Location: Sunset Avenue at Franklin in Rocky Mount
County: Nash
Original Date Cast: 2017
James Kern “Kay” Kyser was a popular big band leader of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Rocky Mount on June 18, 1905, he attended the University of North Carolina where he first studied law before switching to commerce. He graduated with a degree in the latter field and was senior class president. While at Chapel Hill, he was a cheerleader and a member of the PlayMakers Repertory Company. He later wrote the song “Tar Heels on Hand,” which became a school fight song.
Kyser was not a singer or musician and came into his role as a bandleader almost by accident, when he was asked to succeed Hal Kemp as leader of a local band made up of UNC students. What Kyser lacked in musical talent he made up for by his talents as a performer, functioning as a wacky announcer. The band continued to tour after its members graduated. Their success was gradual but began to attract a following after it became the house band for the Blackhawk Restaurant in Chicago. In 1935, the group achieved its first Top 40 hit. Over the next several years they produced 10 more and landed a total of 35 hits within the Top 10. Many of the band’s tunes were whimsical, and in fact their last major hit was the theme music for the “Woody Woodpecker” cartoon series.
Kyser’s band gained their own radio show in 1938, the “Kollege of Musical Knowledge,” where Kyser adopted the persona of a quiz show musical expert called the “Ol’ Perfesser.” Kyser involved various members of the band in his antics, especially trumpeter Melvin Bogue, nicknamed “Ish Kabibble,” who portrayed a dumb student of the “Kollege.” The radio show in turn led to a series of motion picture comedies built around Kyser and his band. By the mid-1940s, Kyser had become one of the most popular and best paid of the big band leaders, despite his unorthodox style. Featured on radio from 1938 to 1948, the show moved to television, 1949-1950.
Following a fire which destroyed many of the group’s collection of musical arrangements, the band adopted a jazzier approach to its sound. During World War II, Kyser frequently entertained U.S. servicemen as part of the USO program. During this time, he met his future wife, Georgia Carroll, after she became a vocalist in the group. The 1940s incarnation of the band also launched the career of singer Mike Douglas, who later became a popular television talk show host.
Kyser became increasingly disenchanted with the trappings of show business as time went on. Ongoing health concerns played a role in this, but Kyser also genuinely felt during the war that what he did paled before the sacrifices of those who worked in the service of others. He thus began to seek a way out, even though contracts kept him from walking away from his career for several years. When the television version of the “Kollege” was cancelled in 1950, he finally and quietly quit.
He retired with his family to Chapel Hill, where he and his wife devoted their efforts to charity work. The Kysers supported the university, especially the drama department, and played a role in bringing public television to the state. Kyser supported the Good Health Program, created by the state during World War II to foster health and fitness awareness and finance hospitals and medical education. Kyser also was a promoter of the Christian Science movement, having become a convert in the 1940s while seeking treatment for problems with his feet. He died in Chapel Hill on July 24, 1985.
References:
Beasley, Steven, Kay Kiser – The Ol’ Professor of Swing: America’s Forgotten Superstar (2009); see also Beasley’s website, Kay Kyser the Ol’ Professor of SWING!, https://www.kaykyser.net/
“Biography,” Christian Science Association of the of the Pupils of James K. Kyser, C.S.B., http://kaykyserchristianscienceassoc.org/biography/
“The History of UNC-TV,” http://www.unctv.org/content/about/history
Kay Kyser and Georgia Carroll Kyser Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina
“Kay Kyser and his College of Musical Knowledge,” http://www.ramfanatic.com/Misc/kay_kyser_and_his_college_of_mus.htm
“Kay Kyser,” North Carolina Music Hall of Fame,
https://northcarolinamusichalloffame.org/inductee-item/kay-kyser/#toggl…
William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 1988), III, 384--sketch by William S. Powell
Simon, George T., The Big Bands (1967)
Thomas, Helen, “It’s All Up to You! North Carolina and the Good Health Program, Part 1,” Southern Sources: Exploring the Southern Historical Collection, posted May 6, 2014, http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/shc/index.php/2014/05/06/its-all-up-to-you-nor…
“Song Artist 79 – Kay Kiser,” TSORT: The World’s Music Charts, http://tsort.info/music/7nxwn7.htm
A Tribute to Kay Kyser: An Unofficial Look at the ‘Genius of Jazz,’ http://www.ibiblio.org/kaykyser/index.html