Timex All-Star Jazz Show Celebration Part 4: January 7 Rehearsal With Jackie Gleason, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington

After three action-packed, table-setting posts (here are links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), we have finally reached January 7, 1959, the day the fourth Timex All-Star Jazz Show was filmed and aired live across the nation on CBS television–but we have not reached the end of this series. Why? Because photographer Maynard Frank Wolfe arrived at CBS’s Studio 50 at 53rd and Broadway and began photographing the final dress rehearsals at 8 a.m. and more or less didn’t stop until dress rehearsal ended at 6:45 p.m. (minus two breaks). Here’s the schedule, from Louis’s copy of the script (a separate page, not included here, noted that after a break from 4:30-5:30, “Dress Rehearsal” took place from 5:30-6:45):

Alas, that schedule seems to have been thrown out the window pretty quickly. In an earlier draft of this post, we attempted to share the photos of the acts in the order they were originally scheduled to rehearse, but then we noticed discrepancies in clothing and even lighting in photos of the same artists. After some careful scrutiny and re-organizing, we’ve decided to split January 7 into two parts, with the first part focused on photos of Louis with Jackie Gleason and/or Dizzy Gillespie taken in what appears to be the early part of the day. We’ll then have a final installment where we share the evening rehearsal photos, as well as the audio and video of the final broadcast. Thus, for the Jackie Gleason fans out there, there’s no better way to segue than by saying, “And away we go!”

We open with Gleason standing offstage, script in hand; George T. Simon, writer of said script, is in the background, wearing a bowtie:

And here’s Armstrong, also offstage, waiting to be called; the cue cards are almost impossible to read but “ESQUIRE Magazine” is visible, meaning they were about to rehearse the first segment, where Gleason and Armstrong talk about Esquire’s famous “Golden Age of Jazz” issue (the one responsible for Art Kane’s “Great Day in Harlem” photo):

Gleason takes his place alongside a tiny table in the center of the stage:

On the finished show, Gleason introduced Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, who performed “Rockin’ in Rhythm.” It’s likely that this photo was taken during that moment, with Harry Carney taking the clarinet solo:

Armstrong soon joined Gleason to rehearse their first segment, with the Ellington band visible in silhouettes in the background:

During that first segment, Gleason showed off the aforementioned January 1959 Esquire issue, which featured another famous Art Kane photo of Louis in a rocking chair:

As the cameras get in place, Gleason and Armstrong continue talking:

Wolfe eventually repositioned himself and took more photos of Armstrong and Gleason from a different angle:

Wolfe then got a little closer and the results are pure magic. Full disclosure: it’s not much of a secret that I happen to love Louis Armstrong but close friends and family can attest that I also love Gleason and The Honeymooners remains one of my favorite shows of all time; thus, when we first digitized these photos in 2018, they immediately became some of my most cherished images in the Archives:

Maybe my favorite of the whole batch:

As already covered in part one, during the first rehearsal, Louis and Trummy Young performed their routine on “Now You Has Jazz,” which was not in the original script. By day two, Louis mentioned on the tape he made with Lucille that “Now You Has Jazz” was in the show and it was–but now as a duet between Armstrong and Gleason, with the All Stars backing them up. The glimpse of Armstrong’s bassist Mort Herbert in the background reveals that this and many of the above photos were most likely taken during a run-through of this number:

Armstrong and Gleason’s “Now You Has Jazz” was only an excerpt of the full routine as midway through, Armstrong would race back to join the All Stars for a fast and furious version of “Tiger Rag.” Here’s some photos from that moment, with trombonist Trummy Young and clarinetist Peanuts Hucko joining Armstrong in the front line atop a rhythm section of Billy Kyle on piano, Mort Herbert on bass, and Danny Barcelona on drums:

A close-up of Peanuts Hucko:

With the All Stars already present onstage, it must have been decided that now was a good time to rehearse the band with its two special guests, Gene Krupa on drums and Bobby Hackett on trumpet. Here are a few Wolfe photos from this segment:

An exhausted-looking Gleason taking it in:

Krupa in action:

Someone still seems to be missing from the above segment–more on that in a minute–but with that out of the way, Armstrong and Gleason resumed their seats at the table for a segment in which they talked about New Orleans while the Dukes of Dixieland performed in the background. If you look back there you’ll see Dukes’ trumpeter Frank Assunto, trombonist Fred Assunto, clarinetist Jack Maheu, banjoist and second trombonist “Papa Jac” Assunto, pianist Stanley Mendelsohn, tubaist Barney Mallon, and drummer Norman “Red” Hawley:

Love seeing Louis crack up “The Great One” like this:

The Dukes seem to be exiting the stage in this photo:

While the table was out, Armstrong and Gleason had to rehearse one more segment, their introduction of Dizzy Gillespie. Here they are talking to one another as Gillespie’s bassist Sam Jones takes his place:

Eventually Dizzy’s quintet took the stage to rehearse “St. Louis Blues.” For those keeping score at home, Dizzy’s band included Junior Mance, piano, Les Spann, guitar, flute, Sam Jones, bass, and Lex Humphries, drums:

Armstrong was then given a break to allow the other acts from the second half of the show to rehearse. Next up was Dakota Staton, backed by pianist George Shearing’s group (Warren Chiasson, vibraphone; Toots Thielemans, guitar; Carl Pruitt, acoustic double bass; Ray Mosca, drums; Armando Peraza, congas):

Here’s Gleason listening to Shearing’s group rehearse:

At some point during their spot, Shearing’s guitarist Toots Thielemans picked up what would later become his signature harmonica and Wolfe managed to get up close to photograph him in action:

On the original strip of negatives, there’s a photo of Louis tucked in between the Shearing photos. In it, he is pictured with vocalist Barbara Dane, apparently a last-minute addition to the show. She didn’t appear in any of the rehearsal photos up to this point but sure enough, when it came to showtime, she sang a chorus of “Old-Fashioned Love” with the Armstrong-Hackett-Krupa group.

How did Dane–who passed away in October 2024 at the age of 97–get on the show? According to a report in Downbeat, “Barbara Dane signed with Joe Glaser’s Associated Booking. The blonde blues-folk singer is scheduled to work the [CBS] Timex jazz show Jan. 7, and will appear as part of a whopping Dixie package at Chi’s Palmer House in the spring.” Glaser and his assistant Oscar Cohen were in charge of booking the Timex show, hence, they were going to make sure their latest client got a prime-time spotlight.

But wait, there’s more! Thanks to reader Simone Dabusti for alerting us to this interview with Dane where she gives even more of the backstory! Turns out she was late arriving and knew she missed the bulk of the rehearsals. George T. Simon grew nervous upon seeing her and told her she had 60 seconds to herself on the final show! We’ll talk more about those 60 seconds in the next installment, but for now, head to 17:28 to get the story from the late Ms. Dane–thank you, Simone!

At some point in the day–perhaps after the lunch break–Duke Ellington returned, wearing a different sports jacket. The first order of business was rehearsing “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” with vocalist Ruth Olay, whom Wolfe showcased in a few photos:

Olay stepped aside and Ellington rehearsed some more, most likely going over “Sophisticated Lady” and “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” both of which would be performed later that evening. Since more of the band can be seen in this image, here’s the personnel of Duke’s orchestra at this time: Cat Anderson, Harold “Shorty” Baker, Clark Terry, Ray Nance, trumpet; Quentin “Butter” Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders, trombone; Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone; Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone; Jimmy Hamilton, Russell Procope, Harry Carney, reeds; Ellington, piano; Jimmy Woode, bass; Gus Johnson, drums.

Here’s another photo of the Ellington band and Gleason–but now Louis can be spotted in the background, wearing his socks and sandals:

Wolfe then pulled back some more to reveal that Armstrong had company–Dizzy Gillespie was sitting next to him:

Thanks to eagle-eyed reader Bernard Flegar for identifying the photographer in the image above: it’s Ellington reedman Jimmy Hamilton! You can see him more clearly below–wonder where his photos ended up?

Wolfe got a little closer and took this lovely photo of Louis and Dizzy together with some of the Duke’s men in the background:

Finally, it was time for the main event: another run-through of Louis and Dizzy’s “Umbrella Man,” ostensibly done to set up the rehearsal of the scripted dialogue between Armstrong, Gleason, and Gillespie that would occur after the performance. Here’s Louis and Dizzy in the middle of their vocal duet (could the immortal, “Your parasol is juicy, boy?” line from Louis have been worked out in rehearsal?):

Dizzy hits those final high notes at the end as Louis beams with appreciation; Gleason still looks tired:

Next, some excellent photos of the three masters, perhaps going over their lines or just talking amongst themselves:

Seeing three legends who brought so much laughter to so many look so serious is a little jarring at first….

….but eventualy Louis gets them going:

And finally, either Louis or Jackie delivers the knockout blow, causing Dizzy to go into hysterics:

Gleason’s got that confident look on him, like he knows he just got Dizzy and he’s not going to let up:

At the same time, Louis has moved out of frame but pianist Junior Mance is clearly staring at him so perhaps Pops was still carrying on outside the frame:

This one is damaged but still worth sharing for the joy of seeing Dizzy losing it; even the cameraman is beaming:

Matters finally calmed down a bit, so it was time to get back to the rehearsal:

The hilarity subsided, but this is still a beautiful photo of three geniuses obviously having a great time together:

Joe Glaser must have agreed. Of the 300+ photos taken by Maynard Frank Wolfe during the rehearsals for this Timex show, Glaser only turned one into a publicity photo–this one (without credit for Wolfe). Here’s Louis Armstrong’s personal print of it:

With that, another break was called. When everyone would reconvene, Dizzy would be wearing a suit jacket, Dane and Olay would change dresses, and Jo Jones, Coleman Hawkins, Vic Dickenson, Roy Eldridge, and others would join the fun. We’ll have those photos, as well as images from the dress rehearsal and taping, not to mention video of the broadcast, in our fifth and final part.