist and some publishers published anyway.

Debbie Reynolds was just in the news because she put some of her Hollywood memorabilia collection up for auction, including some dresses that Marilyn Monroe wore in her films that earned Debbie millions.

SHARTA GADISON Quote on Friendship

"Some friends come and go like a season. Others are arranged in our lives for good reason." - Sharita Gadison

(279) BOBBY PICKETT MONSTER MASH 1962 : FROM OUR ARCHIVES

Monster Mash was a hit and became a Halloween Classic, and while you can make a great living as a successful songwriter, and the residuals can come in for years on a "one hit wonder," Bobby's novelty song has kept ringing the cash registers for the last 47 years.

(MAKE THAT 49 YEARS in 2011!)

I remember how happy we all were for Bobby when this song hit! Wes Bryan

I'm over here doing the "Transylvania Twist" since I'm related to Vlad the Impaler!

Christine Trzyna

video replaced October 2012

A HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM WES BRYAN and HIS FAMILY

WES BRYAN RARE RECORD : I'LL CRY MY LOVE AND PIERE LA FITTE on BLUE STAR

On my own label BLUE STAR, I put out a single 45 RPM with "I'LL CRY MY LOVE" on one side and "PIERE LA FITTE" on the other. Piere La Fitte was about my favorite pirate. My cousin Dean went into the recording studio with me to produce some of the sound effects on the record. (The song was originally written and demoed as a presentation for a movie.)

(397) MEDIA IN THE LATE 1950'S and EARLY 1960'S : SYNDICATED COLUMNISTS

Christine and I watch the e-Bay auctions to see if anything is for sale under the Wes Bryan category that I don't own or haven't seen in years or don't know about and once in a while I'm surprised. Once in a while a magazine comes up for sale that I know there was an article - or a mention - in.

In the 1950's and early 1960's there were a few important and powerful writers - columnists - who were syndicated, which means that whatever they wrote was printed in small newspapers that couldn't afford their own music critic, all about the same time. These articles went over the wire to reach news rooms where local journalists worked, and typesetters made the article fit.

Some of these writers did mention me and my colleagues in their columns, and recently some of these columns have started appearing on databases that make it easier to research than cranking the old microfilm.

We're going to blog about a few of them.

BROWSER UPDATED TO INTERNET EXPLORER 9.0.3

This blog is now being posted using Internet Explorer 9.0.3. And we use Windows 7. The COMPATIBILITY VIEW OPTION should help you view WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC on older browsers and correct problems such as out of place menus, images, and texts.

We are fond of our design and have not updated to the newer Google Blogger options, especially as this is a custom designed blog which is holding a lot of content. However, we did check the functioning on another Google Blogger that has been upgraded and didn't notice a difference.


WE HOPE THIS INFORMATION HELPS YOU VIEW OUR BLOG ON YOUR COMPUTER!

Wes and Christine

(396) WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE A LABEL YOU MARKET YOURSELF

What does a musical artist do when they don't have a label?

Today there are so many Independent ("Indie") artists who know the answer to that question!

You pay for your own studio time and record not just a demo to send around to agents but a CD for sale on the Internet. You have a web site. You use Social Networking sites to reach your fans. The Internet means that you have potential International Readership. (Just as we've experienced here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC - Hello Latvia!)

Today you can be your own company, your own boss, the talent and the marketing department. If you are successful, you make money, and more money than if you had a contract with a label. Sell enough and the major labels may even come calling.

Earlier in this blog I may've mentioned that I was surprised - maybe even shocked - to learn several years ago that I was on the net - the Rockabilly Hall of Fame site and RCS Discography. (Christine calls this "Web Presence.") It took me some time to get used to it. I had lived the life of a private citizen for many years at that point.

Steve Jobs, one of three founders of Apple Computers, has just passed on, and there's been so much media coverage of this inventor and business mogul who became a billionaire. (Christine uses PC's for this blog but swears by Apple.)

In the early 1960's all this was not technologically possible. Wasn't possible for another 30 years or so.

Marketing depended before the age of the Internet on word of mouth - who you knew or who you could network with personally. It was by ads placed individually in newspapers or trade journals or by writers who were syndicated.

Small labels that so many of us depended on often didn't have the marketing power that the big labels did so you had to entertain on live radio programs or television shows.

(395) READERS OPINIONS! WHEN DO YOU BECOME A CLASSIC?

Christine Trzyna here!

I've been thrift shopping. You see I have a collection that I try to add to this time of the year.

There's this one particular owner-operated (not a charity) thrift store that has the very best deals so I've been going there frequently. I noticed that every Saturday this owner-operator plays the Beatles, one album after another. I imagine this has been the case for years, that he is a total Beatles fan, and that the ambiance of that music has actually helped his sales over time, though I also note, that the majority of the shoppers seem to be Spanish speaking - Hispanic.

During the week, however, what's playing is Classic Hits of the 1950's.

So I was thinking about this notion of Classic.

When does a musical artist become a Classic?

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

(394) CHANGE WAS IN THE AIR

No doubt change was in the air.

One of the things that started happening about this time is that executives from various labels started changing labels.

Some of us who had been musical artists, singer-songwriters, and "Singing - Acting Sensations" started moving from making demos to music production.

There was a shuffle there, as the popularity of The Beatles and phenomenal sales of their records started creating more competition for chart space. (But keep in mind that a single or an album didn't necessarily have to chart to eventually sell enough to earn a Gold.)

Many of my peers who had put in more time entertaining than I did and who were identified with the 1950's started to feel it in their pocketbooks which meant that their labels were feeling it in their pockets too: eventually so many of those talented artists who had kept us all entertained, who had provided us the soundtrack of our youthful lives, would slowly loose coverage in the media too.

BUT NOT ELVIS!

THE LADY (BARBARA GRAY) AND THE KING : MYSTERY OF THE KISSED SOLVED : VANITY FAIR LINK

Linking here to the classic photo of Elvis kissing a mystery woman near 55 years ago - a mystery solved - in an article by Lenora Jane Estes, in August Vanity Fair magazine. The photo was taken by Alfred Wertheimer. Now Barbara Gray, the kissed, has been identified.

(393) AMERICAN MUSIC : SYLVESTER CROSS DIES : I KEEP WORKING WITH BOONE AND CAPEHEART

1964 seemed like a happy time to me when I was living it, and in my memory.

We songwriters were not especially concerned about the effects of the so called British Invasion of the Beatles and other groups would have on our own careers. Shows like Shindig celebrated rock and roll in Great Britain and the United States and we had confidence in our talents and abilities.

But that year there was a big change coming for those of us who were on contract with American Music, the big music publishing house that I had come to Los Angeles to work for, where Jerry Capeheart, who once worked with Eddie Cochran and who had signed me on staff was my boss.

Sylvester Cross, the owner of American Music died. I'd signed a five year contract but it was cut short. We kept going to work until Sylvester's wife sold the American Music catalogue for a song (!) and shut down operations.

I kept working for Jerry and for Pat Boone, making demos.

THE WALKER BROTHERS or THE BEATLES ? SLOW DOWN

ARNOLD H. GLASGOW Quote on Friendship

"A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad."

From A Little Book of Friendship
Published by History and Heraldry 2002

(392) PJ PROBY ON SHINDIG AND AROUND THE BEATLES

Texan PJ Proby was on Shindig a few times, 1964 and 1965. Here's one of the Youtube videos of PJ's performance in 1964, which I believe was taped in England, his adopted country. (P.J. is still in England, still performing, and we've posted a lot about him so search!)



We're grateful to the YouTuber who posted this video of PJ. being presented by the Beatles on a 1964 TV show called "Around the Beatles". (The Beatle's first performance on Shindig was also taped in England.) UPDATE: We'll replace this video as soon as possible.Technical difficulties.

(391) SO YOU CAN IMAGINE THAT I'M BEHIND BONNIE and DELANY BRAMLETT'S DAUGHTERS CAMPAIGN TO GET DADDY INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME!

From BONNIE BRAMLETT'S OFFICIAL SITE (Linked here)!

"As you may have noticed my daughters are campaigning for their father's musical legacy. Our Michele has taken the reins and with her sisters right by her side, she has tested the waters (so to speak) to see if she would be embraced by our peers and she has been :-)

Delaney passed away not long ago and his daughters naturally want to celebrate his life's work, secure the recognition it deserves and bring it to a wider audience. He made some great music as a solo artist, as well as with Delaney & Bonnie.

I want to ask you all to support my girls in their endeavor to make things right. For whatever reasons, the girls have not inherited from their father, so they have no hope chest to work with.

They're working on their own so far. I want you all to know that I plan to support them with my performances if and when they need me. I will receive no financial benefit in any form for my performances or any other participation I may be asked to do. This IS NOT a request for any support in the form of $, just need your prayers and your votes. Just go see what the girls are up to. They are good girls and I'm very proud of them. I hope you will be as well :-) " - Bonnie Bramlett