Johnny Zero, Ina Ray Hutton, AFRS 1943

Johnny Zero
Ina Ray Hutton and her Orchestra, AFRS 1943

“Johnny Zero” was among the biggest hits of WWII hovering near the top of the record charts and sheet music sales for several months in mid-1943. It was inspired by enlisted American aviator, Seargent John D. Foley. Without training he volunteered as a gunner for his first mission in a bomber and shared in downing a Japanese Zero fighter plane.

Ina Ray Hutton was dubbed the “Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm” by impresario Irving Mills in 1935. He hired her fronting “The Melodears,” one of the few all-female orchestras recording and making films in the Thirties. She worked with several good arrangers, Alex Hill and Eddie Durham, personally crafting the sound of her all-female orchestras and wrote two dozen songs. When Mills dropped The Melodears in 1939 Hutton bought out his interest and ran her own all-male orchestras through the war years and the Forties.

Judging by the vast quantity of surviving publicity, promotion and advertising images plus her 200 recordings, Ina Ray was a pretty big deal. The tap-dancing, singing platinum blonde took up to six costume changes during her shows from a wardrobe reputed to encompass 800 gowns. Hutton made feature films during the Forties, first playing the role of herself in the shallow “Ever Since Venus,” 1944. Through the first half of the 1950 her all-women orchestra was seen on “The Ina Ray Hutton Show” broadcast on Los Angeles television.

Nicknamed Johnny Zero by his fellows, gunnery Sargeant John D. Foley eventually shared in kills of six enemy craft, completing 62 missions in B-26 bombers in the Pacific and B-24s over Europe. He endured three air crashes including one in which he was the only survivor. Medically discharged for malaria, he toured the USA campaigning for war bonds and the like. There was even Johnny Zero merchandise: watches and boots. John D. Foley passed away in Banning, CA in 1999 at age 81.

Songwriters Vee Lawnhurst and Mack David were motivated by Johnny Zero’s valor. Melodist Vee Lawnhurst (1905-1992) had performed in a duo on radio and records playing piano, singing and writing songs, co-authoring “Daddy’s Letter” in 1942. Mack David (1912-1993) was a deeply accomplished lyricist who wrote more than 1000 songs and famous themes for recording artists and Hollywood movies -- Disney’s “Cinderella” and Edith Piaf’s signature song “La Vie en Rose” -- garnering eight Academy Award nominations.

This popular but cloying wartime song was also called “Johnny Got a Zero,” a big hit for the Song Spinners vocal harmony group among others. Fortunately for us, Hutton’s sassy arrangement excises the most annoying qualities in favor of solid swing.

The radio series “Parade of Spotlight Bands” presented the top swing orchestras six nights per week sponsored by Coca-Cola on the Blue Network. In 1942, a confluence of events -- the AFM musicians’ strike, Petrillo recording ban and wartime mobilization -- converted the show to “The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands.” Originating at US Army bases and war plants, the programs were broadcast to American troops via Armed Forces Radio. Eventually some nine hundred and fifty 15-minute episodes were broadcast, though sadly this surviving audio is very poor.

Related clips:

Ina Ray Hutton: The Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm, 1935-55
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The Kim Loo Sisters with Ina Ray Hutton Orch -- “In my Arms” AFRS 1943
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