This first appeared in the Asbury Park Press in 2003
FOR THE LOVE OF LOUIS
For Gia Maione-Prima, the legend and the love lives on.
By Ed Kaz !
Correspondent
Louis Prima means a lot of things to a lot of people: A.) King of Vegas, B.) Voice of the ape in the Jungle Book , C.) Influential jazz trumpet player and songwriter, D.) That dude who sings in the "Khaki Swing" Gap Commercial. But to Gia Maione-Prima of Island Heights he’s all of the above and more: Louis Prima was a musical comrade, best friend, and love of her life.
Maione-Prima started out as a fan, then became Prima’s singing partner and wife from 1963 until his passing in 1978. Ever since she’s been engaged in a labor of love: Preserving his legacy. Currently she’s hard at work producing a CD re-issue of her husband’s albums from the 60s and 70s--records that she hopes will make the case that Prima did not rest on his laurels after his career-making sides for Capitol in the 1950s. That decade brought forth such jukebox faves as "Just a Gigolo," "Old Black Magic," and the ever-enduring "Jump, Jive, An’ Wail," the song that sold a whole lot of pants.
"I really believed that we were destined to come together," said the soft-spoken Maione-Prima, seated across the kitchen table at her home in Island Heights. During our chat, Prima’s spirit was very much in evidence. There’s a photo of the couple snuggling on a golf-cart here, the gold record for Jungle Book there. On the floor in the living room was a long box brimming with records, all Prima's (He made hundreds in a career which spanned from 1934 to 1975). And just a few feet away, resting on the mantle, forever silent, sat The Trumpet.
Maione-Prima was already a long-time fan when she first me the legendary entertainer in 1962. Prima, still smarting from his acrimonious split with wife/singing partner Keely Smith, was on a nationwide search for a new "girl singer" to join his act. The word was out: He’d be trying out girls at the Latin Casino nightclub in Cherry Hill. Maione--then a fresh-faced nineteen-year-old living with her folks in Toms River--was ready for her appointment with destiny. " I was working in Howard Johnson’s--the IHOP now-- when I read in the paper that he was auditioning girl singers." She ran home and begged her mom to drive her to the audition. What comes next reads like a low-budget musical from the 1950’s, but Maione-Prima swears it’s all true:
"After each show the girls would line up backstage after the curtains closed and stay with the piano player," recounted the singer. "Louis would sit there and listen to each one of them sing. All these girls were gorgeous: tight gowns, low necklines. Just gorgeous. And when I went to audition I had a poodle haircut and just had lipstick and crinolines and a cotton dress." The always unpredictable Prima decided not to wait for intermission to audition Maione. "During the show, he said [with New Orleans accent] ‘We have a little girl here from Tawms River New Jersey and she would like to audition and sing for you.’ And he calls me up and he said, ‘’Do you know ‘I’m in the Mood for Love?’’ And I said ‘Oh yeah!’ I knew everything, because I collected everything he ever did! Back in the variety shows here I did all Louis’ songs."
Maione’s demure appearance concealed a giant singing talent. Prima and his band (Sam Butera and the Witnesses) were duly impressed; just a few days later she found herself headlining her first show at the prestigious Basin Street East in the New York City. That night when the curtain went up Maione could not believe her eyes. “Front row: Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Jackie Gleason, Robert Mitchum, Anita Louise, Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper," said a still awe struck Maione-Prima. "I want to tell you, I was not nervous, but the guitar player couldn’t play a lick. [laughs] He was scared to death!" Indeed, one celebrity in the audience seemed to be sharing in the nervousness. "Jackie Gleason spilled a drink on Ella Fitzgerald’s cleavage by accident," laughed Maione-Prima. "He was going to toast Louis and when he went like that [raises arm] it went right on poor Ella. That was a big laugh, trying to clean her off and all."
And as if that wasn't enough, later that same week the band was booked to play the Ed Sullivan Show. Now the little girl who sang Louis Prima songs at variety shows in Toms River was now on television in front of millions.
"We didn’t even have rehearsal time,” explained Maione-Prima. On the show, she performed “I Want You to be My Baby,” which quickly became her signature song. "Baby" showcases a breath-takingly rapid-fire delivery that could stop Eminem in his tracks. “[It] was a song that I had been singing," said Maione-Prima with a laugh, "So I just told them what key and [the band] did it and Louis chimed in to try to make it a little routine for us."
It wasn't long before the little routine turned into big love. On Lincoln’s Birthday 1963 Prima popped the question in a parked limo between shows at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. As Maione-Prima tells it, he met her at the side entrance of Harrah’s, got into the limo, produced two rings and said, "I’d like to marry you, now." Before you could say “Zooma Zooma,” they were in front of the justice of the peace. Ever the professionals, they got back just in time for their second set. "Louis took me onstage and introduced me as Gia-Maione-Prima for the first time. Sam and the boys fell on the ground."
As the 60s wore on, the Primas began to see that the times they were a’ changing. The live act was still a major attraction but record execs were now looking across the pond to fill their roster. "In 1963, when the Beatles landed music changed forever,” remembers Maione-Prima. “With a company like Capitol, people like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Louis and all these great performers were put on a back burner. If you didn’t have an English accent they didn’t want to put your stuff out there. And so Louis said ‘I’m not gonna take this.’" So, in Prima-Maione’s words, “Louis re-invented himself.”
He decided to form his own label, Prima 1 Magnagroove Records, which stayed in business until 1975 when the singer took ill and fell into a coma from which he never recovered. The albums--which could be obtained only at shows or via a mailing list--are quite remarkable in sound quality and musicianship and more than hold their own against Prima’s best. During the past year Maione-Prima has been hard at work getting them reissued. “I remastered them all myself in the studio with Dennis Drake in [Morganville] and had them pressed and we kept the artwork and everything intact as the original covers. And we’re having wonderful response."
These days Maione-Prima tirelessly goes about the family business; she promises more CD reissues as well as DVD in the near future. When asked about her favorite Prima song, she just smiles. "I cannot tell you. I have so many. This is gonna sound corny, but I play his music all the time. As a kid, as an adult, and now as a senior citizen, there’s no better way to clean your house and do your chores than blast Louis, because he gives you the energy, and he makes it a pleasure."
Louis, Gia, and You Know Who. Circa 1960s.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PRIMA 1 MAGNAGROOVE REISSUES GO TO www.louisprima.com
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