Ernest and Clarence Iverson
Encyclopedia
Norwegian-American entertainers
Ernest and Clarence Iverson were popular radio personalities in the Midwest during the 1930s and 1940s. Ernest (1903–1958) was known as Slim Jim. His brother Clarence (born 1905) was the Vagabond Kid. Together they performed an eclectic mix of music ranging from country westernCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
to gospel hymns
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
and Scandinavian ballads.
The Iversons, who were born near Binford, North Dakota
Binford, North Dakota
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 201 people, 94 households, and 57 families residing in the city. The population density was 573.4 people per square mile . There were 120 housing units at an average density of 342.3/sq mi...
, came from a large Norwegian-American family. When their mother died in 1910 their father hired a Norwegian immigrant housekeeper named Molly Rood. She not only taught the boys how to play the guitar but also a significant part of their Norwegian-language repertoire.
Radio personalities
By the early 1930s Ernest and his younger brother Clarence had reunited and formed an act as Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid. During their heyday in the 1930s and 1940s the Iversons not only had a daily radio show but also performed live with their own band. Their half-hour radio broadcasts usually ended with some words of inspiration and a song of faith. Listeners might hear "It is No Secret
It is No Secret
It Is No Secret is a Southern Gospel song composed by Stuart Carl Hamblen in the 1950s.A version was also recorded by Jo Stafford for her 1954 album Garden of Prayer.- The Elvis Presley version :...
", "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" or "The Old Rugged Cross
The Old Rugged Cross
"The Old Rugged Cross" is a popular Christian song written in 1912 by evangelist and song-leader George Bennard .George Bennard, was a native of Youngstown, Ohio but was reared in Iowa. After his conversion in a Salvation Army meeting, he and his wife became brigade leaders before leaving the...
".
The brothers were fixtures on Twin Cities
Twin cities
Twin cities are a special case of two cities or urban centres which are founded in close geographic proximity and then grow into each other over time...
radio until Clarence entered the army in 1943. After seeing action in France, he once again teamed up with his brother Ernest. In 1948 Clarence left show business. For many years he and his wife Frances operated a nursery in Blaine, Minnesota. They moved back to their hometown of Binford, North Dakota in 1970.
One of Slim Jim's longtime sponsors was the Town Market Furniture Company, whose working class clientele were well suited to the unpretentious performer. Some of his other sponsors were less reputable. Hamlin's Wizard Oil
Hamlin's Wizard Oil
Hamlin's Wizard Oil was an American patent medicine sold as a cure-all under the slogan "There is no Sore it will Not Heal, No Pain it will not Subdue." First produced in 1861 in Chicago by former magician John Austen Hamlin and his brother Lysander B...
, the underwriter of an early songbook, was nothing more than a patent medicine
Patent medicine
Patent medicine refers to medical compounds of questionable effectiveness sold under a variety of names and labels. The term "patent medicine" is somewhat of a misnomer because, in most cases, although many of the products were trademarked, they were never patented...
company. One of its advertising slogans was "Cures all pain in man or beast". Crazy Water Crystals was in reality an overpriced laxative.
Slim Jim continued as a solo act in the 1950s. He had a daily radio show and hosted the television program "Slim Jim’s Westerners". He was much in demand for live performances and made a number of records. His death in 1958 was mourned by thousands of fans. Ernest Iverson was inducted into the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting's
Pavek Museum of Broadcasting
The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting is a museum in St. Louis Park, Minnesota which has one of the world's most significant collections of vintage radio and television equipment. It originated in the collection of Joe Pavek, who began squirreling away unique radios while he was an instructor at...
Hall of Fame in 2003.
Recording artists
Slim Jim was not a prolific recording artist. In the early 1950s the FM Recording Company released a few of his songs. Later on he had a couple of singles on the Soma label. One of his most popular efforts was "The Drifting, Whistling Snow", an inspired take-off on the 1955 country western hit "The Shifting, Whispering Sands".After Iverson’s death in 1958 Soma Records released an album, which collected his studio work and some unreleased material with his brother Clarence. The tracks included comic dialect songs, the plaintive ballad Jeg Er En Fattig Liten Dreng (I Am A Poor Little Farmhand), Nikolina — in both Norwegian and English — and the gospel hymn "A Beautiful Life". The LP “Slim Jim Sings Nikolina And Other Favorites” was available in Midwestern record stores until the late 1970s.
In 1980 Howard Pine, who had worked on Slim Jim’s radio show, released the first of four albums taken from the artist’s broadcast performances. As recently as 2006 he released the CD "Rocking Chair Radio" with twelve more tracks by the singer. These live recordings from the early 1950s were remastered from acetate discs made by Slim Jim’s sound engineer. In 1980 Clarence Iverson came out of retirement and recorded an album, produced by Pine, called "The Vagabond Kid Sings Great Grand Dad".
Musical repertoire
The Iversons were transitional figures, who bridged the gap between Scandinavian immigrants and their American-born descendants. The brothers' 1939 songbook was mostly in English but had a few Norwegian songs such as Kom Til Den Hvitmalte Kirke (The Church in the WildwoodThe Church in the Wildwood
"The Church in the Wildwood" is a song that was written by Dr. William S. Pitts in 1857 following a coach ride that stopped in Bradford, Iowa. It is a song about a church in a valley near the town, though the church was not actually built until several years later...
) and Det Døende Barn (The Dying Child), whose author was Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
.
Slim Jim and the Kid were songwriters with such titles as “My Gal with the Pretty Red Hair” and “Can I Play my Guitar in Heaven” to their credit. Their 1937 collection of cowboy and mountain ballads, however, had only a handful of original songs. Among the old favorites in the book were "Silver Threads Among the Gold
Silver Threads Among the Gold
"Silver Threads Among the Gold", first copyrighted in 1873, was an extremely popular song in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today it is a standard of barbershop quartet singing. The lyrics are by Eben E...
", "Frankie and Johnny
Frankie and Johnny
-Films:*Frankie and Johnny , 1936 film co-starring Lilyan Tashman*Frankie and Johnny , a film starring Elvis Presley*Frankie and Johnny , a 1991 film based on McNally's play-Other:...
" and "The Yellow Rose of Texas
The Yellow Rose of Texas
"The Yellow Rose of Texas" is a traditional folk song. The original love song has become associated with the legend of how an indentured servant named Emily Morgan "helped win the battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in the Texas Revolution."...
". On the radio the Iversons would even sing current hits like "When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley
When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley
When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley is a 1933 country ballad to a waltz melody with words and music by Joe Lyons, Sam C. Hart and The Vagabonds. The song was a hit by the group the The Vagabonds back then. The song lyrics are about one who longs for his mother who is far away in a valley....
" and "Mockin' Bird Hill
Mockin' Bird Hill
Mockin' Bird Hill is a 3/4 song was written by Vaughn Horton and published in 1951. It was popularized by Patti Page and by Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951, and for both of them following on to their big hit of "The Tennessee Waltz" the previous year...
". A program might also have "Play a Simple Melody
Play a Simple Melody
"Play a Simple Melody" is a song from the 1914 musical, Watch Your Step, words and music by Irving Berlin. The show was the first stage musical that Berlin wrote. It ran for 175 performances New Amsterdam Theater in New York City...
" by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
or the romantic "The West, A Nest And You".
Slim Jim sided with the working man, and his first songbook even had an adaptaton of "The Popular Wobbly" by the Finnish-American labor activist T-Bone Slim
T-Bone Slim
Matti Valentinpoika Huhta , better known by his pen name T-Bone Slim, was a humourist, poet, songwriter, hobo and labor activist in the Industrial Workers of the World....
. "The Popular Wobbly" was a parody of the 1918 hit "They Go Wild Simply Wild Over Me".
The Iverson Brothers published songbooks in 1931, 1937 and 1939. All three are on file at the Minnesota Historical Society
Minnesota Historical Society
The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehood. The Society is named in the Minnesota...
.
Ernest and Clarence acknowledged their Norwegian roots with songs like Ungdoms Mynder (Memories of Youth) and Jeg er saa glad hver julekveld (I am so glad each Christmas Eve). Just as easily they could poke fun at themselves and their countrymen with “Scandinavian Hot Shot” or “John Johnson’s Wedding”.
The Iversons were also influenced by artists of an earlier generation. Nikolina had been a huge hit for the Swedish immigrant singer Hjalmar Peterson
Hjalmar Peterson
-Swedish-American entertainer:Olle i Skratthult was the stage name of Hjalmar Peterson, a Swedish-American vaudeville artist, who achieved great popularity during the 1910s and 1920s. Peterson was born February 7, 1886 in the Swedish province of Värmland. Arriving in the United States in 1906, he...
. Slim Jim and the Kid recorded the song in English, and their version has remained popular with generations of Scandinavian-Americans.
The Snoose Boulevard Festival
The Snoose Boulevard Festival was held in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis from 1972 through 1977. In the late 19th century Cedar Avenue became known as “Snoose Boulevard”, a nickname often given to the main street in Scandinavian communities. The term derived from the residents’ fondness for snus (snuff), an inexpensive form of tobacco. The event, which celebrated the area’s Scandinavian past, featured the music, food, and arts of the immigrants who had once lived there. It also highlighted the careers of Olle i Skratthult (Hjalmar PetersonHjalmar Peterson
-Swedish-American entertainer:Olle i Skratthult was the stage name of Hjalmar Peterson, a Swedish-American vaudeville artist, who achieved great popularity during the 1910s and 1920s. Peterson was born February 7, 1886 in the Swedish province of Värmland. Arriving in the United States in 1906, he...
), Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid (Ernest and Clarence Iverson) and the Olson Sisters (Eleonora and Ethel Olson
Eleonora and Ethel Olson
Between 1905 and 1925 Eleonora and Ethel Olson were well-known figures in Scandinavian communities throughout the United States. They toured extensively in the Midwest, and their recordings on major record labels gained them a nationwide following....
).
The headline performer was the Swedish-born singer Anne-Charlotte Harvey. In conjunction with the festival she recorded three albums of folk tunes, emigrant ballads, hymns, waltzes and comic songs. The non-profit Olle i Skratthult Project sponsored the annual celebration and the recordings. Harvey’s albums, produced by the renowned ethnomusicologist Maury Bernstein, included six songs from the Iverson Brothers' repertoire.
A Beautiful Life (recorded by Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid)
- Each day I'll do a golden deed
- By helping those who are in need;
- My life on earth is but a span,
- And so I'll do the best I can.
- CHORUS:
- Life's evening sun is sinking low,
- A few more days and I must go
- To meet the deeds that I have done,
- Where there will be no setting sun.
- The only life that will endure,
- Is one that's kind and good and pure;
- And so for God I'll take my stand,
- Each day I'll lend a helping hand.
- CHORUS:
- Life's evening sun is sinking low,
- A few more days and I must go
- To meet the deeds that I have done,
- Where there will be no setting sun.
- William M. Golden 1918
The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization ProjectCylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project is a free digital collection maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries with streaming and downloadable versions of over 10,000 phonograph cylinders manufactured between 1893 and the mid 1920s.- History :The project began...
has streaming audio and mp3 downloads for several songs published by Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid. A link to the web site is provided below.
- 1931 songbook
- They Go Wild Simply Wild Over Me - Billy MurrayBilly Murray (singer)William Thomas "Billy" Murray was one of the most popular singers in the United States in the early decades of the 20th century...
- 1937 songbook
- Grandfather’s Clock - Edison Male Quartet
- The Little Log Cabin In The Lane - Metropolitan Quartet
- Lorena - Metropolitan Quartet
- Silver Threads Among The Gold - Harry Ellis
- There's A Mother Always Waiting At Home - Will Oakland
- When You and I Were Young Maggie - Walter Van Brunt
- Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight? - Frederick Gunster
- 1939 songbook
- Aa Kjøre Vatten Aa Kjøre Ve - Carsten WollCarsten WollThe singer and composer Carsten Thorvald Woll was born in Oslo, Norway. He took his student exams in 1903 and subsequently studied music and voice in Denmark and Germany....
- Gamle Norge - Carsten WollCarsten WollThe singer and composer Carsten Thorvald Woll was born in Oslo, Norway. He took his student exams in 1903 and subsequently studied music and voice in Denmark and Germany....
External links
- Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid at the Norwegian American Folk Music Portal.
Snoose Boulevard articles
Photos
- Slim Jim at the Pavek Museum of BroadcastingPavek Museum of BroadcastingThe Pavek Museum of Broadcasting is a museum in St. Louis Park, Minnesota which has one of the world's most significant collections of vintage radio and television equipment. It originated in the collection of Joe Pavek, who began squirreling away unique radios while he was an instructor at...
. - Slim Jim at the Minnesota Historical SocietyMinnesota Historical SocietyThe Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehood. The Society is named in the Minnesota...
. - Slim Jim at the Minneapolis Photo Collection of the Hennepin County LibraryHennepin County LibraryHennepin County Library is a library system serving the entire population of Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA. The Minneapolis Public Library, a separate system for Minneapolis, existed from its founding by T. B. Walker in 1885 until January 2008...
.
Snoose Boulevard photos at the Minnesota Historical Society
Recordings at the Internet Archive
- Ernest and Clarence Iverson. Audio files and more. UPDATED 11/13.
- Slim Jim radio transcriptions. Audio files and more. Four tracks by the Vagabond Kid.
- Snoose Boulevard artists.
- "Songs Of The Wobblies".
The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
- Iverson songs. Enter song title (no apostrophes) in Keyword Search window.
Streaming audio
- Norwegian songs at the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
PDF files at the Internet Archive
- Iverson Brothers Scandinavian songbook. 15 songs in Norwegian and Scandinavian dialect.
- Concordia. Norwegian-American hymnal published in 1917.
Sheet music
- "Play A Simple Melody" sheet music at Indiana UniversityIndiana UniversityIndiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
. - "The West, A Nest And You" sheet music at the University Of ColoradoUniversity of Colorado at BoulderThe University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
.
Song lyrics
- "The Popular Wobbly" was adapted by Slim Jim as "They Go Wild Over Me".