Phil Harris (entertainer)

Wonga Philip "Phil" Harris (born June 24, 1904 in Linton , Indiana , † August 11, 1995 in Rancho Mirage , California ) was an American musician , band leader , entertainer and actor . He was best known as a companion to comedian Jack Benny on his radio show and as the voice of the singing bear "Balu" in the original version of the cartoon The Jungle Book (1967) .

Life

Youth and family

Phil Harris was the son of two vaudeville artists who appeared in smaller music theaters and the circus, and grew up in Tennessee . His second Indian first name "Wonga" ( Cherokee for "nimble messenger") he received from an Indian chief who took care of him while his parents were on stage. At a young age he learned various musical instruments; his main instrument was the drums , with which he appeared in his father's variety program at the age of twelve.

In the 1920s Harris played as a drummer in various bands, including in the orchestra of Francis Craig . During a concert tour to Australia he met the local actress Marcia Ralston, whom he married in 1928; the marriage was divorced in 1940. In 1941 he married the singer and actress Alice Faye , with whom he lived until his death.

Orchestra conductor, singer and comedian

At the end of the 1920s, Harris founded the Dixieland quintet "The Dixie Syncopators", from which his own big band soon emerged , with which he was particularly successful in California, where he played for several years in San Francisco and Cocoanut Grove . In 1934 he and his band shot the half-hour musical comedy So This is Harris! , which was awarded in the category "Best Short Film (Comedy)" at the Academy Awards in 1934 and paved his way into the film business. In the following years other music films were made with his orchestra, including Harris In the Spring (1937), in which he sang the song "That's What I Like About the South", which became his signature tune and was also successful on record.

From 1936 onwards, Harris became known nationwide as the permanent orchestra leader of the popular weekly radio show by Jack Benny , whose musical " sidekick " and sketch partner he remained there until 1952. In this role, he and his orchestra accompanied the numerous guest stars of the show with their singing numbers (for example 1948, 1950 and 1952 Frank Sinatra ). In addition to his engagement with Jack Benny, he appeared together with his wife Alice Fay on the radio show The Fitch Bandwagon (1946-48) from 1946 on, from which the weekly musical comedy The Phil Harris-Alice Fay Show (1948-54 ) emerged. In January 1949, Alice Fay and Phil Harris performed with his orchestra at the inauguration ceremony for US President Harry S. Truman .

During this time Harris achieved further record successes as a singer, around 1947 with a cover version of the Tex-Williams song Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) , and in 1950 with the song The Thing , written for him , which he recorded for RCA Victor in October 1950 . The Thing stayed on the Billboard charts for 14 weeks and was number one for four weeks in December 1950 . In March 1951, the recording was at the top of the Australian charts for three weeks .

After the end of the radio era, Harris was often seen on screen as a musical and comedic guest on various television shows from the 1950s to the 1970s, except for Jack Benny in shows by Milton Berle , Dinah Shore , Steve Allen, among others , Eddie Fisher , Red Skelton , Andy Williams , Bing Crosby , Dean Martin , Pat Boone , Lucille Ball , Mitzi Gaynor , Johnny Cash , Tom Jones and Pearl Bailey . Between 1964 and 1968 he also hosted the variety show The Hollywood Palace eight times .

Actor in film and television

Since his film debut in 1933, Harris has appeared primarily in musical comedies, such as Variety Princess (Walbash Avenue) (1950) and Broadway Magic (Anything Goes) (1956), and he has also appeared in dramatic films such as Höllenreiter der Nacht (The Wild Blue Yonder) (1951). In 1954, Harris starred alongside John Wayne in His only significant film role as a character actor in It's Always Day . He played other prominent roles in Good-bye, My Lady (1956, with Walter Brennan and Sidney Poitier ) and in the comedies Separate Beds (1963, with James Garner ) and Die Heulboje (1964, with Jerry Lewis ). He was then seen in The Cool Ones (1967) and The Gatling Gun (1973).

In 1956, Harris worked on television in the staged implementation of the musical suite Manhattan Tower by Gordon Jenkins as an actor. Later came several guest roles in television series, including Burke's Law (1963/64, with Gene Barry ), Ben Casey (1964, with Vince Edwards ), F-Troop (1967, with Forrest Tucker ), Fantasy Island (1978), Love Boat (1980) and Concrete Cowboys (1981, with Billy Barty and Michael Fox ).

Voice in cartoons

Harris achieved international fame in 1967 as the speaking and singing voice of the bear "Balu" in the Disney cartoon adaptation of The Jungle Book . His duet as Balu with Bruce Reitherman (in the role of "Mowgli") on The Bare Necessities earned composer Terry Gilkyson an Oscar nomination for best movie song and Harris was awarded a silver record in Great Britain . Harris was also heard in a duet with Louis Prima (in the role of "King Louie") for I Wanna Be Like You .

In the cartoon Aristocats , also produced by Disney, Harris spoke and sang the character of the cat "O'Malley" (and its song Thomas O'Malley Cat ) with similar success in 1970 . In 1973 he lent his voice in Robin Hood , another Disney film, the character of the cartoon bear "Little John" and sang the song The Phony King of England composed by Johnny Mercer . In the British-American co-production Rock-a-Doodle - A Rooster Conquers the City , which combines real film elements with animation, Harris once again had a prominent speaking role as “Narrator” and “Patou the Dog” in 1991.

Late years and death

After 1991, Harris finally retired into private life and only appeared at charity events. From the 1950s he lived with his wife Alice Faye in Palm Springs , California , where he owned extensive estates, and in a second house in nearby Rancho Mirage , where he died in August 1995. He is buried with his wife, who died in 1998, in the Forest Lawn Cemetery (name until 2005: Palm Springs Mortuary & Mausoleum) in Cathedral City .

Harris and his wife Alice Faye donated their extensive estate to his native Linton, Indiana, in 1979, where the material is now stored in three separate archive rooms.

Two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame commemorate Phil Harris, one each in the music recordings category (at 6508 Hollywood Boulevard ) and one in the radio category (at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard).

Works

Filmography

• 1933: Melody Cruise
• 1933: So This Is Harris!
• 1937: Turning Off The Moon
• 1937: Romancing Along
• 1937: Harris in the Spring
• 1939: Man About Town
• 1940: Buck Benny Rides Again
• 1940: Dreaming Out Loud
• 1945: I Love a Bandleader
• 1947: Is Everybody Listening?
• 1950: Vaudeville Princess (Wabash Avenue)
• 1951: Hell Riders of the Night (The Wild Blue Yonder)
• 1954: The High and the Mighty (The High and the Mighty)
• 1956: Broadway Magic (Anything Goes)
• 1956: Good-bye, My Lady
• 1963: Separate Beds (The Wheeler Dealers)
• 1964: The Patsy (The Patsy)
• 1967: The Cool Ones
• 1973: The Gatling Gun

as a cartoon voice

• 1967: The Jungle Book (The Jungle Book)
• 1970: Aristocats (The Aristocats)
• 1973: Robin Hood
• 1991: Rock-a-Doodle - A rooster conquers the city (Rock-a-Doodle)

watch TV

as an actor

• 1963: Burke's Law: Who Killed Billy Jo?
• 1964: Burke's Law: Who Killed Vaudeville?
• 1964: Ben Casey: The Only Place Where They Know My Name
• 1967: F-Troop: What Are You Doing After the Massacre?
• 1978: Fantasy Island : The Vaudevillians
• 1980: Love Boat : Rent a Romeo

as a musician, singer and comedian (selection)

• 1952–53: Four Star Revue
• 1952-55: The Colgate Comedy Hour
• 1954/1966: The Milton Berle Show
• 1956: The Dinah Shore Show
• 1957–58 / 1960: The Steve Allen Show
• 1957: This is Your Life: Phil Harris
• 1957: The Eddie Fisher Show
• 1958: The Jack Benny Program: Phil Harris Show
• 1960: The Big Sell (with Jackie Gleason )
• 1962-63: The Red Skelton Show
• 1964-66: The Andy Williams Show
• 1964-68: The Hollywood Palace
• 1965: The Bing Crosby Show
• 1966–70: The Dean Martin Show
• 1968: The Pat Boone Show
• 1968: The Lucy Show: Lucy and Phil Harris
• 1968: Mitzi
• 1969: The Johnny Cash Show
• 1969: That's Life: A Cold is Nothing to Sneeze at
• 1970: This is Tom Jones
• 1970: The Pearl Bailey Show
• 1972: Once Upon a Tour
• 1974: Here's Lucy: Lucy and Phil Harris Strike Up the Band

Discography

LP

• 1972: Southern Comfort… The Best of Phil Harris ( Mega Records ) (new recordings of his successes)

CD (sampler)

• 1992: The Uncollected Phil Harris & His Orchestra (1933) (Hindsight) (recordings from 1933)
• 1996: The Thing about Phil Harris (Living Era / ASV) (collection of original singles from the 1930s to the early 1950s)
• 1996: Echoes from the Cocoanut Grove: Phil Harris & His Orchestra (Take Two) (live recordings from 1932/33)
• 1999: My Kind of Country (Flapper / Pearl) (Collection of original singles from the 1940s)
• 2000: The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show (Cliffhanger) (excerpts from the radio show of the same name)
• 2001: Phil Harris: Southern Gentleman of Song (Collector's Choice) (recordings from his radio show)

Web links

• Phil Harris in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Phil Harris at allmusic.com
• Benny Show's Phil Harris Dies at 89 , Los Angeles Times obituary, August 13, 1995 (accessed June 30, 2012)

Remarks

1. ↑ Benny Show's Phil Harris dies at 89 , Los Angeles Times obituary , August 13, 1995 (accessed June 30, 2012)
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
3. ↑ Phil Harris at findagrave.com (accessed June 30, 2012)
4. ↑ Candy Taylor: Phil Harris-Alice Faye Collection ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from the Linton-Stockton High School web site (accessed June 30, 2012) .