Memories of Miriam LaVelle

Do you have any useful information to contribute this website? Please make contact using the email address: info@miriamlavelle.com  As appropriate, I'll either add the information to the relevant section of this site, or publish it below as a personal recollection.

Jordan R Young, the official 'Spike Jones' biographer and prolific author of an impressive array of biographical accounts of well-known entertainers  has written me a most informative letter that adds some fascinating information about Miriam LaVelle. In a later note, Jordan sent a colour poster advertising 'Seven Days Ashore', one of the films Miriam featured in, and this can by found here

Jordan's letter reads as follows:

'Hello Julian,

Discovered your site today. I'm really impressed with all the info you have found on Ms. LaVelle.

As Spike Jones' biographer, I can add that Miriam appeared in Spike's stage shows circa 1944. Spike's band, the City Slickers, was playing movie theaters at the time, doing shows in-between the movies--ersatz vaudeville. In Southern California as well as San Francisco and towns up and down the coast. He also made appearances in military hospitals entertaining GIs at the time, and she may have participated in those.

Miriam also had an affair with Spike, according to his staff writer Eddie Brandt and his trumpet player, George Rock. He was married to his first wife, Pat, at the time; I didn't realize Miriam would only have been about 17 then. [This is mentioned in passing in my book, "Spike Jones Off the Record."]

Miriam is also mentioned in Doodles Weaver's diary [he was one of Spike's comedians]. Doodles was on the premier broadcast of the NBC variety show "Hour Glass" in May of 1946 and he lists her among the cast, which also included Edgar Bergen. [I note you have a photo of her from the show; it was Doodles' TV debut and probably hers as well; he describes it as "the world’s first commercial TV show.”] 

I note you have the "Billboard" mentions of her; no doubt she was also mentioned/reviewed in "Variety." The issues from those date are not online but access is available via subscription and also in reference libraries like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills. I suspect there may be a file on her in the Billy Rose collection at the New York Public Library in Lincoln Center; the Cinema-TV Library in the Doheny Library at the University of Southern California may have something on her as well (ask for Ned Comstock). If there was a published obit, NYPL and/or USC may well have it or can help you find it.

Good luck and best regards,

Jordan Young'.

Lyle Bird from San Antonio, Texas, writes in with a fascinating little story. Lyle played trumpet as a young guy but gave up music to join the Navy, seeing active WW2 service and beyond. Fifty years after putting down his horn, Lyle is back blowing the trumpet and playing the piano and keyboard. In Lyle's words:

'I was playing trumpet in the house band at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco and Miriam LaVelle was a dance act on stage in the 1 week show. Miriam was travelling with her mother and I felt a little out of my class with her. We talked several times back stage. I was working so could not attend my graduation from High School. I invited her to go to a gathering of my High School graduation class in San Francisco at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. She was a beautiful girl about 18, and I will never forget our entrance at the top of the Mark [Hopkins Hotel] with her beauty, fur coat and I was in Tux and when I went to introduce her I couldn't remember her name. It was shameful and I will never forget it. I never had any other contact with her and In fact I was telling my 63 year old son about it today and surprise - her name came up on the Internet.'  [Submitted 13-01-2010].

Lyle Adds:

'You caused me to think further about Miriam and I believe she travelled with a show called the "George White Scandals".  It seems so coincidental that after telling my most embarrassing moment story to my son and typing her name on the ever amazing internet that you would be there.' [Submitted 19-01-2010].

Billboard records Miriam LaVelle appearing in the May 1944 edition of George White's Scandals at the Oriental theatre in Chicago, though whether the show travelled around is not known.

Bob Graham from Los Angeles has contacted me with some fond memories of Miriam LaVelle. Bob was a popular singer, actor and broadcaster during the 1940s and 50s and appeared in seven films during that timeframe. He also sang in several of the films. Most notably, though, Bob played opposite Mitzi Gaynor in the 1953 Hollywood musical, 'The I don't care girl', in which he features as a singer who has a romantic liaison with Ms Gaynor. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr Graham and hearing first-hand about the many dates he shared with Ms LaVelle. Bob describes her as an attractive lady who was a delight to be with. He refers below to the Capitol Hotel on Eighth Avenue, New York City, the home of Nicky Blair's Carnival Room, a circus-themed dinner cabaret featuring trapeze artists, jugglers, dancers, comedians (Milton Berle had a long run as the top billing), chorines, and clowns etc. Miriam LaVelle was the featured acrobatic dancer at this venue and a photo of her can be seen under Images.

In Bob's own words: 

Lyle Bird from San Antonio, Texas, writes in with a fascinating little story. Lyle played trumpet as a young guy but gave up music to join the Navy, seeing active W

Billboard records Miriam LaVelle appearing in the May 1944 edition of George White's Scandals at the Oriental theatre in Chicago, though whether the show travelled around is not known.