VENUTI SWINGS, STARR SINGS
“If Anybody Is My Mentor, It Would Be Joe Venuti” - Kay Starr
Our three-part feature spotlights the collaborative history of Joe Venuti & Kay Starr, along with the singer's work with the big bands of Glenn Miller, Bob Crosby, and Charlie Barnet. Part one will spotlight 1937, with Kay Starr beginning her professional career in Memphis, Tennessee, and her first year as vocalist with Joe Venuti’s Orchestra. Part two covers her years performing and recording with the big bands of Joe Venuti, Glenn Miller, Bob Crosby, and Charlie Barnet. Part three traces her activities in 1945 & 1946, featuring Starr’s 10 sides recorded with Venuti and Les Paul for the Lamplighter label in the spring of 1945.
NOTE: Unfortunately, Joe Venuti and the Joe Venuti Orchestra did not secure a recording contract—a significant setback for any performing artist. Their recorded output is limited to eight sides made over four years: four for Columbia in October 1935 and four for Decca in January 1939, none of which stand out. Despite regular broadcasting, the absence of compelling recorded material hindered the ensemble’s prospects. The December 3, 1942, radio broadcast from the Peabody Hotel in Memphis remains the only surviving example of Venuti’s big band with Kay Starr (or at least the December 1942 lineup, as Venuti frequently changed musicians and bands). Additionally, a few airchecks from 1945–46 do little to enhance Venuti’s legacy.
PART ONE
“I am a firm believer that a singer is no more than an actor or an actress set to music. They learn the story, they tell the story, and if they don’t tell the story right, people are not going to like it, no matter what the melody is.” - Kay Starr
Born Katherine Laverne Starks on July 21, 1922, on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma, Kay Starr would become one of the most prolific voices of the 1940s and ’50s. She was known for incorporating the music of the American South and Southwest into her musical style. She grew up during the Great Depression and thrived at the start of the rock-and-roll era.
Starr was born to her father, Henry, an Iroquois Native American, and to Annie, of mixed Irish and Native American heritage. Her father worked for the Automatic Sprinkler Company while her mother raised chickens. As a young girl, Starr liked to serenade the coop.
"Mother raised chickens. We had a hen house, and when it was time for the hens to roost, I would pretend like I was playing piano with an old apple box and I would sing to them." – Kay Starr
Kay's Aunt Nora recognized the talent in the young girl and persuaded Annie to enter Kay in WRR-Dallas' weekly talent contest (at Dallas' Melba Theater).
"I didn't have enough sense to be scared. It was a contest to promote yo-yos. And I didn't have a yo-yo, so they'd give me one, and I'd get to sing, which I loved, and I didn't care why I did it. So, they gave me a yo-yo about a week in advance. I wasn't very good with it, but I was good enough to do straight up-and-down, 'See the World.' And then I learned to do 'Around the World.' Those were the only tricks I could do, but I could do 'em singin' "Potatoes are Cheaper/Tomatoes are Cheaper/Now's The Time To Fall In Love." I won third prize: two tickets to come back and watch somebody else be foolish. But it was during the depression, and everything you got for nothing, well, you prized it." - Kay Starr
The following week, Kay won. Then Kay continued to win the contest every week until the radio station retired her, giving Kay her own weekly 15-minute program, billed as “Katherine Starr.”
Her singing abilities won her a 15-minute radio show on Dallas station WRR. On her show, Starr would sing pop and country songs with piano accompaniment. By age 10, she was making $3 per night, a generous paycheck for the Great Depression.
The Starks soon relocated again, this time to Memphis, Tennessee. In Memphis, Kay secured a radio show on station WREC, as well as a regular spot on 'Saturday Night Jamboree' broadcast on WMPS. It was at this time that many misspellings of her name prompted Kay and her parents to change her name from Katherine Starks to Kay Starr.
When Starr’s father moved the family to Memphis, young Kay continued her radio performances, singing mostly the Western swing genre.
WED JULY 28-TUE AUGUST 10, 1937: Peabody Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee.
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, July 25, 1937.
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, July 30, 1937.
Singing with the Venuti band at this time is Judy Mack of the Mack Sisters. She and her husband, Lenny, joined the Venuti orchestra during its June 12-22 run at the 1937 edition of The Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, Sun Aug 1, 1937.
The Minneapolis Star, MN, Sat Oct 2, 1937.
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, Tue, Aug 10, 1937.
WED AUGUST 11: Ely-Walker Garment Factory Grand Opening, Paragould, Arkansas, KBTM Radio Broadcast.
Jonesboro Daily Tribune, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Wed, Aug 11, 1937.
Paragould Daily Press, Paragould, Arkansas, Mon, Aug 9, 1937.
SAT AUGUST 14: Club Casino, Greenville, Mississippi.
The Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, Mississippi, Fri, Aug 13, 1937.
“If Anybody Is My Mentor, It Would Be Joe Venuti” - Kay Starr
FRI AUGUST 20: Peabody Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee.
FRI AUGUST 20: Peabody Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee.
The Venuti Orchestra returns to Memphis on August 20th for a one-nighter at the Peabody Hotel. Singer Judy Mack was no longer with the band. This is probably the date Kay Starr joined the band and continued touring with Joe Venuti, possibly through the Labor Day weekend, when she and her mother returned to Memphis, and the fifteen-year-old returned to school.
The Commercial Appeal, TN, Fri, Aug 20, 1937.
When jazz bandleader and violinist Joe Venuti came to Memphis in 1937 for an engagement at the Peabody Hotel, he was surprised to find that his contract required him to have a female vocalist (which he did not have). Venuti's road manager had heard Kay on the radio and suggested that Venuti go to Kay's home and discuss the possibility of hiring her for Harry and Annie. Venuti was so impressed with Kay that he asked her parents if she might tour with the band that summer. Since Kay was not yet 15, it was agreed that Annie should also come along.
"That summer, Joe Venuti asked my parents if I could travel with the band. Well, of course, my mother loved the idea! She went with me. But because she's only seventeen years older than I am, Joe said, 'We're going to be working in hotels where they serve cocktails and things, we can't tell them how old she is. We won't lie, but if they don't ask, don't volunteer!' So we played a game. My mother was my sister. This was a wonderful game for a twelve-and-a half year old. And my mother loved it, because it made her seem much younger, and still got a chance to look after me and supervise what I was doing." – Kay Starr
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, Sun, April 20, 1952.
SAT AUGUST 21: Wagon Wheel, Nashville, Tennessee.
TUE AUGUST 24: Wagon Wheel, Nashville, Tennessee (held over).
The Tennessean, Nashville, TN, Mon, Aug 23, 1937. The Tennessean, Nashville, TN, Tue, Aug 24, 1937.
WED AUGUST 25: West View Park, West View, Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburgh Press, PA, Tue, Aug 17, 1937.
SAT, SUN, MON-SEPTEMBER 4,5,6-Casino Park, Fort Worth, Texas.
It is likely Kay Starr and her mother returned to Memphis around this time.
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX, Wed, Sep 1, 1937.
SOURCES
The Great American Songbook Foundation Library & Archives, thesongbook.org/kay-starr.
memphismusichalloffame.com/inductee/kaystarr.