They Called Him Al: The Musical Life of Al Bowlly

By Ray Pallett

"At last someone has got the whole fascinating story together. The story of a man dedicated to music. A man like Nat 'King' Cole who was, first and foremost, a jazz musician and then, because of his unique vocal sound, became a singer. We are so lucky that he made more than a thousand recordings most of which have been remastered and brought to glowing life on CD. He is more popular today than he was when he was alive. Young people are entranced by his brilliant phrasing and understanding of some of the most famous standards ever written and his great jazz feel. "The young man who, through years of painstaking research, has dispelled unhelpful rumours and filled in so much information on Al Bowlly and that hugely musical fertile period - the era of the dance bands - is Ray Pallett. Ray is the person everyone turns to who wants to know anything about our hero. He has made it his mission to put Al's roller coaster, jigsaw of a life, together. The result of years of research is here. They Called Him Al is the ultimate encyclopaedia of Al. "Ray's regular magazine Memory Lane (see details under Acknowledgements) is the must-have publication for all fans of Al and the legendary bands and bandsmen. A forum for all those who love this sweet and lovely period of show business it constantly comes up with new lists of recorded re-issues, interviews, photographs, anecdotes and get-togethers of enthusiasts. "If They Called Him Al has turned you on then Ray's magazine will complete the job. With every issue I thank him for his ear to the ground, his nose for knowing just what us musical nostalgia buffs want to read about and, most especially, for helping us to know more about the enigmatic vocal magician, "Britain's greatest crooner" Albert Alick Bowlly." - Roy Hudd, from his Foreword

• Language: English
• Publisher: BearManor Media
• Release date: Aug 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310298165

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They Called Him Al: The Musical Life of Al Bowlly

© 2015 Ray Pallett. All Rights Reserved.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Foreword by Roy Hudd, OBE

Part One: Introduction

Part Two: The Al Bowlly Story

Chapter One: Song of the Wanderer

Chapter Two: Sunny Days

Chapter Three: Listen To The German Band

Chapter Four: Time on my Hands

Chapter Five: Something To Sing About

Chapter Six: You’re Lucky To Me

Chapter Seven: My Hat’s On The Side Of My Head

Chapter Eight: Hang Out The Stars In Indiana

Chapter Nine: The Show Is Over

Chapter Ten: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Chapter Eleven: The Lonesome Trail Ain’t Lonesome Anymore

Chapter Twelve: Me And My Shadow

Chapter Thirteen: Nicky The Greek Has Gone

Part Three: The Al Bowlly Anthology

The Legend Lives On

Song Stylist Supreme

The Man

The Musician

A Survey of Al Bowlly On Record

UK Solo Radio Appearances

Al Bowlly On Film

Al Bowlly and His Fans

Al Bowlly's London

Al Bowlly's Recorded Fluffs

The Frequently Asked Questions

What Ever Happened To?

Part Four: The Al Bowlly Discography

Discography of Original Vocal Recordings

Discography of Instrumental Recordings

Discography of Mistaken Recordings

About the Author

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A Compact Disc is being released simultaneously with the publication of this book by Memory Lane Magazine Records containing a selection of recordings from all periods of Al Bowlly’s recording career. The catalogue Number is MLMCD009. To obtain the CD, contact Memory Lane, PO Box 1939, Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 3UH, England. Or see www. memorylane.org.uk for further details.

Say, Don’t You Remember…?

You Sang; I had no share in all your years,

Your years were spent and gone before mine came,

You rolled along the prairie moon and stars,

Made moments sparkle like glass chandeliers,

When wireless sets broadcast your crackling fame

Amid romance, gardenias and guitars.

Then, from West End hotels, on radio,

Those bands played through the palms and polished plants,

Starched Maestros cued you to the microphone,

And Marcel-waves would waft by Art Deco,

When shining pairs slid smoothly to the dance,

As you embellished Noble, Fox and Stone.

And hardship looked for something in the air,

From warmed-up valves and sun-rayed Bakelite.

They sailed Hawaii’s Blue to Capri’s Isle,

Drab drudges dancing tangos from despair,

Transported on the music of the night,

Your Valentino charm and Latin smile.

Paris perhaps, for some, by ‘Handley- Page’,

Or first class north, aboard ‘The Flying Scot’

On a steamer, underneath an ocean moon,

All evidence of ordered, golden age.

For most the grindstone ground each meagre lot

Between, an hour of dreams; — a time to croon.

All through that dark and disparate decade

You conjured Moon-love from a grey world’s gloom;

A dinner date, A midnight rendezvous,

‘Goodnight Sweetheart’, — ‘A Penny Serenade.’

When glitter-balls rushed rainbows round the room;

Those dancing days…The very thought of you.

Ephemeral, you stood at the abyss,

(Though life and love and melodies were sweet),

As callous fate blew cruel winds along

To you, in London on a night like this;

Springtime, Wartime…Landmine — Jermyn Street

Reverberates; the echo of a song.

And so, I’ll stroll once more down Memory Lane,

And moonlight on the highway I shall find:

Be still my heart, I hear faint harmony…

It’s you, you sing again, Auf Wiedersehen,

Both night and day, around and through my mind.

Old phantom Philomel…You’re haunting me.

© Robin Richardson

Acknowledgements

When I started researching the life and career of Al Bowlly for my first book about him, Goodnight Sweetheart, one of the first things I discovered was that there was not a great deal of first hand information about the subject. Although it is true that Bowlly spoke to the press and gave interviews on a number of occasions, what he told them often bore no resemblance to the truth. What he did was to embellish, dramatise or romanticise what actually happened. It was all really unnecessary, of course, because the actual Al Bowlly story is what good show-biz films and books are made of. With only a limited amount of original source material available at the time, the information in Goodnight Sweetheart came from a multitude of sources, each one contributing perhaps just a fragment of information, all of which contributed to the jigsaw puzzle that was Al Bowlly’s life and work.

For They Called Him Al, I would like to take this opportunity to thank London based vintage popular music researcher Terry Brown whose tireless delving into primary research sources has managed to plug many of the gaps in the Bowlly story. I am extremely grateful for his input, particularly concerning Al’s record contracts and his time in America.

Dave Cooper of Blackpool, Lancashire also provided many snippets and with Mike Hart of Hertford examined the Discography in meticulous detail and provided many additions and corrections to previously published information. Dave also reviewed the entire book and provided many excellent improvements.

Paul Turnell did some sterling work in retrieving material from official archives concerning especially Al’s first marriage and divorce. I would also acknowledge information provided by Gordon Howsden, Richard Johnson, Barry McCanna, Colin McKenzie, Peter Shimwell and Dr. Angus Whitehead of Singapore.

I would also like to mention the help and support of my wife Jeanette and daughters Bryony and Rosanna who have been both helpful and supportive throughout the production of this book.

Although They Called Me Al is much enlarged and more comprehensive than Goodnight Sweetheart, much of the basic Bowlly biographical material has been taken from the older book. I therefore consider it appropriate to mention here those who helped more significantly with information in Goodnight Sweetheart. All are/were resident in the UK unless shown differently. The number from abroad reflects the cosmopolitan life of Al Bowlly himself.

Edgar Adeler (South Africa) , Horst Bergmeier (The Netherlands), Mish Bowlly (South Africa), Roger Bugg, Bert Davenport, John Edwardes, Vince Egan (Canada), Chris Ellis, Jack Forehan (Australia), Roy Fox, Joe Gold, Tony Hale, Dennis Hammond (USA), Chris Hayes, Mrs Doris James, Mitri Kouri (South Africa), Sydney Lipton, Marie McNeil, Gerry Moore, Bill Morton, Miss Billie Morton, Alfred Ne-Jame (USA), Geoff Orr (Australia), Bill Outlaw, Rolf Schmidt, Mrs Joyce Stone, H J Strachan, Jeff Wallder, Frank Wappat, Jack Watson, Graham Webb, Bert Wilcox and John A.B. Wright.

MEMORY LANE

A significant amount of information, together with the majority of the photographs in both Goodnight Sweetheart and They Called Me Al have come from the files of Memory Lane. This magazine specialises in jazz and dance music from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, issues CDs (with several by Al Bowlly including one published in conjunction with this book) and DVDs on its own label and runs guided walks (including Al Bowlly’s London) in central London. In addition it provides pamphlets listing Al Bowlly titles on LP and EP records and CDs. For obtaining these publications, DVDs or CDs, contact Memory Lane, P O Box 1939, Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 3UH, England. Or see www. memorylane.org.uk for further details.

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to my late father, Reg Pallett, who had great knowledge and enthusiasm for Al Bowlly and the music of the 1930s. It was Dad who first alerted me to Al Bowlly. As a teenager in the 1960s, I was playing some of the old 78 rpm records which I used to like as a small child. I played a particular dance band record with an anonymous vocalist. As the vocalist got into his song, Dad came into the room and said that he had not heard that voice since before the war. On enquiring, he said it was Al Bowlly. He added that Al was the vocalist on Roy Fox and Lew Stone records.

Some days later, I was playing a record by Ray Noble and his Orchestra which, as most records from that era did, had an un-named vocalist. I thought it sounded like Al Bowlly. Dad agreed. So you never before knew that Al Bowlly sung with Ray Noble I said. Dad said he always knew, but just didn’t mention it on that previous occasion. Thereafter, it was a standing joke between us when I teased Dad that he didn’t use to know that Al sang with Ray Noble! Thereafter, I started to get interested in Al Bowlly.

Foreword by Roy Hudd, OBE

Suddenly I’m there. Back in a pre-war British world of dance halls, buses and trams, where most men wore hats and long overcoats and nearly everyone smoked. Cars and nightclubs were for those with a few bob and walking to and from school and work was the norm. It was a world where divorce and illegitimate children were family disgraces, where blokes who played the field were thought of as rascals and ladies who played the field were thought of as tramps. It was a world of hard work for those who could get it and for not a lot of money. It was almost the last time where most seemed to follow their dads and granddads into the same jobs. In earlier times the music hall had been the thing to lift people, for a couple of hours, out of their hum drum existences. In the special world of the thirties and forties, variety, radio and records did the job. The sound of big bands was everywhere, They topped the bill in variety theatres, they broadcast and made records.

It is the recordings, especially those with vocal refrain that take me to those days and the vocalist, whose unique voice echoes perfectly the hopes and dreams of that birth of British jazz era was, and is, Al Bowlly.

Among so many singers with bands what was it that made Al so extra special? They Called Him Al tries to show just why so many fellow musicians and fans, from frequenters of Poplar Baths to Lord and Lady Mountbatten, rated him so highly. I can only speak for myself when I say he had a style that was his very own, instantly recognisable and a way with a lyric that made the most ordinary song something special. I love singers who are story tellers. Singers who get inside a lyric and can move you to tears or smiles. I have three on my list that do this for me every time: Frank Sinatra, Gracie Fields and Albert Alick Bowlly.

Away from the bandstand he was a vagabond. He was a jazz mad musical nomad who travelled from his childhood home, South Africa, to London and all stops between in search of musical perfection with whatever band would have him. He plied his trade as a guitarist, a banjo, concertina and ukulele player, a pianist and occasional singer of songs. He took America by storm and, in a most popular singer poll, beat into third place his idol, Bing Crosby.

The story of his musical meanderings, highs and lows, is one that could only have happened in the thirties. It mirrors the highs and lows of the dance band era and, well ahead of his time, he was the one who heralded the real emergence of the singer as a top-of-the-bill attraction.

Al was a great romancer. He loved to invent stories about himself . He gave interviewers about half a dozen different answers as to when he was born. At last the correct date is here.

He was a quick-tempered tough little physical culture fanatic and claimed to have broken the jaw of the heavyweight champion boxer of India. He told whoever would listen that he’d been a jockey and had ridden the winner of the Calcutta Cup. He claimed that when he, and the band he was with, lost the gig at London’s Savoy Hotel he pulled up his coat collar and for a week, with his guitar, busked outside Piccadilly Underground station. He collected two pounds.

He was the epitome of what a heartthrob crooner should be, flirty, charming, dangerous and handsome with great teeth and a voice that could charm the pants off the lady customers. To find out just what he could do in this department read Ray Noble’s account of his behaviour in They Called Him Al. His adventures with ladies were legendary. He fell in love with his teacher when he was fourteen years old and went on from there. He married a night club hostess who had a reputation and forget to mention her when he married his second great love in America. His third lady was with him till the, all too soon, end. In between, and during, these partnerships he played the field like a good ‘un. He had liaisons with ladies in hotel bedrooms, dressing rooms, band rooms and one whispered-about session in a gents cloakroom!

Some of his best recordings were with the band of Lew Stone and my favourite summing-up of Al’s great interest, apart from music, is proved by the name the band gave him. All the lads had nicknames reflecting their hobbies etc. A golfer was called Joe Golf, a vegetarian Joe Carrot, a D.I.Y. fan was Joe Fixit and Al? — Joe Sex.

Doing some research for a show I wrote about the man I got to see him on film singing The Very Thought Of You. This was such an event that I invited my young wife and my agent’s wife to see the rare piece of film. My agent’s wife, Sheila, had seen and danced to the bands Al sang with while my wife only knew him from records. He’d hardly appeared on the screen when they both sighed. Sheila said, God, he was sexy and my missus echoed her sentiment. Joe Sex!

He was a toughie and dangerous. He kept a brass knuckleduster in his travel case and, though for most of the time he was an easy-to-get-along-with typical musician, but if he was crossed he could be violent and aggressive. One of his best friends was the leader of London’s most famous set of gangsters, Harry Sabini.

Some of his fellow musicians advanced a theory as to why he left America in such a hurry. A country where he had scored so well. It was said he had become too friendly with a gangster’s girl friend and was, none too politely, advised to get on the next boat home. Just one more of dozens of anecdotes crammed into an all too short but highly colourful life.

At last someone has got the whole fascinating story together. The story of a man dedicated to music. A man like Nat ‘King’ Cole who was, first and foremost, a jazz musician and then, because of his unique vocal sound, became a singer. We are so lucky that he made more than a thousand recordings most of which have been remastered and brought to glowing life on CD. He is more popular today than he was when he was alive. Young people are entranced by his brilliant phrasing and understanding of some of the most famous standards ever written and his great jazz feel.

The young man who, through years of painstaking research, has dispelled unhelpful rumours and filled in so much information on Al Bowlly and that hugely musical fertile period — the era of the dance bands — is Ray Pallett. Ray is the person everyone turns to who wants to know anything about our hero. He has made it his mission to put Al’s roller coaster, jigsaw of a life, together. The result of years of research is here. They Called Him Al is the ultimate encyclopaedia of Al.

Ray’s regular magazine Memory Lane (see details under Acknowledgements) is the must-have publication for all fans of Al and the legendary bands and bandsmen. A forum for all those who love this sweet and lovely period of show business it constantly comes up with new lists of recorded re-issues, interviews, photographs, anecdotes and get-togethers of enthusiasts.

If They Called Him Al has turned you on then Ray’s magazine will complete the job. With every issue I thank him for his ear to the ground, his nose for knowing just what us musical nostalgia buffs want to read about and, most especially, for helping us to know more about the enigmatic vocal magician, Britain’s greatest crooner Albert Alick Bowlly.

Roy Hudd is one of Britain’s favourite radio and TV comedians/writers and an enthusiast and expert on nostalgia and music hall.

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Roy Hudd, OBE

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Part One

Introduction

Al Bowlly was Britain’s first pop singer, some say the world’s first, if you define pop singer as someone who stands in front of a band and sings the hits of the day strumming a guitar. He rose to prominence in the decade before the second world war, before the phrase pop singer had been invented, and has now become the voice of the 1930s as evidenced by the use of his recordings in films and TV drama set in that decade. In fact, when it comes to British musical nostalgia of the 1930s, the biggest name world-wide is Al Bowlly. During most of the 1930s Al was Britain’s leading popular singer and was sometimes billed as the Ambassador of Song.

However, during his career, Al never won the fame he deserved. It is even said that he is more famous today than he was then, although he is now definitely recognised as Britain’s leading light in that era of popular song. Even though the competition was good, Al was a head and shoulders above his nearest rivals when it came to his artistry and originality, but his popularity rating did not always reflect this. He was renowned within the inner circles of musicians in the London music scene as ‘the man’; but to the contemporary public listeners in the early 1930s Al Bowlly’s name seemed almost a well kept secret.

Pop music, or dance music as it was then called, did not have the huge following and the publicity machinery that it has today, but, because of the many beautiful songs written in that decade, that period has become known as the golden era. Al Bowlly was an important part of that era; he was called the singing nomad, because of his extensive travels around the world.

Ragtime, that rather primitive form of jazz raised its head some years prior to the start of hostilities in 1914. By the 1920s it had developed into a hotter type of music full of syncopated rhythm. Men and women were attracted to the new exciting sounds and enjoyed themselves again. New dances like the foxtrot became very popular as well as more athletic ones like the charleston. Being able to dance was a fine way to find the partner of your choice. With the increasing demand for places to house such activities there grew a demand for groups of musicians to fill the air with music to dance to.

By the 1930s the dance bands had grown more sophisticated often performing sweet arrangements of popular songs played at tempos to suit the dancers. Some still played jazz influenced tunes but the main reason bands existed and commanded good fees was to play for dancing. The dance bands, however, soon progressed into complete entertainment units within themselves and would play to packed theatres.

As singing was not considered as important as playing an instrument, most leaders would have disliked the idea of having someone in the band solely to sing. Why not use players waiting to play the next chorus for that purpose? A singer with a good voice, personality and ability to sing all types of songs wasn’t considered a necessity but a leader would be happy to have had one if it got him more work. In an era of great song writing and great lyrics, the singer’s role however became more and more important.

When singers started to amplify their voices they no longer had to belt out songs over the noise of several musicians. As a result they could sing loudly for effect by moving back from the microphone or croon softly quite close creating intimacy. Bing Crosby, a young man with all the above-mentioned vocal attributes, was in the right place at the right time. By the time the world was at war for the second time and with couples separated, songs of love and longing made huge stars of the new raft of singers like Frank Sinatra. Each generation brought something new into the range of the song stylist. Bowlly somehow missed his place which was somewhere between these two great performers and had perished before vocalists eclipsed the bands many had emerged from.

Al recorded with all manner of dance bands ranging from big progressive units, such as those led by Ray Noble and Geraldo to small and obscure instrumental groups. Most of Al’s records were made as a band singer although he did make numerous recordings as a soloist. The term solo used throughout this book is to distinguish between the records he made as featured vocalist with a dance band and those on which Al was the principal artiste. On those latter solo records he is usually accompanied by a small orchestra or piano and guitar. Although other crooners were crooning in London before Al, it was he who first became a solo variety act, became the first popular singer to get a solo spot on the BBC and who was the first British popular singer to be invited to work in America. Bowlly was the first man in this country to become a true song stylist ­using the microphone and amplification to project his own personality. During the 1930s the popular music world in Britain was very different from what it was in America or what it is in this country today. One of the main differences was America’s commercial radio, just made for entertainers such as Bing Crosby, and the other was their film industry. No one ever highlighted or publicised British popular singers in the way they did in America.

Comparing the scene of pre-war Britain to that of today, the exploits of our singers are frequently headline if not front page news in the popular press. However, when he left for America in 1934, there was just a small piece inside the Daily Herald saying that bandleader Ray Noble was going to the States and taking with him singer Al Bowlly. And this when musical history was being made! And, incidentally, when Al arrived in America he certainly noticed the enormous difference between the New York and London music scenes.

Radio listeners in Great Britain did not only listen to BBC programmes, but also continental stations, the most popular being Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandy, which beamed programmes of popular appeal to Britain. The success of these overseas commercial stations was due to the fact that the BBC failed to give the British people what they wanted to listen to when they wanted it. At one stage the BBC even banned the singing of song words on the air as it was considered that the song publishers were getting a free advertisement for their numbers. During his career Al Bowlly made both solo appearances and sang with various bands on British, Continental and American radio.

True, there are thousands of people who look back and listen with a nostalgic fondness, but most of Al’s fans today were born after Al’s death and are just as enthusiastic. To these people, it is not nostalgia. When they hear for the first time another Bowlly vocal, it is the same as a pop fan initially hearing the latest record of their favourite idol.

You may ask Why Al Bowlly? Why all this interest in a man who was essentially a band singer and as such was one amongst hundreds? A singer who appears on just over six hundred 78 rpm records from the period 1927 to 1941. It could have been Sam Browne or Chick Henderson, two other singers from the Bowlly era who actually beat Al in popularity; but these two have almost drifted into obscurity along with most of their contemporaries.

There is something special about the singer Al Bowlly. About the voice. About the man. Something that keeps thousands of his original fans interested and captures the imagination of new enthusiasts every day. Even though it is many years since he died, his voice and personality have lived on through all these years of change and progress. The unique voice is such an important feature of the Bowlly phenomenon that a whole section of this book is devoted to it. And do not overlook the inevitable interest in artistes who die young, especially in tragic circumstances. Compare the interest in subsequent popular singers who suffered a similar early demise, for example Buddy Holly, Jim Reeves and Billy Fury. But other factors play a part — Bowlly’s vibrant personality which has remained something of an enigma, the legends and mystery concerning him and the fact he was not really famous in his lifetime. There is a separate section of this book in the Al Bowlly Anthology which looks at his personality.

As to the legends and mystery surrounding the singer, in his heyday, for example, no one really knew what nationality Al’s parents were or how old he was. These facts and others have only come to light during research since he died. Myths, half-truths and stories have been woven into a tangle of romantic fiction which has led to many erroneous accounts being written and published about this small, dusky society favourite of the 1930s. Often, during press interviews, Al would embellish the truth. It is this fact that has accounted for much of the fables and folk-lore that have surrounded Al. Being a story teller, what Al told the press and what was subsequently printed in the articles contained much fiction. Here are a few examples:

Al told Lew Stone that he was born in 1890 for the purpose of an official form. Yet he recorded 1898 for all other purposes. He told at least two completely different stories as to how he got his first professional job with bandleader Edgar Adeler, neither of which were true. And the story of how he auditioned for Roy Fox differs when told by Fox and Bowlly.

Al just made up and romanticised incidents to make his story more interesting. How was he to know that years later anyone would be interested in his life? More people seem interested in his life now than then. And this leads on to what is probably the biggest myth of all — the degree of fame and popularity attributed to him.

The fact is that in his day Al was not a star singer. Star singers of popular songs just did not exist then in this country. (They did exist in America, the obvious example being Bing Crosby.) Al’s name was not a household word. Over the years, much has been written about him and in far too many instances Al has been referred to as a star or a famous man. He was almost as big as Bing Crosby. He was immensely popular both in the UK and the USA as a result of personal appearances there and all over the world as a result of his many records. Al Bowlly became a star on the crest of this wave. The entire Roy Fox band broadcasts were centred around Al. The foregoing statements have all been written or said about him over the years by people who knew Al or worked with him and typify the exaggeration of his popularity. I have quizzed many people as to how big Al was and have received answers ranging from Any man in the street would know him to Unknown to anyone who did not ‘follow’ dance band vocalists. However, the more discerning sources confirm that Al was not really famous, a view endorsed by journalists and musicians around at the time.

Like so many others, particularly in the fields of art and music, serious appreciation only started after Al had died. In Al’s case, about a generation after he died. The techniques which Al devised and cultivated were the things which made him a song stylist as opposed to just another singer. In this, he was ahead of his time in this country by about 20 or 30 years. And I believe that in the 1930s, the great British public were just not ready for Al Bowlly! I conjecture that Al’s techniques actually held him back. Sam Browne was our number one singer more often than Al and was generally more well known. Sam had a great technique, but compared to Al he was cold. Certainly there were many equally capable vocalists whose fame has not survived the passing of time, which makes Al’s acceptance as a great artiste amongst generations of listeners who were not even born when he was in his prime all the more remarkable.

Ray Noble obviously rated Al, as did the other bandleaders who employed him. Al also received good reviews in the press. For example, the fashionable London magazine Ideas described a Bowlly performance in 1933 thus: With his lips a bare three inches from the microphone, he sings softly, confidently — and more people thrill to his voice than to Mussolini’s and Hitler’s put together.

However, as far as Joe Public was concerned, I now seriously wonder whether Al’s techniques were wasted and perhaps even caused many folk to prefer Sam Browne and others who sang in a more straightforward manner.

In conclusion, I believe the truth of the matter is that to anyone who had an interest in dance music, the name Bowlly was a fairly important one. But to others, the name would probably mean very little.

THEY CALLED HIM AL

THE DEFINITIVE AL BOWLLY PUBLICATION

Having briefly introduced you to Al and the world of which he was a part, I hope I have aroused your interest sufficiently for you to read the rest of the book. Part Two is the Al Bowlly Story. Each chapter in this Part looks at an era of Al’s life and has, as its title, that of an appropriate song that was recorded by him.

Part Three is the Al Bowlly Anthology, a collection of writings examining various aspects of the Al Bowlly phenomenon. Part Four is the discography. Here we provide a complete listing of every known sound recording of Al Bowlly whether as a singer or as a musician. This part even includes a section of recordings that were once seriously considered to be Al Bowlly items, but have been found not to be so!

As you read this book, whether you will be taking a stroll down memory lane, or were born after it all happened, you will be reading about one of the most fascinating personalities in popular music’s history.

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Part Two

The Al Bowlly Story

Chapter One

Song of the Wanderer

1899-1922

Albert Alick Bowlly was born on 7th January 1899 in Maputo, Mozambique which then was Laurenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa. As to Al’s family origins, his father, Alick Pauli was a Greek national, born on the island of Rhodes in 1867. By religion he was Greek Orthodox. Al’s mother, born Miriam Ayoub-Neejame in 1874, was Lebanese and a Catholic. They first met in Australia where Miriam’s brother, who had previously worked in Egypt, had emigrated and spent months at a time trading in the outback. When he had established himself in Australia, he sent for his sister. However when she arrived in Australia her brother was away in the outback and returned very angry to find that one of the family had married off his sister at a very young age to a Lebanese-Greek by the name of Pauli. The marriage took place on 6th April 1892 in the Catholic Cathedral at Perth and the certificate reads Alick Pauli, son of Dimetri: Miriam Ayoub, daughter of Azad Ayoub. Dimetri Pauli was described as a boatman and Azad Ayoub was described as a farmer.

The Pauli’s first two children were born in Australia before they all set off for Africa.

When the Paulis arrived in Africa in 1887 they initially settled at Durban, their port of entry where their third child, Augustus, was born. In 1898 the Paulis move to Lourenco Marques, in Portuguese East Africa, where Al was born. The family moved back to Durban where Al’s sister Emily was born in 1901. Al’s parents were naturalised on 21st February 1903 (the family being viewed as white or European) and it is thought that it was during this process that the name Bowlly first appeared. If this assumption is correct, then Al’s name at birth was Albert Alick Pauli.

Apparently, Al’s father’s Greek surname was virtually unpronounceable in English, a language that he could neither read or write. His two forenames were Alexis Paulos. Mish Bowlly and his sister Nora thought that when in Beirut in the early 1890s, their father changed Paulos to Pauli as it was more English sounding. This connects with the name given on his marriage certificate mentioned above. Al’s father who had a strong accent, pronounced Ps like Bs and during some official interview and form-filling, most probably as part of his naturalisation process in 1903, the name Bowlly was erroneously entered by the clerk instead of Pauli (the original unpronounceable surname being dropped altogether. ) From there on he was stuck with it, according to Mish.

From Durban the Bowllys went to Johannesburg where they had some relatives. They went on to have six more children starting with George. In Jo’burg the Bowlly family moved to No 10 Pritchard Street which was in the centre of the town and next to the Star Newspaper building. Alick Bowlly soon established himself in business buying and selling jewellery and by contrast, he also sold fruit and vegetables in the Newtown Market. In the United Transvaal Directory (a business directory) he was described as a General Dealer.

Up to around 1910 there was no Greek Orthodox Church in Jo’burg, so all the Bowlly children, other than the last three were baptised in the Catholic Church. Al was later baptised into the Greek Orthodox Church, a faith he adhered to throughout his life.

Al’s nickname in the family was Boetie, Afrikaans for brother, but was often called Portjie (pronounced Pour-kee and derived from words mean­ing Little Portuguese).

All of his early life was spent in Jo’burg, where he attended Newtown School, and, although he got good school reports, especially in music and scripture, he played truant, describing himself in later life as a ruffian. When Al spoke to the press in a 1938 interview, he told of how he fell in love with his teacher, Miss McGill, when he was 14. This is probably no more than Al’s romantic fiction. However, the Transvaal Education Department confirm Bertha McGill was teaching at Newtown School from 25th March 1913 until 1st April 1914 and in possession of the author is a book supplied by Mish entitled Across Two Seas by H. A. Forbes and inscribed Awarded to Albert Bowlly, June 1913 from B. McGill. He would have been fourteen at the time and the book presented as a school leaving present.

All through his school days Al proved himself to be good at sport, an interest he maintained throughout his life. At school Al had good music and singing teachers and he was a very eager pupil. He also sang in a local choir, where he was taught still more about singing and music. School hours