Who leads the league in Longevity?

Subject: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 11:54 AM

This was partly inspired by a couple of things Peter T said in another thread. I've kind of 'up-dated' and 'Down-trodden' it.

Who's been able to keep a sizeable audience the longest?

Just for the sake of arguement I'm gonna use the (audience) figure of Five thousand people as a minimum (feek free to change it)

Frank Sinatra certainly comes to mind as someone who commanded that size crowd in the mid-forties til the nineties (with some valleys in between)

Bing Crosby was a superstar by the early thirties, and may well have been an even bigger draw by the mid 80s (when d'he die?)

Peter mentions Louis Armstrong who was famous in the Twenties, and continued being popular til he died (seventies?). Long after he lost his lip, he was singing hit songs.

Hmmmm. Peter Paul and Mary did concerts in the early sixties and continue to this day. A tad over forty years.

How long was Harry Lauder's career?

Any other singers, players, comics, that have really been able to bums in the seats for a longggg time?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 11:59 AM

Bob Hope.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: CarolC
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:00 PM

Players: The Toronto Maple Leafs, from the 1920s to the present.

;-)

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:00 PM

The Rolling Stones. It is embarrassing to see those saggy old men whining about getting no satisfaction.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:15 PM

Maybe somebody who didn't like school, played semi-pro baseball and ran for state governor (lost)?

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:20 PM

Hmmmmm, do you mean Roy Acuff Jer?

Ya know I think Sorcha may have it. I didn't specify that the person had to still be funny! (actually I enjoyed the "Road" pics.

But lets see....mid-thirties til maybe five years ago. Almost sixty years at least.

Is there anyone still performing successfully TODAY who started around 1940? Any Scots or Irish comics or singers?

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:21 PM

Rick, I would question your 5000 figure.
Almost any venue seating that many sounds like the inside of a drum. (we're talking hockey rinks here.) Maybe 500 to 1000 is a better number.
After 60+ years Hank Snow could still draw that many . Many of the other older opry stars could do the same. Country fans are usually for life.
Anything associated with Hank Williams is still big 50 years after his death. It may be an oxymoran but that,s long life. Elvis is another that will live on for many years. (Working in a carwash) :-}
             Sandy

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:25 PM

Fair enough Sandy. Let's go with 1000. I'm comin' back to Peter Paul and Mary. (although I'd sure rather go to a veteran "Opry Act" than them).

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:26 PM

Yes, Rick. Sorry - you're looking for currently-performing performers and I don't believe Roy Acuff is.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:32 PM

No I'm not. Dead ones is fine! Roy's career went from mid thirties to (I'm guessin') mid eighties....'bout right?

Don't forget these folks:

Billy Ray Cyrus.
Sue Thompson
Harold Dorman
PJ Proby

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:36 PM

Roy Acuff started performing with Dr Haueer's Medicine show in 1932, and I believe he performed right up to his death in '92. 60 years, although I don't know if he drew 1,000+ crowds in '32.

How long did Ella Fitzgerald perform?

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 01:03 PM

John R. Cash, though not for much longer it looks like sadly.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 01:07 PM

Can't leave out the Doc.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 01:10 PM

I certainly wouldn't, Sorcha.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 01:11 PM

Of course I'm sure that if Mark Twain or Will Rogers were still alive, they'd be packing `em in.

Even if only to see really old guys on stage. ;)

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 02:02 PM

Willie Nelson
Johnny Cash

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 02:47 PM

Pete Seeger. Even if he just talked.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 03:36 PM

Jeezus! Heather wanted to know who Sue Thompson and Harold Dorman were, in my 'longevity' joke post. Surely they're not THAT obscure!!

Hmmmmmm. Pete Seeger may well be THE answer. In folk circles he certainly was well known in the EARLY forties (often, as "Pete Bowers") and he could sure draw over a thousand folks today. That's a longgggg time.

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 09:56 PM

Anyone else, that had a sizeable audience in the early forties and is still a concert act today? If it IS Pete Seeger then I'm quite surprised.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: maire-aine
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:02 PM

Harry Belafonte?

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:07 PM

When did Earl Scruggs start playing?

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:10 PM

Once Lester got hisseff tyooned up. ;)

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:23 PM

George Burns lasted about as long as any...I heard him say he was booked at the London Palladium on his 100th birthday...he lived to 100, but was not well enough to perform...

But, yeah, Pete Seeger may be as relevant an answer as any.

(Who was it who first said, "If I knew I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself!"?)

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:32 PM

Cab Calloway is probably the one with the most longevity--Headliner at the Cotton Club with his first big hit record in 1930, he continued to have hits on the pop charts til the late 60's, even made the transition to MTV, and was still touring with his orchestra(and drawing big audiences) at the time of his death in 1994--

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:32 PM

Pablo Casals lived to be 97

Eubie Blake was 100, and still playing to full houses.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:35 PM

Bill Monroe had a mighty good run too.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 11:42 PM

George Burns was sure around a long time but if he was God that would be an unfair advantage. It looks like Pete may be the champ!

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: GUEST,maddy
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 11:57 PM

Bill D - good for you, but didn't it have to be someone still gigging?
i guess that let's eubie out. pete seeger isn't singing in public much anymore - and he's a surefire draw, even singing with others, like the clearwater walkabout chorus. i was going to nominate jean ritchie - still singing to packed houses all over the world - and sounding great - she still has her high notes [nervous about them now and then] and her range has increased and her voice gets richer as she ages. she's 82 now [no tattling - she said so on stage recently] and another kind of longevity - oscar brand has had a weekly radio show on NPR for 50+ years - now that's longevity.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 04:20 AM

How old is Ronnie Gilbert? Is she still singing? She started about 60 years ago.
Then there's Cyril Tawney, and Packy Burns.
And this weekend, in NZ we've had Cliff Richard and Bob Dylan, both of them singing to crowds of thousands and both of them going longer than P,P&M, I think.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 10:53 AM

Hmmmm Cab Calloway eh? If the dates that Ted gives are accurate that makes 64 years! That trumps everyone else mentioned. Remember, I'm talking about having a SIZABLE audience from beginning to end.

Anyone else who may have started as early as 1930 and gone on as long as '94?

I guess George Burns is right up there, but I doubt if he commanded much of an audience in his first few years in vaudeville (before he met gracie)....I may be wrong though.

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: gnu
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 11:03 AM

Tommy Makem.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 11:16 AM

well, I don't know how BIG their audiences were, but here is the Carrier clan of Cajun/Zydeco music, which includes Clifton Chenier. One guy has been playing for 77 years.

It would take a lot of research to figure out who commanded major crowds for the longest time.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: gnu
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 12:13 PM

Noone will ever be "crowned" but it is interesting to read about who comes to mind. I forget, did anyone mention Tony Bennet ? Perry Como ?

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 12:14 PM

Interesting thread Rick....

I hate to bring this one up, but would a band originally formed in 1916, hitting it's stride in about 1925 in Chicago and then going on to New York (and the world) and playing to full houses from then on count? Same leader for about 60 years, until his death, the band itself is still playing today......Would that count? A neighbor of yours I believe......Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians...and gawd do I ever still hate that sax vibrato........Old Guy was also one hell of a hydroplane racer too

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 12:21 PM

I think Eubie Blake is generally creditted with originating the "If I knew I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself!" quip.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 02:39 PM

Ray Charles 'aint doing too bad, either.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 02:41 PM

Two news reports on the Cliff Richard concert this morning -
one says there were 25,000 people there, the other says almost 30,000. So what's an odd 5,000 people at a concert like that?
(We didn't go - it cost about $100 or more, depending on where you sat - on the grass or in a seat.)

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: annamill
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 03:14 PM

I tend to feel it must be Johnny Cash. I actually remember my mother, in the fiftys, telling me how much she had enjoyed listening to him when she was young! Gads! The Carter family WERE amazing weren't they! ;-) What did they do for that boy to make him last so long, especially with his bad habits?

I love hearing him tell a story today.

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 03:24 PM

Well, if you include the recently deceased (I always thought that should be just "ceased"), there's Frank Sinatra, who wowed 'em in the early 40s and Burl Ives (who was a big draw since 1939.) Stanley Holloway must be in there somewheres, too.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 05:23 PM

I Thought about Stanley Holloway Dick, but I guess folks are just suggesting ANYONE now who's been singing for forty years.

Guy Lombardo is an interesting name, but when did he die?

If nobody can come up with someone to beat Ted's suggestion of Cab Calloway (and 64 years) I declare his

"The LONGEST viable career".

Going, going......

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 05:45 PM

I'm betting Stevie Wonder would rack up a few years if you did the mathematics. Started when he was nine or something didn't he?

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 06:10 PM

Lombardo died in '77 so he's a few years short of Cab Calloway. Looking up his death, I also found that he had done the New Year's program on radio or TV from 1929 til 1976.....47 years. I guess Dick Clark still has a way to go on that one.

Groucho had two contestants appearing together on "You Bet Your Life" and both were named Heidi. In the best Goucho tradition he said, "I'll call you Heidi-Hi and I'll call you Heidi-Ho.....and you can call me Cab Calloway."

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 11:08 PM

What about opera singers? Who was the woman who made all the "Farewell tours"?

Heather mentioned Sophie Tucker. Did she perform past the sixty year mark?

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Feb 03 - 12:15 AM

Sophie was right at 60 years...

I still think Eubie Blake oughta get some sort of prize:

"BLAKE, Eubie
(b James Herbert Blake, 7 Feb. 1883, Baltimore MD; d 12 Feb. '83) .................... Long career began 1899 in Baltimore cafes; teamed with Noble Sissle '15 in vaudeville;.....played at President Carter's White House jazz party '78; continued performing almost until centenary:"

I make that over 80 years...so I guess it depends on how big an audience you require for your decision.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 Feb 03 - 10:25 AM

Yeah, Bill. Eubie was probably the very first person I thought of, simply from a longevity basis. However a great deal of his career was behind the scenes as a songwriter and Producer. He came to Toronto in the late sixties (after being "discovered" by Johnnie Carson) but his audience (at the Colonial Tavern) was closer to fifty than five hundred.

Cab...goin' once, goin' twice...

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 08:58 AM

Buddha...Jesus Christ .... Mohammed.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 09:55 AM

Hmmmmm....well I guess they're pretty entertaining, and they've all had a good run, but I'm not sure if their "working careers" were longer than Cab's....and did they even exist?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Strupag
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 10:45 AM

Surely Compay Segundo must be in the running.
He must be around 96, been profesional before 1939 and released his last album in 2000.

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 05:11 AM

How about Tom Jones?
Born Thomas Jones Woodward on June 7, 1940, Tom began singing at an early age. It wasn't unusual in the Valleys towns of South Wales.
He became frontman for 'Tommy Scott & The Senators' in '63, but his performing clearly went back before that. So a minimum of 40 years, and still going strong.

While we're on the Welsh, how about Shirley Bassey, born Jan 1937 and performing in the clubs of 'Tiger Bay' (Cardiff) by the time she was 15 (so in 1952)

Nigel

Subject: RE: Who leads the league in Longevity?
From: mooman
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 06:16 AM

I'd be very surprised if the oldest members of the Blind Boys of Alabama didn't win this title. Must be over 60 years together singing now and I saw them give a storming concert last year!

moo