Hal Kemp and his Orchestra: The Sweet Sound of Success

During the 1920s and 1930s, Hal Kemp and his Orchestra reigned supreme both at home and abroad in live performances, on the radio, and in the movies. Read on about this Marion boy who scaled the heights of popular music, and whose premature death silenced “the sweetest sound this side of Heaven" (apology to Guy Lombardo).

Born James Hal Kemp in Marion, Alabama, on March 21, 1904, the future orchestra and band leader was the son of T. D. Kemp, Sr., and Leila Rush Kemp, a poet. Hal began his musical training playing piano at the Bonita Theater in Marion. He probably attended Marion Institute (MMI) for at least one year, 1917-1918, as a Cadet Kemp is listed as playing clarinet in the Cadet Band. Hal’s family then moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he enrolled in Central High School, graduating in 1921. While at Central, Hal formed a five-piece band, The Merrymakers. In addition to piano and clarinet, he also studied trumpet and alto sax.


The MI Cadet Band, c. 1918. (Credit: 1918-1919 MI Catalogue, MMI Archives)


Roster for the MI Cadet Band, 1917-1918. A Cadet Kemp played clarinet. (Credit: 1917-1918 MI Catalogue, MMI Archives)

Entering the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1922, Hal Kemp immersed himself in extracurricular activities including forming a jazz group, The Carolina Club Orchestra, which recorded for Okeh Records and which toured Europe during the summers. Kemp also formed a smaller seven-man combo which became the forerunner of his later professional orchestra.


Hal Kemp’s Carolina Club Orchestra at UNC-Chapel Hill. (Credit: Chapel Hill Memories, www.chapelhillmemories.com)

Turning the Carolina Club Orchestra over to fellow UNC student, Kay Kyser, later another top band leader, Kemp (who didn’t graduate from UNC) based his new orchestra in New York City and toured Europe and the United States. The band gained the attention and support of band leader Fred Waring and Prince George of England, later King George VI.

Two publicity shots of Hal Kemp:


Shot One. (Credit: songbook1.wordpress.com)


Shot Two. (Credit: nfo.net/usa/kemp1.jpg)

In 1932, Kemp’s jazz orchestra settled in at the Blackhawk Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, where they changed styles and perfected their sound as a “sweet orchestra.” Their new sound was a hit both at the Blackhawk and on the radio and, by 1934, Hal Kemp was ready to take the band back on the road. He again turned over the bandstand at the Blackhawk to Kay Kyser.

Kemp’s orchestra had a sweet, smooth, and sensuous sound with interesting musical arrangements which captivated audiences both at home and abroad. The male and female vocalists – from Skinnay Ennis and Bob Allen to Maxine Gray and Janet Blair - were quite popular both with live audiences and on their RCA Victor recordings.


Hal Kemp with vocalist Maxine Gray (later, Lawrence Welk’s first “champagne lady.”) (Credit: Old-Time Radio, www.otrsite.com)


Hal Kemp’s last vocalist, Janet Blair, later a popular movie and television star. (Credit: New York Times, www.nytimes.com)

The Hal Kemp Orchestra scored a number of hit songs including four No. 1 tunes – “There’s a Small Hotel,” “When I’m With You,” “This Year’s Kisses,” and “Where or When.” Other popular tunes included “Got a Date With an Angel,” “Lamplight,” “Heart of Stone,” and “Three Little Fishes.”

Kemp’s orchestra was also the first band featured in a motion picture, Radio City Revels (1938).

In 1932, Hal Kemp married Texas debutante, Betsy Slaughter. They had two children. The couple divorced in 1938, Kemp later marrying Martha Stephenson in 1939.

In 1939, also, Kemp served as guest conductor of The Chicago Symphony. Tragically, on December 19, 1940, while driving from Los Angeles to a gig in San Francisco, Hal Kemp hit a car head-on. He died two days later from his injuries in Madera, California. He was 36. Attempts were made to keep his orchestra going, but it just wasn’t to be and the Hal Kemp Orchestra passed into history forever.


The Best of Hal Kemp and his Orchestra. (Credit: www.amazon.com)

Hal Kemp was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992, and he is also in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. His papers are housed in the Southern Historical Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Mary Ward Brown: Keeper of the Flame

Mary Ward Brown – known locally as “Mary T.” (Thomas is her middle name, after her father) – is recognized as one of Alabama’s finest writers of fiction. In fact, at age 92, she is probably the state’s most distinguished working writer today. Her latest work was published this year!


Mary Ward Brown. (Credit: Jerry Siegel)

Born (1917)and raised in Hamburg, Alabama, near Marion in Perry County, Mary Ward Brown did not taste success as a modern fiction writer until she was in her sixties. By any standard, she is a major writer of fiction, her works having garnered some of the top national and state literary awards: the PEN/Hemingway Award, Harper Lee Award, Lillian Smith Book Award, Hillsdale Award for Fiction, and two Alabama Author Awards, among others.


Mary T. (Credit: Mississippi Public Broadcasting/Alabama Arts Council)

With the exception of a short sojourn in Auburn, Alabama, Mary T. has lived on her parents’ farm in Hamburg all of her life. She graduated from Perry County High School in Marion, where she edited the school newspaper, and from Judson College (1938), where she again edited the school newspaper, and where she studied English and Journalism. In 1939, she married Charles Kirtley Brown and moved to Auburn, Alabama, where her husband worked in public relations at Auburn University. Their son, Kirtley Ward Brown, MMI H'61, a prominent Marion/Perry County lawyer and law instructor here at MMI, was born in Auburn in 1942. When Mary’s father died some years later, the Browns moved back to Hamburg to manage the large family farm. Mary T. still lives and writes there today.

Although she had a few short stories published in the 1950s, Mary T. stopped writing to concentrate on her family and running the farm. Following her husband’s death in 1970 from lung cancer, she began writing again, publishing in various national magazines.

In 1986, Tongues of Flame (E. P. Dutton), a collection of short stories, was published to wide literary and public acclaim.

In the mid-1980s, one of her short stories, “The Cure,” was included in an anthology of American and Russian writers. Traveling with this project, Mary T. toured the Soviet Union.

A second collection of stories was published in 2002. It Wasn’t All Dancing and other Stories was published by the University of Alabama Press some twenty-three years after her initial literary success. Her third work, Fanning the Spark: A Memoir, was published by Alabama in 2009.


Mary T.’s third book , Fanning the Spark: A Memoir (Alabama, 2009).
(Credit: The University of Alabama Press)

Mary Ward Brown’s literary themes and interests are usually set in the South during the 1950s to the early 1970s. They reflect the impact of societal changes on ordinary individuals including the persistence of racism and the unique role of religion in the South.


Mary T. signing her book. (Credit: Alabama Libraries)

A point of reference: All of the Brown Family have worked at MMI. Kirtley, MMI H'61, of course, teaches law at the Institute. His late father, Charles Kirtley Brown, worked with student publications including The Skirmisher, the cadet newspaper. Mary T. worked with John Moore (Ms. Woody’s husband) in the guidance and counseling office. Kirtley Brown’s wife, Susannah, also worked in the MMI Library with Ms. Woody. Finally, Mary T.'s nephew, Sheldon "Buzzie" Fitts, is a former MMI instructor.

In March, 2010, The Lyceum Council at MMI will host a celebration of the works of Mary Ward Brown with the presentation of the play, Ashes of Roses, in the MMI Chapel. Working in concert with the Marion Chamber of Commerce, Perry County Historical and Preservation Society, and other local organizations, a significant Arts Event highlighting Literature, Theater, Art and Music will be presented.

Stylin' With The White Knights

In the fall of 1950, William “Bill” Walker, a veteran of the U. S. Army, enrolled at Marion Military Institute. During the occupation of Berlin, Germany, after World War II, Walker had served in the “Berlin Honor Guard,” a crack U. S. Army drill team under General Lucius D. Clay’s command. With Berlin partitioned by the Allied countries of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States (West Berlin), and the Soviets in East Berlin, “The Berlin Honor Guard” had to be the “best of the best,” the “elite” among all the international military units present. The unit worked diligently every day toward achieving that goal.

When Bill Walker arrived at MMI and was assigned to Old South Barracks (now Lovelace Hall), he told his cadet company commander and platoon leader – Cadets Steve Finch and Gene Hyche - about his drill team experience in Germany. He also offered to assist with the company’s drill. Following protracted discussions, the idea gelled with these three cadets to organize and develop a similar crack precision drill team at MMI, one that would also strive to be the “best of the best” among the nation’s military colleges and schools.

After circulating the idea throughout the Corps of Cadets for interest, Cadets Finch and Hyche approached the Commandant, COL Paul B. Robinson (later, MMI president) with their plan. Robinson told them that Finch was going to be the Cadet Battalion Commander, thus, he would not have time to participate in the drill team. Finally, after refining their plan, COL Robinson approved it.

When tryouts were held, some 50-60 cadets were expected to participate. However, nearly a third of the Corps showed up, each cadet vying to prove that he was the best. During tryouts, they drilled 3-5 days a week, 2-4 hours a day for more than two weeks. When the smoke finally cleared, more than 40 cadets were selected for the first unit which took the name, “The White Knights.” Cadets Gene Hyche and Bill Walker became the co-founders in 1950, with Hyche serving as the first White Knights Commander. The White Knights were intent on stylin,’ as Cadet Hyche called it.

COL Ellis Marsh of the ROTC Department assigned Sgt. Ralph Glendening, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division and of the Normandy Invasion airborne assault, to oversee the White Knights. Army Sgt. Tom Hamilton, a Canadian and a former British Commando in World War II, was assigned to assist Glendening. Later, CPT Ben Marshall, an Infantry officer who had been a fighter pilot in World War II, was appointed advisor.


The first White Knights unit from the 1951 Orange and Black, MMI’s yearbook. (Credit: MMI Archives)

Uniforms for the White Knights included white helmets, white ascots, white gloves, and white leggings. The standard M-1 rifle, assigned to the Corps, was the first rifle used. However, when COL James T. Mufee II, MMI’s president, was approached for $1,000 to outfit the unit, he denied the request because Murfee doubted the longevity of the White Knights past more than a couple of years or so. Gradually, however, he warmed to the unit and became a proud supporter.


Cover photograph from the “Alabama Sunday Magazine” of The Montgomery Advertiser-Journal, Sunday, May 31, 1970.

The first performance of the White Knights took place at a football game in Bessemer, Alabama, but their first real test came when they performed at an Air Show at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery - right after the performance of the crack Air Force Drill Team from Washington, D. C.! Having added taps to their boots, the White Knights performed a stunning silent drill which, by all accounts, “smoked” the Air Force Drill Team, a fact even acknowledged by their advisor! The White Knights were stylin’ now!


A White Knights parade performance in Montgomery, Alabama (no date). (Credit: MMI Archives)

Over the years, the White Knights established an enviable state and national reputation as a precision drill team of the first order. Among their numerous appearances representing Marion Military Institute and the State of Alabama, the White Knights performed at the Indianapolis 500, the Sugar Bowl, and in the United States Air Force Academy Drill Competition. They also make frequent instate appearances at the annual Veterans Day Parade in Birmingham, and at the Mardi Gras in Mobile.


Performing in front of The Chapel at MMI (no date). (Credit: MMI Archives)

The White Knights celebrated their 50th Anniversary at MMI on Alumni Day, April 24, 1999. By then, some 900 cadets had participated in the White Knights saga. By Proclamation of the then MMI Board of Trustees, “each White Knight, past and present, is hereby designated ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR, 1999.”

The 60th Anniversary of the White Knights is coming up, and a fund-raising campaign to assist the unit is currently underway.

It's Only a Paper Moon, Addie Pray!

The Wednesday, September 9th edition of The Marion Times-Standard ran this image and caption of a gentleman from Surrey, England, who was visiting briefly in Marion and the area. Enthralled by the 1973 Hollywood movie, Paper Moon, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring the father-daughter team of Ryan and Tatum O’Neil, Madeline Kahn, and Randy Quaid, this Englishman was traveling the country visiting sites depicted in the movie, including Marion!


From The Marion Times-Standard, Wednesday, September 9, 2009.

Now, like many of you, I saw Paper Moon (filmed in black and white) when it first came out and I loved it. But, the movie was set on the Great Plains of Kansas and western Missouri, not in Alabama!


DVD cover for Paper Moon, originally released by Paramount Pictures in 1973.

Turns out, the movie was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown of Birmingham, Alabama. The novel is initially set in Alabama, but expands – via the main character’s travels – into Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. Alabama towns reportedly mentioned in this area include Selma, Hamburg, Marion, Brent, and Centreville. Supposedly, a scam scene at a Marion bank is included.

Addie Pray was first published in 1971, was adapted for the movie Paper Moon in 1973, and was reprinted in 2002 as Paper Moon: A Novel.
Narrated by 11 year-old con-artist Addie Pray, an orphan, who travels with scam/confidence man “Long Boy” Moses (he is one of three possible fathers of Addie), the pair strike out across the Deep South during the Depression-era 1930s trying their “luck” in every town, nook and cranny.


”Long Boy” Moses and Addie Pray (Ryan and Tatum O’Neil). (Credit: Paramount Pictures)

Tatum O’Neil (actually, only 9 years-old when she played the part of Addie Pray) won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1974, and she remains the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award. Her father, veteran actor Ryan O’Neil, played the part of “Long Boy” Moses. Miss Trixie Delight was played by Madeline Kahn, and Randy Quaid played Leroy.


Ten years-old in 1974, Tatum O’Neil remains the youngest person to win a competitive Academy Award. (Credit: Wikipedia)


Madeline Kahn as Miss Trixie Delight. (Credit: Paramount Pictures)

The author, Joe David Brown, who died in 1976, was born in Birmingam, Alabama. He worked initially for The Birmingam Post, later the New York Daily News, and finally for Time and Life magazines, being stationed in New Delhi, Paris, London, and Moscow. Two of his other books, Stars in My Crown (1947) and Kings Go Forth (1956), were also made into movies.

During World War II, Brown served in the Army Air Corps, and as a member of the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, was one of the first Americans to parachute into Normandy, France, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He received a battlefield commission to second lieutenant, and was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and the French Croix de Guerre with palm.


Author Joe David Brown in uniform. (Credit: 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team website)

So, the next time we watch Paper Moon, a classic movie, we’ll know the story behind the story. And, like the song says, “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”

Supporting 1LT Dan Berschinski, MMI 2003

In August, 2009, 1LT Dan Berschinski, an AOG (West Point’s Association of Graduates) scholar at MMI from 2002-2003, was seriously wounded in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device while his men were securing a village. Dan lost both of his legs, and his left arm was shattered. A member of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, 1st Battalion, 17th Regiment, Dan is convalescing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.


Army 1LT Dan Berschinski in Afghanistan. (Credit: Dan Berschinski’s website)

A native of Peachtree City, Georgia, where he graduated from McIntosh High School in 2002, Dan spent a year at MMI preparing for the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated in the Class of 2007.


Dan as an AOG scholar here at MMI. (Credit: 2003 Orange and Black, MMI’s yearbook, MMI Archives)

Two more images from the 2003 yearbook:





Friends in Peachtree City and Fayette County, Georgia, have set up a website to support Dan. Please access from http://danberschinski.blogspot.com.

This blog indicates that Dan Berschinski’s brigade has been taking horrific casualties outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan, and that a number of these men are with Dan at Walter Reed, some even more seriously wounded than Dan. The blog also mentions another Peachtree City resident, SGT Shawn P. McCloskey, a Green Beret in the Special Forces, who was killed in September.

Undaunted, the blog states that Dan is upbeat and positive, that he has charmed his nurses, and that he greets visitors to his hospital room with a friendly, “Hey, what’s up?”

My thanks to LTC David Bauer for bringing Dan's story/plight to my attention.

Nicola Marschall and the First Confederate Flag

Nicola Marschall (1829-1917) of Marion, Alabama, a German-American artist, is generally credited with designing both the first official Confederate flag and the grey Confederate army uniform.


An 1867 self-portrait of Nicola Marschall. (Credit: Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Born into a wealthy Prussian family of tobacco merchants in 1829, Nicola Marschall, a budding artist, decided to mark his mark in the United States. In 1849, he emigrated to America landing first in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then moving on to Mobile, Alabama. Nicola Marshall relocated to Marion, Alabama, in 1851, where he opened a portrait studio and also taught art. Joining the faculty and staff of Marion Female Seminary, Marshall – a man of many talents - taught art (he studied at the celebrated Dusseldorf Academy), languages, and also instructed and performed on guitar, violin, piano, and harp.


Marion Female Seminary, Marion, Alabama. (Credit: Alabama Department of Archives and History)

With the coming Civil War in 1861, Nicola Marschall was approached in February by Mary Clay Lockett, wife of prominent attorney Napoleon Lockett of Marion, and her daughter, Fannie Lockett Moore, daughter-in-law of Alabama Governor Andrew B. Moore of Marion, to design a flag for the new Confederacy. Marschall offered three designs, one of which became the “Stars and Bars,” the first official flag of the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.), and which was first raised in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 4, 1861. He also is credited with designing the first “official” Confederate uniform.


Pattern of the seven-star “Stars and Bars” flag designed by Nicola Marshall in 1861.


Nicola Marschall monument on the grounds of the Perry County Courthouse, Marion, Alabama. (Credit: Deep Fried Kudzu)

Shivers McCollum, MMI H’45, JC’46, of Highland, Maryland, and a member of the MMI Board of Advisors, sent me a copy of a letter written by his great-great grandmother, Juila Anne Cocke, wife of State Senator Jack Fleming Cocke (a trustee of Howard College when our Chapel was built in 1857), regarding the making of the first Confederate flag in Marion. The original letter is preserved in the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. Here is a photocopy and the transcription, both provided by Shivers:


Photocopy of the original letter in the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery (Page one).


Page two.


Transcription of the letter. (Credit: Shivers McCollum, Highland, MD)

Nicola Marschall served in the Confederate army during the war, rising in rank from private to second lieutenant, and working primarily has chief draftsman of maps and fortifications in the Mobile, Alabama, area. When the war ended in 1865, he returned to Marion and married Martha Eliza Marschall (1846-1919) of Perry County. She bore him three children. Nicola Marschall painted portraits of both he and his wife which now reside in the First White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama.

Primarily a portrait artist, Marschall painted literally hundreds of subjects including Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, and Otto von Bismarck. He even got famed Confederate cavalry commander, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, to sit still long enough to have his portrait painted in 1867. Nicola Marschall was awarded a medal for his portraits at the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, PA, in 1876.


Portrait of General Forrest painted by Nicola Marschall in 1867. (Credit: General Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy)

Disillusioned with the economic devastation in the Reconstruction South, Nicola Marshall and his family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1873, where he continued to support his family as a portrait artist until his death on February 24, 1917. Nicola Marshall was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.


Another self-portrait of Nicola Marschall in 1893. (Credit: Alabama Department of Archives and History)

John Pelham Update/Colin Kelly, Jr.

The blog about the “Gallant” Major John Pelham generated a buzz, so here are three more related images – the state historical marker pointing to the site of Pelham’s birthplace near Alexandria, Alabama (the house is now gone, but there is a small marker); the Virginia state marker at Fredericksburg, scene of Pelham’s finest hour; and the marker at the site of his mortal wounding at Kelly’s Ford, Virginia. Major Pelham died in a house in nearby Culpeper, VA (this house is also gone, but there is a small marker). John Pelham’s promotion to LTC came through after his death.


Alabama state marker to John Pelham’s birthplace. (Credit: John Pelham Historical Association)


Virginia state marker near Fredericksburg, scene of Major Pelham’s finest hour. (Credit: John Pelham Historical Association)


Marker at the site of Pelham’s mortal wounding at Kelly’s Ford, VA. (Credit: John Pelham Historical Association)

Some more John Pelham tidbits:
-When Pelham died, his body lay in state in the Confederate capitol building in Richmond, VA. At least three young women went into mourning for him.

-Jeb Stuart and his wife named their daughter Virginia Pelham Stuart.

-Famed Confederate spy, Belle Boyd, gave Pelham a Bible with the inscription: “I know thou art loved by another; I know thy wilt never be mine.”

-The “other” was Sally Dandridge of “The Bower” in West Virginia, Jeb Stuart’s sometime headquarters and scene of festive parties featuring the music of banjoist Sam Sweeney. Heroes von Brocke, of Stuart’s staff, a former Prussian officer and soldier-of-fortune, added to the overall splendor and gaiety of the parties.

-Like John Pelham, neither Jeb Stuart nor Sam Sweeney survived the war. Von Brocke was seriously wounded and, after the war, returned to his castle in Prussia where he flew the Confederate flag from the ramparts until his death.

-Several Southern towns are named for Pelham, including Pelham, Alabama. There is a John Pelham Memorial Parkway in Georgia, a Lake Pelham in Virginia, and, of course, Pelham Range at Fort McClellan, Alabama, reportedly built on Pelham Family property along Cane Creek.

Finally, here is an advertisement (given to me by Myra Jean Hopkins) for a VHS/DVD regarding the truth and myth of America’s first hero of World War II, Colin Kelly, Jr., MMI’33, USMA ’37, who was also the first West Pointer killed in the war. For those interested, the order information is included. However, this is all I have, so order at your own risk!


Ad for the Colin Kelly, Jr., VHS/DVD. (Credit: Myra Jean Hopkins and the MMI Archives)