Dusty Fletcher

Clinton "Dusty" Fletcher (1897 – March 15, 1954) was an African-American vaudeville performer, who was best known for the comedy routine which became a hit record in 1947, "Open the Door, Richard".

Life

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Fletcher had refined his act over at least twenty years in vaudeville before the 1940s. He would come on stage dressed in rags, acting drunk, muttering and complaining about trying to find his way home. He would then bring out a ladder, and try to set it up so he could get in through a window. Every so often he would crash sprawling on the floor while shouting "Open the Door, Richard !".

In 1946, bandleader Jack McVea fashioned Fletcher's routine into the lyrics of a song, which he recorded with his band. McVea's record became a big hit, and Fletcher, by now semi-retired, was found living in South Carolina by Herb Abramson of National Records. He made his own recording of the song, using McVea's arrangement, which made number 3 on US Billboard R&B chart. The song was also covered by many others including Count Basie, Louis Jordan, and Pigmeat Markham.

Open the Door

Open the Door may refer to:

See also

Coel Hen

Coel (Old Welsh: Coil) or Coel Hen ("Coel the Old") is a figure prominent in Welsh literature and legend since the Middle Ages. Early Welsh tradition knew of a Coel Hen (Coel the Old), a leader in Roman or Sub-Roman Britain and the progenitor of several kingly lines in the Hen Ogledd ("the Old North"), the Brittonic-speaking part of northern England and southern Scotland. Later medieval legend told of a Coel, apparently derived from Coel Hen, who was the father of Saint Helena and the grandfather of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Other similarly named characters may be confused or conflated with the Welsh Coel. The legendary "King Coel" is sometimes supposed to be the historical basis for the popular nursery rhyme "Old King Cole", but this is unlikely.

Name

Coel's name was rendered "Coil" in Old Welsh. It may be related to the common noun coel, meaning "belief or omen". Coel is often named as "Coel Hen", Hen being an epithet Hen meaning "old" (i.e., "Coel the Old"). The genealogies give him an additional epithet, Godebog (Old Welsh: Guotepauc), meaning "Protector" or "Shelterer". His name is thus sometimes given as "Coel Godebog" or "Coel Hen Godebog". However, some of the Harleian genealogies list Godebog as Coel's father's name.Geoffrey of Monmouth Latinized the name to Coelus. Some modern authors modernize it to "Cole".

Open the Door, Richard

"Open the Door, Richard" is a song first recorded on the Black & White Records label by saxophonistist Jack McVea at the suggestion of A&R man Ralph Bass. In 1947, it was the number-one song on Billboard's "Honor Roll of Hits" and became a runaway pop sensation.

Origin

"Open the Door, Richard" started out as a black vaudeville routine. Pigmeat Markham, one of several who performed the routine, attributed it to his mentor Bob Russell. The routine was made famous by Dusty Fletcher on stages like the Apollo Theater in New York and in a short film [Archive.org]. Dressed in rags, drunk, and with a ladder as his only prop, Fletcher would repeatedly plunk the ladder down stage center, try to climb it to knock on an imaginary door, then crash sprawling on the floor after a few steps while shouting, half-singing "Open the Door, Richard". After this he would mutter a comic monologue, then try the ladder again and repeat the process, while the audience was imagining what Richard was so occupied doing.

Nat King Cole

HIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "Voice_type" is not recognized

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He was widely noted for his soft, baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres, becoming a major force in popular music for three decades. Cole was one of the first African Americans to host a national television variety show, The Nat King Cole Show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death from lung cancer in February 1965.

Early life

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1919. Cole had three brothers: Eddie (1910–1970), Ike (1927–2001), and Freddy (born 1931), and a half-sister, Joyce Coles. Each of Cole's brothers would later pursue careers in music as well. When Cole was four years old, he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward Coles, became a Baptist minister. Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance was of "Yes! We Have No Bananas" at age four. He began formal lessons at 12, eventually learning not only jazz and gospel music, but also Western classical music, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff".