Evening star., 1950-08-15
By Harry Macarthur

The summer doldrums may
have settled upon us, but here and
there a hint of the new fall and
winter season turns up. One Of
these harbingerS of autumn is the
contract Owner Nick CASTOR of
the Old New Orleans pulled out
of his pocket the other night. The
entertainer whose name is affixed
to it is Dwight Fiske. which seems
to make it definite that the Latin
Quarter at Mr.. Gastons establish
ment will be reopening.
The date for this event prob
ably will be october 6. since that
is the one on which Mr.. Fiske's
engagement begins. Cafe Society's
favorite purveyor Of single en-
tendre ballads launched the Latin
Quarter most successfully last
year and Mr.. G. sees no reason
why the first four weeks Of this
coming season shouldn't be happy
and prosperous ones. Mr.. Fiske,
he feels, is insurance Of that.
The other autumnal note is the
report, unofficial but fairly re-
liable, that the shiny new Dupont
Plaza Hotel will be going through
with it's plans to open a supper
club in the not-too- distant future.
It might even be that an opening
date Of September Is has been set.
The music might turn out to be by
Sammy Seymour's trio. which
would be good; or then again it
might be by some one else. Can't
think of a better small unit than
Mr.. Seymour's, anyhow, to do full
justice to those slick surround
ings and that address.
It is hardly possible that you
have failed to hear a song called
Goodnight. Irene" several times
daily in the past four weeks. It
is the most fabulous thing in the
music business right now. In the
first 20 days of its publication
more than a million recordings Of
Goodnight, Irene" were sold and
ESQ, 900 sheet copies were in the
hands of dealers, who reported 1t
moving at a rate unequaled since
"The Anniversary Song" which
also was a hot item in the music
business.
AS a popular song. Goodnight,
Irene" was launched almost by
accident, on the B or throw-any-
thing-in side Of q recording Of
"Tzena, Tzena. Tzena," on which
Decca was trying an unknown
singing group, The Weavers.
Irene had been one Of the
popular numbers in The Weav-
ers' repertoire, and when they
made the "Tzena" record with
Gordon Jenkins they talked him
into tossing this one in on the
other side.
In several scattered places-up
in New England. out in Cleveland,
down in Texas-disc jockeys
turned "Tzena" over and Irene"
caught on fire. At last report the
Jenkins-Weavers platter had sold
$50 900 copies, and the song also
has been put on wax by Red Foley
and Ernest Tubb COS. .000). Frank
Sinatra Q75,00O, 10 Stafford
(68 .OO0) and Dennis Day (47,000
And to that total you can add
some 100000 classified as com
bined independent sales" which
means records made and sold IN
local areas by small recording
firms.
This fame came to Goodnight.
Irene" not only accidentally but
late. 1t was written some IA
years ago by Huddie Ledbetter.
the folk singer known as Lead
belly" who died about year ago.
1t became quite a popular song IN
the various prisons where Lead
belly" was answering to society
for a couple Of murder charges.
When the late John Lomax was
documenting our folk songs ne
naturally came upon "Leadbelly"
anC. among other things, Good
night, Irene" The present ver-
sion of the song is the one col
laborated on by the folk singer
and MI. Lomax. One Of the verses,
incidentally. can be traced back
to Elizabethan literature and an
other descends from a famed
-. .,>;,i+,,al The music il new