I'd Like To Set You To Music

Now it all seems so long ago. How many folks are still around who can remember first-hand the great era of the big bands? The atmosphere in the dance halls must have been electrifying, to hear and see in person a band hitherto only heard through the loudspeaker of a radio or coming out of the grooves of a phonograph record. It wasn't just the bands that were exciting - there were the girl and boy singers, but particularly the girls. The three Helens, Forrest, Ward and O'Connell, Peggy Lee, Edythe Wright, Frances Langford, Marion Hutton, Rosemary Clooney and Bea Wain were just a few. Bob Hope, who had worked with many lovely girls, enthused about another after she had sung on a "Command Performance" radio programme for U.S. Service personnel: "Oh! that was beautiful, and you're mighty beautiful too" - then amidst wild applause declared, "Oh, you're really pretty." He was speaking of Ginny Simms. Well, Ginny certainly was an eyeful!