Dick Manning

Manning was born in Gomel, Russian Empire, to a Jewish family, and came to the United States with his family when he was six years old. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music. Manning changed his name from Medoff in 1948, although he continued also to play and record in Yiddish under his birth name.{{cite web |last1=Whitney |first1=Christa |title=Caraid O'Brien's Oral History |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/interviews/woh-fi-0001185/caraid-o-brien-2019 |publisher=Yiddish Book Center |access-date=2023-03-08 |date=2019-05-08}} Web page includes video and full transcript.

In the early 1940s, he had a radio show on WHN radio in New York called Sam Medoff and His Yiddish Swing Orchestra; he performed with his band, "The Yiddish Swingtet".{{Citation needed |date=January 2021}} Manning and the band were also regulars on "Yiddish Melodies in Swing", which was also broadcast on WHN. The 15 minute weekly radio show, which blended traditional Yiddish folk music with swing and jazz, got its start on the station in 1938. Medoff and the Swingtet were hired to give a new twist to the traditional songs, as well as introduce new popular songs performed in Yiddish. The Barry Sisters (Claire and Merna) were the vocalists for the program.{{cite web|url=http://donttellyourfriends.blogspot.com/2008/10/barry-sisters.html |title=The Barry Sisters |date=October 31, 2008 |website=Donttellyourfriends.blogspot.com |access-date=December 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708033422/http://donttellyourfriends.blogspot.com/2008/10/barry-sisters.html |archive-date=July 8, 2011 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.neh.gov/projects/transcripts/yiddishradiotranscript.html |title=Yiddish Radio Project; Story of the Long-Running Jewish Radio Program "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" Transcript |publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities |access-date=December 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106072406/http://www.neh.gov/projects/transcripts/yiddishradiotranscript.html |archive-date=January 6, 2011 }} The radio show was originally done live at the Lowes State Theatre every Sunday at 1PM; it aired until 1955.{{cite web |url=http://matttemkin.info/Masters_Thesis/Chapter_2.html |title=American Yiddish Instrumental Fusion Music in the 1950s and 1960s |date=December 2008 |author=Matt Temkin |publisher=Matt Temkin |access-date=December 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006010613/http://matttemkin.info/Masters_Thesis/Chapter_2.html |archive-date=October 6, 2010 }}{{cite web|url=http://yiddishradioproject.org/exhibits/ymis/|title=The Rise of Yiddish Swing|publisher=Yiddish Radio Project|access-date=December 17, 2010}} Medoff also played piano and organ for Yiddish crooner Seymour Rexite's radio show.{{cite web|url=http://www.yiddishradioproject.org/exhibits/rexite/|title=The Yiddish Crooner: Seymour Rexite|publisher=Yiddish Radio Project|access-date=December 17, 2010}}

Manning was the co-writer of many popular songs, among them: "Takes Two to Tango", "Fascination", "Hot Diggity" and "Papa Loves Mambo". They were recorded by artists such as Perry Como, Sammy Kaye, and Kate Smith. Manning's songs have been published in 27 languages. In 1956, Manning shared a late-night subway ride with Perry Como's music publisher, Mickey Glass. As the two men talked, Glass mentioned a need for a new novelty song for Como. Manning said he had just made a demo recording of something like that which had yet to be heard by anyone else. Glass arranged to hear Manning's demo the next day; Como's recording of "Hot Diggity" was the result of that chance meeting of Manning and Glass.{{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O-kuAAAAIBAJ&pg=3189,1141022&dq=perry+como&hl=en |title=The Story Behind Those Golden Records |last=Dachs |first=David|date=May 10, 1959 |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |access-date=November 19, 2010}}

Manning also composed The Boys From Boise, which was the story of a troupe of show girls who were stranded on an Idaho ranch. The girls take jobs as cowgirls on the ranch in an effort to raise enough money to return home.{{cite web|url=http://dctheatrescene.com/2014/02/04/46299/|title=Before Sound of Music and Smash – TV musicals, 1944 – 1996|date=February 4, 2014|author=Hathaway, Brad|access-date=June 24, 2014}} This was the first full-length television musical, and was presented on the DuMont Television Network in 1944.{{cite web|url=http://www.newshowstudios.com/blog/television/the-hills-were-alive-again-with-the-sound-of-music/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140624212335/http://www.newshowstudios.com/blog/television/the-hills-were-alive-again-with-the-sound-of-music/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 24, 2014 |title=The Hills Were Alive Again with 'The Sound of Music' |date=January 7, 2014 |publisher=New Show Studios |access-date=June 24, 2014 }} The television presentation of the musical was sponsored by Esquire magazine.{{cite news |url= https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/04/23/the-whole-world-is-watching-3/ |title=The Whole World Is Watching |last1=Szul |first1=Barbara |last2=Weaver |first2=Maurice |date=April 23, 1989 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |access-date=June 24, 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.earlytelevision.org/w2xwv.html|title=Photo from the WABD presentation of The Boys From Boise|publisher=Early Television Museum|year=1944|access-date=June 24, 2014}} Manning appeared earlier in that year on DuMont's Key-Bored Televisual Presentations as a pianist.{{cite web|url=http://www.musicals101.com/tv2.htm|title=The Boys From Boise|publisher=Musicals101.com|access-date=December 16, 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQwEAAAAMBAJ&q=sam+medoff&pg=PT12|title=DuMont Television|date=March 4, 1944|publisher=Billboard|access-date=December 17, 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XbBz3C4Gr0EC&q=sam+medoff&pg=PA88|title=The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television|editor-last=Hischak|editor-first=Thomas S.|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=88|isbn=978-0195335330|access-date=December 15, 2012}} Manning also was an arranger and vocal coach, and wrote radio jingles.

Manning, the father of two daughters and a son, died of diabetes-related complications in Marietta, Georgia on April 11, 1991.

• "Allegheny Moon" (1956)
• "Dennis the Menace" (1960)
• "Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea" (1954)
• "Hawaiian Wedding Song" (1958-English version){{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dick-manning-mn0000212568/biography|title=Dick Manning Biography|website=AllMusic|access-date=April 15, 2014}}
• "Hot Diggity" (1956){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yQHJC4F6zeUC&q=yiddish+swing&pg=PA29|title=Rock and Roll Jews|page=29|editor-last=Billig|editor-first=Michael|publisher=Syracuse University Press|year=2001|isbn=9780815607052|access-date=June 24, 2014}}
• "I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango" (1954)
• "I Love Her, That's Why!" (for George Burns and Gracie Allen) (1955)
• "Mama, Teach Me to Dance" (1956)
• "Mi Casa, Su Casa (My House Is Your House)" (1957)
• "Moon Talk" (1958)
• "O Dio Mio" (1960)
• "Takes Two to Tango" (1952)

• "Are You Really Mine?" (1958) (with Mark Markwell)
• "Make Me a Miracle" (1958) (with Mark Markwell)
• "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again" (1958) (with Mark Markwell)
• "Papa Loves Mambo" (1954) (with Bix Reichner)
• "Secretly" (1958) (with Mark Markwell)

• "Jilted" (with Robert Colby)
• "Fascination" (lyrics)
• "Like I Do"
• "Not I" (with Sammy Gallop)
• "Walkin' With My Honey" (with Buddy Kaye) {{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/buddy-kaye-p92819/biography|title=Buddy Kaye|publisher=AllMusic.com|access-date=December 17, 2010}}
• "Start the Day with a Song" (with Buddy Kaye)
• "Morning Side of the Mountain"

• The Fifth Season (1975) - musical - composer and lyricist{{cite web|url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=394896|title=The Fifth Season|year=1975|publisher=Internet Broadway Database|access-date=June 24, 2014}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Discogs artist}}
• [https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B000QKN9U2?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=digital-music&field-keywords=Sam%20Medoff%20%26%20The%20Yiddish%20Swingtet Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet] at Amazon
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120302125917/https://www.shaarhashomayim.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116 Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet] at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim

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Category:1912 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:People from Gomel

Category:Orchestra leaders

Category:Songwriters from New York (state)

Category:Jewish American songwriters

Category:American male conductors (music)

Category:Musicians from New York City

Category:Juilliard School alumni

Category:20th-century American conductors (music)

Category:Classical musicians from New York (state)

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:American male songwriters

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States

Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:20th-century American songwriters