Courtesy of eBay, of course, and courtesy of the seller “anystuffyouwant,” who says these items are from his personal collection of fifty years.
Rollie was a photographer presumably based in Colorado (where KLZ was a famous radio station) in the early Forties. His photographs are impressive and he also made friends with his subjects. Here are a few of his photographs that turned up for sale. (Incidentally, I am assuming that Rollie was male — but impulsive online research turned up no leads to his / her identity except much on the younger woman photographer Rollie McKenna, who captured Dylan Thomas, so . . . )
Ella:
Tommy Reynolds:
Duke and bassist Junior Raglin (thanks to Jimmie Blanton scholar Matthias Heyman for confirming this) :
A close-up of George Wettling:
George as part of a larger band:
Mel Torme with three singing colleagues who presumably pre-date the Mel-Tones:
Mel at his own drum set:
A few small mysteries. Some readers may be able to identify the singers with Mel. Drum fanciers will have something to say about Geo W’s set and Mel’s. I can’t identify anyone in the band that Wettling is playing in, and find it odd that he should have a bass drum with a radio station logo and his own Geo W. If someone could decipher the KLZ logo (is that a mountain peak?) and explain why there’s a clipper ship on the back wall, I wouldn’t mind, either.
Even if those mysteries remain unsolved, it is cheering to know such artifacts of a vanished time exist so that we can see them.
May your happiness increase!
