IN 1941 I SANG LEAD IN A VOCAL GROUP OF 4 MEN WITH THE ORRIN TUCKER ORCHESTRA CALLED THE BODYGUARDS. ONE OF THE SINGERS IN THE GROUP WAS JACK BIERMANN AND AFTER THE WAR WE MET IN HOLLYWOOD AND DECIDED TO FORM A VOCAL GROUP. JACK, WHO HAD BEEN A B25 FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR IN THE ARMY, BROUGHT IN HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, BOB SMITH, WHO HAD BEEN IN THE NAVY. I HAD BEEN IN THE US COAST GUARD AND HAD MET A GIRL SINGER NAMED LEE STAYNER. SHE SANG LEAD, I SANG SECOND, JACK SANG THIRD AND BOB SANG FOURTH. LEE WAS WITH US ONLY A SHORT TIME WHEN HER HUSBAND CAME HOME FROM THE ARMY AND THEY MOVED TO ANOTHER STATE. GINNY O'CONNOR, WHO SANG WITH MEL TORME'S MELTONES, JOINED US AND THAT WAS THE REAL BEGINNING OF THE MELLO-LARKS.

1947 (LEFT CLOCKWISE: TOMMY HAMM, BOB SMITH, JACK BIERMANN, GINNY O'CONNER)

IN 1946, SHORTLY AFTER GINNY BECAME OUR LEAD, WE JOINED THE GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA LED BY TEX BENEKE. WHILE WITH THEM WE RECORDED ON THE RCA VICTOR RECORD LABEL. AFTER DOING ONE NIGHTERS, THEATERS, RECORDINGS, ETC. WITH THE BAND, WE RETURNED TO HOLLYWOOD. THE PIANO PLAYER WITH THAT BAND WAS HENRY MANCINI AND SHORTLY AFTER WE LEFT, HENRY LEFT, CAME TO HOLLYWOOD AND MARRIED GINNY. ALL OF OUR ARRANGEMENTS WERE FIRST DONE BY HENRY, WHO WENT ON TO BECOME VERY SUCCESSFUL. BY THIS TIME THE PERIOD OF BIG BANDS WAS JUST ABOUT OVER, AND IN THE FALL OF 1947 WHEN WE DID OUR FIRST TV SHOW (IT WAS THE AL JARVIS SHOW--AL WAS THE WEST COAST "MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM"). WE DECIDED TO BECOME MORE OF AN ACT WHICH MEANT SPECIAL MATERIAL AND CHOREOGRAPHY.

OUR FIRST CHOREOGRAPHER WAS NICK CASTLE, WHO HAD DONE MANY MOVIES, THEN HIS ASSISTANT CHARLES O’CURRAN TOOK OVER AND HELPED. ABOUT THIS TIME BETTY HUTTON WAS BOOKED INTO THE PALLADIUM IN LONDON ENGLAND AND NEEDED A VOCAL GROUP TO WORK WITH HER, AND DO AN ACT ON THE BILL AS WELL. BETTY CHOSE US AND WE STARTED WORKING WITH BILLY DANIELS (NOT THE SINGER), WHO DID CHOREOGRAPHY FOR HER MOVIES (HE ALSO DID BETTY GRABLE MOVIES). BILLY AND HIS ASSISTANT, FRANCES GRANT, DID MOST OF OUR ACT. TO DIGRESS——WHEN BILLY STARTED WORKING WITH US WE ASKED HIM WHAT HIS FEE WAS. BILLY SAID, “WHEN I WAS JUST GETTING STARTED SOMEONE HELPED ME, AND WHEN I ASKED HIM THE SAME THING HE TOLD ME I COULD PAY HIM BY HELPING DESERVING PEOPLE AS I WENT THROUGH LIFE." AND BILLY SAID, "YOU CAN PAY ME THE SAME WAY" AND WE’VE DONE THAT WHENEVER WE COULD.

1949 (LEFT CLOCKWISE: BOB SMITH, JOE EICH, TOMMY HAMM, JOAN LORRY)

BY THIS TIME, LATE 1949, TELEVISION WAS BECOMING VERY IMPORTANT AND CHARLIE WICK——OUR PERSONAL MANAGER——HAD US JOIN HIM IN NEW YORK WHERE MOST TV WAS BEING BROADCAST. GINNY DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE CALIFORNIA SO SHE LEFT THE GROUP AND WAS REPLACED BY JOAN LORRY. IN NEW YORK WE SIGNED WITH THE TALENT AGENCY M.C.A. (MUSIC CORP. OF AMERICA) AND, AFTER DOING SEVERAL TV GUEST APPEARANCES, BECAME A STEADY PART OF "BROADWAY OPEN HOUSE," ALSO KNOWN AS "THE JERRY LESTER SHOW WITH DAGMAR." IT WAS ON NBC 3 NIGHTS A WEEK FOR A YEAR 11:00 TO 12:00 PM AND WAS THE FORERUNNER OF THE NBC LATE NIGHT SHOW STARTING WITH JERRY LESTER FOLLOWED BY STEVE ALLEN, JACK PARR , JOHNNY CARSON AND ENDING UP WITH JAY LENO. THIS WAS THE BEGINNING OF OUR TV WORK, AND FROM 1950 TO 1960 WE DID MORE THAN A THOUSAND NETWORK SHOWS——SOME ON NBC AND SOME ON CBS. ABOUT HALF WAY THRU “BROADWAY OPEN HOUSE" IN EARLY 1951, THE KOREAN WAR HEATED UP AND JACK BIERMANN LEFT THE GROUP TO BECOME INVOLVED WITH THE MILITARY AIRCRAFT BUSINESS AND WAS REPLACED BY JOE EICH.

1950 (LEFT-RIGHT: JOE EICH, BOB SMITH, TONI SOUTHERN, TOMMY HAMM)

JOE WAS A MUSICIAN (HE PLAYED THE TRUMPET) AND DID ALL OUR VOCAL ARRANGING AND MOST OF THE ORCHESTRA ARRANGING. NEAR THE END OF “BROADWAY OPEN HOUSE"--APRIL 1951--JOAN LORRY LEFT TO DO HER OWN SHOW IN UPSTATE NEW YORK. WE REPLACED HER WITH TONI SOUTHERN, A VERY PRETTY BLOND AND A VERY GOOD LEAD SINGER. SHORTLY AFTER TONI JOINED US WE DID THE “MEL TORME SHOW" ON CBS--A HALF HOUR MUSIC SHOW 5 AFTERNOONS A WEEK FOR A YEAR. BY THE END OF 1952, TONI WAS MARRIED, BECAME PREGNANT AND LEFT THE GROUP. AT THE SAME TIME, BOB SMITH HAD A RECURRENCE OF THE TUBERCULOSIS HE HAD IN THE NAVY. HE WENT INTO A SANATORIUM WHERE HE SPENT ABOUT THREE YEARS RECUPERATING. HE NEVER CAME BACK TO SINGING BUT WENT TO LAS VEGAS WHERE HE BECAME THE STAGE MANAGER OF THE RIVIERA HOTEL. HE WAS REPLACED BY BOB WOLLTER AND TONI WAS REPLACED BY JAMIE DINA.

1956 (LEFT-RIGHT: BOB WOLLTER, JOE EICH, JAMIE DINA, TOMMY HAMM)

JAMIE WAS A GRADUATE OF THE PROFESSIONAL CHILDREN'S SCHOOL IN NEW YORK CITY. THIS TURNED OUT TO BE THE BEST COMBINATION AND STAYED TOGETHER THE LONGEST. UP TO THIS TIME MOST LEAD SINGERS WITH GROUPS OF OUR TYPE TENDED TO BLEND IN WITH THE OTHER SINGERS, BUT JAMIE WAS DIFFERENT. SHE SANG AS A SOLOIST AND THE BLEND CAME FROM THE MALE SINGERS. THIS GAVE THE GROUP A UNIQUE SOUND AND MADE FOR A WARMER AND BETTER INTERPRETATION OF THE LYRICS. FROM 1953 TO 1956 WE DID THEATERS, NIGHT CLUBS, HOTELS, TV GUEST APPEARANCES, CLUB DATES, ETC. WITH AN ACT DONE FOR US BY A NEW CHOREOGRAPHER, LEE SHERMAN. LEE HAD DONE CHOREOGRAPHY FOR TV AND BROADWAY MUSICALS. AND SPECIAL MATERIAL WRITTEN FOR US BY JERRY BOCK AND LARRY HOLOFCENER. JERRY AND LARRY HAD WRITTEN WORDS AND MUSIC FOR THE BROADWAY SHOW "MR. WONDERFUL" AND JERRY HAD WRITTEN THE MUSIC FOR "FIORELLO" AND "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF." WE ALSO RECORDED ON "EPIC" RECORDS, A SUBSIDIARY OF COLUMBIA. IN 1957 WE STARTED ON AN AFTERNOON TV SHOW CALLED "CLUB 60," BROADCAST NATIONALLY FROM CHICAGO ON NBC. IT WAS A MUSIC/INTERVIEW SHOW WITH BIG NAME GUESTS DONE 5 DAYS A WEEK. IT WAS AN HOUR SHOW THAT RAN FOR A YEAR AND FOR THE FIRST 13 WEEKS WE WERE ASKED TO DO TWO SONGS A DAY WITHOUT REPEATING A NUMBER ---- 130 SONGS DONE LIVE (THERE WAS NO VIDEO TAPE THEN) WITH COSTUMES AND SOME CHOREOGRAPHY. LUCKILY WE HAD A LARGE REPERTOIRE AND WERE ABLE TO COMPLY.

1959 (LEFT-RIGHT: BOB WOLLTER, TOMMY HAMM, ADELE CASTLE, DICK HARVEY)

JAMIE LEFT IN EARLY 1958 AND WAS REPLACED BY ADELE CASTLE, AND IN LATE 1958 JOE EICH LEFT AND WAS REPLACED BY DICK HARVEY. BY THE SUMMER OF 1960 IT BECAME APPARENT THAT THERE WASN'T MUCH OF A MARKET FOR OUR TYPE OF GROUP SO WE DECIDED TO DISBAND. WITH TWO OTHER MEN I STARTED A JINGLE COMPANY TO DO MUSIC FOR RADIO AND TV COMMERCIALS. BOB WOLLTER BECAME VERY SUCCESSFUL IN THE AMWAY COMPANY, DICK HARVEY WENT TO CALIFORNIA AND BECAME A SET DESIGNER FOR TV. HE WON AN EMMY FOR SET DESIGN ON THE DINAH SHORE SHOW. ADELE CASTLE CONTINUED ON AS A SOLOIST FOR A WHILE AND THEN WORKED UP TO AN EXECUTIVE IN THE GOLDEN NUGGET HOTEL IN ATLANTIC CITY. WITH THAT CAME THE END OF THE MELLO-LARKS--WELL ALMOST. IN 1984, I RETIRED FROM THE JINGLE BUSINESS AND MOVED TO PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA. I DISCOVERED THAT THERE WAS A GOOD SEVENTEEN PIECE JAZZ BAND AT THE LOCAL COLLEGE. I CONTACTED THE LEADER AND FOUND HIM INTERESTED IN HAVING A SINGING GROUP. I FOUND THREE OTHER SINGERS LIVING IN PINEHURST, PRISCILLA BANNING-- AN EXCELLENT LEAD AND TWO MEN WITH GROUP EXPERIENCE--JOHN COSTANTINI AND JACK CAUSIER. ALTHOUGH MOST OF OUR SINGING NOW IS FOR CHARITY, (HOSPITALS, NURSING HOMES, RETIREMENT HOMES, SCHOOLS), FROM TIME TO TIME WE DO BIG BAND CONCERTS WITH THE LOCAL BAND. THE MOST REWARDING THING IS SEEING THE GREAT REACTION WE GET FROM THE YOUNGER PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE. I GUESS GOOD SINGING NEVER GETS OLD.

START DATE: JULY 19, 2014     UPDATED: JULY 17, 2018

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