In the Charleston Era and its immediate aftermath, flappers had their hair bobbed and the more fashionable among them went in for Eton crops and kiss curls, cloche hats and long cigarette holders. They made up with almost white powder, red rouge on the cheeks and red lipstick. Eyebrows were plucked and lines drawn in with eyebrow pencil. And for dancing the Charleston our flappers invariably wore petal skirts which reached just about to the knee. Their young escorts wore Oxford bags, striped blazers, straw hats and sported canes. It was an era when, despite economic difficulties, the flow of lively tunes continued unabated and people enjoyed themselves as well as they could.
The songwriting team that most typified the carefree, upbeat era of the Roaring Twenties was undoubtedly the trio of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson. They are represented by two songs which spawned two dance crazes. First off is Black Bottom which became all the rage in Britain in 1927. The iron-lunged, clear megaphone-voiced Irving Kaufman delivers the goods effectively - no crooner he! The Varsity Drag was a hectic production number sung and danced by the entire student body of the hit collegiate musical Good News, the plot of which is loosely based around an impending football match.
George and Ira Gershwin carry off top honours with three songs. Two are performed by original cast members who made resounding successes of their roles both in New York and London. The earliest is Fascinating Rhythm from Lady, Be Good! by the brother and sister singing and dancing act of Fred & Adele Astaire, recorded just a few days after their Empire, Leicester Square opening with composer George at the piano.
The most popular British star ever to appear on Broadway was probably Gertrude Lawrence, though that would be difficult to guess from her records alone. She possessed that indefinable thing called star quality and we can be grateful to her for introducing standards like Someone To Watch Over Me from Oh! Kay. The charming High Hat from the Gershwins musical Funny Face features a fresh-voiced Leslie A Hutchinson (Hutch).
Jack Hylton & His Orchestra, at this time on the threshold of even greater fame and fortune, keep up the Twenties feel in the bouncy I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight?
When Elsie Carlisle recorded I Love My Baby at her first recording session in 1926 she was already a fully fledged performer. Well into her twenties, Elsie had served her apprenticeship the hard way with years of touring in the provinces. Her luck changed after a radio broadcast when she was offered a recording contract.
Paul Whiteman, the large American bandleader with the misleading sobriquet of the King of Jazz features in two very different recordings. Theres the original Charleston which as a dance sensation endures as the most representative of the era. From the Broadway revue Runnin Wild it sparked off the whole charleston craze. Whitemans recording includes some strange vocal effects which makes one wonder for a moment if the session had been double-booked with the local Chinese martial arts club. In Ol Man River from Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein IIs Show Boat we have the full resources of the Concert Orchestra with the great bass Paul Robeson in his first of many recordings of this timeless classic.
A beguiling performance of Looking At The World Through Rose Coloured Glasses brings us to Nick Lucas The Singing Troubadour (1897-1982) in a remarkably undated performance. Nick was one of the first musicians to replace the banjo with the guitar in the studios and was a prime mover in introducing the int