Roaring 20s: Phil Napoleon & His Orch. - Take Your Finger Out Of Your Mouth, 1926

Phil Napoleon and His Orchestra – Take Your Finger Out Of Your Mouth (I Want A Kiss From You) Fox-Trot with Vocal refrain by Billy Murray (Schuster-Yellman) HMV 1926 (Australia) NOTE: The song’s lyrics portray a Jazz Age babyish style invented by some of the influential silent film stars of the 1920s (e.g. Mary Pickford, Helen Kane, Clara Bow). A few years later, the character was caricatured by Betty Boop - an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, which appeared in 1930 in Betty Boop film released by Paramount Pictures. Designed as caricature of a Jazz Age flapper, Betty Boop became one of the best-known and popular cartoon characters in the world. It was described in 1934 as “combining in appearance the childish with the sophisticated—a large round baby face with big eyes and a nose like a button, framed in a somewhat careful coiffure, with a very small body of which perhaps the leading characteristic is the most self-confident little bust imaginable". From the very beginning – ever since a “baby/girl appeared in Helen Kane’s – or “it girl” in Clara Bow’s movies - the Betty Boop character was also a sex symbol, which was widely featured in movies, comic strips and mass merchandising. * Phil NAPOLEON (born Filippo Napoli in Boston, 1901 – d. in Miami, 1990) American jazz trumpeter and bandleader of an Italian descent. He is considered as a pioneer jazz trumpeter, whose recordings helped increase jazz's popularity in the mid-'20s and whose playing was influential on Red Nichols and Bix Beiderbecke. Napoleon began s performing publicly by age 5 and in 1910s he was one of the first musicians in the East of the United States to embrace the new "jass" style brought in by the musicians from New Orleans. With pianist Frank Signorelli he formed The Original Memphis Five" in 1917 and in the 1920s he became one of the most sought after trumpeters. The group were one of the most prolific in New York City and in 1922-1923 alone made over a 100 recordings. Napoleon's 1927 version of "Clarinet Marmalade" was a particular success. During mid-late 1920s his band also recorded under Phil Napoleon’s name    • Jazz Age: Phil Napoleon & His Orch. - Clar...   The Original Memphis Five split in 1928 and Phil Napoleon started working as a session trumpeter with other orchestras (he recorded with the Cotton Pickers, the Charleston Chasers and also worked with RCA Studio orchestra and accompanied such singers as Leona Williams and Alberta Hunter). In 1937 he unsuccessfully tried to form his own band.. During the 1940s and 1950s Phil Napoleon worked with Jimmy Dorsey’s band in LA, back in NY he worked as studio musician at NBC until 1950 when he reformed The Original Memphis Five, which was noted for their performances at Nick's in New York. In 1959, Napoleon and The Five performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, later released as an album. In 1966 he opened up his own club named "Napoleon's Retreat" in Miami, Florida where he lived until his death, still continuing to perform Dixieland jazz in the club up until the 1980s.