About this project

Kay Kemble (1911-1989) is a character invented for this project. Kay sang on radio commercials as a child and went on to lead Big Bands and swing ensembles in the 30's and 40's. She worked at Scott Air Field as a WAAC enlistee and a civilian. She produced war bond rallies, and her all-female band promoted a popular shampoo brand. In the 80's there was renewed interest in Kay's musical career.

Kay informally adopted the orphaned niece and nephew of her partner Wilmetta "Teeny" Stockton, and in the early 70's the family moved from St. Louis to New Orleans. After Kay and Teeny's deaths, family members remained in New Orleans until displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In 2014, I arranged to archive, organize, and restore Kay's memorabilia. Most items were damaged due to age, hurried packing , and lack of funds for formal archiving.

I've "become" Kay in reproduction radio broadcasts, and created artifacts to represent damaged or destroyed items in the collection.



Sunday, August 21, 2022

The wrong Stooge or the right Stooge?

When I was a kid, a local television show interspersed a kiddie host with "Three Stooges" shorts on Saturday mornings, in the same way that the after-school show brought us Popeye cartoons. I really had no idea that a Stooges film short originally appeared in movie theaters, along with a newsreel, cartoon,l and a B picture to round out an all-day movie theater presentation. 

The Stooges were highly recognizable celebrities in the 1930s and 1940s, and did show-within-a-show comedy bits in many films, as well as cameo appearances. I was not expecting any Stooges in the 1941 film "Road Show," recently borrowed from Netflix on DVD. But here came someone I mistook for Moe Howard without the bowl haircut. Then I realized it was actually Shemp with a normal haircut. But his character's name in the movie is "Moe." An in-joke? Was Moe supposed to do the appearance, and then Shemp need to step in for some reason? Some Stooges scholar knows, but I don't.




 

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