1960’s – Brian Ferrari's Blog

She Knew Something About Love: Brenda Reid (1945-2026)

Brenda Reid, the lead singer and last surviving member of the original Exciters, passed away on April 29, 2026. She was 80 years old.

In the liner notes for The Exciters’ Something To Shout About! CD compilation, Malcolm Baumgart and Mick Patrick wrote, “If Brenda Reid was a foodstuff, she’d be jalapeño peppers. If she was a chemical compound, she’d be nitro-glycerin. A color? Why, flame red! That woman’s voice was the distilled essence of heat. Never was a group fronted by such a torrid vocalist, and never was a group more aptly named than The Exciters.”

It was a voice that stopped a young Dusty Springfield in her tracks on Broadway one night in 1962, when she heard “Tell Him” blasting out of Colony Records. On her way to Nashville to record a country album with her group The Springfields, Brenda’s vocal hit Dusty at such a visceral level that she was forced to rethink her career trajectory. Legendary songwriter/producer Ellie Greenwich was quoted as saying; “Brenda has one of the best voices I’ve heard. As far as I was concerned, she could do no wrong – she would only add to the song, make it greater.”

The Exciters were a trio of Queens schoolgirls (Brenda with Carol Johnson and Lillian Walker) harmonizing with sole male group member Herb Rooney. Although technically not a girl group, Brenda is widely regarded as one of the signature voices of the girl group era. On the strength of their recordings of “Tell Him,” “He’s Got The Power,” and the original version of “Do Wah Diddy,” the group was chosen for the Beatles 1964 American tour. They went on to release a string of excellent records through the 1960’s and 1970’s that have become staples of the Northern Soul scene.

I got to know Brenda through Words With Friends. We were connected on social media – or rather, I had fanboy friend-requested her in 2011 after the group performed at Lincoln Center for She’s Got The Power! A Girl Group Extravaganza . But the WWF algorithm paired us up – possibly because we both seemed to suffer from insomnia and played the game at all hours of the night.

One day as I was listening to my recently acquired copy of The Exciters rare 1971 Black Beauty LP, the app pinged that Brenda had played a word. I sent her a message to tell her that I was listening to her album and that I was very much enjoying it. She responded that she didn’t have a copy of it anymore, so I volunteered to burn a CD and send it to her. I added some rare bonus tracks to the disc that I mailed off, including the sole single by her first group The Masterettes, which morphed into The Exciters.

She later said “When I heard that Masterettes song that you put on there, I said ‘Ok. This guy knows his stuff.'”

One night, after a few servings of liquid courage, I sent a message asking if she would be interested in doing an interview for my East Village Radio show, 60 Degrees. This was in the fall of 2012 – just in time for the 50th anniversary of the release of “Tell Him.” She agreed and invited me to have lunch and conduct the interview at her home in Huntington, Long Island.

I packed up my laptop and microphones and borrowed my mother’s car to head over. Her daughter Trisha cooked a spaghetti lunch and we had a great afternoon talking about music.

During the interview, when we were discussing The Exciters recording of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s weepy 1972 ballad “Alone Again (Naturally),” I mentioned that I had never been able to find a copy, to which Brenda says with a laugh “I will give you a copy to-DAY.” After the interview was finished, she played the recording on her computer and began to sing along. We were sitting at her desk in her home office, but vocally this turned into a full-blown performance, matching the recording she had done 40 years before. I thought I might just die right there.

On paper, the idea of the Exciters recording a song like “Alone Again (Naturally) or a disco version of “I (Who Have Nothing)” sound like terrible ideas. But with Herb’s arrangements and Brenda’s voice, they always knocked it out of the park. In his book Girl Groups: Fabulous Females Who Rocked The World, John Clemente writes, “Two important facts are a testament to the Exciter’s musical integrity; that they lasted longer than most vocal groups, especially when chart success was not always forthcoming; and that they were able to weather stylistic changes in popular music, never once sounding awkward or stale in the mix.”

*Sheet music for “Reaching For The Best”, a Northern Soul hit co-written by Herb Rooney with Ian Levine. (1975)*

One of the lyrics of “Reaching For The Best”, their 1975 UK hit was “I want an evening gown… I can’t afford a house dress… All my life I’ve been reaching for the best…” I am reminded of a story that Brenda shared before we started recording the interview that afternoon. The Masterettes has scored their first gig at the Hillside Theatre in Queens. They were at the bottom of the bill with a half dozen other artists, including Baby Washington. Brenda idolized Baby – she was her biggest musical influence, along with Frankie Lymon. She recalled that Baby arrived backstage at the theater making a star’s entrance: elegant but aloof and beautifully dressed.

Brenda was quite intimidated and upset about her own inexperience and her group’s simple costumes. She was crying in a corner backstage when Baby came over to ask her what was wrong. She told her that she was embarrassed at her own appearance, that Baby looked so beautiful and she wished that she could have a career like hers. Baby comforted her and assured her that one day, she would achieve it.

*A Family Affair: The 1980’s Exciters featured Brenda and Herb with their children: Tracy & Cory, and Herb’s son Jeffrey.*

When I knew that we had recorded plenty of material to fill a 2-hour program, I ended the interview. I had decided beforehand that I would not pry into the later years, when she had to get a retail job after she and Herb split. Brenda looked surprised that the interview was over. She later conveyed to me that she WANTED to talk about the lean years. She wanted to talk more about the ups and downs of their relationship, and also the loss of their daughter Tracy to leukemia. She was inspired by Tina Turner’s memoir and wanted to tell her own story in her own way. She had been working on a book for quite some time – speaking on tape to get her thoughts recorded. Her son Cory, now a very successful producer and record executive, had put her in touch with a writer to assist. Nothing ever came of it and she was still without a publisher. We agreed to meet again for another interview, which would hopefully coincide with the book coming out.

And then what happened? Life went on. We both moved on from our late night Words With Friends habit. 60 Degrees went off the air the following spring when East Village Radio shuttered. We stayed in touch on Facebook and were reunited at events for the Piece Of My Heart Off-Broadway musical and a Bert Berns documentary screening in New York City. Brenda eventually moved to California to be near Cory and his family.

*Opening night party for the Off-Broadway musical* Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story. (July 14, 2014)

On some level I felt like I had failed her – she never got to tell the rest of her story. There was much more she wanted to say. “I really need help with it but I’m not going to give up,” she wrote in an email. I felt some responsibility to help her do that, even though she had other people in her life that felt the same way. And that’s how it was left.

After I heard that she had passed away, I listened back to a voicemail that she left me after our interview had aired in 2012. She said “I just wanted to thank you for such a wonderful interview. You made me feel very special today… you made me feel very proud of myself and I just wanted to thank you for taking the time out of your life to want to come over and interview me and let the world hear what I had to say… Thank you so much. God bless.”

Thinking back to our conversations about the book, I don’t recall the title she had chosen. In my mind, it could only be one thing: I Know Something About Love. The opening line of the song that introduced the world to that flame red nitro-glycerin voice, bursting from a 17 year-old school girl from Queens. It was a declaration so strong and memorable that you can sing that line to people of any age and they will recognize it from someplace in their pop culture memories. They may not know her name or The Exciters, but they understand this: she knew what she was talking about.

The Exciters performed at Lincoln Center, NYC for She’s Got The Power! A Girl Group Extravaganza on July 30, 2011. Alongside original members Brenda Reid and Lillian Walker were Beverly Warren and Brenda & Herb Rooney’s son Cory Rooney. Backing them up (as The Boyfriends) were Jeremy Chatzky and members of Yo La Tengo. Among the backing singers: Barbara Harris (of The Toys), Delron Nanette Licari, Susan Collins, Mikie Harris, Jean Thomas, Lesley Miller, Toni Wine and Ula Hedwig.

East Village Radio re-broadcast the 2012 60 Degrees show with Brenda Reid on Sunday, 5/17/2026. You can listen to it here:

Marianne Faithfull After Dark (1980)

“Like an apparition of decadence and dissipation, she is an all too appropriate picture of innocence fallen prey to the evils and excesses of that most glamorous unholy trinity – drugs, sex and rock-and-roll.”

Depending on your calculations, Marianne Faithfull was entering the second or third act of her career when she was featured in the March, 1980 issue of After Dark magazine. The willowy chanteuse first achieved fame as part of the British Invasion with her 1964 hit “As Tears Go By,” a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She worked her way through the Rolling Stones – first with Brian Jones, then Richards and finally Jagger, to whom she was linked romantically through rest of the 1960’s.

Faithfull’s singing career waned as she transitioned into acting roles. She was a poster child for the swinging London set, and then a cautionary tale of its excesses. By the early 1970’s, her career had been eclipsed by a series of scandalous headlines detailing drug use, breakdowns, arrests, and then homelessness. She eventually kicked her heroin habit, although complete sobriety continued to be elusive. A foray into country music in 1976 was not well received.

In the beginning… Marianne Faithfull sings “As Tears Go By” (1964)

Then came the critical and commercial success of Broken English – her 1979 LP proved to be her definitive album. She emerged like a phoenix from the ashes of the 1970’s with a punk-infused declaration that she still had something to say. How she chose to say it – with explicit lyrics that got the album banned in several countries – certainly didn’t hurt her reputation as a rock and roll survivor.

The Guardian revisited the album in a 2013 review, with Alexis Petridis writing “…her husking vocals on Broken English seemed not merely ravaged, but imperious and defiant with it, a sensation heightened by the arrangements her rasp was set against… she sounded like she was telling someone to go fuck themselves even when she wasn’t.”

It doesn’t bode well that writer Brant Mewborn begins the After Dark feature with the observation, “Marianne Faithfull is nodding out.” She’s recovering from a car accident and exhausted from a European publicity tour. “Marianne seems overworked and over-sedated. She’s obviously not ready for an interview, and I’m definitely not ready to play interrogating nursemaid to a strung-out girl who may need to publicize her reemerging career but could use a bed even more.”

One can’t help but wonder if the reporter would have been as forthcoming if he was describing Mick Jagger or Keith Richards in such a state. But that holds true for most of the judgement hurled at Faithfull throughout her career.

She does pull it together though, and Mewborn later describes her as “surprisingly candid and coherent.”

It’s interesting to note that one of the quotes highlighted in the article is “I’m not a dyke, but I like to make love with young beautiful people. Whether they are boys or girls doesn’t make an awful lot of difference.” This is actually attributed to Faithfull in the lurid tell-all Up And Down With The Rolling Stones, a book purportedly written by the band’s drug dealer Tony Sanchez but ghost written by British music journalist John Blake. In any case, she does not confirm or deny the quote here.

Reporter Brant Mewborn went on to become a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine. He was just 38 years old when he died in 1990. Marianne Faithfull passed away at age 78 in January, 2025.

Broken English is also the title of a new documentary about Marianne Faithfull. The film screened at the Venice Film Festival and will have a theatrical release in the UK later this month. Read more about it here.

Two other singers featured elsewhere in this issue of After Dark: Cindy Bullens and France Joli.

Although Bullens put out a dozen LPs throughout her career, she is probably best known for her contributions to the 1978 Grease motion picture soundtrack, singing “It’s Raining On Prom Night” and “Freddie My Love.”

Bullens came out as transgender in 2012 and is now known as Cidney. See a recent interview posted below:

A 2023 interview with Cidney Bullens:

France Joli had just turned 17 years old when this issue of After Dark hit the stands. She was still riding high on the strength of her debut LP and the disco hit “Come To Me.” Her performance the previous summer in the Fire Island Pines is the stuff of legend and previously covered here in New York City In Touch (1979).

Truman Capote’s Christmas Memory

“It’s fruitcake weather…”

A recent rerun of This American Life featured Truman Capote reading an edited version of his short story A Christmas Memory. Originally published in Mademoiselle magazine in December 1956, Capote’s reading was released on a 1959 LP:

The largely autobiographical story is set in early 1930’s Monroeville, Alabama and describes a holiday season in the lives of the seven-year-old narrator and an elderly woman who is his distant cousin and best friend. This classic holiday story has been broadcast, recorded, filmed, and staged multiple times.

You can find the entire text here.

A 1966 television version won the Peabody Award as well as Emmy awards for the teleplay and lead actress Geraldine Page. You can watch the entire 48 minute film on YouTube:

Biopics and the recent television series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans have focused on Capote’s later life and the mess that he became. It’s nice to revisit one of his finest early pieces of writing and remember what a brilliant talent he was.

*The infamous book jacket photo of Truman Capote from* Other Voices, Other Rooms. One critic commented, “He looks as if he were dreamily contemplating some outrage against conventional morality.” (1948)

Some Thanksgiving Treats For You (2025)

Ok – I admit it: I am one of those people who started playing Christmas music last week. Yesterday the Christmas lights went up. I don’t normally rush this, but this rotted year has really done a job on me. However, I am comfortable enough in my middle-aged fruitiness to freely quote Auntie Mame at you: We need a little Christmas. Now.

One of my favorite holiday CDs of recent years is Tracey Thorn’s Tinsel & Lights – a smart collection of original and non-traditional holiday-themed songs perfectly suited to the Everything But The Girl singer’s melancholy voice.

The lead track, Joy (written by Thorn) has been on repeat in my home every December since its 2012 release. When I first posted this in 2020, the song felt like it was tailor-made for that pandemic holiday season.

The opening lyric:
When someone very dear / calls you with the words “Everything’s all clear.” / That’s what you want to hear / but you know it might be different in the new year. / That’s why / That’s why / We hang the lights so high: Joy.

Now, as 2025 limps to a close, it’s a different lyric that strikes a chord:

So light the winds of fire / and watch as the flames grow higher / we’ll gather up our fears / And face down all the coming years / All that they destroy / And in their face we throw our Joy.

Here are some other Thanksgiving-themed goodies I have previously posted:

When it comes to holiday music, unfortunately Thanksgiving is lost in the long shadow of Christmas. There’s a severe lack of Thanksgiving songs, aren’t there? All we’ve got is “Let’s Turkey Trot” by Little Eva, and even then it is not really about Thanksgiving at all. The song’s title refers to the Turkey Trot, a dance step popular back in the early 1900’s.

“Let’s Turkey Trot” was Eva Boyd’s third single, released in 1963 with the hopes of recapturing the #1 success of her debut platter, The Loco-Motion. It had a respectable showing on the charts, peaking at #20, although it should have been billed as Little Eva & The Cookies, as the backing group is as much a part of the success of the record as the lead. Group member Earl-Jean McCrea delivers solo lines echoing their own hits Chains & Don’t Say Nothing Bad About My Baby, which also featured Little Eva on background vocals.

Here’s an abbreviated performance by Little Eva on Shindig in 1965. Darlene Love and the Blossoms stand in for the Cookies in what must be one of the proudest moments of their career. Gobble Diddle It!

The Dollyrots also covered this track in 2014. Besides using footage of Little Eva’s Shindig performance throughout the video, they also namecheck “Little Eva back in ’63”:

Want some “Mashed Potatoes” with your “Turkey Trot?” Here’s Dee Dee Sharp with her own ode to a Thanksgiving staple / dance move:

Aaaaand some “Gravy” for your mashed potatoes:

Here’s a newly updated and expanded version of a post that originated in 2019: 10 Things You May Not Know About March of The Wooden Soldiers, the Laurel & Hardy classic holiday film that is required viewing on Thanksgiving morning.

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On the darker side… one of the faux trailers from Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse is the hilariously spot-on Thanksgiving, directed by Eli Roth. It is entirely plausible that someone would have jumped on the bandwagon of grade-z holiday themed horror films that followed the success of Halloween. But this one is a fake. In 2023, Roth did put out a full movie version of Thanksgiving. The original trailer retains it’s own seedy charm:

During the Thanksgiving episode of SNL in 1997, Lilith Fair stand-up comic Cinder Calhoun (a recurring character played by Ana Gasteyer) & singer Sara McLachlan paid a visit to Norm MacDonald and the Weekend Update desk, singing the Thanksgiving classic “Basted In Blood.” It would not be nearly as funny if they didn’t sing it so well.

Unfortunately this segment seems to have fallen off the annual SNL Thanksgiving Eve prime time special.

In 2019, Ana Gasteyer released a holiday album: Sugar & Booze. Highly recommended!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A NEW Halloween 60’s Girl Group Playlist

It’s hard to believe that it has been 17 years since I put together the first Halloween show for 60 Degrees with Brian Ferrari, my weekly radio program featuring “60’s chicks and girl groups – the hidden gems, cult favorites and unreleased obscurities of the decade.” The show ran for five years and has been back on the air since the relaunch of East Village Radio in July, 2024. This Halloween episode was originally broadcast on October 27, 2008 and aired every Halloween for the duration of the show’s run.

This year we have a new show! Halloween 60 Degrees Part II: Electric Boogaloo is streaming here:

Once again, we’ve got soul witches, rockabilly rabble-rousers, death discs, horror movie theme songs, science fiction sirens, girls driven to madness by love, and more dead boyfriends than you can shake a broomstick at. Plus a whole lot more! As with every episode, the songs are interspersed with vintage commercials, sound effects and movie clips.

The first Halloween show is also available to stream HERE.

The first Halloween show was also posted to Youtube a few years ago. There are three segments with visuals and some minor alterations.

Part 1:

Reparata & the Delrons – Panic
Babs Tino – Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
Sparkle Moore – Skull & Crossbones
Wanda Jackson – Riot In Cellblock 9
Southern Culture On The Skids – Torture
France Gall – Frankenstein
The Crystals – Frankenstein Twist
Hayley Mills – Jimmy Bean
Claudine Clark – Walking Through A Cemetery
The Sham-ettes – Hey There Big Bad Wolf

Part 2:

Hayley Mills – Cranberry Bog
The Shangri-La’s – Give Us Your Blessing
The Satisfactions – Daddy You Just Gotta Let Him In
The Goodees – Condition Red
The Nu-Luvs – So Soft, So Warm (Dressed In Black)
The Whyte Boots (Lori Burton) – Nightmare
Glenda Collins – It’s Hard To Believe It
Judy Garland – Purple People Eater
The Kane Triplets – Theme From Mission Impossible
Tracy – Strange Love
Mikki Young – Who Killed Teddy Bear?
Patti Seymour – The Silencer
Josie Cotton – Maneaters (Get Off The Road)

Part 3:

Janie Jones – Witches Brew
Martha & The Vandellas – Mobile Lil The Dancing Witch
Bettye Lavette – Witchcraft In The Air
Erma Franklin – Abracadabra
Dusty Springfield – Spooky
Marie Applebee – The Boy Who Took My Heart (took my mind)
The Love Chain – The Love Chain
Peggy Lee – The Case of M.J.
Janie Jones – Psycho
The Martin Sisters – Mother Mother (I Feel Sick)
Julie Budd – All’s Quiet On West 23^rd St.
Gayle Haness – Johnny Ander
The Indigos – He’s Coming Home
Cass Elliott – The Costume Ball
Teacho & The Students – Chills & Fever
Dusty Springfield – Haunted

60 Degrees is always kinda cool, but at this time of year, its downright bone-chilling!

Artist’s Muse: Wilbur Pippin

The latest subject in our Artist’s Muse series is Wilbur “Billy” Pippin, a friend, lover and confidant to a circle of artists that included George Platt Lynes, George Tooker, Paul Cadmus, Jared & Margaret French (aka the PaJaMa collective).

Wilbur Thomas Pippin was born on May 25, 1924 in Macon, Georgia. An only child, his father was employed by Railway Express while his mother worked at a dress shop. After the couple separated, Wilbur and his mother moved down the road to his maternal grandmothers house. He attended Lanier High School for Boys, where he was on the honor roll and received recognition for 5 years of perfect attendance. Upon graduation in June of 1942, he enlisted in the Army and served through World War II.

Back in Georgia for the 1946-47 school year, Billy enrolled as a freshman at North Georgia College in Dahlonega, three hours north of Macon. He became president of the drama club and was also voted “Most Versatile Cadet”. His academic career seems to have ended after that successful first year, as life took an unexpected turn in the form of a fellow named Fred Melton.

Sgt. Pippin – the Most Versatile Cadet at North Georgia College (1947)

We previously mentioned Fred “Butch” Melton in a profile of Artist’s Muse/writer Donald Windham. Butch was an Atlanta artist/photographer who moved to New York in 1939 with Windham, his boyfriend at the time. After the two split in 1942, Melton abruptly married Sarah “Sally” Marshall. The newlyweds settled in Greenwich Village and had two sons in quick succession. The growing family then moved back to Sally’s hometown of Macon, Georgia to live on land provided by her parents.

In the New York Public Library blog post Finding Frederick Melton, Stephen Bowie writes, “Melton dove into small-town Southern life with gusto. He built a modern house and workshop on the property, painted, and worked on the newspaper and in the local theater. But the experiment in conformity didn’t last.”

Whether Butch and Billy met doing local theatre or through some other social event is speculative. Suffice to say that Macon isn’t a very large town. In any case, the two found each other, and sparks flew. Billy did not return to college. In early 1948, Butch left his young family in Macon to move back to New York with Billy.

The couple moved into a cold-water tenement flat at 446 West 55th street in Hell’s Kitchen. Butch introduced Billy to the circle of gay artists that he had left behind 5 years prior. The striking young man soon began to turn up in their work.

Bernard Perlin & Wilbur Pippin photographed by Fred Melton in Cherry Grove, Fire Island (1948)

Wilbur Pippin photographed on Fire Island with George Tooker and Margaret French

Ballet impresario Lincoln Kirstein was apparently so fond of the couple that he tasked them with running Pippin Press, a silkscreen company he bankrolled and named after Billy. The original intent was to make collectible prints of ballet designs and the work of artists like Pavel Tchelitchev. Ultimately Pippin Press found more success producing custom silkscreen wallpaper.

Billy also began exploring photography alongside Butch, forming the “Melton-Pippin Photography” imprint for both of their work. Although he later enjoyed a long career as a fashion photographer, today Billy’s most notable photographs are his 1950 portraits of Jack Kerouac. It was one of these photos that was Kerouac’s choice for the original cover sketch of On The Road.

Jack Kerouac photographed by Wilbur Pippin (1950)

In early 1951, Butch and Billy had a new neighbor when their friend George Platt Lynes moved into the building. Lynes’ relationship with Chuck Howard had recently ended, and he was facing increasing financial woes. Lynes was initially pleased to have the couple as neighbors – Melton helped him with remodeling and silk-screening wallpaper for the living room. But he quickly grew annoyed by the couple “forever borrowing that old cup of sugar…” he wrote to a friend, “… or in their case it was more likely to be a bottle of gin.”

*Wilbur Pippin & Chuck Howard, (ca. 1950*)

Wilbur Pippin photographed by George Platt Lynes

Besides the thirsty neighbors, the far-west proximity and sketchy neighborhood did not sit well with Lynes. By September, he had fled back to the comfort of the East side, although his finances could not support it.

Fred “Butch” Melton & Wilbur “Billy” Pippin photographed by George Platt Lynes (ca 1951)

The couple remained friends with Lynes through the rest of his life, despite some difficult times. When Lynes fell out of favor with Lincoln Kirstein, Melton was named as his replacement as the official photographer for the New York City Ballet. In 1955 when Lynes was hospitalized with terminal lung cancer, Pippin was one of a small group of friends tasked by Russell Lynes to dismantle and pack up his brother’s apartment. George Platt Lynes died in December of that year.

With Pippin Press winding down, Billy went to work as publicity director for the New York City Ballet as well as press representative of the Broadway show Protective Custody, which opened and closed in late December, 1956.

By the end of the 1950’s, Butch and Billy had gone their separate ways. As with so many others, Fred Melton was dropped by the mercurial Lincoln Kirstein and had been replaced as photographer for the New York Ballet, just as he had replaced Lynes years before.

In 1961, Melton departed New York once again, leaving his collection of ballet negatives to the New York Public Library, intent on spending his last days drinking on the beaches of Puerto Rico.

Meanwhile, Billy was working steadily as a fashion and celebrity photographer for the New York Times. He traveled the world through the following decades as a freelance fashion photographer for Vogue and other outlets. In the late 1960’s, Pippin coupled with fellow photographer, Thomas Wier, Jr. For 30 years, the duo ran Pippin & Wier Photography in New York City. Their country home was an old converted schoolhouse in East Haddam, CT. They eventually amassed a menagerie of 15 cats.

*The Commercial Appeal*, Memphis, TN 10/29/64

*Daily Messenger*, Canandaigua, NY (12/12/1974)

In 1979, Pippin co-authored the book Catwise with actress Marian Winters. This was a collection of photographs Pippin had taken of his feline family, with classical quotes selected by Winters. Sadly, Winters succumbed to cancer just before the book’s publication.

*Hartford Courant, Connecticut (12/14/79)*

Pippin and Wier eventually retired to their East Haddam house. Thomas Wier Jr. died on 9/12/2000, age 70. Wilbur Pippin died on 4/30/2003 at his home, age 78.

In 2024, the A. Therian gallery in Cairo, New York featured Billy, an exhibition of rare and previously unseen photos of Wilbur Pippin taken by George Platt Lynes, the PaJaMa collective, and Fred Melton. This collection of photographs shed light upon the striking young man from Macon, Georgia who became a friend, lover and confidant to his great artistic contemporaries.

Wilbur Pippin, Egremont, Massachusettes (ca. 1948)

Good Time Sallies and Madame Spivy Radio

Madame Spivy is having quite a renaissance in 2025, thanks to the efforts of Ms. Ana Matronic and her newly launched Good Time Sallies podcast. As previously mentioned, Madame Spivy is the subject of the first two episodes. I joined Ms. Matronic to discuss the dynamic lady of song, stage and screen. You can find those here.

The subject of episodes #3 & 4 is singer/nightclub owner Ada “Bricktop” Smith, who we covered briefly in our post about Neeka Shaw, The Forgotten Showgirl.

And if that’s not enough for you… Ms. Matronic has created Good Time Sallies: Radio Spivy on Mixcloud, so you can hear many of the songs discussed on the podcast. Besides a generous serving of Madame Spivy’s stylings, you can also hear recordings by Spivy’s friends, influences and artists who appeared at Spivy’s Roof. Included on the playlist are Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Liberace, Martha Raye, Thelma Carpenter, Rae Bourbon, The Three Flames, Bea Lillie and many more!

Click here for Radio Spivy and hear some fine examples of classic diseuse delivering sophisticated songs.

From the website:
Good Time Sallies tells the stories of impactful people who have been left in the shadows as footnotes or minor characters in somebody else’s story, but each of whom made waves, broke molds, and dared to live life as they pleased.

With every episode, Ana Matronic centers these remarkable people and shares their inspiration with the world. From people of letters to ladies of leisure, from bawdy babes and badass boozehounds to Queens on the scene to queens of the obscene, this vibrant historical podcast is all about celebrating the Good Time Sally in us all who is here to take a shot and make her mark.

As you already know, Spivy is one of our favorite subjects here on the blog. Be sure to check out the latest post, which covers her film and television appearances.

Madame Spivy on the Good Time Sallies Podcast

I have been an admirer of Ana Matronic since the days when her band, Scissor Sisters was a local group playing around my East Village neighborhood. Her presence, her voice, her connection with the audience as “Mistress of Ceremonies” were a major factor in why I went on to see the band perform live 20 times before their hiatus in 2012. There’s an unconfirmed rumor that I have the band logo tattooed on my ankle.

*With Ms. Matronic at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove, Fire Island (7/2024)*

I have enjoyed Ms. Matronic’s various endeavors in the intervening years, which includes her DJ work from the BBC to Fire Island and her 2015 book Robot Universe: Legendary Automatons and Androids from the Ancient World to the Distant Future.

I couldn’t imagine a Scissor Sisters reunion without her. When a UK tour was announced late last year, Ms. Matronic issued a statement explaining why she would not be taking part, teasing an upcoming podcast series that prevented her from participating.

As someone who embraces my own inner Nerd, I was fully on board with her choice to focus on her current passion project. What I did not know at the time was that I would get to be a part of this next chapter.

And now it is time for the big reveal: Good Time Sallies is here!

Click here to have a listen to both episodes the Spivy Story.

https://embed.acast.com/$/67c5ca6cb48a8f157c1ae0b6/queen-of-clubs-part-1?

Photos: Krys Fox @krysfoxphoto

Of course, telling the stories of notable people who have been left in the shadows is one of the reasons this blog exists. On the first two episodes of Good Time Sallies, I join Ms. Matronic to reintroduce that dynamic lady of song, stage and screen, Madame Spivy LeVoe. As you already know, Spivy is one of our favorite subjects here on the blog. Be sure to check out the latest post, which covers her film and television appearances.

I hope you enjoy the podcast as much as I did recording it. Thanks again to Ms. Matronic and Lucy Winter for inviting me to take part.

Also: Click here for Radio Spivy on Mixcloud and hear some fine examples of classic diseuse delivering sophisticated songs.

Madame Spivy: Movies & Television

Ladies and Gentleman, it is time once again to revisit that dynamic lady of song, stage and screen, Madame Spivy LeVoe (1906-1971), also known simply as Spivy. While previous posts have focused on specific songs recorded by the lesbian entertainer, nightclub owner, and character actress, this time around we have an overview of her work in film and television from 1959-1967.

“The Roof is closed – gone forever, and my heart is broken.” Spivy wrote to a friend in August, 1951 after her nightclub had shuttered. The once popular top floor venue at 139 East 57th street had fallen into decline after a decade as one of the top Manhattan night spots. The demise of Spivy’s Roof was in part due to Spivy’s increasing stage fright, which in turn escalated her drinking. The combination often prevented her from delivering the two scheduled nightly performances audiences expected. Paul Lynde would later discuss this on The Tonight Show in 1976.

Spivy spent the next 6 years performing throughout Europe, where she opened and closed clubs in Paris and Rome. In London she appeared at the prestigious Café de Paris. These ventures eventually proved unsuccessful and she landed back in New York by 1957. An engagement at the Blue Angel would be her final New York City cabaret run.

Spivy explained her inability to conquer the fear of nightclub audiences. “I have tried everything but psychiatry – even hypnosis – but I couldn’t lick it.

“Funny thing, I have absolutely no stage fright in front of a camera, no matter how many people are on the set. So I guess this is what I’ll be doing from now on.”

It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to piece together that her insecurities performing in front of a live nightclub audience proved insurmountable as her popularity waned. She had entertained audiences since the 1920’s, but 30 years later her style of sophisticated songs had become a relic of a bygone era. Acting roles in front of a camera proved to be a less vulnerable alternative.

Charlie Chaplin reportedly sought to have Spivy play a character based on Elsa Maxwell in his 1957 film A King In New York. Newspaper columns at the time reported that the production company was unable to secure a work permit for her to travel to the UK for filming.

Her first film was The Fugitive Kind in a scene with Marlon Brando and Joanne Woodward, which was not a bad place to start.

*“You come back alone some time, ya hear?” Spivy with Marlon Brando and Joanne Woodward in* The Fugitive Kind. (1959)

This led to her being cast in the most memorable television role of her career opposite Robert Morley in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents titled “Specialty of the House.” Spivy plays “Spirro,” the piano-playing proprietress of an exclusive restaurant with a dubious main course.

*“Bourbon breeds togetherness…” Flo (Spivy) tips off Peter Gunn (Craig Stevens). (1960)*

There is a sameness to the majority of Spivy’s film and television acting roles. She’s typically the barkeep or bouncer at a downstairs dive bar in a sketchy part of town. She usually has just one scene where she kicks someone out of the bar, or delivers a key piece of information to move the plot along. Or both. She is always smoking. She may be shady or morally ambiguous, but mostly she just don’t want no trouble, ya hear?

*“Have you lost your feeble mind? He’s still got his baby teeth!” Spivy with Brandon DeWilde & Evans Evans in* All Fall Down *(1962).*

Spivy’s most significant film role was as Ma Greeny in 1962’s Requiem For A Heavyweight with Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason. Her tough, androgynous mob boss made an indelible impression on viewers.

“Take a good look in the mirror and then say goodbye to what you see.”

*Spivy as The Axe Lady,* The Wild Wild West (1966)

One of Spivy’s atypical performances was a 1966 appearance on The Wild Wild West with Robert Conrad. Spivy plays The Axe Lady, a member of a serial killer tribunal who meets her demise at dinner with a steak knife in the back.

*Spivy as Tatama with William Smith as her son Catoga in the* Daniel Boone *episode “A Matter Of Blood.” (1967)*

Spivy’s final television role was her biggest since Alfred Hitchcock Presents: a 1967 Daniel Boone episode in which she plays Tatama, an Indian tribe elder. As with the rest of the actors playing indigenous characters at the time, the brown-face makeup doesn’t age well, but she delivers a good performance, in my humble opinion.

Spivy was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1960’s, eventually moving into a series of hospitals and nursing homes that she kept getting kicked out of. Angry and bitter at her waning independence, she would lash out at staff. Her old friend Patsy Kelley arranged to have her placed at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California where she died on January 8, 1971, aged 64. She is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park in West Hollywood.

Some Thanksgiving Treats For You (2024)

Ok – I admit it: I am one of those people who started playing Christmas music last week. Yesterday the Christmas lights went up. I don’t normally rush this, but this rotted post-election month has really done a job on my belief system. However, I am comfortable enough in my middle-aged fruitiness to freely quote Auntie Mame at you: We need a little Christmas. Now.

Baron von Munchausen is ready.

Now, in 2024 as we stare down the barrel of the gun that is the second Trump administration, it’s a different lyric that strikes a chord:

So light the winds of fire / and watch as the flames grow higher / we’ll gather up our fears / And face down all the coming years / All that they destroy / And in their face we throw our Joy.

Here are some other Thanksgiving-themed goodies I have previously posted:

The Dollyrots also covered this track in 2014. Besides using footage of Little Eva’s Shindig performance throughout the video, they also namecheck “Little Eva back in ’63”:

Want some “Mashed Potatoes” with your “Turkey Trot?” Here’s Dee Dee Sharp with her own ode to a Thanksgiving staple / dance move:

Aaaaand some “Gravy” for your mashed potatoes:

Here are 10 Things You May Not Know About March of The Wooden Soldiers, the Laurel & Hardy classic holiday film that is required viewing on Thanksgiving morning.

Unfortunately this segment seems to have fallen off the annual SNL Thanksgiving Eve prime time special.

In 2019, Ana Gasteyer released a holiday album: Sugar & Booze. Highly recommended!

Category: 1960’s

She Knew Something About Love: Brenda Reid (1945-2026)

Marianne Faithfull After Dark (1980)

Truman Capote’s Christmas Memory

Some Thanksgiving Treats For You (2025)

Happy Thanksgiving!

A NEW Halloween 60’s Girl Group Playlist

Artist’s Muse: Wilbur Pippin

Good Time Sallies and Madame Spivy Radio

Madame Spivy on the Good Time Sallies Podcast

Madame Spivy: Movies & Television

Some Thanksgiving Treats For You (2024)

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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