Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 52) headlining with entertainers like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole. Coinciding with her club popularity and her thriving record sales was the American Federation of Musicians strike. James Petrillo, head of the union, was concerned about loss of compensation to musicians because of increased popularity of jukeboxes. Determined to ensure fair wages for musicians, Petrillo called for the strike to begin January 1, 1948. Just a month before the strike was to begin, Dexter brought Nellie back to a recording studio in Chicago, where she recorded 24 songs. Her rendering of “Fine Brown Frame” was a best-seller. A favorite of Nellie’s, “Fine Brown Nellie Lutcher in her home studio, Los Angeles. She performed very little after the 1950s, preferring to deal in real estate and using her astute personality to resolve problems as a director for the Musicians’ Union. ess, ording busin rec here rtunately, t unfo le who lot of peop are a n’t get oney and did made m hem. d I’m one of t the money, an t it that. I resen So, I resent e fact a passion, th with d with I contribute that tyle.” inality and s orig her — Nellie Lutc “ In the Frame” was a standard part of her New York repertoire, but Nellie had to work to convince Dexter of its viability as a seller. Nellie recalls the popularity of this piece: “When I went to New York, I included ‘Fine Brown Frame’ as a part of my repertoire. And the people when I left New York started running to the record shops requesting ‘Fine Brown Frame’ So the record shop owner would say, ‘We don’t have a record. We have Buddy Johnson’s record, but we don’t have a record by Nellie Lutcher.’ So they would say, ‘She’s doing it at the club. She’s doing it at the Cafe Society.’ So this went on and they kept getting these requests so finally Mr. Dexter called me and said, ‘Nellie, we’re going to have to record.’ [o]ne of the first tunes that we did [when I got to Chicago] was ‘Fine Brown Frame,’ and before it 52 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2009
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