THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407080278
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: A Twist of Trivia
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
He had some prestigious friends - Duke Ellington, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and all of The Platters.
For a while, our trivia subject did some singing himself. He was one of the first black singers to perform with a white band - the Joey Kerns Orchestra in Philly in the 1940s.
Eventually, he sang with some bigger names - Claude Hopkins and Erskine Hawkins.
About 15 years later, our subject switched from performing to pigskin, playing semi-pro football with the Palmyra (N.J.) Red Devils.
He was an imposing figure, weighing in at a couple of hundred pounds.
His chief claim to fame occurred in Hampton Roads, where his booming voice was heard on the radio for almost 40 years.
``They told me I didn't have a radio voice, but that I came through like Arthur Godfrey,'' he said during a 1983 interview.
He was 71 at the time and still behind a microphone, albeit part time.
One reason for the switch to part-time was that he was a child of the swing era, and less than enthusiastic about rock 'n' roll.
Our trivia subject played it, but not happily.
``I went along with it,'' he said. ``I didn't go much for disco. I don't like that wild beat.''
He also did not like wild, suggestive lyrics and eventually divorced himself from pop music entirely, concentrating instead on working with deejay Chester Benton on WLOW in Norfolk as the morning news-and-weather man.
The big guy came from a big New Jersey family. He was one of 16 children. In Suffolk, he lived on Pine Street with his wife, Alice. They had two daughters.
Their second home was the First Baptist Church on Mahan Street, where he was active in the choir, in Bible class and at prayer meetings.
He died in 1987. His name?
Elsewhere in the wonderful world of Trivia:
1. Who was William Holden's best friend? Who was Glenn Ford's best friend?
2. Who continued to produce silent movies well into the 1930s, even though sound tracks had been used for years?
3. Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis appeared in only one film together. Unhelpful hint: It was made in 1957. Another unhelpful hint: It was definitely not a candidate for an Academy Award. Slightly helpful hint: It had to do with the military.
4. Can you remember the song that was once titled, ``Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?'' That was a line in the piece but not the eventual title.
5. In the early days of television, there was a character named Michael Anthony. What did he do that made most people deliriously happy? ANSWERS TO TRIVIA
For almost 40 years, our local trivia subject was a fixture on Hampton Roads airwaves.
Virginia's first black disc jockey was ``Jolly'' Jack Holmes, so-named because at one time he weighed in at 315 pounds.
After he lost 100 of those pounds, his nickname was changed to ``Daddy'' Jack Holmes.
One of his early jobs was driving a laundry truck. But when he trucked on down to WLOW to audition, and was plucked from among the many trying out for the job, he went into radio full-time.
Eventually, he came to be accepted and loved by all. But when he began working behind a mike in the 1950s, it was a different story.
Segregation was the law of the land, and, Holmes recalled in 1983, ``there were a lot of threatening phone calls. They were telling me to get off the air. I got threats, sarcastic remarks. The police used to escort me.
``While I was broadcasting, I forgot about it,'' he said. ``I got wrapped up in the music.''
That music helped change attitudes toward blacks during a dance at Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth.
Fellow disc jockeys Joe Hoppell and ``Sheriff'' Tex Davis of WCMS invited Holmes to join them as a deejay at the high school dance so that the students would have a little bit of everything, musically.
``Hoppell and Davis were really supportive,'' Holmes said.
His fans supported him for about 40 years. He called himself ``the daddy of all the jocks.''
As for the rest of the trivia - well - I made this week's questions a little easier. I don't expect five out of five. Three out of five is quite creditable. Your reward? A pat on the head.
1. William Holden's best friend was Glenn Ford - and vice-versa. You figured that out, huh?
2. If you have some age on you, you could almost figure out this one by a process of elimination. Charlie Chaplin produced silent movies several years after talkies became a fact of Hollywood life.
3. Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis co-starred in ``Hellcats of the Navy.'' He was, obviously, in the service. She was a nurse who followed him around.
4. ``Why do birds sing so gay?'' began as a title, but wound up as a line in the song ``Why Do Fools Fall in Love?''
5. Michael Anthony was a gofer for ``The Millionaire,'' each week delivering that sum - paltry by today's lottery standards - to some very lucky, very surprised individual. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Ronald and Nancy Reagan appeared in a film together back in 1957.
Her stage name was Nancy Davis. Can you name the film?
William Holden, left, and Glenn Ford were best friends.
by CNB