Newspapers were essential for this musical team

For more than 100 years, newspapers have been documenting the news and telling peoples’ stories, in particular, those in the arts.

Journalists wrote extensively about my grandparents’ musical careers in the 1930s and ’40s. During the pandemic, while sorting through their possessions, I found scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and photos. Throughout the Depression and the Second World War, when many performers didn’t have an advertising budget, their relationship with newspapers was critical to their success.

Harry and Ida Culley, whose stage name was Claudette, were a duo piano team called the Black and White Spotters who performed onstage and on radio in Toronto. Their programs were listed in advance in both The Toronto Star and the Telegram. In the “Are You Listening?” column in 1936, the duo were described as “Toronto’s premier two-piano artists who will present ‘Sophisticated Lady’ by Duke Ellington and ‘I’d Rather Listen to Your Eyes’ from the motion picture success ‘Shipmates Forever.’ ”

In an opinionated review headed: “Top-Notchers of Canadian Programs,” the writer stated, “My wife and family now know better than to start calling ‘Hurry up poppa, or your dinner’ll get cold.’ They know I listen to the Hotspotters before I eat dinner every night ... This isn’t a plug. I don’t smoke Golden Virginia tobacco, and don’t want to, but I take my hat off to those fellows for paying whatever dough it costs to produce a program of this calibre in this town which spends less on and expects more from radio than any burg in the world ... Black (of Black and White Spotters) is none other than Harry Culley, formerly of the Royal York and Shea’s. White is Claudette Culley, also known as Mrs. Harry Culley.”

The pair’s work evaporated in 1936 in the depths of the Depression, when radio advertisers pulled out. However, during a performance at Shea’s Hippodrome, they were invited by a talent agent to tour on the music hall stage in England.

Harry and Ida kept their names alive in Toronto by sending missives back to Toronto newspapers where Harry stated, “They certainly like our playing over here. We are on the Paramount Astoria circuit, playing at the most beautiful theatres in London.”

When the duo returned to Canada, there was an article and photo of them with a gas mask on Nov. 9, 1938. The caption read, “The two-piano act had their gas masks within easy reach on a London stage during the recent war crisis.”

My new novel, “Claudette on the Keys,” inspired by my grandparents’ lives, is being released Friday by Crossfield Publishing at a YouTube Live book launch to which everyone is invited. Visit facebook.com/ events/285856296218260/ ?ref=newsfeed

Listeners can tune in to CBC’s Ontario Morning on Wednesday at 7:50 a.m. to hear an interview with me and also watch CBC Toronto News at 6 p.m. later in the week for a segment about the book.

I will be signing books this Saturday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the META4 Gallery, 164 Hunter St. W. for $20 cash or cheque. The book is available at Chapters, the Peterborough Public Library, the Cavan Monaghan Public Library, and online at www.crossfieldpublishing.ca.