A review from a Dec 1940 night club appearance by Jon hall and his wife. See here
Frances- Langford makes good easily with her pip pop vocalizing and then brings V ott her :mate, Jon Hall, who gets away With dbing nothing. With an appearance and a frank apology fpr being only an actor ahd ; net a dancer or singer, he’ tries bcth and waves the : baton fpr the .prchestra. He can dp nbne pf ;these: thingis, but this audience: was in. a mood ,tO: forigiye him his trespasses. He. at least tried, and at that probably gaVe thd. femhies a chance to sigh . over ‘ the fbrm and flgui-e they peeked at in some South Seas flickers.
A review from Oct 1940 is here.
A review from a 1946 nightclub appearance by Jon Hall and his wife. See here.
Frances Langford & Jon Hall, Al Bernie, Carl Ravazza, Borah Mineivitch’s Harmonica Rascals (9) , Ga«Foster Girls, Paul Ash’s House Orch; “Margie” {20th) , reviewed in VARiETY, Sept. 18; 1946.
Melange aboard the Roxy deck this session leans too heavily to the musi- cal side to be fully satisfying. It has.; a number of strong individual ele- ments, but added up they don’t tally . high in the entertainment column. ,,Not a little of the difficulty is the,, faltering finale piwided by Jon Hall in his appearance with his wife, Frances Langford. Show requires a sock finish to get it off for top re- sults and it doesn’t achieve: it.
Hall and Miss Langford did almost exactly the same routine at the Para- mount in October, 1940, and almost exactly the same thing as was said , about them by Wood in ‘Variety’s New Acts review at that time can, be repeated now.:. “Hall comes on following the singer’s opening num- ber and reveals in numerous ways that he hasn’t had much p.a. experi- ence. He falters in handling lined, forgets titles of tlines, etc. . . .” Re- , view went on to say that “it’s all done in a smooth-voiced sort of bash- ful way which sets him solid with the audience.” Unfortunately, that latter part wasn’t true at the Roxy session caught last week. Despite the fact that it was Hall’s eighth show there, he not only muffed one. line after the other of his patter with Miss Langford, but forgot the; name of the house, the name of the tune they were to sing, and just about everything else that could be for- gotten. Apparently being entirely , unable to adlib or cover himself in any way, result was a squirming,- embarrassed audience that wishea the whole thing was over.
Miss Langford, on the other, hand, is a completely polished performer, whether chattering or singing. Her pipes and figure are both as good as ever. She does a number of tunes . on her own before introing Hall. They do some patter together; then wind up in a duet, which isn’t bad. Mainly required are some writer.s to get them up a presentable routine and then a bit of cramming by Hall to remember it. .
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