One of The Ink Spots dies in Houston at 105 years old. chron.com For the younger than me crowd, the name, Ink Spots, may not mean anything. But I remember the days when tv was new and programming was not that well organized. Shows would run 23 minutes, then, with few ads in the new medium, the networks would scramble to put something on the air to fill the gap to the next show. What they often used were musical clips and the group they used the most were The Ink Spots.
I didn't see the complexities at the time, being that I was 4-5 years old, but now it astounds me. A black singing group on television in Truman/Eisenhower America, before The Civil Rights Act, before Martin Luther King, before The Foibles of Faubus in Little Rock, Arkansas, were entertaining white Americans in their own living rooms. As a kid, I didn't see any difference between The Ink Spots and The Ames Brothers, an all white group who was also featured in these spots. My thoughts were basically, "no-cowboys, no shooting, who cares?" That being said, I listened to the music and these groups were great.
We hear so much about dopers and alcoholics and chain smokers in the music industry. But this guy loved what he did and lived to be 105, so he was doing something right. |
