Liz Taylor was perhaps the most beautiful and the most famous. Born in England to American parents, her family was evacuated to the United States at the beginning of World War II. She started her film career at the age of 10, and by the time she had finished, she had gone through many films and many marriages – eight in all and twice to Richard Burton. She was the first actor to be paid a million dollars in the movie Cleopatra in 1962 and was also married to the singer Eddie Fisher.
Jane Russell, another sexy beauty was first spotted by talent scouts of the eccentric multi-millionaire film maker Howard Hughes. He cast her in the lead of his picture The Outlaw in 1940. She displayed a bust line that was enviable. The movie was not released for three years because of censor problems – my goodness how times have changed! She co-starred with another sex symbol Marilyn Monroe in the 1950's and went on to appear on Broadway.
Eddie Fisher was an American singer and actor who sold millions of records in the 1950's. His divorce from his first wife – actor Debbie Reynolds to marry Elizabeth Taylor was seen as a scandal at the time. I remember his song O My Papa which was played regularly on the birthday request program on Radio Demerara in Guyana in the 1950's. He had 17 songs on the Top 10 of the music charts including # 1 hits like O My Papa, and 35 in the Top 40.
He starred with his first wife Debbie Reynolds in Bundle of Joy and with his second wife Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8. He attempted several comebacks as a singer and performed in top concert halls all over the United States. He was married five times. I have a 78 rpm recording of O My Papa in my record collection that I play on my jukebox at home.
The country singer Doc Williams who died this year at the age of 96 was a star I actually met. He and his wife Chickie performed at the Horseshoe Tavern on Queen Street in Toronto in the 1960's, a place I used to visit when I was a student at the University of Toronto.
For my family, Doc Williams goes back to the early 1950's in New Amsterdam, Guyana when my brothers bought a guitar course from him, having heard his performances coming from the faraway radio station in Wheeling, West Virginia. When we met him at the Horseshoe Tavern, we told him the story, which he announced to the audience and so my brother and I had to stand up and take a bow.
Doc Williams was often confused with another famous country singer Hank Williams but they were no relation. Doc Williams and his band the Border Riders, were popular performers, performing live and on the radio for over five decades! I learnt to play guitar using his course and I actually have a 78 rpm record of one of his hits on the Pioneer label – Willie Roy, the Crippled Boy. He founded Wheeling Records in 1947. He and his wife had three daughters. On my way back from Texas, I passed through West Virginia – still hillbilly country.
Another country singer that I enjoyed from my childhood was Ferlin Husky. I first heard Ferlin Husky on Radio Demerara with the Jean Shepherd recording of A Dear John Letter. My father bought the record and played it on his pick–up gramophone. The follow up song Forgive Me John was also a big hit.
Ferlin Husky was adept at traditional honky tonk, ballads, recitations, rockabilly and gospel genres. He had several crossover hits with two dozen Top 20 hits on the Billboard country charts. His versatility and matinee idol looks sustained a seven decade entertainment career. His biggest hits were Gone and Wings of a Dove which reached No.1 on the charts. He had bit parts in 18 films and appeared on TV shows. Inducted into the Country Music Association Hall of Fame in 2010, he is gone at the age of 85.
The last star to go out recently was rock and roll guitarist Jet Harris of the Shadows, the back up group for the British pop singer Cliff Richard. Harris joined the Shadows in 1959 as a bass guitarist. The group was then known as the Drifters but changed their name to the Shadows because of confusion with an American pop group called the Drifters,
Jet Harris played on some of the Shadows and Cliff Richard's most famous hits – Apache and Living Doll coming to mind. A self-taught bass player with a string of skiffle groups, he appeared in Soho, London – the birth place of British rock and roll.
The Shadows influenced other famous guitarists like Eric Clapton and the Ventures. In Guyana in the 1950's and 60's, many string bands like Bing Serrao and the Ramblers played Shadows music – songs with the pure dramatic sound of Apache and Peace Pipe were simply great. Then there was Man of Mystery, The Stranger, FBI, the Frightened City, Kon Tiki and Dance On to name a few.
The Shadows had many hits on the British hit parade backing Cliff Richard (second only to Elvis Presley) and on their own – fifth in terms of most weeks on the British charts. Jet Harris died of throat cancer on March 18 at the age of 71.
These pioneers of screen, stage and record influenced many around the world. Whatever their private lives may have been, their stars shone brightly in their glory days and beyond. They were definitely part of my childhood, adolescence and adult life. One by one, their lights have been extinguished – gone but not forgotten, If the creeks don't rise and the sun still shines, I'll be talking to you.

 

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