NAT ‘KING’ COLE DIES OF CANCER AT 45 . . . 02/16/65

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logo (MCRFB)REMEMBERING NAT KING COLE

From the Los Angeles Times Archives: February 16, 1965

 

 

 



 

By PAUL WEEKS
Times Staff Writer

February 16, 1965

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LOS ANGELES — Nat “King” Cole, 45, world-renowned singer and jazz pianist, died in his sleep at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica early Monday, three weeks after he had undergone surgery for removal of a cancerous left lung.

His wife Maria, who was at his side, “knew for several days he was dying,” a hospital spokesman said, “but she didn’t want anything made public because he watched television constantly.”

Aware that he had cancer, the singer thought he was recovering after the removal of his lung, but doctors said the disease had spread beyond control.

Only the day before his death, Cole was taken for a short ride in his car by his wife, and a few days earlier he had visited his children briefly at the family home, an imposing brick mansion at 401 S. Muirfield Road in the Hancock Park district.

Visitors Barred

Visitors were not permitted in Cole’s sixth-floor hospital room. But last week, when comedian Jack Benny was visiting another friend, he inquired about Cole, and the singer invited him in for a 15-minute chat.

Interviews were not allowed, but because of worldwide interest in the singer’s recovery, Mrs. Cole wrote and released her own optimistic statements — as if they had come from him.

The singer’s father, the Rev. Edward B. Coles of North Chicago, died two weeks ago in Chicago.

“We had to tell Nat, and I guess it made him turn for the worse,” his brother Eddie said in Honolulu. “He loved our dad. We could see him change right then.”

Mother Died in 1955

Cole’s mother, Perlina, died at the age of 61 in Chicago in 1955, of cancer.

Funeral services for the singer have not been completed, but a family spokesman said they probably will be private, at 11 a.m. Thursday in St. James Episcopal Church, 3903 Wilshire Blvd., with the Angelus Funeral Home in charge.

An outpouring of his admirers is expected Wednesday, however, when the sealed casket will be on view to the public in the church from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m.

The first intimation of Cole’s illness came late last fall when he was forced to cancel an engagement at the Sands in Las Vegas because of what was described as a “respiratory ailment.”

On Dec. 9, two days before he was to have presented the inaugural popular music and jazz concert at The Music Center, he was taken to St. John’s Hospital, where X-rays disclosed the lung tumor. Cobalt treatments were initiated.

Frank Sinatra substituted for him with an all-star cast, as “King Cole Salutes The Music Center” drew a capacity crowd to The Pavilion on Dec. 11.

When the serious nature of Cole’s illness was disclosed, he was deluged with mail, telegrams and calls — more than had been received by anyone else in the hospital, which often has celebrity patients.

Dies in Sleep

Although his condition took a sharp turn for the worse two days ago, Cole was cheerful and alert Sunday, the hospital said. Death came quietly in his sleep. He was pronounced dead at 5:30 a.m.

The entertainment world was stunned, because Mrs. Cole had succeeded in keeping his true condition secret from the public — and from him.

Besides his wife he leaves three daughters, Natalie, 15, and twins Timolin and Casey, 3; two adopted children, Carol, 20, and Nat Kelly, 6; three brothers, Eddie in Honolulu, Fred in New York City and Ike in Chicago, and a sister, Miss Evelyn Cole, of Chicago.

Council Adjourns

Mrs. Cole has requested memorial tribute donations be made to the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation, 219 E. 42nd St., New York City, or the California Institute for Cancer Research at UCLA.

The City Council adjourned in Cole’s memory Monday. The Board of Supervisors ordered flags of The Music Center, of which Cole was a Founder, lowered to half-staff.

Nat Cole’s life was one of fluctuating economic extremes, but at the end he could command $20,000 a week.

Born Nathaniel Adams Coles on March 17, 1919, in Montgomery, Ala., the son of a Baptist minister, he was taken to Chicago at the age of 4. He dropped the “s” from his name in early entertainment billings.

“Mom was the only music teacher I ever had,” he once said — recalling that he played “Yes, We Have No Bananas” on a piano when he was 4.

After playing in a high school dance band, he went to California with a revue, “Shuffle Along,” that went broke in Long Beach in 1937.

While he was with the show he married Nadine Robinson, a dancer. They were divorced in 1946.

After the revue folded in 1937, Cole said he “played piano at almost every beer joint from San Diego to Bakersfield” until he got a job for a jazz quartet at the Swanee in Hollywood.

The drummer never showed up but the famous Nat King Cole Trio was born.

Name Stuck

Oscar Moore was on guitar and Wesley Prince on string bass, and they created a style that set generations to swinging.

Legend has it that an inebriated customer once jammed a paper hat onto the pianist’s head, and proclaimed, “Look! King Cole!” The name stuck.

And later, another barfly is said to have ordered Cole to sing, “Sweet Lorraine.”

“We don’t sing,” Nat said.

‘Natural Boy’ a Hit

The manager whispered that the man was a big spender — so the satin voice that was to capture a world of listeners was first heard publicly.

Cole’s first hit recording was his own “Straighten Up and Fly Right” in 1943 for Liberty Records (now Capitol), and he was on his way.

His wedding to Maria Ellington, a vocalist in the Duke Ellington band — but no relation to the leader — was a $17,500 social event in 1947, at a time when the King was riding high on his recording of the haunting “Nature Boy.”

In 1948, Cole was philosophical about race discrimination dogging him even into the high-rent district. When he and his bride bought their $65,000 Tudor mansion in Hancock Park, an attorney for nearby property owners said, “We don’t want undesirable people coming here.”

“Neither do I,” Cole said, “and if I see anybody undesirable coming into this neighborhood, I’ll be the first to complain.”

Attacked on Stage

But in 1951, the government seized the house, charging Cole with being $150,000 in arrears on taxes. He set a goal of paying off the debt at $1,000 a week, and kept the house.
Two years later, from the pressure of the pace he set for himself, he collapsed of acute ulcers and internal hemorrhaging during an Easter concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Surgeons removed half his stomach.

The singer tried to live a more leisurely pace after that, but the times vaulted him into headlines again when six white men attacked him on a stage at Birmingham, Ala., in 1956 before an audience of 4,000.
Although he gave freely of himself in benefit performances for civil rights groups, there were still some who complained he wasn’t militant enough.

“A celebrity can overplay his hand talking too much,” he said, “when there ought to be more doing and less talking.”

A personal friend and White House guest of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Cole was outspoken on the race issue. He bemoaned an age that accepted Negro entertainers “as no threat to anybody,” while Negro doctors, lawyers and educators were denied similar recognition.

Cole launched a television show that drew tremendous ratings and reviews, but closed in 1957 after 64 weeks because national advertisers would not then back a Negro, he said.

Had Many Fans

He stayed with it despite financial losses, drawing the biggest “guest” names in entertainment, who agreed to appear far below the price they usually received — hoping to make a success of it.

His international following was no less than it was in America. Once when then Vice President Richard M. Nixon was met with violent demonstrations in Caracas, Venezuela, Cole followed a few days later and was welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd of 16,000 at the airport.

He met similar acclaim in Europe (he played in a command performance for Queen Elizabeth in 1960), in the Middle East and the Orient.

His income was estimated at $500,000 annually, and his record sales reached more than 50 million.

Cole, an inveterate cigaret and pipe smoker, gave up cigarets for several months last year but had returned to them before he was admitted to the hospital.

Among his all-time best-selling records were “Mona Lisa,” “Too Young,” “For Sentimental Reasons,” “Pretend,” “Answer Me My Love,” “Rambling Rose,” “Christmas Song” and “Smile.”

The messages of condolence poured in Monday from the great and the nameless for a man they regarded as fitting his own words the best of all. END


Nat 'King' Cole, first recorded for Capitol Records in 1943.
Nat ‘King’ Cole, first recorded for Capitol Records in 1943.

 

 


Copyright 1965, The Los Angeles Times. Information and news source: LA TIMES; February 16, 1965


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‘UNFORGETTABLE’ NAT KING COLE TRULY A KING TO THE LAST . . . FEBRUARY 27, 1965

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logo (MCRFB)From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1965

REMEMBERING NAT KING COLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

NATION’S STATIONS PAYS TRIBUTE: AIRS HIS SONGS

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NEW YORK — Radio stations across the nation are paying their respects to the man who has provided them with many years of fine programming.

A few of the representative tributes aired last week took the form of “Nat King Cole Day,” at WLIB, New York. Each station personality featured a different type of Cole music, his religious songs, popular ballads, r &b hits and his contributions to jazz.

WIP, Philadelphia, presented a tribute program produced in co-operation with the American Cancer Society.

WHN, New York, one of the first stations to salute Cole, played a different Nat Cole selection every half hour. The Storer outlet on Feb. 3 urged its listeners to send the then gravely ill performer letters and cards of encouragement.

Billboard February 27, 1965

 

 

HOLLYWOOD — Very few people in show business knew how seriously ill Nat Cole, who died last week, actually was. The internationally renowned entertainer died nine weeks after entering the hospital for treatment of a bronchial condition.

nat_king_cole_pencil_sketch_(mcrfb)One of the last times Cole did anything in the public realm occurred Thursday (11) before his death. He was listening to satirist Dick Whittington on KGIL and when Whittington couldn’t remember the name of an actor, Cole phoned him the answer.

Whittington, shocked that Cole was calling, tried to air the conversation but the station’s beeper phone equipment wasn’t working, so he related what Cole said to his afternoon listeners. Under questioning Cole said he was progressing nicely and hoped to be home soon. A short time later Mrs. Cole called to support Cole’s
contention and Whittington was able to air her remarks.

The entertainer was kept secluded in his hospital room but had gone for a car ride the day before his death. Right up until his hospitalization Cole remained one of Capitol Records’ most successful performers. His singles and LP’s were steady chart items, his most recent being “Love,” “I Don’t Want to Be Hurt Anymore” and “My Fair Lady.”

Cole, who would have been 46 March 17, had been with Capitol over 20 years, selling some 9,000,000 albums, worth $50,000,000. His first hit for the label was “Straighten Up And Fly Right” and he was known for such ballads as “Nature Boy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Red Sails In The Sunset,” “Unforgettable,” “Love You For Sentimental Reasons,” “Too Young” and “Ramblin’ Rose.”

Cole began his career as a jazz pianist, moving to Chicago in the early 1930’s from his home in Montgomery, Ala. He came to California in 1937 and during an engagement at the Swanee Inn in Hollywood with his trio, picked up the nickname “King Cole.” One night a patron insisted that Cole sing so the
pianist complied and remained a singer forever after. From 1938 until 1943 Cole worked on the Coast until he met up with Carlos Gasset, who became his agent.

Gastel brought Cole to Capitol where his records brought him national prominence. Gastet and Cole split up in 1963. In 1962 Cole launched his own record label, KC Records, which never got off the ground.

With a reported annual income of $500,000, Cole was one of the top night club performers in all show business. The only area his being a Negro affected him was in TV. NBC carried a show emceed by Cole from 1956 -1957 but Southern opposition scared sponsors away. He made up for the embarrassment by guesting on all the prestige variety programs. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; February 27, 1965)

 


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A MCRFB ‘CAPSULE COUNTDOWN’! WEEK OF 02/16/71

CapCount 2-16-71-(mcrfb)

MCRFB.COM TOP 10 COUNTDOWN * February 1971 * A Henry Krueger Production

A MCRFB.COM 1971 TOP 10 HITS COUNTDOWN!

A ’70s “I HEARD IT FIRST ON DETROIT RADIO” TOP 40 SINGLES FLASHBACK

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Henry Krueger Productions shares this day’s audio ‘CAPSULE COUNTDOWN’ hits with MCRFB.COM from 1971.


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