HISTORY OF A SONG: THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END

 

I have always like the 1940s song "This Is The Beginning Of The End". It was written by the great Mack Gordon for the 1940 film Johnny Apollo which starred Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, and Edward Arnold. Dorothy Lamour sang the song in the film and subsequently made a record of the song. Probably the best version of the song was by Tommy Dorsey and his young vocalist Frank Sinatra. However, I love versions by Lamour, Will Bradley & His Orchestra, Bob Crosby & His Orchestra, and Don Cornell to just name a few....

The lyrics are simple but touching...

This is the beginning of the end
I can see it in your eyes, in everything you do
And you're afraid to tell me that we're through
But I can tell by looking at you
This is the beginning of the end
You just give yourself away with everything you say
And though you never told me we must part
Still I can read the writing in your heart
Why is it now when I hold your hand
There is some little something that I miss
What has become of the warmth in your smile
And where is that little mischief in your goodnight kiss?
This is the beginning of the end
I can see the thrill is gone, why let it linger on
Why lie to me and say it isn't so
For when I hold you in my arms I know
That this, this is the beginning of the end

THE REAL EDDY DUCHIN STORY

Here is another guest post from the music guru blogger at the Geezer Music Club. You can read his great writings HERE...

Although his orchestra was enormously popular in its day, Eddy Duchin would probably not be a recognizable name to most current music fans except for one thing. A few years after his death, Hollywood star Tyrone Power portrayed him in The Eddy Duchin Story, a very colorful tale of his life that even today occasionally shows up on TV.

Like most Hollywood efforts the movie was often inventive, but it did get the big stuff right. Born and raised in the Boston area, Duchin had trained as a pharmacist but moved to New York in the early 1930s, determined to become a professional musician. Although he lacked a classical music education and was a long way from being a piano virtuoso, he managed to catch on and begin his rise up the ranks.

Along the way, he became a darling of the society crowd and even married into it, in the person of socialite Marjorie Oelrichs (played by Kim Novak in the movie). Tragically, she died shortly after giving birth to the couples’ son in 1937. Duchin himself was also destined for a short life, dying from leukemia at just age 40 in 1951. (Ironically, Tyrone Power would also die young — at age 44 — just a couple of years after making the movie.)

Although Duchin did find a certain measure of success during his short lifetime, his strongest legacy might have been his son, Peter Duchin, who would go on to a good career of his own as a musician and writer.

One interesting tune that — not surprisingly — didn’t make the movie soundtrack was “Ol’ Man Mose,” a song the band recorded in 1938 with a vocal by Patricia Norman. Some listeners thought the singer slipped in a very naughty word when she was singing about Mose’s ‘bucket’. Whether it was true or just a trick of the ear didn’t seem to matter. The record ended up being banned in some areas, but was one of the band’s biggest sellers...

THE FINAL WORD ON YLENIA CARRISI

While searching for updates on the disappearance of Tyrone Power's granddaughter 25 years ago, I came across this story by the investigator from 2017...

I still receiving many e-mails from different part of the world in different languages in reference to Ylenia Carrisi case,and once for all I will make this statement I will NOT give out ANY information on Ylenia case. And this is the last time that I will give you my final report on this case, therefore read it very careful with an open mind and I am sure you will get the answer to your question's.:

Getting lost in New Orleans has long had a certain cachet. The people who lives there saying the city is unique, the food spicier, the music livelier, the mysteries stranger. But the mystery of Ylenia is distinctive even by New Orleans standards.

The main characters are a former American matinee idol's granddaughter and a mesmerizing street musician. The scene is the waterfront and the streets of the French Quarter. Swirling in the background is the blend of Spanish, French and African cultures that has drawn writers like Lafcadio Hearn and William Faulkner and apparently Ylenia working on her book.

The Italian news media, which has recounted every twist of the mystery on newscasts and in newspapers news full of incorrect information’s and defamatory accusation’s including a possible sic relation with Masakela and the uses of narcotics from Ylenia all shallow low blows to increment the sale of a magazine. In addition they (Italian Media) even hinted of voodoo. Semi celebrity in Italy, simply horrible individuals like GENTE, STOP, CHI L’HA VISTO and the surrounding sharks in the picture like Roberto Fiasconaro only there for the news and the $.

Ylenia Carrisi, a 23-year-old blonde with green eyes, disappeared on Jan. 6, a week after arriving in New Orleans, leaving behind her passport and some baggage. That night A young woman, whose body has never been found, jumped into the Mississippi River at the edge of the French Quarter and vanished. The questions she left behind are still unanswered.

Ylenia is a minor television celebrity in Italy, for a short time a counterpart of Vanna White on an Italian game show. But she is best known as the daughter of two Italian singers, Al Bano and Romina Power, and as the granddaughter of the American actor Tyrone Power and his actress wife, Linda Christian.

Ylenia and her parents came to New Orleans on vacation last July, says Fabrizio Mazza, the Italian Consul in New Orleans, and Ylenia meat again street musician, Alexander Masakela, a 54-year-old cornet player Individual that already meet the Carrisi and Ylenia in Italy at the Carrisi city of Cellino with a Jamaican accent. Enchanted by the city and apparently by Masakela, Ylenia stayed behind when her parents went on to Florida, saying she wanted to continued write her book.

According to our investigative discovery Ylenia rushed to Florida two days later, telling her parents that she feared that two men were trying to drug and kill her.

Nevertheless, Ylenia, who was on leave from her studies at the University of London, returned to New Orleans on Dec. 30. Our investigative discovery quoted that Romina as saying that her daughter wanted to "find characters for a book she was writing." And no fear for her daughter to return after Ylenia clearly stated “two men trying to drug me and kill me” No Police report nothing!!

Then Ylenia mingled with street musicians and the homeless, and took notes. She stayed with Masakela in a scruffy hotel on St. Charles Street, five blocks from the French Quarter, where Masakela played his cornet for donations.

Mike Stark, who owns a French Quarter mask and hat store called The Little Shop of Fantasy, said that some homeless people he knows told him that Ylenia worked "very hard at being a street person."

On Jan 6. At 11 P.M., A young woman jumped into the Mississippi River near the Aquarium of the Americas, on the edge of the French Quarter. Shortly before, she had told a security guard, Albert Cordova wearing very thick vision glasses “I belong in the water." The woman swam through the fast brown currents about 100 yards toward the middle of the river.

A barge then came by, making waves. The woman screamed for help and then vanished. The Coast Guard searched 90 miles of the river, almost to the Gulf of Mexico, and found only the body of an unidentified man.

The security guard, Albert Cordova, has uncertainly identified photos of Ylenia as depicting the woman who spoke to him.

According to our investigations and interview’s local residences told us there is a magic about that river. People who've been drinking too much can believe, 'I can swim that damn thing.' "
Ylenia parents last heard from their daughter on Jan. 1, and despite her deceptive drowning, they say they fear she is being held hostage. Why??

On Feb. 18 they issued a statement from Switzerland, saying, "The investigations to find our daughter alive, and probably held against her will, are actively being pursued." It also said "there have been numerous and reliable sightings worthy of pursuit." That very week, for example, came an unconfirmed report that Ms. Carrisi had been seen in St. Augustine, Fla. But an NCIC was issued to Ylenia Maria Sole Carrisi that # M705944984 number that later on will disappeared.

Masakela has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but Ylenia parents say they are suspicious of him. He had "some kind of power over her, Romina said at a New Orleans news conference after her daughter vanished.

Masakela has no official address and has proved elusive in recent weeks, but in an interview he said Ylenia "I believe she is safe."

The police say only that the investigation is continuing as an inactive case!

During our investigations in New Orleans we interview many residents, who note that it would not be the first time a stranger has come to the city and disappeared from her previous life.

And many including laws officers told me New Orleans is "a magical town" that attracts many people "who are trying to escape from wherever they've been." This what append to Ylenia? That she was trying to escape from wherever she’s been? We know and we can prove that the jumping into the river was the biggest untruth story ever told. And in addition Ylenia body was never found therefore my friends no body Ylenia Maria Sole Carrisi she is alive and I be acquainted with this facts and why all this happened? Remember some peoples trying to escape from wherever they've been and live a new life! And I am ok with this now that I know the actuality of the facts.

Frank Crescentini
Private Investigator
California, State License PI # 18368
Missing Persons, Evidence Investigator

AXJ MEMBER and CEO in charge of Cold Cases, Missing Children or Adults

SOURCE

THE SAD DISAPPEARANCE OF TYRONE POWER'S GRANDDAUGHTER

Many people are unaware of the sad disappearance of actor Tyrone Power's beautiful grand-daughter Ylenia Maria Sole Carrisi. It is a mystery that has yet to be solved even over 20 years after her disappearance.

Carrisi was born in Rome on November 29, 1970, the eldest daughter of Albano Carrisi and Romina Power. Her maternal grandparents are American actor Tyrone Power and Mexican actress Linda Christian.

In 1983, she appeared alongside her parents in the Italian film Champagne in paradiso. Later on, she was the letter-turner on La Ruota Della Fortuna, the Italian version of Wheel of Fortune. She envisaged for herself a career as a novelist, studying literature at King's College London, where she received the highest marks in her year.

During her studies, she began to entertain the idea of traveling the world solo with nothing but a backpack and her journal. She decided to take a break from studying and returned to Italy where she sold all her belongings in order to pay for the voyage. She began in South America. After having spent a few months in Belize, she decided to leave the day after Christmas 1993 by bus to New Orleans, Louisiana. Her brother Yari, also an experienced traveler, had decided to surprise his sister by visiting her that Christmas. He arrived on a rainy 27 December in the village of Hopkins, going door to door in search for her, only to find that the day before, she had hopped on a bus heading to Mexico. Unfortunately, he arrived 24 hours too late for she was already heading to New Orleans, where she disappeared on January 6, 1994.

Ylenia was last seen in the French Quarter area sometime during the month. Police efforts to find her did not yield any result. At the time of her disappearance, Ylenia was staying in the LeDale Hotel with African-American street musician Alexander Masakela, twenty years her senior. Masakela was arrested on January 31 on an unrelated charge but eventually released for lack of evidence to connect him to Ylenia's disappearance.

In relation to her disappearance, a security guard testified that he saw a woman vaguely matching her description jump into the Mississippi River saying the words "I belong into water". A Coast Guard search turned up no sign of the young woman's body, which may have been washed out to sea. In any case, it has never been established that the person was Ylenia. In 1996, two years after her disappearance, an unspecified caller assured emphatically that Ylenia was still alive but her whereabouts were unknown.

Carrisi's parents last heard from their daughter on New Year's Eve. They reported her missing on January 18.  In November 2006, Albano stated for the first time that he believed the security guard's story. In January 2013 he requested the declaration of the presumed death of his daughter. She was reportedly discovered in June 2011 in a monastery in the United States. Her father dismissed the report as "shameful speculation containing not a bit of truth.". The mystery has yet to be solved...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: FINAL PICTURES OF THE STARS

This is a morbid idea for an article, but I thought it was an interesting enough topic for a collection of some of the final pictures of our favorite stars. If any of these pictures offend you, I do apologize...

Here is the great actress Jane Wyman leaving President Reagan's funeral in 2004. She died in 2007 at the age of 90:

Here is Eddie Cantor receiving an award from Governor of California Pat Brown in January of 1964. He died in October of that year at the age of 72:

Here is legendary actor James Cagney with a young Michael J. Fox from 1985. Cagney died the following year at the age of 86:

Here is the blonde bombshell Betty Hutton, celebrating her 86th birthday. Sadly, she died of cancer a month later:

Here is the last known picture of popular President Franklin D. Roosevelt a few days before he died on April 12, 1945. He was only 63:

Here is probably the saddest picture of the bunch. Actor Tyrone Power suffered a heart attack on the set of "Solomon and Sheba"(1958). He died on route to the hospital. He was only 44: