“Singing Sully”
For years Sully Mason was with
Kay Kyser’s band. Mow lie's on
Ills own, a ud Ills friends predict
that he really is going places as a
band leader.
By RKIIARU T. ORR
WALK up to any hepcat from
52d and Broadway to Holly¬
wood and Vine, mention the
name Solomon Pool Mason, Jr.,
and you’re likely to get a blank
stare plus the retort, "G’wan,
never heard of him, bud!”
But try the same thing, substi¬
tuting the nickname, "Sully," and
you’ll see the hepcat’s eyes
brighten and hear him give out
with something like this:
"Well, skin me. brother. You're
hep to the jive!”
Which is his way of saying.
"Shake, pal, who hasn’t heard of
Sully Mason?"
Well, who hasn’t?
Certainly everybody has in Dur¬
ham, Sully's home town. In fact,
try and find n dance-music devotee
anywhere who hasn’t at some time
tuned in Sully’s tunes on a radio,
played his "platters" on a phono¬
graph. met him in the movies, or
listened to his lilting lyrics in
theaters, hotels, clubs, and ball¬
rooms somewhere around the
country.
The story of Singin’ Sully Mason
is a saga of song. When Kay Kyser.
North Carolina’s musical mentor,
started his students scaling the
mountain of musical success, he
sought a vocalist capable of hold¬
ing down one end of a star-studded
three-way vocal combination
featuring glamorous Ginny Simms
and song-kibitzer Ish Kabibble.
He chose Singin’ Sully from Dur¬
ham.
For nearly a score of years he
was a featured vocalist with the
band that put a new accent on
musical knowledge, a new high on
box office receipts. You heard
him dozens of times on "Your Hit
Parade." He was an honor student
in Kyser’s "College of Musical
Knowledge." His vocal chords cut
wide swaths in more than 200 re¬
cordings as well as in the sound
tracks of nine motion pictures
featuring the band.
Sully Mason has come face to
face with a microphone enough
THE STATE July 28. 1945
times to make his name synono-
mous with song. As far back as the
early '30s popular music lovers all
over the nation were singing,
"Take Your Girlie To the Movies’”
—Sully Mason style!
Man of note. Sully has had
notable success in the 18 years he’s
been singing. Today he’s still in
there singing AND swinging. Com¬
bining syncopation with song, re¬
cently he formed his own band.
It’s a combination which, if he
has anything to say about it. will
have the whole country singing
and swinging, too.
Song stylist supreme. Sully Ma¬
son first gave vocal vent at the
age of 12 in the choir of the Episco¬
palian church in Durham where
his parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. P.
Pool, still live. His first profes¬
sional appearance came a few
years later in the same city as a
saxophone player in a local outfit.
He had learned to honk out a few
tunes after being smitten with the
ambition to play the instrument
while working after school hours
for the Corley Music Company.
In Durham High School he organ¬
ized singing groups and finally in
his last year there got up a band
of his own.
Sully came into the kingdom of
the swing kings 'way back in 1926
when he arrived in Chapel Hill to
enroll in the University of North
Carolina. There he bumped into
the late Hal Kemp, whose band
was the campus craze at the time,
numbering among its members as
it did two who later became musi¬
cal mights in their own right. John
Scott Trotter and "Skinny" Ennis.
Kemp left the campus the fol¬
lowing year, to be replaced by an¬
other candidate for the hall of
musical fame — Kay Kyser. Sully
had wanted to start a band of his
own. but in the end he joined
Kyser’s band as a saxophone
player. Kay nicknamed him
"Sully." though the recipient of
this sobriquet says he can’t for
the life of him recall why.
It was in Cleveland, Ohio, sev¬
eral months later that Sully be¬
gan to think seriously about sing¬
ing. Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm
Boys, a vocal trio famous in jazz
annals, playing a theater date,
paused to hear Kyser’s crew after
the show.
"One member of that trio was
a favorite of mine." Sully recalls.
"His name was Bing Crosby.
After meeting him and talking
quite a bit, he suggested I try sing¬
ing. I've been trying ever since."
How well Sully "tried" is evi¬
denced by the unusually long
period he has remained a public
favorite. When he wasn't airing
his talents on the radio, he was
( Continued on page 23 1
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