Del Porter (April 13, 1902, Newberg, Oregon – October 4, 1977, Los Angeles) was an American jazz vocalist, saxophonist, and clarinetist who, in the 1930s, performed on Broadway, toured with Glenn Miller, and recorded with Bing Crosby, Dick Powell, and Red Nichols, and in the 1940s, led his own big band.
Porter, the best known member of the quartet, co-founded City Slickers with Spike Jones, about the time his group The Feather Merchants split up.
The Foursome, with members Del Porter, Ray Johnson, J. Marshall Smith and Dwight Snyder, first appeared on Broadway in the two-act musical "Ripples" that ran for 55 performances.
The members of The Foursome appeared as state troopers in the show, which had music by Oscar Levant and Albert Sirmay, a book by William Anthony McGuire, and lyrics by Irving Caesar and Graham John.
[4] The Foursome next appeared in the George and Ira Gershwin show Girl Crazy, which ran for 272 performances.
Bing had met him in Spokane in the Twenties where Porter and Ray Johnson were musicians playing a gig in a dance band.
Crosby liked the Foursome's singing, but realized the ocarinas, and also Porter's clarinet, could add a fresh sound to old songs.
They were even busier in 1939 backing up Pinky Tomlin, Shirley Ross, Dick Powell and Bing.
[12] Spike Jones, who played drums on some recordings by The Foursome, suggested to Porter that he should start his own band.
Porter created The Feather Merchants, a six-piece ensemble that did comedy material in the style of then-popular musical comedians Freddie Fisher's Snickelfritz Band.
Eventually, the band evolved from the Feather Merchants to Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
With the Slickers he could write songs, sing and play on records, and let Spike book the gigs.
On Command Performance they appeared with Tommy Dorsey, Cary Grant, Lionel Hampton, Bob Hope, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore and Ethel Waters.
They continued with Bob Burns until The Slickers got their own radio show, sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Coffee in 1945.
Dr. Demento on a Spike Jones tribute night in 2015 played, with Porter singing, the Cinamatone, Runnin' Wild.
The train was unable to reach London because a buzz bomb had destroyed the tracks outside the city.
In fact, when we first got on the beach, she stood up on the side of a truck and sang five or six (or maybe more) songs, with no accompaniment or anything, for the guys that gathered around.
Porter reported: "We were with the Ninth Air Corps all the time we were in France, playing one landing strip after another.
And then, coming back to our base camp after dark, with no lights but – you know what cat eyes are on a truck?