Babb Kroger (1 results)

African-American close-harmony group fronts cautionary tale of women and booze, in this visually unavoidable poster for 1955 re-release of 1950 exploitation flick One Too Many, also distributed as Killer With a Label, and the rather more straight-up The Important Story of Alcoholism. The juxtaposition of "oletime bar room harmony" and alcoholism, dynamic chevron banners and martini glasses, the verbal play on "mixed drinks" and "mixed-up women", makes for an intoxicating concoction. The film is summarised by IMDb thus, "a once-famous concert pianist has had her career ruined by her alcoholism. Her husband and a member of Alcoholics Anonymous try to help her recover". It starred Ruth Warrick, who had appeared as Orson Welles's bride in Citizen Kane (1941) and later featured in the long-running US TV soap All My Children. The vocal group fronting this tawdry offering were The Harmonaires, who supplied musical fillers. They are described by Columbus African-American Collection as having been "formed in a janitor closet at the Curtiss-Wright [aeronautical] plant in 1941. [they then] embarked upon a USO tour, travelling by special car from Columbus to Washington DC in December, 1944. They performed at a number of hospitals, including Walter Reed, and sang with Buddy Rich and the US Navy Band. During the late 40s, The Harmonaires could be heard coast-to-coast on WLW every Sunday on the Circle Arrow Show, sponsored by Western Auto, and every Thursday on the Sunnyside Review and were guests on the Fred Allen, Ed Sullivan, and Henry Morgan radio shows out of New York City, and, ultimately, featured roles in the movie, One Too Many with Ruth Warwick. The Harmonaires remained active throughout the 50s, 60s, and into the 70s" (retrieved 13 December 2019). This production bolted out of the stable of writer-producer Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (1906-1980), who billed himself as "America's Fearless Young Showman", one of the key figures in the exploitation genre. After a brief spell as a sports writer Babb began his movie career in 1934 as the advertising and publicity director for the Chakeres-Warners theatre chain. "He eventually hooked up with two roadshowmen, Howard Russell Cox and Howard Underwood, who were promoting a program titled Dust to Dust in the early 1940s. Dust to Dust was nothing more than a birth reel slapped into [Bryan] Foy's High School Girl, with Cox lecturing on the 'Evils of Sex Intolerance.' The three Howards made Dust to Dust a small-town hit throughout the Mid-west. while travelling with Dust to Dust Babb hit on the idea of making his own hygiene epic" (Schaefer, pp. 198-99). This was to be Mom and Dad (1945), which became perhaps the most successful "sex hygiene" films in that sub-sub-genre. Babb was also a master of publicity and marketing hokum, deploying "adults-only showings, audiences segregated by gender, nurses in attendance, and book sales" (ibid., 132). Eric Schaefer, "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959, Duke University Press (1999). Poster (450 x 330 mm). Printed in yellow, red and dark blue on light card stock. A remarkable survival in exceptional condition.