'40s Cornball Satires Are Music to the Ears of Spike Jones' Fans

‘40s Cornball Satires Are Music to the Ears of Spike Jones’ Fans

By SUE AVERY

March 31, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The Rev. Steve Blankenship hadn’t even been born when Spike Jones, the zany creator of orchestra satires, was in his heyday in the 1940s.

But now Blankenship, 35, minister of the Church of the Nazarene in Monrovia, and his brother-in-law, Scott Corbett, 29, manager of a Pasadena dry cleaning plant, have organized what is believed to be the first Spike Jones Fan Club.

The nostalgia buffs received the blessing of Jones’ children, Spike Jr. and Linda, who became founding members. Joe Siracusa, who was in charge of sound effects for the band and stages an annual benefit variety show as a tribute to Jones, is another founding member.

“I got a chance to meet Joe last August and that gave me the idea of organizing a fan club,” Blankenship said. “I had met Linda Jones at one of the benefit shows and she gave me a mailing list of people who had expressed interest in Spike Jones memorabilia.

“We contacted 800 people and only six months later we had 116 members in 20 states and four foreign countries. Most of the members are under age 55.”

The club’s purpose is to call attention to the genius of Jones and offer collectors a way to exchange records and information, Blankenship said.

He mails a quarterly newsletter to members, who pay annual dues of $10, and hopes they will attend Siracusa’s next show, scheduled for September at Van Nuys High School to raise funds for the Salvation Army.

The fan club, which offers free ads for collectors in the newsletter, may be reached at 112 W. Olive Ave., Suite 508, Monrovia.

Jones, a drummer turned bandleader, used cornball routines to lampoon popular songs. The band used such instruments as cow bells, automobile horns and a harp played by a cigar-smoking woman--anything that could get a laugh, Corbett said.

Jones gained instant popularity with his 1942 hit “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” but was best known for “Cocktails for Two” and “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.”

A key factor in the Jones revival is Dr. Demento, a disc jockey who plays novelty records on KLSX-FM and is a member of the fan club, Corbett said.

Corbett began collecting the first of his 800 Jones records 20 years ago, when he found some in his parents’ collection of old 78 r.p.m. records.

“Some were broken and I was determined to replace them,” he said. “Later I haunted thrift stores and flea markets looking for them.”

Blankenship got hooked three years later when he was dating Corbett’s sister, Linda.

“My parents and my brother were the Spike Jones fans in the family,” said Linda Blankenship, “and when I played a record for Steve, that was the beginning of this.

“I’m not a fanatic but I like the music and I am secretary of the fan club,” she said.

After he heard that first record, Steve Blankenship said, “I began collecting because it is fun and enjoyable music.”

Blankenship has only 200 records but he can play them on one of six antique jukeboxes he has restored. He also has a collection of old phonographs and an 1890 player piano.

“I like anything that plays music,” he said.

Corbett added: “I got Steve into phonographs and then he started with jukeboxes. We kind of fed each other’s madness.”