Katz, Mickey

Description

Type: Signature
Description: (1909-1985) Cleveland-born Jewish-American musician and comedian, specialist in Jewish humor, father of actor Joel Grey, grandfather of actress Jennifer Grey.

As children, Mickey and his siblings contributed to family finances by entering amateur musical contests in neighborhood theaters, bringing prize money home. After high school, he supported his family with money earned from playing clarinet. At 11, his father took him to a concert with a clarinet solo and Katz told his father he wanted to play the clarinet but his father could not pay for an instrument and lessons. Katz asked the local high school bandmaster for a school clarinet, and received an old one. An uncle offered to pay for lessons if Mickey would clean his tailor shop. He made progress on the clarinet and learned saxophone as well.

After high school, hde played clarinet and sax for Phil Spitalny then played in Doc Whipple’s big band at the Golden Pheasant Chinese Restaurant for a year next joined Angelo Vitale’s band at the Park Theater. He left Cleveland in 1929 for NYC and played in Howard Phillips’ orchestra at the Manger Hotel to 1930. A friend in Cleveland said a spot for a clarinet and sax player had opened up in Maurice Spitalny’s band at the Loew’s State Theater, and he had recommended Katz. He moved back to Cleveland and played with Spitalny until the leader left Loew’s Theater in 1932; he played there for another year then rejoined Spitalny at the RKO Palace Theater until Cleveland musicians went on strike in 1935. The union lost the strike and he was out of a job again. He played on an excursion boat every summer from 1935-39, sailing around Lake Erie and in the off-season, played one-night gigs. In 1939 he was bandleader-MC at the Ohio Villa gambling palace.

In 1942 Katz was hired as bandleader at Cleveland’s Alpine Village theater-restaurant, drafted but classified 4-F and released from military obligation. Back at the Alpine Village he sold war bonds after shows, bringing in $25K-$30K a week for the government. He also played for servicemen at the USO canteen at Cleveland’s St. John’s Cathedral. Then in 1945, he took his 6-man comedy and band group (Mickey Katz and His Krazy Kittens) on a USO tour of Europe with movie star Betty Hutton.

In 1946 Katz was asked to conduct at a national jukebox convention in Cleveland and met Spike Jones who asked Katz to join him in Hollywood where he played with Jones to 1947. Katz decided to make an English-Yiddish comedy record. Having written the lyrics to Haim afen Range years before, he had it approved by RCA and wrote another song for the flip side, Yiddish Square Dance, and friend Al Sack did the melody for it and set Haim afen Range to music as well. The original 10,000 copies released in New York City sold in 3 days, RCA received orders for 25,000 more. Katz then went on to parody Tico, Tico with Tickle, Tickle, and backed this new record with Chloya, a parody of Chloe. He hired an LA manager and in 1947 performed in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights, a largely Jewish- and Mexican-American neighborhood.

Katz continued creating parodies to 1957 and performed off and on until his death. In 1948, he produced the English-Yiddish stage revue Borscht Capades, which introduced his then teen-aged son, Joel Grey. Two decades later, a revue called Hello, Solly landed Mickey on Broadway while Joel was appearing in Cabaret which won Grey a Tony award. Borscht Capades did well until it went to Broadway. Right before it opened, an almost identical show, Bagels and Yocks, opened down the street. Competing for a small, particular audience, both shows failed.

Katz was a DJ for Los Angeles radio station KABC 1951-56 while doing occasional road tours and playing at the Bandbox nightclub. In 1952 he did United Jewish Appeal shows, joined the California Friars Club and conducted at major functions for the next 25 years. In 1953 Katz played Las Vegas’ Frontier, returning to Las Vegas for 4 more years. In 1955 he played Lake Tahoe, and toured Europe and Australia in 1957. In 1958 Katz finally played the Catskills, where most of his peers made their start. In 1961 he toured South Africa, and, at the end of his career, played the Florida condominium circuit, often doing 2 shows a night.

Katz and his group were in the 1967 movie Thoroughly Modern Millie accompanying Julie Andrews singing a Yiddish song at a Jewish wedding. He supplied the voice of Hop-a-Long Catskill on the ABC-TV cartoon series Beany and Cecil in 1962.

He is best known for his parodies. Long before Allan Sherman and Woody Allen showered the public with Yiddish slang, Katz blazed the trail. He had a hit with his parodies “Duvid Crockett”, “Geshray Of DeVilde Kotchke” (“The Cry of the Wild Goose”), “Schlemiel”, “Borscht Riders in the Sky” and “Yiddish Mule Train,” a twist on the Frankie Laine standard. Many were affronted by how he emphasized Jewish differences, convinced that his antics would perpetuate Jewish stereotypes. Many radio stations refused to play his records, and several venues feared hiring him.

Autograph sentiment (“Cordially”) signed on a 4 ½ x 6 pale green autograph album page (in person signature)

Condition: Good, light toning at sides