Jeri Sullivan, Part 1: Radio, Rum & Coca-Cola and Signature Records

If singer Jeri Sullivan is remembered at all today, it is as one of the composers of the massive wartime hit "Rum and Coca-Cola," which she almost certainly didn't write.

Too bad she isn't better known as a singer - she was a most talented artist. Today we will begin a two-part look at her career, which began in the 1940s and continued into the 1950s.

Included in this first part will be her own version of "Rum and Coca-Cola" and the controversy about the song, a few of her radio programs, and one of her rare Signature 78s.

In part two, we'll discuss her participation in the 1948 film "A Song Is Born," where she dubbed the vocals for star Virginia Mayo and appeared on the "songs from the film" album issued by Capitol, and examine what is known about her career from then forward.

Is It Jeri or Jerri? Sullivan or Sullavan?

In researching Jeri Sullivan's professional career, you quickly discover that she appears almost as often as "Jeri Sullavan" as she does "Jeri Sullivan," and sometimes her first name is spelled with two "r's" rather than one. This can't be just carelessness. The lawsuits over "Rum and Coca-Cola" have her as Sullavan, as do her Soundies. But her records, radio shows and most personal appearances have her as Sullivan.

Publicity photo for Jeri Sullivan's radio show

I don't know which she preferred. It wasn't her real name, so maybe she didn't care. She seems to have been born Leona Schlosser, and grew up in Bremerton, Washington. She actually may have been born in Alberta, Canada, probably in 1918.

(Oh, to make matters even more confusing, in the 1950s she changed her professional name to Jenny Barrett. And then may have changed it back. More on that in Part 2.)

Sullivan became a singer in her early 20s. I've been able to confirm that she sang with the Art Jarrett band for a few months in 1942, and she apparently appeared in an elusive musical short that same year.

She next turns up as a guest on the Col. Stoopnagle radio show in 1943, then on her own sustaining 15-minute program on CBS from late 1943 through at least part of 1944. The show was called "Jeri Sullivan's Dream House" after her romantic theme song, which Signature records later issued (see below).

Transcription label

At least two of the Dream House programs survive and I have remastered them and included them in the download package. Both suffer from clumsy previous attempts at noise reduction, rendering the sound unsteady in the February 19, 1944 program and muffled in the June 6, 1944 program. But both are listenable, and you will hear that she had a most attractive voice and quite a way with a song even then. The June 6 program has added interest in that it was recorded on D-Day for the Allied invasion of Europe, and is interrupted for the latest news from the front.

Who Wrote 'Rum and Coca-Cola'?

While Sullivan was appearing on radio, she also was a nightclub artist, and that dual status led to her involvement in one of the most notable musical copyright cases of all time. It concerns the authorship of the calypso song "Rum and Coca-Cola," which was a massive hit for the Andrews Sisters in 1945.

Before the Andrews siblings got a hold of it, comic Morey Amsterdam had introduced the song to Sullivan while she was appearing at the Versailles in New York and on the radio. He had just come back from entertaining troops in Trinidad, where he said he got the idea for the number.

Here the story becomes convoluted, so let me give you just an outline of what appears to have happened.

Sullivan took the song to her radio music director, Paul Baron. They were excited about it and went so far as to prepare a demo recording, with the thought of getting Coca-Cola's blessing for it.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam shopped the song to the Andrews Sisters, or their producer. They liked it as well, and recorded it for Decca in October 1944. Amsterdam was listed as the sole author of the piece, which angered Sullivan and Baron when the song became a smash hit. Thinking they had agreed to a deal with the comedian, they got an attorney involved, and eventually the song credits were changed to "Amsterdam-Sullivan-Baron," the idea being that Morey wrote the words, and Jeri and Paul the music.

Trouble was, none of them had much to do with either the music or the lyrics. The hit tune was plainly based on an earlier Trinidad composition, with calypso singer Lord Invader (Rupert Grant) setting words to music published by Lionel Belasco early in the century, although possibly from a folk source. Invader's very ribald lyrics are a commentary about the Trinidadians catering to the US troops on the island. Amsterdam or someone toned else them down considerably for the US market, while retaining the suggestive couplet, "Both mother and daughter / Working for the Yankee dollar."

Eventually, Grant and Belasco sued Amsterdam, Sullivan and Baron, and won the suit several years later, although somehow the names of the American trio are still on the sheet music.

While this was happening, the song had been commercially recorded by everyone from the Vaughan Monroe to Amos Milburn, including 78s from Lord Invader and his calypso rival, Wilmoth Houdini. Recorded by everyone but Sullivan, that is, except for a non-commercial version that appeared on an Armed Forces V-Disc.

Web author Kevin Burke believes the V-Disc was actually the Sullivan demo version mentioned above. The idea was for the publisher to get Coca-Cola's permission to use its name in the title. That is why Sullivan sings "Cola Cola" instead of "Coca-Cola" and the disc is titled "Rum and Cola Cola." But the demo became moot when the Andrews Sisters version came out. (Burke has prepared an in-depth website about the "Rum and Coca-Cola" controversy, currently available only via Internet Archive.)

I've included a cleaned-up and repitched version of the Sullivan V-Disc in the download. She also made a Soundie of the song in about 1947. It is on YouTube in awful condition - even worse that that site's norm.

Parenthetically, Sullivan made at least two other Soundies - one of "Tico-Tico" from 1945 is on YouTube in fairly good shape.

1945 to 1948

Sullivan continued to be a popular radio presence after her own show went off the air sometime in 1944. In 1945 she was a regular on Ray Bolger's summer replacement show. She then went on to the Jimmy Durante-Garry Moore radio show in 1946, followed by a regular stint with Bob Crosby on his show. In 1947 she guested on the Mark Warnow and Bob Hope programs.

Tune In Magazine, September 1946

In 1948, Signature Records purchased the masters of 12 songs that Sullivan had cut for the small United Artists label some time before. She was accompanied by a vocal group led by Les Baxter, one-time band sideman turned vocal group director (and later mood-music maestro). I can find no evidence that United Artists ever released any of the songs, and Signature only put out four of them. I thought I had both 78s in my collection, but it turns out that I had two copies of the same disc. Good thing - one of them is cracked.

Fortunately, the one 78 I do have is most enjoyable, with Sullivan in excellent voice and singing stylishly, and Baxter's voices providing backing similar to the sound of Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, who employed Les for a time. (It may in fact have been the Mel-Tones, who were appearing with Johnny White's orchestra, which is on the Signature disc as well.)

One side is Baxter's "Cowboy Jamboree," which is much better than the title portends, and a heartfelt reading of Sullivan's old radio theme, "Dream House," a pleasing ballad. The sound is excellent.

So to recap, today's download includes two radio transcriptions, the V-Disc of "Rum and Coca-Cola" and the Signature 78. More in Part 2.

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