Gloria Parker

For other people named Gloria Parker, see Gloria Parker (disambiguation).

Gloria Parker
Born	Gloria Parker

Glorious Gloria Parker is an American entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp. She is also known for her staring roles in the music films or Soundies. Broadway And Main with Stepin Fetchit, Four Letters, Here Comes The Fatest Man In Town with comedic personality Mel Blanc as Santa Claus, Penthouse Party featuring Gloria Parker playing the glass harp and Wise Men Say all produced and directed by William Forest Crouch. Gloria composed the music and wrote the lyrics for all of the above mentioned popular music films. The Soundies were viewed on the Panoram, a coin-operated film jukebox, in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, amusement parks and community centers.

Biography

Early life

Parker was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Rita Rose, a musician, who studied the Violin with Leopold Auer and performed on CBS Your Hit Parade with bandleader Mark Warnow and Raymond Scott. Gloria's father during the Second World War was a United States Air Force test pilot stationed in Hawaii.

Career

Glorious Gloria Parker is a talented songwriter, bandleader and musician. Gloria mastered and performed with her orchestra's playing the marimba, glass harp or musical glasses, piano, organ, violin, viola, vibraphone, xylophone, guitar, drums and all latin percussion instruments.

In the early 1950s, Gloria Parker and Vincent Lopez hosted a radio program on WABC broadcasted Saturday afternoon from the Taft Hotel in Manhattan called Shake the Maracas in which audience members competed for prizes by playing maracas with the orchestra. In addition, Gloria Parker and her Orchestra hosted an evening broadcast on WOR from the New York City Hotel Edison. Gloria would open the show with the glass harp or musical glasses and feature the popular latin sound on her marimba with her orchestra.

The Big Band Era suffered with a musicians recording ban from August 1942 to November 1944. The union that a majority of musicians belonged to did not allow its members to record until the record companies such as CBS agree to pay them each time their music was played on the radio. This happened after an earlier ban of ASCAP songs from radio stations which lead to the demise of this style of swing music. Gloria emerged as a spokesperson for the musicians and earned the title as the "Famous One Share Stockholder" in her battle for musician rights with CBS, RCA and Time Inc. The national media would anxiously await Gloria's head to head confrontations with CBS founder William S. Paley and RCA Chairman of the Board David Sarnoff at the annual stockholder meetings.

Personal life

Gloria Parker currently resides on Long Island in New York. Gloria designs and makes her own wardrobe. She has utilized this talent throughout her career with show stopping gowns, suits, dresses and coats.

Special Appearances

NBC Saturday Night Live, Christmas Special, Played the Singing Glasses

Filmography

• Broadway Danny Rose - ( Water Glass Virtuoso - Gloria Parker / 1984 / Released ) Academy Award - nominated film written, directed by and starring Woody Allen.

Swing Era Music

• "In Santiago by the Sea" by Gloria Parker and recorded by Vincent Lopez and his Orchestra.
• "Tonight Be Tender To Me" by Gloria Parker and recorded by Una Mae Carlisle.
• "Daddy From Georgia Way" recorded by Bob Chester and his Orchestra on Columbia Records, lyrics and music by Daisy Lawton, a pen name for Gloria Parker.
• "Marimba Merengue" by Gloria Parker
• "Stars and Stripes Forever Merengue" by Gloria Parker
• "The Best Idea You Had" by Gloria Parker and recorded by Una Mae Carlisle with Bob Chester and his Orchestra.
• "The Up and Down Mambo" by Gloria Parker
• "The Sweetest Words I Know" by Gloria Parker on Columbia Records with Vincent Lopez Orchestra
• "Shake The Maracas" lyrics and music by Gloria Parker, and name of a radio program on WABC hosted by Gloria Parker and Vincent Lopez
• "The Dixieland Rhumba" lyrics and music by Gale Porter, a pen name for Gloria Parker.

References

Radio Music Live 1920-1950 A Pictorial Gamut by Morris N. Young and John C. Stoltzfus, Published by Arrangement with Life Music, Inc., pg. 47,50,237,239,240,241

Singing Glasses is also the name of a 1980 record album composed by Gloria Parker playing the glass harp.

Life Magazine, May 1959, Rising to a Point of Disorder, Famous One Share Stockholder Gloria Parker confronting Radio Corporation of America (RCA) with Billings-Gate at the annual stock holder meeting.

External links

• Gloria Parker Musical Glass Site
• Gloria Parker at IMDb 
• bizbash Water Glasses
• Gloria Parker Water Glass Virtuoso
• NY Times Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
• Your Hit Parade at the National Radio Hall of Fame
• Miss Gloria Parker