Red Ingle

by Cub KodaBest known for his work with Spike Jones and his own Natural Seven sides for Capitol, Red Ingle was a true multi-talent. A fine musician, a great comedic singer and gag writer, a human sound-effects machine, an excellent cartoonist and caricaturist, and consummate arranger, Ingle truly lived up to the oft-bandied-about description,he can do it all.He was born Ernest Jansen Ingle in Toledo, Ohio on November 7, 1906. Ingle came to music early, being taught the rudiments of the violin at age five by family friend Fritz Kreisler. He stayed with the instrument until he reached the age of 13, at which time he started playing the saxophone, the predominant instrument for the rest of his life. Two years later, Ingle was playing his first professional job as a member of Al Amatos band. By his late teens, Ingle was touring steadily with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, sharing the bandstand with future jazz legends Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer. After a bandleading stint at Chicagos Merry Gardens Ballroom and a brief tenure under bandleader Maurice Sherman, Ingle and his tenor sax joined up with Ted Weems in 1931. The teaming was good for both men, lasting into the following decade with Ingle contributing comedy vocals to several Weems recordings, including Jelly Bean, Taint So, Sittin Up Waitin for You, and The Man from the South. The boy singer for the band, Perry Como, would later recall Ingle as one of the most talented men Ive ever met.The second World War found him working him a government job as an instructor for the CAA. But upon his discharge from service in 1943, after flunking the eye examination to enlist in the Air Force, he joined up instead with Spike Jones & His City Slickers. He came to the Jones organization through the auspices of founding member and banjoist Country Washburne, his former band mate in the Weems orchestra. But his hiring was not based so much on his fine musicianship, but rather on his broad comedic flair and his amazing arsenal of vocal effects. Spike Jones started featuring him front-and-center right from the start and it was Ingles outrageous stage presence that started changing the City Slickers from a cornball music act to a far more visual act.Certainly Ingle wasnt the only funny man in the newly formed City Slickers; he had awfully strong competition in Carl Grayson, Del Porter and trumpeter George Rock. But his true talent was recognized by everyone: There was nobody in the band as funny as Red, opined original Slicker clarinetist Zep Meissner, Guys like him were funny in themselves, they didnt need material. And the band got noisier — if such a notion is possible — when Ingle joined up. As his son, Don Ingle, pointed out, The stage shows became more active — or more violent — when Dad came on the band. He had basically a vaudevillians approach to musical sight gags — the facial things, the body motions, the running gags; shooting the arrow in the wings, with a midget running back on with an arrow pinned to the seat of his pants. Ingles early skits pointed Spike Jones in the right direction and soon the band was a complete stage presentation that would later reach its apogee with Jones mammoth Musical Depreciation Revues that ran successfully into the early 50s.The big hit of one of the early shows was Ingles takeoff of the old vaudeville pop chestnut, Chloe. He would run on in combat boots, a fright wig, and a nightgown, swinging a lantern, making his song-ending escape into an outhouse with the cry, I gotta go! This routine was showcased to good effect in the movie Bring on the Girls and became Spike Jones third gold record, spending four weeks in the Top Ten. Other outstanding examples of Red Ingle on record with the band are You Always Hurt the One You Love and Glow Worm, both major hits for the City Slickers, the latter being reprised in the film Breakfast in Hollywood. Ingle was also the bands resident caricaturist, designing many of the Spike Jones likenesses used in stage backdrops, media print ads, and other band promotions.After three very successful years with the organization, Ingle left in November of 1946 over a salary dispute with Jones. He freelanced in radio and movie work for a while, making unexpected — but well-received — appearances with the Los Angeles and San Francisco Light Opera companies. Cutting a cornball spoof of the then-current hit Temptation with Jo Stafford for the fledgling Capitol label started the second career of Red Ingle. Tim-Tay-Shun went on to sell over three-million singles, and basking in the unexpected glow of success, Ingle immediately formed a regular band to cash in. Working under the moniker of Red Ingle and His Natural Seven, the group included Country Washburne (the man who had arranged Tim-Tay-Shun) and Luther Roundtree as well as several other former City Slickers. The hits kept coming with Ingle scoring big with Cigareetes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women, Them Durn Fool Things, and A, Youre a Dopey Gal. During this flurry of activity, Ingle and the band took time to film several numbers for Snader Transcriptions, an early forerunner of todays music videos.Disbanding the group in 1952, Ingle went back to his old boss Ted Weems for a short spell, later chair hopping onto the bandstands of Eddy Howard and Freddie Fisher. As he eased himself out of show business, tiring of road travel and preferring to spend time with his family, he opened a saddlery shop and started cashing his royalty checks. His last appearance in a recording studio was in 1963 at the behest of his old boss, Spike Jones. Jones was recording a new album to be entitled Persuasive Concussion and asked Ingle to come in and reprise Chloe one more time. He agreed, but unfortunately the album was never issued, staying unfinished at the time of Jones death in May of 1965. Red Ingle passed away only a few months later that same year, a victim of an internal hemorrhage. And with the passing of both men, so went a style of musical comedy lunacy that will never be duplicated again.