Clockwise from top Bob and Hank Newman,
Johnny Spies ,Al Myers, Slim Newman
Hank, Slim and Bob Newman were born in Hawkinsville, Georgia but started in radio with WBT in Charlotte, NC. They sang western, folk and popular music in the style of The Sons of the Pioneers the brothers joined radio stations around the country before landing in Columbus, Ohio where they were part of the local scene for 25 years and for a two year period going national on a Mutual Program Saturday mornings.
After WWII started the boys split up and entered the service or worked at defense plants. Smiley Burnette invited Hank and his wife singer Donna Albanese to Hollywood where Hank appeared in several Roy Rogers pictures with the Sons of the Pioneers. Eventually the brothers regrouped and appeared in three Durango Kid movies as the Georgia Crackers. With western B movies ending and not liking Hollywood social life they returned to Columbus where Hank and Slim opened Hank Newman's Restaurant and Pizza Palace. There were regular jam sessions on Saturday nights and among those who dropped in were Tex Ritter and Patsy Cline. Hank and Slim passed on but Donna kept the Palace open until the 1990's
More about the Crackers
This morning I was minding my own business, googling for my
grandparents' cookbook, when I was reminded of a web of family ties.
My dad used to play in a country band in Columbus, Ohio. His musical talent was part of the reason he met and married my mom, whose parents were Smiley and
Dallas Burnette.
My brother and I grew up in New Albany, Ohio. In the summers we used to spend a lot of time at Uncle Hank and Aunt Donna's house, which was next to their
pizza place.
Uncle Hank and his brothers had once played as Hank Newman and The Georgia Crackers. His musical talent played a part in his meeting and marrying
Donna, who was born Donna Albanese.
The Georgia Crackers -- The Newman brothers are the three in back. Left to right: Uncle Slim, Bob, Uncle Hank. |
The Georgia Crackers had long since disbanded by the time I showed up. The only time I remember hearing them play was one night at Veteran's Memorial Hall, when I was maybe five years old. The high points of the evening for me were getting to stay up really late, seeing Uncle Hank and his brothers on stage (I'd never met Bob before, but it was funny when he picked up that huge bass violin and "threatened" to leave the stage), and Tex Ritter and his amazing blue cowboy outfit, studded with rhinestones. I never got to say a word to Mr. Ritter but remember staring, mesmerized, at the back of his jacket as he sat at the bar in Uncle Hank's den after the show.
[So much for memory. Dad says it was Uncle Slim who was fiddling with the bass.]
The Newmans had met Grandpa in the late forties, on the set of one of the Durango Kid movies. I guess they'd long been established in Columbus by that time.
Mom met Dad in Columbus, while she was driving Grandpa around the country on one of his road tours.
The mesh ties together. That's how my brother and I came to spend our summers with Uncle Hank and Aunt Donna.
Century of Country
Other references to the Georgia crackers are here and here.
1 comments:
I grew up in Columbus in the 1960's and I knew your uncle Hank and Aunt Donna because they were friends of my parents, Glenn and Roslyn Huff. My mom used to wait tables at Green's, a restaurant that was right across the street from where your Uncle Hank and Slim (and Bob and the rest of the band) played in the 1940's. It's also where she met my dad, who worked downtown at the time. Eventually my mom and dad got married and moved to Gahanna and started a family. We had dinner at Hank and Donna's at LEAST once a week. Even after we moved to Westerville in 1958, we spent every Saturday night at Hank and Donna's. The grownups exchanged news and gossip about people they had known as well as current aquaintances. Donna and Hank and Slim and Helen made over my sister and me like we were their own and my sister and I ate it up. I remember looking at all the country music celebrity photos on the wall. (I was most impressed by a picture of your Grandpa with the Cannonball from Petticoat Junction.) The pizzas were huge, and your aunt Donna''s spaghetti sauce is all I knew as a kid. My mom didn't bother making it - we just brought some home with us every week to use at home because it was what my sister and I loved and Donna loved that we loved it. It's still the best I have ever tasted. (Didn't the menu say that she got the recipe from her dad, Nick? I think his last name was Albanese, yes?) I always loved getting the little sacks of candy to take home, but my VERY FAVORITE food at the Pizza Palace was the apple dumplings! They are the gold standard to this day. At any rate, like most kids, I thought my parents (and their friends) would live forever and now I wish I had paid more attention to a lot of things. Believe it or not, I have been trying off and on for the past several years to find some way to find a recipe for spaghetti sauce and dumplings like your aunt Donna used to make. I didn't think Hank and Donna had any kids so I have assumed there was no family left to contact. (I also realize it's possible they had kids older than me since they were a few years older than my parents.) I periodically do google searches with random pieces of info that I remember - I found your blog because I managed to remember Donna's dad's name, so I had Hank Donna Newman Pizza Palace Nick Albanese - all in one chain. I'm hoping you can help me. Can you tell me if anybody kept Donna's recipes? My sister and I have raved for years to our spouses and children about Donna's spaghetti and meatballs and her apple dumplings. No matter how many sauces or dumplings we try (and we make it our business to try a LOT of them, somebody has to do it), neither of us has found any as good. If you have the recipes and would be willing to share them, I would be extremely grateful - and I MIGHT share them with my sister...eventually
... at any rate, I want you to know that I enjoyed reading your blog and I was crazy about your aunt and uncles when I
was a kid. Thanks very much for reading this.