The Rarest Jeri Sullivan

Our ongoing exploration of the career of singer Jeri Sullivan has previously included two long posts on this blog and one on my singles blog.

Post number one detailed her early career and included a single on Signature records, a V-Disc of her "Rum and Coca-Cola" recording and two radio transcriptions. In post two, we looked at her work on the movie A Song Is Born and her releases under the name Jenny Barrett in the 1950s.

Later my friend Bryan Cooper contributed an additional Signature single, which I published on Buster's Swinging Singles.

Today we have an exceptional group of recordings, completely unknown to me, courtesy of Simon Buckmaster. These include six one-of-a-kind acetate recordings, a single on the Metro Hollywood label and an additional Signature single. This collection is a must-hear for those of you who like Jeri, and I am most grateful to Simon for bringing it our way. More details follow.

The Studio & Artists Acetates

The real prize of the collection consists of six acetates (or lacquers) that Sullivan made at Studio & Artists Recorders, which was in the CBS Building in Hollywood. The songs include "Gone with the Wind," "I Wish I Had a Penny," "Poi - Poi - Poi," "Take Care of You for Me," "There's a Small Hotel" and her own "Regular Man."

These records are excellent. Simon has done a spectacular job coaxing good sound from the fragile and dirty lacquers. Jeri is in terrific voice, accompanied by a small group with a prominent guitarist.

This is probably not the Johnny White Orchestra who backed her on the records issued by Signature. That group has a vibraphone not present on the transcriptions.

We don't know when they were made, but I suspect the early 1940s. We know it was not before 1942, when "Take Care of You for Me" was copyrighted. I believe the timing was circa 1944 for the following reasons. She cut "Regular Man" both for a commercial release and on this lacquer. The commercial release was on Signature in the late 1940s, but it was from a master made years earlier for a defunct label. Since the Signature sides also include "Dream House," the theme of her 1943-44 radio show, I suspect those commercial masters were made then - and possibly the acetates as well.

Now, what was the purpose of making these acetates? We know they were not publisher or songwriter demos - the presence of two well-known songs from 1937 rules that out. And they were probably not reference lacquers from a commercial session, because the commercial disc of "Regular Man" uses a different arrangement. Nor do they sound like air checks.

The answer is probably that Sullivan had them made to take to record companies in search of a contract - or even, as Simon suggests, to film studios. It was at about this time that she began making both commercial records and Soundies. So apparently this strategy may have been successful.

In any case, these six songs are a remarkable find.

The Metro Hollywood Sides

Simon also came up with two songs released by the small Metro Hollywood label circa 1948. Again, these have a convoluted history. They were probably recorded by the ARA label, which was active from 1944 to 1946, and purchased by Metro Hollywood. The latter label seems to have gone under in 1948 after having been sued by M-G-M records for infringement.

The A-side of Sullivan's 78 is "My Yiddishe Momme." Jeri switched ethnic identities for the B-side - "My O'Lovely, My O'Darlin', My O'Brien." The latter song was published in 1946, so the recording probably dates from about then. These are good performances with an anonymous backing that is probably not the Johnny White Orchestra.

Two More Signatures

Finally, Simon has discovered a Signature 78 that doesn't appear in the online 78 discography for that label. It pairs the Jeri's "Regular Man" with "Love Ain't No Good." These are splendid performances in good sound. Unfortunately, Simon's copy was chipped, so the performances are a bit abbreviated, but what's there is very fine indeed.

* * *

So what is missing as yet from the Sullivan legacy? Several things:

- Both Bryan and I have 16-inch transcriptions that we have not yet been able to transfer.

- Jeri made a set of eight songs for Standard Transcriptions with Johnny White and the Mel-Tones, which have not surfaced so far.

- She recorded at least four songs for Coral in the 1950s under the name Jenny Barrett.

- Finally, there are many potential radio air checks out there - she not only had her own show, she appeared on many other programs such as Jimmy Durante's (see photo below). Reader boppinbob was kind enough to send along a link to a number of these shows, and I hope to mine them for content sometime in the future.

I also want to mention belatedly that Bryan Cooper consulted on the Sepia Records issue of the soundtrack recordings of A Song Is Born, where Sullivan dubbed Virginia Mayo's vocals. That CD includes the 1947 pre-recordings taken from original Goldwyn Studios acetates in Bryan's collection, along with the Capitol recordings and many other items.

Let me conclude by thanking Simon again for the wonderful recordings in this post!

Radio publicity photo from 1945: Garry Moore,
Jeri Sullivan and Jimmy Durante