Jingle Bell Rock | Sinatra Swooners, Baseball, & Basketball | Roman Empire | YouTube Rabbithole
Season’s Greetings @YouTheReader,
Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms was released just 2 days before Christmas in 1957. Bobby Helms was from Indiana and he moved to Nashville in 1956. While of course today he is remembered for Jingle Bell Rock, the country artist also had 2 #1 country hits back in 1957 called "Fraulein" and "My Special Angel.”
There is a bit of controversy over who wrote this tune. Joe Beal and Jim Boothe are credited for writing it, however, Helms and Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland claim differently. Sugarfoot played the guitar are this song as well as Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.” (Source: SongFacts)
This holiday jingle would land at #6 on the US Billboard Charts that year and when it was rereleased in 1958 + 1960, it made the charts again as well. This tune is still peaking as it hit #3 on the US Billboard Charts during the holiday season of ‘19.
Bobby Helms in a 1986 interview said that he made significant changes to Jingle Bell Rock, including adding the bridge to the original version, but he never got credit. That’s a bummer.
What’s pretty cool about Jingle Bell Rock is that it references two hit songs into one. “Jingle Bells” Batman Smells, Robin laid an egg, the Batmobile lost his wheel, and the Joker ran awaywas originally written back in 1850 by James Lord Pierpont. It is officially published under “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” The 2nd song referenced in this tune could be from Bill Haley & His Comets’ Rock Around The Clock, which came out in 1955, and trust me you would know it if you heard it.
There have been a ton of renditions to this song and it’s been played on in the background in a bunch of movies or shows throughout the years. Great holiday jingle!
After I wrote Week 15, ‘22 last year, I was sent Notes about Jingle Bell Rock from Fred from the Bronx. He’s my grandparents’ childhood friend and when he was 10 years old a friend of his mom’s gave him an old record player that only played 78rpm records, which was sorta outdated because his mom’s friend had just bought a new-fangled machine that could play 78rpms, 45s, and LPs as well. He went to a record store on Bainbridge Ave. to buy Jingle Bell Rock and was informed they no longer carried 78s but that they could get it special ordered. “So the first record that I ever bought for myself was Two Hit Wonder, Bobby Helm’s “Jingle Bell Rock” on a big old 10-inch Decca 78.”
Anyway, last year as soon as my grandma sent me that cool Christmas story I promised to do Jingle Bell Rock next year, so here we are.
Speaking of last year…
Week 15, ‘22 & More
Week 15, ‘22 last year was technically Week to Week Notes’ first Stumblin’ Along so I figured to take a quick revisit. While writing that Note I had Frank Sinatra’s Baby It’s Cold Outside on in the background. Yes, I know, it was very problematic and bold of me given today’s climate. I had just visited the Hoboken Historical Museum and Sinatra’s birthday is December 12, 1915. The museum had just received an item of Ol Blue Eyes, one of his Sinatra Swooners jerseys.
In 1947, Frank Sinatra led a team of Hollywood celebrities including actor Anthony Quinn and songwriter Sammy Cahn in softball contests against other local LA celebrity teams. Their team name was the Sinatra Swooners. Ol' Blue Eyes was the Swooners' second basemen and his team’s cheerleaders included Virginia Mayo, Shelley Winters, and Ava Gardner (the bat girl pictured on the Cover of Week 15, ‘22). If you look up the Sinatra Swooners online all of the pictures are in black&white and the only jerseys I see for sale are grey and orange, their road uniform. This piece is extremely rare and was found in someone’s attic (they had no idea their recently deceased family member owned this). Another Hoboken factoid: Orange was Frank Sinatra’s favorite color. (Source: Executive Director of the Museum, Bob Foster)
At the museum, they had an old Victor Talking Machine Company record player. The Victor Talking Machine Company was founded in Camden, New Jersey in 1901. From 1901 to 1929 it was the largest and most prestigious firm of its kind in the world, best known for the iconic “His Master’s Voice” trademark (if you zoom in where you see the dogs). In 1929, they merged with Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA would eventually spawn the first nationwide American radio broadcast called the National Broadcasting Company. @YouTheReader I just gave you a non-sports-related tidbit on the origins of NBC for the next time you’re watching Sunday Night Football.
Sinatra along with Martin and Davis Jr. performed for a packed Carnegie Hall in 1961. The Benefit Performance was for Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC’s goal was to redeem “the soul of America” through nonviolent resistance and the organization is still around today. This photo was taken afterward as the boys were letting loose.
Non-Related Sinatra Items
I’m cheating because most of the stuff written above I wrote about last year. Here are some of my other findings on my trip to the Hoboken Historical Museum last year…
Besides being Frank Sinatra’s hometown, the other cool claim to fame about Hoboken is of course that it’s the home of baseball. On June 19th, 1846, the NY Knickerbockers got their arses handed to them by the New York Nine by the score of 23-1. The game of baseball was nothing like today but they had four bases arranged in a diamond shape and a pitcher threw the ball underhand to the batter. This was back when men were men (that’s sarcasm) as there were no gloves for the fielders and players could be put out by either catching a fly ball or getting pegged.
The man behind the first documented game of baseball was also the man behind the plate umping it. That would be Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. who brought joy to the world by setting the bases 90 feet apart and establishing all the 9s in America’s Pastime. The Father of Modern Baseball was born in New York City in 1820. His father was a merchant sea captain and his mother gave birth to his 6 other siblings. At 16 years old in 1836, Alex Jr. worked as a clerk for a Wall Street broker. As a teenager, when he wasn’t learning stocks and bonds, Cartwright was also a volunteer firefighter. He would play “bat-and-ball” games with fellow volunteers on the streets of Manhattan. Eventually, volunteer firefighters of Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 12, decided they should make a ball club from their stickball playing days.
As Manhattan’s landscape started to expand and industrialize, the Knickerbockers needed more land for their ball playing so they ventured across the Hudson River by ferry to Hoboken, New Jersey. Elysian Fields had plenty of room for fellas to play this game called “baseball” using the “Cartwright rules.” Alexander J. Cartwright Jr. didn’t just take his new game west of The City into Hoboken, he went a bit further than that. In 1849, the New Yorker was a 49er who headed to the Pacific for the gold rush. He brought America’s future Pastime along with him. His mission to grow didn’t just stay within the continental United States either, Cartwright Jr. ended up out in Hawaii before it was even an American state. He founded the Makiki Baseball Field in 1852 on the island of Oahu. Cartwright Jr. ended up dying in Hawaii but his legacy of baseball would stay there for good as they renamed the Baseball Diamond after him in 1938. That same year, the Baseball Hall of Fame gave the father of modern Baseball a plaque in Cooperstown. (Source: Society for American Baseball Research)
Baseball wasn’t the only sport played in its early days in Hoboken. In the museum, I also saw a poster of the Buffalo German Basketball Team vs Hoboken Basketball Club. Luckily I found the box score for the game…
According to The Buffalo News, Hoboken got beat badly, losing 79 to 12 in front of 600 people. The Buffalo German of 1904 were no joke. They were led by Captain Heerdt, who dropped “no less than 30 points.” The game was played at the Quartette Hall Club Hall in Hoboken…
Hoboken’s Quartette Hall Club Hall is located at 1005 Washington Avenue, which is now the Elks Club House. The building is about 4 blocks from me so that’s pretty cool. Originally the building was used for Hoboken’s Singing Society. A German fraternal organization would use the space for music and performances so they must have had the “in” to use the singing space for a game of hoops.
Hardwood floors and enough space so my guess is this is where the game was played at the Quartette Hall Club Hall. I wonder if Frank Sinatra ever sang there. 🤔
One last picture taken from inside Hoboken’s Historical Museum was of the Brass Rail in 1935. When I took that picture I never would’ve thought I’d be giving the Brass Rail an 8.0 Guinness Review and failing to cut the G just 6 weeks later. I gotta head back to the Hoboken Historical Museum again soon to see what else they may have. Looking forward to it!
This Week’s Bit on The Roman Empire
This week your quick bit on The Roman Empire brought to you by Week to Week Notes featuring Ancient Rome: The Exhibition in New York is on the Roman Arch.
They say the Roman Arch is one of the greatest architectural innovations ever made. The semicircular top structure is supported by a column or wall that spans a space to support a load. Arches of brick first started appearing in Mesopotamia around 200 BC, however, the Romans are credited for perfecting the craft in their systematic way. The Romans would use all sorts of building materials such as bricks, volcanic rocks, stones, masonry, and the newly invented concrete which allowed them to recycle material that would previously have been discarded. Last week’s bit on the Roman Empire was all about the aqueducts, which of course may be their most famous types of arches. Pretty interesting that they built these arches not because they looked cool but because it was the most efficient way for them to use the materials they had.
How to build a Roman Arch at home…
First, you’re going to want to build the two walls, I’d probably go with brick, but go with what you got. The first step in building the arch is to construct an arched wooden frame to hold the weight of the stone blocks or bricks in place. Make sure you measure the distance between the walls, that would be a major letdown. Lay the blocks on the frame from the bottom of each of the walls on both sides and make your way upwards. The last part of the arch is the ‘keystone.’ While all your other blocks should be squared, even with the part, the keystone should be a bit more trapezoidal because it is responsible for holding the arch together by redirecting the stress of the construction's weight, thus making it self-supporting.
Once you place the keystone in, the wooden frame can then be carefully removed.* These Roman Arches enabled the ancient Romans to build multi-story buildings and monuments. From triumphal arches, bridges, apartment blocks, aqueducts, sewers, amphitheaters, temples, and palaces. The Roman Arches
*Editors note: Week to Week Notes is not responsible for any injuries that may occur when you remove the wooden frame after placing your keystone for your do-it-yourself Roman Arch at home. Phew, now I can’t be held liable if that thing comes crashing down on you.