This week I’ve posted several recordings of Paul Whiteman’s big fat orchestra. Above is the big fat man himself, dancing. Sort of. It’s from his 1930 starring vehicle ‘King Of Jazz’ and the name of his body double who does the actual dancing is lost to history. The double does an impressive job doing an amalgamation of twenties dance steps–a little ‘Charleston’, a little ‘Lindy’–though its hard to watch without wondering if his heart is going to hold out and allow him to finish the number. It comes at the end of the clip, which is the entire six-minute ‘Happy Feet’ sequence, which also features a very young Bing Crosby. For more on Whiteman, dig his very interesting Wikipedia entry. Despite his fame of the 1920s declining in the subsequent decades, he was a quite entrepreneurial sort of chap and had a particular interest in professional auto racing. In fact, due to his close association with racing legend Bill France, he helped to develop and finance what eventually became the Daytona 500. (Yes, I know it sounds like A.I. just got it incredibly wrong but I bothered to double-check the sources and it’s all true). In the early 50s, he hosted a precursor to ‘American Bandstand’ called ‘Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club’ on a local Philly station. Below is a very rare clip of that show. I wonder what became of the opening act–a kid who belts an old torch song called ‘It Isn’t Fair’. He’s pretty impressive actually. His name, just like the fat dancers, is also lost to history, alas. Unless of course he’s a reader of this blog and reaches out to me. Stranger readers have been known to subscribe…