Phil Harris

Wonga Philip Harris (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American bandleader, comedian, actor, voice actor, singer, and musician. He was an orchestra leader and a pioneer in radio situation comedy, first with The Jack Benny Program, then in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show in which he co-starred with his wife, singer-actress Alice Faye, for eight years. Harris is also noted for his voice acting in animated films. As a voice actor, he played Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967), Thomas O'Malley in The Aristocats (1970), Little John in Robin Hood (1973), and Patou in Rock-a-Doodle (1991). As a singer, he recorded a #1 novelty hit record, "The Thing" (1950).

This article is about the comedian. For other people named Phil Harris, see Phil Harris (disambiguation).
Phil Harris
Harris in 1956
Born
Wonga Philip Harris

(1904-06-24)June 24, 1904
Linton, Indiana, U.S.
DiedAugust 11, 1995(1995-08-11) (aged 91)
Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesWonga Harris, Wonga P. Harris
OccupationComedian, bandleader, musician, singer, actor
Years active1933–1991 (retired)
Spouse(s)
​
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(m. 1927; div. 1940)​

​
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(m. 1941; his death 1995)​
Children3

Early life and career

Harris was born in Linton, Indiana, but grew up in Nashville, Tennessee,[1] and identified himself as a Southerner. His hallmark song was "That's What I Like About the South." He had a trace of a Southern accent and in later years made self-deprecating jokes over the air about his heritage. His parents were circus performers. His father, a tent bandleader, gave him his first job as a drummer with the circus's band.[2]

His unusual first name "Wonga," is said to derive from a Cherokee word meaning "messenger of fleet" or, perhaps more accurately translated, "fast messenger."[3]

Harris began his music career as a drummer in San Francisco, forming an orchestra with Carol Lofner in the latter 1920s and starting a long engagement at the St. Francis Hotel. The partnership ended by 1932, and Harris led a band in Los Angeles for which he was the singer and bandleader. During the mid-1920s, he played drums in the Henry Halstead Big Band Orchestra. In the 1930s, Lofner-Harris recorded swing music for Victor, Columbia, Decca, and Vocalion.

On September 2, 1927, he married actress Marcia Ralston in Sydney, Australia; they had met when he played a concert date.[2] The couple adopted a son, Phil Harris Jr. (born 1935). Harris and Marcia divorced in September 1940, and Harris married Alice Faye in 1941.

Harris in The High and the Mighty

In 1933, he made a short film for RKO called So This Is Harris!, which won an Academy Award for best live action short subject. He followed with a feature-length film, Melody Cruise. Both films were created by the same team that produced Flying Down to Rio, which started the careers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He also starred in I Love a Bandleader (1945) with Leslie Brooks. Here he played a house painter who gets amnesia, then starts to lead a band. He recorded Woodman, Spare That Tree (by George Pope Morris, Henry Russell) in 1947. His nickname was "Old Curly." In 1950, Harris recorded a hit novelty song entitled "The Thing," which did hit number 1 on the charts. Additionally, he appeared in The Wild Blue Yonder a.k.a. "Thunder Across the Pacific" (1951), alongside Forrest Tucker and Walter Brennan. He made a cameo appearance in the Warner Bros. musical, Starlift, with Janice Rule and Dick Wesson, and was featured in The High and the Mighty with John Wayne in 1954.[2]

External audio
Best of Jack Benny Spotlight Podcast! October 4, 1936 – Phil Harris' First Show
The Fitch Bandwagon/The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, 102 episodes
Harris, Faye, and their two daughters, Alice and Phyllis, in 1948

Radio
External audio
Best of Jack Benny Spotlight Podcast! October 4, 1936 – Phil Harris' First Show
The Fitch Bandwagon/The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, 102 episodes
Harris, Faye, and their two daughters, Alice and Phyllis, in 1948

In 1936, Harris became musical director of The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny singing and leading his band, with Mahlon Merrick writing much of the show's music. When Harris showed a knack for giving snappy one-liners, he joined the cast, portraying himself as a hip, hard-drinking Southerner whose good nature overcame his ego. He gave the others nicknames, such as "Jackson" for Jack Benny. (Addressing a man as "Jackson" or "Mr. Jackson" was popular slang in the 1940s.[4]) His signature song was "That's What I Like About the South". Many of his vocal recordings were comic novelty "talking blues", similar to songs of Bert Williams, who is sometimes considered a precursor to rap.

In 1942, Harris and his band enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and they served until the end of World War II.

In 1946, Harris and wife Alice Faye began co-hosting The Fitch Bandwagon, a comedy-variety program that followed the Jack Benny show on Sunday nights. On The Fitch Bandwagon and its later incarnation as The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, Harris played a vain, stumbling husband, while Faye played his sarcastic but loving wife. Gerald Nachman has written that Harris was a soft-spoken, modest man off the air. In On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio John Dunning wrote that Harris's character made the show popular. The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show appeared until 1954. Harris continued to appear on Jack Benny's show from 1948 to 1952.

Recording career

Harris was recording songs as early as 1931.[5] Songs by Harris include the early 1950s novelty song, "The Thing". The song describes the hapless finder of a box with a mysterious secret and his efforts to rid himself of it.

Later career

In 1956, Harris appeared in the film Good-bye, My Lady. He made numerous guest appearances on 1960s and 1970s television series, including The Steve Allen Show, the Kraft Music Hall, Burke's Law, F Troop, The Dean Martin Show, The Hollywood Palace, and other musical variety programs. He appeared on The American Sportsman which took celebrities on hunting and fishing trips around the world.

Harris worked as a voice actor for animated films, providing the voice of Baloo the bear in The Jungle Book (1967), Thomas O'Malley in The Aristocats (1970), and Little John in Robin Hood (1973).[6] In 1989, he reprised his role as Baloo for the cartoon series TaleSpin, but after a few recording sessions he was replaced by Ed Gilbert.[7] Harris' final film role was in Rock-a-Doodle (1991).[8]

Harris spent time in the 1970s and early 1980s leading a band that appeared often in Las Vegas, often on the same bill with bandleader Harry James.[9]

Personal life

On September 2, 1927, he married actress Marcia Ralston in Sydney, Australia; they had met when he played a concert date.[2][10] The couple adopted a son, Phil Harris Jr. (born 1935). Harris and Marcia divorced in September 1940.

Harris and Alice Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both (Faye had been married briefly to singer-actor Tony Martin) and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic relationship.

A Democrat, he supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.[11]

Harris was a lifelong friend of singer and actor Bing Crosby. He appeared on telecasts of Bing's Pro-Am Golf Tournament from Pebble Beach, California and appeared in an episode of ABC's short-lived sitcom The Bing Crosby Show. After Crosby died in 1977, Harris replaced him as commentator for the annual Bing Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournament.

Harris was a resident and benefactor of Palm Springs, California, and was active in many local civic organizations.[12]

Death and legacy

Harris died of a heart attack at his Rancho Mirage home on August 11, 1995.[13] He is interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, California.[14]

Harris was a benefactor of his birthplace of Linton, Indiana, establishing scholarships in his honor for promising high school students, performing at the high school, and hosting a celebrity golf tournament in his honor every year. Harris and Faye donated most of their show business memorabilia and papers to Linton's public library. Harris was inducted into the Indiana Hall of Fame.

In 1994, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[15]

Partial discography
  • The Thing. RCA, Victor. 1950.[16]
  • Hambone. RCA, Victor. 1952. 47-4584[17]

References
  1. "Radiography". The Los Angeles Times. 20 September 1936. p. 62. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  2. "Phil Harris, Comic, Bandleader". The Press-Enterprise. Riverside, California. August 13, 1995. p. B5.
  3. "Benny Show's Phil Harris Dies at 89". Los Angeles Times. August 13, 1995.
  4. Staff, Dalzell Victor Eds; Partridge, Eric (2006). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-25938-5.
  5. Brooks, Tim (2010-10-01). Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-09063-9.
  6. Arnold, Mark (2013). Frozen in Ice: The Story of Walt Disney Productions, 1966-1985. BearManor Media.
  7. Voice actor decisions – Baloo and Kit Jymn Magon, co-creator of TaleSpin who initially cast Harris for the role of Baloo: "his age was a factor. He didn't have the slick, con man timing anymore. I loved working with Phil, so I was distraught to inform management that he just wasn't going to work out for 65 episodes. (Besides, we had to chauffeur him to and from Palm Springs for the recording sessions – a 4 hour round trip!!)", Animationsource.org
  8. McCall, Douglas L. (2015-09-11). Film Cartoons: A Guide to 20th Century American Animated Features and Shorts. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-0966-9.
  9. Levinson, Peter J. (1999-11-18). Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-028317-9.
  10. "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  11. Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers
  12. Henderson, Moya; Palm Springs Historical Society (2009). Images of America: Palm Springs. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-7385-5982-7.
  13. Benny Show's Phil Harris Dies at 89, Obituary in the Los Angeles Times dated August 13, 1995 (retrieved June 30, 2012).
  14. Brooks, Patricia; Brooks, Jonathan (2006). "Chapter 8: East L.A. and the Desert". Laid to Rest in California: a guide to the cemeteries and grave sites of the rich and famous. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. p. 245. ISBN 978-0762741014. OCLC 70284362.
  15. "The Brightest Stars from New-York to Los Angeles" (PDF). Palmspringswalkofstars.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012.
  16. Ruhlmann, William (2004-08-02). Breaking Records: 100 Years of Hits. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-94719-4.
  17. Inc, Nielsen Business Media (1952-03-08). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.

Bibliography
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