Phil Harris

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Harris

Wonga Phillip "Phil" Harris (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American singer, songwriter, jazz musician, actor, and comedian. He was born to Harry and Dollie Harris. His mother was of Irish descent. Though successful as an orchestra leader, Harris is remembered today for his recordings as a vocalist, his voice work in animation (probably most famous later in his career for his roles as bears, one being Baloo in Disney's The Jungle Book, and as Little John in Disney's Robin Hood). He also voiced Thomas O'Malley in Disney's The Aristocats and probably best known for doing his last role as Patou in the 1991 Don Bluth film Rock-A-Doodle. Harris was also a pioneer in radio situation comedy, first with Jack Benny, and then in a series in which he co-starred with his wife, singer-actress Alice Faye, for eight years. In 1981, he sang, Back Home Again in Indiana before the Indianapolis 500.

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Phil Harris

Better known as a longtime actor who made his first film appearance in 1933, Phil Harris was also a successful drummer and singer, songwriter, jazz musician and comedian.

Phil was the only child of Harry and Dollie Harris his father a vaudeville musician. His dad would put him on the path to show business by teaching him to play several musical instruments including the drums. At age nine, he was drumming at the Nicklo Theater in Linton as well as doing various theatre sounds for the local silent movie theaters. The family moved to Nashville when eleven and although still a teenager found employment as a drummer with the Francis Craig's orchestra.

Phil Harris played drums in Henry Halstead Big Band Orchestra in the 1920s.

He discarded Wonga Phillip becoming simply Phil Harris going on to form his own group called 'Dixie Syncopators" which performed throughout the south with Phil singing comedy vocals.

Harris began his music career as a drummer in San Francisco, forming an orchestra with Carol Lofner/Laughber, pianist in the latter 1920s and starting a long engagement at the St. Francis Hotel. Harris played drums and sang, sitting up front center stage instead of behind the orchestra. Muzzy Marcellino was violinist. In 1932 the band left the St. Francis and began to tour. Shortly into the tour Lofner and Harris dissolved their partnership and Harris, who was always the main attraction of the band anyway, took over sole leadership forming the Phil Harris Band. Harris moved the orchestra to Los Angeles, where they were headquartered at the Cocoanut Grove during the mid-1930s, Harris led and sang with his own band, using the song "Rose Room" as a theme.. They starred in several Hollywood shorts and found steady work on radio. Leah Ray was vocalist in the mid-1930s. During the early 1940s, Ruth Robin sang.

Phil Harris also recorded many novelty songs..."Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette," "Up A Lazy River," "Stars Fell on Alabama," "Row, Row, Row," "Is It True What They Say About Dixie," and his most successful "Thats What I Like About the South."

On September 2, 1927, he was married to actress Marcia Ralston in Sydney, Australia and was always called "Mascotte. The couple adopted a son, Phil Harris, Jr. (b. 1935). They were divorced in September, 1940.

Harris had a fledgling career in the movies with a film debut in RKO's "So This is Harris" which won the 1932 Academy Award for best short subject, comedy category.

From December, 1936 through March, 1937, he recorded 16 sides for Vocalion, most were hot swing tunes that used a very interesting gimmick; they faded up and faded out with a piano solo (probably these were arranged their pianist Skippy Anderson). This was a novel approach and quite unusual for the time.

Harris was a regular on Jack Benny's radio show for a decade from 1936-1946 In 1936, replacing d Don Bestor Harris became musical director of The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny (later renamed The Jack Benny Program), singing and leading his band and – when his knack for snappy one-liners became apparent – joining the Benny ensemble playing Phil Harris, scripted as a hipster-talking, hard-drinking, brash Southerner whose good nature overcame his ego. His trademark was his jive-talk nicknaming of the others in the Benny orbit. Benny was "Jackson," for example; Harris's usual entry was a cheerful "Hiya, Jackson!". He usually referred to Mary Livingstone as "Livvy" or "Libby". His signature song, belying his actual Hoosier roots, was "That's What I Like About the South." His comic persona -- that of musical idiot -- masked the fact that the Harris Band evolved into a smooth, up-tempo big band with outstanding arrangements. Benny fans would sit through the singers' routine song but delighted when Benny ordered "Play Phil!".

Harris married Alice Faye in 1941; it was a second marriage for both (Faye had been married briefly to singer-actor Tony Martin). The Faye-Harris marriage lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a legendary fist fight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens over Alice Faye after Stevens ended a romantic relationship with Faye in favour of Sharon Gunn.

In 1942, Harris and his entire band enlisted in the U.S. Navy - Merchant Marines and they served for the duration of World War II.

By 1946 Faye had all but ended her film career. She drove off the 20th Century Fox lot after studio czar Darryl F. Zanuck reputedly edited her scenes out of "Fallen Angel" (1945) to pump up his protege Linda Darnell.

Harris and Faye were invited to join a radio program, "The Fitch Bandwagon". Originally a vehicle for big bands, including Harris's own, the show became something else entirely when Harris and Faye became its breakout stars. Coinciding with their desire to settle in southern California and raise their children without touring heavily. Fitch bowed away as sponsor in favour of Rexall, the pharmaceutical giant, and the show was revamped entirely into The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show from 1949-1954, a a domestic situation dy with one music spot each for Harris and Faye.

Now, with their own show revamped to a sitcom, bandleader Harris and singer-actress Faye played themselves, raising two precocious children in and out of slightly zany situations. Harris was the vain, language-challenged bandleading husband and Faye was his acid but loving wife on the air; off the air, as radio historian Gerald S. Nachman has recorded, Harris was actually a soft-spoken, modest man. Young actresses Jeanine Roos and Anne Whitfield played the Harris's two young daughters on the air; the series also featured Gale Gordon as their sponsor's representative, Mr. Scott; Elliott Lewis as layabout guitarist & Harris's bandmate Frank Remley, and Walter and usually involving bumbling, malapropping Harris needing rescue from acidly loving Faye. Faye singing ballads and swing numbers in her honey contralto voice was a regular highlight of the show, as was a knack for tart one-liners equal to her husband's. The show's running gags also included portraying Faye as something close to an heiress ("I'm only trying to protect the wife of the money I love" was a typical Harris gag) and occasional barbs by Faye aimed at her rift with Zanuck, usually referencing Fallen Angel in one or another way.

The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show debuted on NBC in 1948 and ran until 1954, by which time radio had all but succumbed to television. (Harris continued to appear on Jack Benny's show, along with his own, from 1948 to 1952.) Because the Harris show aired immediately after Benny's on a different network (Harris and Faye were still on NBC, whereas Benny jumped his show...including Phil Harris as his bandleader...over to CBS in 1949), Harris would only appear during the first half of Jack's show; he would then leave the CBS studio and walk approximately one block to his own studio down the street, arriving just in time for the start of his own program.

After the show ended, Harris revived his music career. He made numerous guest appearances on 1960s and 1970s TV shows, including the Kraft Music Hall, The Dean Martin Show, Hollywood Palace and other musical variety programs. He worked as a vocalist and voice actor for animated films, with performances in the Disney animated features The Jungle Book (1967) as Baloo the Bear, The Aristocats (1970) as Thomas O'Malley, and Robin Hood (1973) as Little John.

The Jungle Book was his greatest success in the years following his radio heyday. He voiced the character "Baloo" and sang one of the film's showstoppers, "The Bare Necessities," a performance that introduced Harris to a new generation of young fans who had no idea he was once a popular radio star. Harris also joins Louis Prima in "I Wanna Be Like You", delivering a memorable scat-singing performance. "The Aristocats" which follows many of the same patterns as "The Jungle Book" again features Harris in the movie's showstopper, "Thomas O'Malley" and joining Scatman Crothers(and others)in the raucous "Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat". In 1989, Harris briefly returned to Disney to once again voice Baloo, this time for the cartoon series TaleSpin which was in production at the time. Unfortunately, he had aged enough by then that he could no longer do the voice successfully[citation needed]. He was replaced later by actor Ed Gilbert. His last animated film project was in the 1991 film Rock-A-Doodle directed by Don Bluth, in which he played the friendly, laid back farm dog Patou.

Song hits by Harris included the early 1950s novelty record, "The Thing" for RCA. The song describes the hapless finder of a box with a mysterious secret and his efforts to rid himself of it. Harris also spent time in the 1970s and early 1980s leading a band that appeared often in Las Vegas, often on the same bill with swing era legend Harry James.

Harris was also a close friend and associate of Bing Crosby; in fact, after Crosby died, Harris sat in for his old friend doing color commentary for the telecast of the annual Bing Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournament. Phil is known for saying a comment about his death: "I have grown up to learn that God doesn't make mistakes. Today, I'm beginning to doubt that." An old episode of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show began with Harris telling the story of how he once won the tournament.

Harris remained grateful to radio for the difference it made in his professional and personal life, however. "If it hadn't been for radio," he was quoted as saying, "I would still be a traveling orchestra leader. For 17 years I played one-night stands, sleeping on buses. I never even voted, because I didn't have any residence."

His credits - movies and Tv:

• Andy Williams: My Favorite Duets (2004) (TV) Archive Footage: - Himself
• Walt Disney's 'The Jungle Book': The Making of a Musical Masterpiece (1997) (V) Archive Footage: - Himself
• "The Hollywood Palace" - Episode #7.17 (1970) TV episode Archive Footage: - Himself - Host/Singer
• Rock-A-Doodle (1991) (voice) - Narrator/Patou, Soundtrack: "Tyin' Your Shoes"
• The Walt Disney Comedy and Magic Revue (1985) (V) Archive Footage: - Little John
• "This Is Your Life" - Himself (1 episode, 1984)
• Scatman Crothers (1984) TV episode - Himself
• "Concrete Cowboys" (1 episode, 1981) - Episode #1.1 (1981) TV episode
• "The Love Boat" - Rent a Romeo/Matchmaker, Matchmaker/Y' Gotta Have Heart Harvey (1 episode, 1980)
• "Fantasy Island" - Carnival/The Vaudevillians - Will Fields (1 episode, 1978)
• NBC Salutes the 25th Anniversary of the Wonderful World of Disney (1978) (TV) - Himself
• "Here's Lucy" - Lucy and Phil Harris Strike Up the Band (1974) TV episode - Himself
• Robin Hood (1973) (voice) - Little John, Soundtrack: (performer: "The Phony King of England")
• The Gatling Gun (1973) - Luke Boland aka King Gun
• Once Upon a Tour (1972) (TV) - Himself
• The Last Generation (1971) Archive Footage:
• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Jack Benny But Were Afraid to Ask (1971) (TV) - Himself
• "This Is Tom Jones" - Episode #2.19 (1970) TV episode
• "The Hollywood Palace" - Episode #7.17 (1970) TV episode - Himself - Host/Singer
• The AristoCats (1970) (voice) - Thomas O'Malley, Soundtrack: (performer: "Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat")
• "The Johnny Cash Show" - Episode #1.15 (1969) TV episode - Himself
• "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" ... aka Laugh-In - Episode #2.9 (1968) TV episode - Himself
• "The Lucy Show" aka The Lucille Ball Show - - Phil Stanley (1 episode, 1968)
• Mitzi (1968) (TV) - Smiling Ernie Anderson
• "The Kraft Music Hall" - Cowboys and City Slickers (1968) TV episode - Himself
• "The Dean Martin Show" aka The Dean Martin Comedy Hour (USA: new title) - Episode dated 1 February 1968 (1968) TV episode - Himself
• "The Hollywood Palace" Episode #5.17 (13 January 1968) - Himself
• "The Pat Boone Show" - Episode dated 18 January 1968 (1968) TV episode - Himself
• "The Hollywood Palace" Episode #5.25 (23 March 1968) - Himself - Host/Singer
• "The Hollywood Palace" Episode #4.21 (18 February 1967) - Himself - Singer
• "The Hollywood Palace" Episode #5.2 (12 September 1967) - Himself - Comedian/Singer
• The Jungle Book (1967/I) (voice) - Baloo, Soundtrack: (performer: "The Bare Necessities", "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)", "The Bare Necessities (Reprise)")
• The Cool Ones aka Cool Baby, Cool! (1967) - MacElwaine
• "F Troop" - What Are You Doing After the Massacre? - Flaming Arrow (1 episode, 1967)
• "The Dean Martin Show" aka The Dean Martin Comedy Hour (USA: new title) Episode dated 9 November 1967 (1967) TV episode - Himself
• "The Dean Martin Show" aka The Dean Martin Comedy Hour (USA: new title) - Episode dated 6 April 1967 (1967) TV episode - Himself
• "The Dean Martin Show" aka The Dean Martin Comedy Hour (USA: new title) - Episode dated 24 November 1966 (1966) TV episode - Himself
• "The Dean Martin Show" aka The Dean Martin Comedy Hour (USA: new title) - Episode dated 6 October 1966 (1966) TV episode - Himself
• "The Andy Williams Show" - Episode dated 25 September 1966 (1966) TV episode - Himself
• "The Hollywood Palace" Episode #3.16 (15 January 1966) - Himself - Host
• "The Hollywood Palace" Episode #4.8 (12 November 1966) - Himself - Host/Singer
• "The Bing Crosby Show" - One for the Birds - Barney Jenks (1 episode, 1965)
• "The Hollywood Palace" (1968) (TV) - Episode #2.16 (16 January 1965) - Himself - Sketch Actor
• "The Hollywood Palace" (1968) (TV) - Episode #3.2 (25 September 1965) - Himself - Comedian/Singer
• "The Andy Williams Show" - Episode dated 27 September 1965 (1965) TV episode - Himself
• "The Andy Williams Show" - Episode dated 22 March 1965 (1965) TV episode - Himself
• "The Andy Williams Show" - Episode dated 12 October 1964 (1964) TV episode - Himself
• "Ben Casey" (1 episode) The Only Place Where They Know My Name (15 January 1964) - Clarence Simmons
• "Burke's Law" aka Amos Burke, Secret Agent - Who Killed Vaudeville? (1964) TV episode - Gus Watt
• The Patsy (1964) - Chic Wymore
• "The Hollywood Palace" (1968) (TV) - Episode #1.22 (30 May 1964) - Himself - Guest Host
• "The Hollywood Palace" (1968) (TV) - Episode #2.11 (5 December 1964) - Himself - Host/Singer
• "Burke's Law" aka Amos Burke, Secret Agent - Who Killed Billy Jo? (1963) TV episode - Rip Farley
• The Wheeler Dealers aka Separate Beds (UK)(1963) - Ray Jay
• "The Andy Williams Show" -Episode dated 26 November 1963 (1963) TV episode - Himself
• "The Red Skelton Show" aka The Red Skelton Hour (USA: new title) - Episode dated 22 January 1963 (1963) TV episode - Himself
• "Toast of the Town" aka The Ed Sullivan Show (USA: new title) - Episode #14.32 (1961) TV episode - Singer
• "The Steve Allen Show" aka The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (USA: new title) - Episode #5.27 (1960) TV episode - Himself - Guest
• "The Eddie Fisher Show" - Episode dated 15 October 1957 (1957) TV episode
• "The Steve Allen Show" aka The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (USA: new title) - Episode #3.32 (1958) TV episode - Himself - Singer
• "The George Gobel Show" - Episode dated 21 October 1958 (1958) TV episode - Himself
• "The Jack Benny Program" aka The Jack Benny Show - Phil Harris Show (1958) TV episode - Himself
• "Shower of Stars" aka Chrysler Shower of Stars - Jack Benny Celebrates His 49th Birthday (1958) TV episode - Himself
• "This Is Your Life" - Phil Harris (1957) TV episode - Himself
• "The Steve Allen Show" aka The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (USA: new title) - Episode #2.21 (1957) TV episode - Himself - Guest
• "The George Gobel Show" - Episode dated 13 October 1956 (1956) TV episode - Himself
• "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show" aka The Dinah Shore Show (USA: sixth season title) - Episode dated 3 July 1956 (1956) TV episode - Himself
• Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower (1956) (TV) - Billy
• Good-bye, My Lady (1956) aka Goodbye, My Lady (USA: cable TV title)/The Boy and the Laughing Dog (USA: reissue title) - Mr. Cash
• Anything Goes (1956) - Steve Blair
• "The Colgate Comedy Hour" aka Colgate Summer Comedy Hour (USA: summer title) aka Colgate Variety Hour (USA: sixth season title) aka Michael Todd Revue (USA: subtitle) - Episode #5.22 (1955) TV episode - Himself - Singer
• The High and the Mighty (1954) - Ed Joseph
• "The Colgate Comedy Hour" aka Colgate Summer Comedy Hour (USA: summer title) aka Colgate Variety Hour (USA: sixth season title) aka Michael Todd Revue (USA: subtitle) - Episode #5.3 (1954) TV episode - Himself - Singer
• "The Colgate Comedy Hour" aka Colgate Summer Comedy Hour (USA: summer title) aka Colgate Variety Hour (USA: sixth season title) aka Michael Todd Revue (USA: subtitle) - Episode #4.16 (1954) TV episode - Himself
• Hula from Hollywood (1954) Screen Snapshots: - Himself
• Hollywood's Pair of Jacks (1953) . Screen Snapshots:... Himself
• "The Colgate Comedy Hour" aka Colgate Summer Comedy Hour (USA: summer title) aka Colgate Variety Hour (USA: sixth season title) aka Michael Todd Revue (USA: subtitle) - Episode #3.31 (1953) TV episode - Himself - Singer/Comedian
• "The Colgate Comedy Hour" aka Colgate Summer Comedy Hour (USA: summer title) aka Colgate Variety Hour (USA: sixth season title) aka Michael Todd Revue (USA: subtitle) - Episode #3.15 (1952) TV episode - Himself - Singer
• Starlift (1951) Screen Snapshots: - Himself, Cameo appearance
• Here Comes the Groom (1951) (uncredited) Screen Snapshots: - Himself, Cameo Appearance
• The Wild Blue Yonder aka Thunder Across the Pacific (UK) (1951) - Sgt. Hank Stack
• Here Comes the Groom (1951) Soundtrack: (performer: "MISTO CRISTOFO COLUMBO")
• Wabash Avenue (1950) - Mike Stanley
• Hawaii in Hollywood (1948) Screen Snapshots: - Himself
• March of Time Volume 14, No. 1: Is Everybody Listening? (1947) Screen Snapshots: - Himself - Jack Benny Radio Program
• I Love a Bandleader aka Memory for Two (UK) (1945) - Phil Burton
• Dreaming Out Loud (1940) - Peter Atkinson
• Buck Benny Rides Again (1940) - Phil Harris
• Man About Town (1939) - Ted Nash, Soundtrack: (performer: "THAT SENTIMENTAL SANDWICH", "FIDGETY JOE")
• Harris in the Spring (1937) - Phil Harris, Soundtrack: Harris in the Spring (1937) (performer: "Sweet Like You", "Parchesi", "That's What I Like About the South", "The Woman Who Pays", "Groove Song", "Thanks For a Lovely Evening")
• Romancing Along (1937)
• Turn Off the Moon (1937) (as Phil Harris and His Orchestra) .Screen Snapshots: Himself, Phil Harris
• Double or Nothing (aka Broadway Brevities (USA: series title) 1936)
• Melody Cruise (1933) - Alan Chandler
• So This Is Harris! (1933) Screen Snapshots: - Himself

He kind of simply faded away from the Hollywood scene to being a business man in Palm Springs while becoming a spokesperson and benefactor for the famous resort with all the golf courses.

Harris was a longtime resident and benefactor of Palm Springs, California, where Crosby also made his home. He was an early 1930 homeowner at the Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, the first prototype community to be constructed surrounding a golf course. Many such area enclaves would follow and copy the concept while spawning a slew of classic golf tournaments televised nationally. Harris was a tireless promoter of the sport in the Palm Springs area chairing many charity events while doing golf commentary during tournaments. The Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce noted this and honored both Harris and Alice Faye "Honorary Mayor & Mayoress" holding this distinction until 1971.

He had great empathy for his home town and gave back to Linton, Indiana and became "Linton's favorite Son". The Linton Library is the repository for the donated show business memorabilia collection of the famous couple. The small town is also home of the Phil Harris Celebrity Weekend. This is an annual event with friend Roy Clark continuing the tradition the couple began. It is held during the 4th of July weekend which includes a variety show featuring Clark. Phil was an avid golfer and the winner of many amateur golf tournaments. A namesake golf course outside Linton hosts a tournament with proceeds funding scholarships for local graduating seniors from Linton-Stockton High School. Many celebrities have taken part in this tournament including Jimmy Dean, Boots Randolph, Tommy Smothers but a few. Phil would attend annually until his death and relished strolling around the course signing autographs and huddling with the participants in picture taking sessions. He was inducted into the Indiana Hall of Fame two years before his death. Harris was a longtime resident and benefactor to the California desert city of Palm Springs.

A health problem forced a brief Palm Springs hospital stay. He would pass away some two years later at age 91 from a heart attack at his Rancho Mirage residence. Cremation was performed and his wife of fifty four years, Alice Faye kept his ashes until her own death three years later from stomach cancer. After her cremation, both urns were placed in a companion niche in the outdoor Palm Springs Mausoleum located at Forest Lawn Cemetery. in Riverside County, California

Phyllis Harris was last reported living in St. Louis (she had been with her mother at her father's bedside when he died), while Alice Harris Regan was reported living in New Orleans.

• Immigration: 1923 - Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
• Residence: Los Angeles, California, Encino
  • Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Jul 11 2021, 13:26:51 UTC