My Friend F W DeKlerk

I've known Mr F W DeKlerk for more than 40 years. In fact, we play golf together regularly to this very day. Upon hearing that I had planned to write my autobiography, Mr. DeKlerk graciously sent the following Endorsement of my undertaking, which I have been working on for over a year now.
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F W DEKLERK

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I have known Henry Holloway for more than 40 years. We first met in the late 1960s in Vereeniging, the main town of the industrial area known as the Vaal Triangle (the “Detroit of South Africa”) south of Johannesburg. I was a young attorney at the time and Henry was the editor of the local newspaper

Even then Henry’s love for good music was evident. He founded the Vereeniging Jazz Club, and my wife and I were among the invitees to his concerts.

It was almost inevitable that Henry would become a music broadcaster, and during his more than 30 years of presenting radio programs, hundreds of thousands have enjoyed his expertise on the air.

The Americans paid tangible tribute to Henry for these broadcasts in 2003 when he received their “Golden Bandstand Award” in Los Angeles. On receiving news of this award, I wrote to Henry to express my felicitations. Uniquely, Henry is one of just two non-Americans in history who have been honoured with this prestigious award. Among the 50 or so Americans who had previously received the Golden Bandstand Award are Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. What good company for Henry to be in!

Now Henry is putting the final touches to his autobiography, “Swing, Sing and All That Jazz” (the same title as his long-running radio series) which tells the life story of this internationally-acclaimed “man of music”.

Whether you’re interested in music or not (who isn’t?) I suggest that you obtain a copy of this book.

It is my pleasure to write this Endorsement for Henry Holloway’s autobiography.

 

F W DE KLERK

FORMER STATE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA

     P O Box 15785 Panorama 7506  Tel:  (021) 930 0966/0986  Fax:  (021) 930 0995

      Posbus 15785 Panorama 7506    Tel:  (021) 930 0966/0986  Faks:  (021) 930 0995

     Email:  fw@fwdeklerk.org  http://www.fwdeklerk.org/

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Frederik Willem de Klerk (born 18 March 1936), often known as F. W. de Klerk, was the seventh and last State President of apartheid-era South Africa, serving from September 1989 to May 1994. De Klerk was also leader of the National Party (which later became the New National Party) from February 1989 to September 1997.

De Klerk is best known for engineering the end of apartheid, South Africa's racial segregation policy, and supporting the transformation of South Africa into a multi-racial democracy by entering into the negotiations that resulted in all citizens, including the country's black majority, having equal voting and other rights. He won the Félix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize in 1991, the Prince of Asturias Award in 1992 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 (along with Nelson Mandela) for his role in the ending of apartheid.

Henry Holloway writes:

I started my broadcasting career in 1974. I guess you can call me VERY lucky that I “pestered” the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) “English Service” in early 1974 to do a radio series on Glenn Miller. The then Deputy Head of the English Service, Stephen O’Reilly, to whom I spoke at the time, said to me: “Can YOU do a series on Glenn Miller for us?” Well, I did not expect such a response to my hopeful approach, but as I had already possessed by then a massive Glenn Miller collection of records (and some books), I immediately said “Yes!”  To cut a long story short, my first “Miller Magic” series began during July of 1974 and ran for 21 weeks.

Over the years I have had the great fortune to meet and become friends with numerous legendary music friends as a result of my radio broadcasts. People like Count Basie, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, Doris Day, Neal Hefti, Sammy Cahn, Teddy Wilson, Steve Allen, Terry Gibbs, Sammy Kaye, Dr Paul Tanner, George Montgomery, Milt Bernhart, Ray Evans, Frank Chacksfield, Johnny Desmond, Buddy DeFranco, Peanuts Hucko, Herb Ellis, Tex Beneke, Paula Kelly, Abe Most, Dodie O’Neill, Larry O’Brien, Hal Shaper, George T. Simon, Ralph Carmichael; these and others that I can name as “friends” or “very good acquaintances”.

In the near future, with the help of a couple of my dear friends, I will tell you about my experiences with these wonderful people.

Sincerely,


Henry Holloway

http://www.fmr.co.za/about-us/presenters/henry-holloway
http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/bigbandreunion2008.html

A Letter from my friend Buddy DeFranco

Buddy DeFranco, one of the world's greatest clarinetists, is one of my closest friends. I first met him in 1981 when he toured our country. Recently he sent me the following endorsement letter for my pending autobiography.

Henry Holloway with guest Buddy DeFranco

When I visited South Africa in 1981 on a performance tour, one of the people who met me at the airport was Henry Holloway. I knew very little about him at that point in time, but when I left for my home in Panama City Beach, Florida, two weeks later, I had amassed, between my various “gigs,” such a wealth of information about this informative broadcaster/musicologist that a lifelong friendship had been firmly cemented between us.

Not only did Henry know things about me which I had forgotten (for instance that Gerry Mulligan and I were the world- record holders with 19 Down Beat Awards each among all jazz instrumentalists, but that I am indeed the world leader in awards won if you put all the jazz polls together), but his knowledge about the Golden Age of light music (especially in the big-band field, and most particularly about Glenn Miller) was amazing.

Henry attended my concerts at the President Hotel and at the Johannesburg Jazz Club, cheering like mad from the front row on each occasion.

Henry’s regular Saturday-evening radio programs, “Back to the Big Bands,” had made him nationally famous in South Africa, and I was delighted to be his guest on two of these broadcasts. And he was partly instrumental in my recording a television program at the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation), where he worked.

Henry invited me to his home in Johannesburg for dinner during my visit, and we spent a most happy and fascinating evening discovering how much we had in common musically.

By the time I left South Africa (and Henry was one of the people who saw me off at the airport) I had invited him to spend a few days with me and my wife Joyce, at our home during his intended visit to the USA in 1982.

I fetched Henry Holloway at a military airport near Panama City Beach when he flew in from South Africa in September 1982, and his visit with us turned out to be a bonus in so many ways. Henry fitted in with us so easily through his affable ways, and the music angle was intensified when I took Henry to our close friend Bob Downing’s house near to ours. Bob, a multi-millionaire property developer, who was instrumental in bringing me and Joyce to live in Panama City Beach some years earlier, was a Glenn Miller “nut,” so it all worked out fine with Henry.

Bob took us to nearby Seal Island with his yacht, and Henry marveled at the warmth of the northwestern Florida ocean (the Gulf of Mexico). Bob also sold Henry a plot of land in one of his new developments, on the corner of “Moonlight Avenue” and “Serenade Lane.” How appropriate for a Glenn Miller authority!!
I gave Henry a miniature harmonica on a neck chain and he wore it for many years afterwards.
A journalist from a local newspaper came to our house, and did a double-page article, with a number of photographs included, of the three Glenn Miller “fanatics.”

Henry made sure that the journalist inserted the fact that I directed the Official Glenn Miller Orchestra between 1966 and 1974. When Henry left us a few days later to continue his American trip, Joyce and I felt that we had made a friend for life.

In 1986 Henry brought his “brand-new” wife, Marilyn (a marvelous broadcaster in her own right) to meet us, and we had a ball together for another few days. Bob and Joan Downing joined us on a number of occasions, and a good time was had by everyone. Bob’s yacht, Seal Island and the lukewarm sea impressed Marilyn as much as Henry had been impressed four years earlier…..

When Henry came to Los Angeles in 2003 to receive the coveted “Golden Bandstand Award” from the Big Band Academy of America for his fantastic services to big bands, one of jazz’s greatest offshoots, I was almost in the chair next to him. I had also been invited to be honored with the same award, but I could not cancel a prior appointment on the 2nd of March that year. My very close music associate and friend, Terry Gibbs, sat next to Henry, and they both told me that they missed my presence there. You just can’t win ‘em all…..

I am very happy to write this Foreword to Henry’s autobiography, entitled “Swing, Sing and All That Jazz,” which I can assure readers will be a winner, because I know Henry Holloway, and what he has done for American music on his radio programs over the past 35 years.

Buddy DeFranco






Note: Buddy DeFranco has won more Downbeat, Metronome and Playboy polls than any other clarinetist in jazz history; in fact, it is believed he has won more polls than any other jazz instrumentalist in history. Buddy won the Downbeat poll 25 times (and came in second or third on numerous other occasions), the Metronome All Stars 13 times, and the Playboy All Stars’ ALL STARS award 7 times (where the All Stars voted for THEIR all stars). In 2006 America’s highest award, the Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, went to Buddy, and in 2007 he was presented with a Living Legend Award at the Kennedy Centre’s “Jazz In Our Time” Gala.



Sincerely,

Henry Holloway