Keefe Brasselle and Lynn Anderson

by Frank M. Roberts

November 2015

The two nuttiest (I mean that in a nice way) people I met in my 45-50 years of interviewing famous and semi-famous folk were Keefe Brasselle, and Lynn Anderson.

KB: In 1946, "The Jolson Story" was a big hit and 'demanded' a sequel. Said sequel was even more popular. "Jolson Sings Again" wowed folks in '50. So, some semi wise Hollywood big shots decided a story about Eddie Cantor would do well. It didn't. In showbiz parlance, the movie bombed.

Cantor himself, who appeared in the last scene, said he didn't know that his life was that boring. The star, Brasselle, was anything but. He starred in a few other flicks, then did some other movie work. He did go on the road with his own song and dance act, a trip that included a visit to Virginia Beach.

At that time, I was doing a show on WBOF Radio in that city, and went to meet with him at a club. His accompanist turned out to be a childhood friend, the great jazz pianist, Hal Schaeffer. Talking to Keefe was like listening to a one man comedy show.

The talk was incessant - jokes, anecdotes, crazy remarks, mostly without taking a breath. KB, who was married to Arlene DeMarco, lead singer of the DeMarco Sisters, carried on for about 30 minutes. The guy was downright hilarious.

The funniest gal was country singer, Lynn Anderson, daughter of songwriter, Helen Anderson. Lynn was the token country singer for a few years on the Lawrence Welk shows but, she is best known for her giant-sized hit, "(I Never Promised You) A Rose Garden."

I met the award winning lovely blonde singer while covering a large outdoor concert somewhere in Tennessee. I was talking to several performers who were at that shindig. I was usually accompanied by a British writer covering the event for a supermarket tabloid.

We made a deal. He knew zilch about country music, and I could use him as an 'in' since his readership was on the huge side. We marched into the Anderson trailer, greeted by a lovely smile. She started talking about her life. About 90 percent of what she had to say cannot be re-told in this respectable family site - nothing dirty, though.

My Brit friend was feverishly taking notes about 'life's wrong turns' but, after a few minutes I stopped writing. Lynn was offering fiction - telling all sorts of wild things about her life's so called experiences.

When we exited, I told him to tear up his notes, explaining that she was pulling his leg, telling us all kinds of crazy stuff that I knew to be un-true. No big story there, but it still lives in memory as one of my 'most fun' interviews.

Speaking of country music - a bit of Oak Ridge Boys history: From 1942 to 1943, Oak Ridge, TN., a farm community, was becoming a medium-sized town of about 75,000 people. Many were women answering a government call for wartime work. After that, it didn't appear on any maps. The military called it 'Site X'. It was so secret most of the workers had no idea they were enriching uranium, until after that atom bomb dropped. To provide some entertainment a gospel group came in to sing, naming themselves after the locale.

Eventually, they switched to country music. Ironically, their first non-gospel hit was, "The Y'All Come Back Saloon." I covered the guys for many years - a good group.

On the pop music side, Irving Berlin had this to say: "No singer knows his way around a song like Fred Astaire." Can't help but wonder what Bing and the many others who sang Berlin songs - singers, not hoofers - felt about that.

A "Wizard Of Oz" thought: Today, if Dorothy met men with no brains, no hearts, no courage - she wouldn't be in Oz, she would be in Congress." OOoo.

Alan Alda, of "M*A*S*H" fame had this to say: "You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing." Love quotes like that from people who succeed in showbiz 'cause daddy was a star. His pop was actor, Robert Alda.

Here's the tale behind the immortal country ballad about Casey Jones: The engineer worked for the Illinois Central Railroad. As a boy, John Luther Jones lived near Cayce, KY. On April 30, 1900 he was killed when his passenger train, the Cannonball Express, collided with a stalled freight train in Mississippi on a foggy, rainy night. His dramatic death while trying to stop the train and save lives, made him a hero. He was immortalized in song by his friend who was a wiper. The friend was Wallace Saunders, an African-American.

One more showbiz note. This is from Ringo Starr: "Go and have a look in my bedroom. It's covered with Gene Autry posters. He was my first musical influence." Who would have thunk it?

Near closing thoughts: 1 - The difference between in-laws and outlaws is that outlaws are wanted. Oh, wow; I saw this sign on a North Carolina church: No perfect people allowed. Gee, I'll have to worship elsewhere; When you put "THE" and "IRS" together it spells - yep - THEIRS; For us senior citizens: The biggest lie we tell ourselves is, "I don't need to write that down - I'll remember it." Remember this - truth exists - only lies are invented.

I wonder if clouds ever look down on us and say, "Hey, look! That one is shaped like an idiot." - "Without my pets my wallet would be full, my house would be clean, but my heart would be empty." Amen to that. Joke time - this is about the dyslexic man who walked into a bra.

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Closing up shop with some thoughts: Always be tolerant of a person who disagrees with you. After all, he has a right to his stupid opinion; Some airlines are putting mistletoe at the baggage counter. That way you can kiss your luggage goodbye: And, finally, Americans spent more money on doctors last year than ever before, and it's working. More doctors are feeling better.