Red Ingle
Encyclopedia
Ernest Jansen "Red" Ingle (November 7, 1906 – September 7, 1965) was an American
musician
, singer and songwriter
, arranger
, cartoonist and caricaturist. He is best known for his comedy records with Spike Jones
and his own Natural Seven sides for Capitol
.
on November 7, 1906. He was taught basic violin
from age five by Fritz Kreisler, a family friend. However at 13, he took up the saxophone
, and that instrument later became his main instrument. Ingle received a music scholarship and studied at the Toledo American College of Music, playing classical music on a concert level. Ingle was also influenced by the country fiddlers he had heard; he was able to play their songs in their style as well as the classics in a traditional pose. At 15 he was playing professionally with Al Amato, and by his late teens, Ingle was touring steadily with the Jean Goldkette
Orchestra, along with future jazz legends Bix Beiderbecke
and Frankie Trumbauer
. A graduate of Toledo's Scott High School
, at one time he intended to become a teacher. Ingle left the College of Music in 1926 to become a full-time musician when he married Edwina Alice Smith. He joined Ted Weems
' Orchestra in 1931, after briefly being a bandleader
himself, and working under Maurice Sherman. His work with Weems was such a success that they worked together into the 1940s. Singer Perry Como
later called Ingle 'one of the most talented men I've ever met.'
A pilot since 1924, Ingle wrote the Army Air Forces
"I've Got Wings" manual as part of his wartime work at the Civil Aeronautics Administration. A talented leather carver whose saddles were in demand by celebrities, he also taught the skill in Veterans' hospitals during this time. One of Ingle's carved saddles was on exhibit at the Golden Gate International Exposition
World's fair in San Francisco in 1939: a saddle carved with images illustrating the history of the state of California
.
Ingle's son, Don, followed his father into the music business in 1949.
With Ingle's input, the band gradually became a complete stage package that would eventually peak (after his departure in 1946) in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the successful Musical Depreciation Revue.
"There was nobody in the band as funny as Red," said Zep Meissner, the band's clarinetist; "guys like him were funny in themselves, they didn't need material."
An example of his routine appears in the film Bring on the Girls, where he takes off the vaudeville song "Chloe." He would run on in a frightwig, combat boots and a nightgown, while waving a lantern, climaxing the song with the cry "I gotta go!" as he dived into an outhouse. A record of this song went gold for the band, spending four weeks in the top ten. He was also the featured vocalist on other City Slickers hits, such as "You Always Hurt the One You Love" and "Glow Worm," - this last being featured in the film Breakfast in Hollywood, one of many films featuring the band.
(under the name "Cinderella G. Stump") in 1947. As the single went on to sell three million copies, Ingle formed a new band - Red Ingle and His Natural Seven; the group included several former City Slickers, among them Country Washburn, who had arranged "Tim-Tay-Shun". The band had several more hits, including "Cigareetes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women", "Them Durn Fool Things," and "'A', You're a Dopey Gal." "Cigareetes" became a hit because it was banned from radio airplay by all major networks.
After "Tim-Tay-Shun's" success, Ingle had a follow-up in mind: a take-off on the classical works of Paganini, but doing this required a violinist who was trained in classical music. Knowing that any direct requests for a classical performer would be refused, Ingle dreamed up his own "classical" ensemble: "Ernest Ingle's Miniature Symphony". A concert violinist responded and was quickly signed to a recording contract for the intended record. When the musician was shown the arrangement he was to play, he protested and attempted to leave without performing. Ingle and his band quickly reminded the violinist of the legality of the contract he had just signed. A deal was struck to get "Pagan Ninny's Keep 'Er Going Stomp" recorded: the concert performer was allowed to use a pseudonym on the record.
Ingle and his Natural Seven also performed with Grand Ole Opry
performers such as Minnie Pearl
and other Opry notables. He joined Jo Stafford on her 1949 tour of the Midwest. Despite the comedy emphasis, the quality of the musicianship was often outstanding, including in some cases Les Paul
or Western Swing
performers Tex Williams
and steel guitarist Noel Boggs. The band also recorded short films of their numbers, before disbanding in 1952; by 1956, Ingle had formed the band once again.
; by this time he had lost a great deal of weight and was barely recognizable as the former leader of the Natural Seven. He also had a reunion with Perry Como; band leader Ted Weems and former fellow band members Ingle, Elmo Tanner
, Parker Gibbs and "Country" Washburn appeared as guests on Como's Kraft Music Hall on October 18, 1961. There was one last reunion with Spike Jones, an album called Persuasive Concussion (satirizing the then-popular Persuasive Percussion albums). Sadly, it was never completed; Jones died in 1965. Ingle also died the same year of an internal hemorrhage
. Excerpts from Persuasive Concussion, featuring Ingle, were issued on LP in the 1970s (The Very Best of Spike Jones, on the United Artists label).
Ingle claimed he had been trying to retire from the music business since 1942; he signed up with Spike Jones a year later, and that his leaving the band in 1946 was another try at retirement. By 1948 he described himself as being resigned to staying in the field.
Ingle died in September 1965, in Santa Barbara, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, singer and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, cartoonist and caricaturist. He is best known for his comedy records with Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...
and his own Natural Seven sides for Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
.
Personal life
Ingle was born in Toledo, OhioToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
on November 7, 1906. He was taught basic violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
from age five by Fritz Kreisler, a family friend. However at 13, he took up the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, and that instrument later became his main instrument. Ingle received a music scholarship and studied at the Toledo American College of Music, playing classical music on a concert level. Ingle was also influenced by the country fiddlers he had heard; he was able to play their songs in their style as well as the classics in a traditional pose. At 15 he was playing professionally with Al Amato, and by his late teens, Ingle was touring steadily with the Jean Goldkette
Jean Goldkette
John Jean Goldkette was a jazz pianist and bandleader born in Patras, Greece. Goldkette spent his childhood in Greece and Russia, and emigrated to the United States in 1911....
Orchestra, along with future jazz legends Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
and Frankie Trumbauer
Frankie Trumbauer
Orie Frank Trumbauer was one of the leading jazz saxophonists of the 1920s and 1930s. He played the C-melody saxophone which, in size, is between an alto and tenor saxophone...
. A graduate of Toledo's Scott High School
Scott High School (Toledo, Ohio)
Jesup Wakeman Scott High School is a public high school located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It is part of Toledo Public Schools. It was named for a former editor of The Toledo Blade from 1844 to 1847...
, at one time he intended to become a teacher. Ingle left the College of Music in 1926 to become a full-time musician when he married Edwina Alice Smith. He joined Ted Weems
Ted Weems
Wilfred Theodore Weems was an American bandleader and musician. Weems' work in music was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Biography :...
' Orchestra in 1931, after briefly being a bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
himself, and working under Maurice Sherman. His work with Weems was such a success that they worked together into the 1940s. Singer Perry Como
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
later called Ingle 'one of the most talented men I've ever met.'
A pilot since 1924, Ingle wrote the Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
"I've Got Wings" manual as part of his wartime work at the Civil Aeronautics Administration. A talented leather carver whose saddles were in demand by celebrities, he also taught the skill in Veterans' hospitals during this time. One of Ingle's carved saddles was on exhibit at the Golden Gate International Exposition
Golden Gate International Exposition
The Golden Gate International Exposition , held at San Francisco, California's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair that celebrated, among other things, the city's two newly-built bridges. The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge was dedicated in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge was dedicated in 1937...
World's fair in San Francisco in 1939: a saddle carved with images illustrating the history of the state of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Ingle's son, Don, followed his father into the music business in 1949.
The City Slickers
After he failed an eye test for the Air Force, he returned to music with Spike Jones & His City Slickers, where his comedic talents and flair for vocal effects found a welcoming home. Jones started featuring him as a frontman immediately, and Ingle's stage presence helped transform the City Slickers' stage act into something more visual than before.With Ingle's input, the band gradually became a complete stage package that would eventually peak (after his departure in 1946) in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the successful Musical Depreciation Revue.
"There was nobody in the band as funny as Red," said Zep Meissner, the band's clarinetist; "guys like him were funny in themselves, they didn't need material."
An example of his routine appears in the film Bring on the Girls, where he takes off the vaudeville song "Chloe." He would run on in a frightwig, combat boots and a nightgown, while waving a lantern, climaxing the song with the cry "I gotta go!" as he dived into an outhouse. A record of this song went gold for the band, spending four weeks in the top ten. He was also the featured vocalist on other City Slickers hits, such as "You Always Hurt the One You Love" and "Glow Worm," - this last being featured in the film Breakfast in Hollywood, one of many films featuring the band.
The Natural Seven
Ingle left in November 1946 after a salary dispute. He drifted through Radio and Hollywood, even working in light opera, until he made "Tim-Tay-Shun", a spoof recording of the then-popular Perry Como hit "Temptation", with Jo StaffordJo Stafford
Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards and occasional actress whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s...
(under the name "Cinderella G. Stump") in 1947. As the single went on to sell three million copies, Ingle formed a new band - Red Ingle and His Natural Seven; the group included several former City Slickers, among them Country Washburn, who had arranged "Tim-Tay-Shun". The band had several more hits, including "Cigareetes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women", "Them Durn Fool Things," and "'A', You're a Dopey Gal." "Cigareetes" became a hit because it was banned from radio airplay by all major networks.
After "Tim-Tay-Shun's" success, Ingle had a follow-up in mind: a take-off on the classical works of Paganini, but doing this required a violinist who was trained in classical music. Knowing that any direct requests for a classical performer would be refused, Ingle dreamed up his own "classical" ensemble: "Ernest Ingle's Miniature Symphony". A concert violinist responded and was quickly signed to a recording contract for the intended record. When the musician was shown the arrangement he was to play, he protested and attempted to leave without performing. Ingle and his band quickly reminded the violinist of the legality of the contract he had just signed. A deal was struck to get "Pagan Ninny's Keep 'Er Going Stomp" recorded: the concert performer was allowed to use a pseudonym on the record.
Ingle and his Natural Seven also performed with Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
performers such as Minnie Pearl
Minnie Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
and other Opry notables. He joined Jo Stafford on her 1949 tour of the Midwest. Despite the comedy emphasis, the quality of the musicianship was often outstanding, including in some cases Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
or Western Swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
performers Tex Williams
Tex Williams
Sollie Paul Williams , known professionally as Tex Williams, was an American Western swing musician from Ramsey, Illinois....
and steel guitarist Noel Boggs. The band also recorded short films of their numbers, before disbanding in 1952; by 1956, Ingle had formed the band once again.
Retirement from music
After working again with Weems, Ingle eased out of music, tiring of touring. He reunited with Jo Stafford in 1960 for a performance of "Tim-Tay-Shun" on StartimeStartime (TV series)
Startime is an anthology show of drama, comedy, and variety, and was one of the first American television shows broadcast in color. The program was aired Tuesday nights in the United States on the NBC Television network in the 1959-60 television season....
; by this time he had lost a great deal of weight and was barely recognizable as the former leader of the Natural Seven. He also had a reunion with Perry Como; band leader Ted Weems and former fellow band members Ingle, Elmo Tanner
Elmo Tanner
William Elmo Tanner, known as Elmo Tanner was an American singer, whistler, bandleader and disc jockey, best known for his whistling on the chart-topping song “Heartaches” with the Ted Weems orchestra...
, Parker Gibbs and "Country" Washburn appeared as guests on Como's Kraft Music Hall on October 18, 1961. There was one last reunion with Spike Jones, an album called Persuasive Concussion (satirizing the then-popular Persuasive Percussion albums). Sadly, it was never completed; Jones died in 1965. Ingle also died the same year of an internal hemorrhage
Bleeding
Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging or haemorrhaging is the loss of blood or blood escape from the circulatory system...
. Excerpts from Persuasive Concussion, featuring Ingle, were issued on LP in the 1970s (The Very Best of Spike Jones, on the United Artists label).
Ingle claimed he had been trying to retire from the music business since 1942; he signed up with Spike Jones a year later, and that his leaving the band in 1946 was another try at retirement. By 1948 he described himself as being resigned to staying in the field.
Ingle died in September 1965, in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
.
External links
- Red Ingle Music and Movie Internet Archive
- Life of Jo Stafford-Photos New York Daily News. Ingle and his Natural Seven are part of the photos.