KAY KYSER - AUTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: GINNY SIMMS - HFSID 322053

KAY KYSER and GINNY SIMMS
Signatures from the big time bandleader and his most famous female vocalist
Signatures: "Kay Kyser" and "Ginny Simms", 4½x6 album leaf. Bandleader Kay Kyser (1906-1985), who couldn't read a note of music, was one of the most popular bandleaders and music personalities in America from 1933 until the end of the 1940s. Kyser and his band became nationally known following a series of radio broadcasts from the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. These shows, which featured his trademark comedy (vocalists singing the titles of songs, interrupting a chorus for the band's theme, "Thinking of You") and an engagement at the Blackhawk Restaurant in Chicago, Kyser a star. His many hits included "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "Old Buttermilk Sky". Kyser's zany radio show, Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, ran for more than 15 years and was so popular that RKO signed him up for a series of films, starting with That's Right, You're Wrong (1939). During WWII, Kyser and his band appeared at over 500 military installations in USO shows. After his radio show was cancelled in1949, Kyser had difficulty making a transition to television, and he retired in 1950. Ginny Simms (1913-1994) was an American singer who first grew famous nationwide as a singer with the Kay Kyser Orchestra, although by the time she joined the band in 1938 she had a radio show. The next year she joined Kyser and Lucille Ball in That's Right - You're Wrong, a musical comedy. She left the Orchestra three years later to pursue a solo career, gaining recognition for her popular radio show and tireless work for the WWII effort as well as for her recordings. Simms, who was married three times, was also the frequent escort of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer after his divorce. She retired from show business in 1951, having appeared in a few more screen productions, including Shady Lady (1945), Broadway Rhythm (1944), and Disc Jockey (1951). Binding holes in lower edge. Pencil note at corner. Creased from center fold. Unrelated magazine clipping affixed on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.