Sid Mark: An Interview

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http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=26163

[Christiern]

What's your point?

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many jazz dj's have had to find another hustle.

[Christiern]

Sid was never much of a jazz dj, but he did know how to read liner notes.

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Sid was never much of a jazz dj, but he did know how to read liner notes.

i've heard a couple of his shows and they were a bit lame.

[Christiern]

Even back in '59 and '60, when I was on WHAT seven days a week, Sid had his "Friday with Frank," which the rest of us thought inappropriate for a 24-hour jazz station. Sid was also full of himself, he called himself "the Mark of Jazz" and yet he knew so little about it.

The local distributor for just about all the jazz labels was a great guy named Ed Cohen. One of his favorite Sid stories was about the time he took him to lunch. An elderly lady at a nearby table kept looking at Sid. "That old lady is watching you," Ed told Sid. "Yeah, I know, ever since Dolly started running ads with our pictures, the ... oh, she's coming over here--you got a pen on you?"

The lady reaches their table and bends over Sid. "Say, aren't you the Fliegelman boy?" He was.

Dolly, btw was the owner of the station, Dolly Banks--a true racist. The FM was all jazz and all white, the AM was all gospel and r&b and all black. She would not allow blacks on the FM (except as celebrity guests) and whites were barred from appearing on AM. One day, when the AM newscaster was taken ill, she called me into her office. "Can you speak like them?," she asked. "What do you mean?," I said. "Ed's out sick and we need someone to read the newscasts, no one can understand a word Lloyd (Lloyd Fat Man, the AM dj) says, so can you speak like a negro?"

I just said no and walked out in utter disbelief. I don't recall what she ended up doing. Anyway, there are many stories about Dolly, but Sid will never tell them, he was close to her. He probably didn't even recognize much of her racism, like the fact that she had two cockers, a black one and a white one--they were named "AM" and "FM".

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Even back in '59 and '60, when I was on WHAT seven days a week, Sid had his "Friday with Frank," which the rest of us thought inappropriate for a 24-hour jazz station. Sid was also full of himself, he called himself "the Mark of Jazz" and yet he knew so little about it.

The local distributor for just about all the jazz labels was a great guy named Ed Cohen. One of his favorite Sid stories was about the time he took him to lunch. An elderly lady at a nearby table kept looking at Sid. "That old lady is watching you," Ed told Sid. "Yeah, I know, ever since Dolly started running ads with our pictures, the ... oh, she's coming over here--you got a pen on you?"

The lady reaches their table and bends over Sid. "Say, aren't you the Fliegelman boy?" He was.

Dolly, btw was the owner of the station, Dolly Banks--a true racist. The FM was all jazz and all white, the AM was all gospel and r&b and all black. She would not allow blacks on the FM (except as celebrity guests) and whites were barred from appearing on AM. One day, when the AM newscaster was taken ill, she called me into her office. "Can you speak like them?," she asked. "What do you mean?," I said. "Ed's out sick and we need someone to read the newscasts, no one can understand a word Lloyd (Lloyd Fat Man, the AM dj) says, so can you speak like a negro?"

I just said no and walked out in utter disbelief. I don't recall what she ended up doing. Anyway, there are many stories about Dolly, but Sid will never tell them, he was close to her. He probably didn't even recognize much of her racism, like the fact that she had two cockers, a black one and a white one--they were named "AM" and "FM".

thanks. yuk.