Artist: Ethel Smith
LP: Souvenir Album [10" EP]
Monday mornings and organ music seem to go together lately like bagels and cream cheese. Ethel Smith is another one of my organ-playing favorites, and this is the 50¢ record through which I first discovered her. You can read all about Ethel here, here and here, and see a clip here of Ethel Smith performing her hit song "Tico-Tico" in the 1944 Esther Williams vehicle "Bathing Beauty." The biographical notes from the back of this 10" souvenir EP can be found below.
You couldn't call Ethel Smith a "Latin from Manhattan,"
because she's originally from Pittsburgh. But if she had
decided to be born on Father Knickerbocker's island, the
phrase would have fitted her perfectly—for Ethel has been
in love with Latin America and its music since she was ten.
Her most ardent childhood desire was some day to go
south of the equator. Not only did she realize that wish
before she was twenty-three, but she also became the
foremost exponent of Latin rhythms on the electric organ.
But let's go back to the beginning—back to Pittsburgh, for
it was here that Ethel received much of her sound musical
background at Carnegie Tech. Institute where she studied
piano, organ and, incidentally, Spanish. After graduation,
she got a job playing in the pit for a Shubert show. It was
her first taste of commercial musical life and she liked it well
enough to tour with the company for twenty-eight weeks.
Next came an offer to accompany a singer in one of
Hollywood's studios. One day, on the set, she noticed
a Hammond Electric Organ—at that time, only recently
developed. She took to it immediately. Apparently, it
took to her, too, for an alert and advertising-wise dealer
saw in her nimble-fingered playing an excellent way to
demonstrate the new Hammond. He not only let her
practice on it to her heart's content, but also allowed
her to take it with her to Florida where she was booked
for an engagement playing accompaniment for a trio
in a little Bavarian restaurant. Ethel soon adopted the
electric organ as her chosen solo instrument—mainly be-
cause it responded so sensitively to the highly colorful
tropical rhythms she loved so well.
When Cordell Hull sailed southward to attend the first
Pan-American conference, Ethel was one of the few
women who traveled with his party. She had managed
to snare the post of chairman of the entertainment
committee. Her first and long-dreamed-of South
American trip, it served to whet her appetite for
other more extenswive expeditions—for she had
decided to make a first-hand study of the native
music. Her travels below the border eventually encom-
passed some seventeen Caribbean and South American
countries. "For a while," she says, "I became a regular
tropical hep chick. I stuck my nose into every smoky
cabaret that boasted a native orchestra. Whenever
they let me, I'd sit in with the boys for a little Latin
jam session. That way it didn't take long to collect a
trunk-load of authentic and out-of-the-way rhythms
and melodies—including such lush and sultry-sounding
ones as chacareras, milongas, bambucos, pasillos,
guarachas, habaneras and, of course, the traditional
sambas, rumbas and congas."
So well did Ethel learn to interpret the music of South
America that she was offered an engagement at one
of its most celebrated night spots—Rio De Janeiro's
Copacabana. While she was playing here, an executive
of a tobacco company invited her to return to New York
for the "Hit Parade" radio show. Ethel was featured as
one of its stars for over a year. Then a talent scout
from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer suddenly awoke to the
fact that not only was Ethel's music a delight to the
ear, but that Ethel, herself, was extremely photogenic.
She was offered a contract, at what she considered a
"fantastic figure" and, modestly but definitely, accepted.
Since that time she has been featured in a wide variety
of films, sharing musical sequences with such men as
Harry James, Gene Krupa, and Van Johnson. Whether
she is heard in sweet music or swing, she is as
entertaining and as authentic as she is original.
[ Ethel Smith: November 22, 1910 — May 10, 1996 ]
because she's originally from Pittsburgh. But if she had
decided to be born on Father Knickerbocker's island, the
phrase would have fitted her perfectly—for Ethel has been
in love with Latin America and its music since she was ten.
Her most ardent childhood desire was some day to go
south of the equator. Not only did she realize that wish
before she was twenty-three, but she also became the
foremost exponent of Latin rhythms on the electric organ.
But let's go back to the beginning—back to Pittsburgh, for
it was here that Ethel received much of her sound musical
background at Carnegie Tech. Institute where she studied
piano, organ and, incidentally, Spanish. After graduation,
she got a job playing in the pit for a Shubert show. It was
her first taste of commercial musical life and she liked it well
enough to tour with the company for twenty-eight weeks.
Next came an offer to accompany a singer in one of
Hollywood's studios. One day, on the set, she noticed
a Hammond Electric Organ—at that time, only recently
developed. She took to it immediately. Apparently, it
took to her, too, for an alert and advertising-wise dealer
saw in her nimble-fingered playing an excellent way to
demonstrate the new Hammond. He not only let her
practice on it to her heart's content, but also allowed
her to take it with her to Florida where she was booked
for an engagement playing accompaniment for a trio
in a little Bavarian restaurant. Ethel soon adopted the
electric organ as her chosen solo instrument—mainly be-
cause it responded so sensitively to the highly colorful
tropical rhythms she loved so well.
When Cordell Hull sailed southward to attend the first
Pan-American conference, Ethel was one of the few
women who traveled with his party. She had managed
to snare the post of chairman of the entertainment
committee. Her first and long-dreamed-of South
American trip, it served to whet her appetite for
other more extenswive expeditions—for she had
decided to make a first-hand study of the native
music. Her travels below the border eventually encom-
passed some seventeen Caribbean and South American
countries. "For a while," she says, "I became a regular
tropical hep chick. I stuck my nose into every smoky
cabaret that boasted a native orchestra. Whenever
they let me, I'd sit in with the boys for a little Latin
jam session. That way it didn't take long to collect a
trunk-load of authentic and out-of-the-way rhythms
and melodies—including such lush and sultry-sounding
ones as chacareras, milongas, bambucos, pasillos,
guarachas, habaneras and, of course, the traditional
sambas, rumbas and congas."
So well did Ethel learn to interpret the music of South
America that she was offered an engagement at one
of its most celebrated night spots—Rio De Janeiro's
Copacabana. While she was playing here, an executive
of a tobacco company invited her to return to New York
for the "Hit Parade" radio show. Ethel was featured as
one of its stars for over a year. Then a talent scout
from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer suddenly awoke to the
fact that not only was Ethel's music a delight to the
ear, but that Ethel, herself, was extremely photogenic.
She was offered a contract, at what she considered a
"fantastic figure" and, modestly but definitely, accepted.
Since that time she has been featured in a wide variety
of films, sharing musical sequences with such men as
Harry James, Gene Krupa, and Van Johnson. Whether
she is heard in sweet music or swing, she is as
entertaining and as authentic as she is original.
[ Ethel Smith: November 22, 1910 — May 10, 1996 ]
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