Harry Babbitt

Harry Babbitt says his life in music has traced a circle, from his early years as lead singer with the popular Kay Kyser Orchestra, to a successful career in real estate when the big-band craze fizzled, and now back, in recent years, to song. "I'm beginning to get fan mail again," says Babbitt, who will be singing his best-known songs, with the help of the UCI Jazz Ensemble, in '40s-style music and dance sessions Friday and Saturday at the Irvine campus. "Isn't that crazy?"

Harry Babbitt, the Kay Kyser orchestra lead vocalist who sang on such Kyser hits as "Three Little Fishies," "On A Slow Boat to China" and "Who Wouldn't Love You," has died. He was 90. Babbitt, a longtime Newport Beach resident, died April 9 of age-related causes in a nursing home in Aliso Viejo, said his son Michael. Dubbed "Handsome Harry" by Kyser, Babbitt sang with the Kay Kyser band from 1938 to about 1949, with time out for service in the Navy from 1944 to 1946.

Harry Babbitt, the Kay Kyser orchestra lead vocalist who sang on such Kyser hits as "Three Little Fishies," "On A Slow Boat to China" and "Who Wouldn't Love You," has died. He was 90. Babbitt, a longtime Newport Beach resident, died April 9 of age-related causes in a nursing home in Aliso Viejo, said his son Michael. Dubbed "Handsome Harry" by Kyser, Babbitt sang with the Kay Kyser band from 1938 to about 1949, with time out for service in the Navy from 1944 to 1946.

Harry Babbitt says his life in music has traced a circle, from his early years as lead singer with the popular Kay Kyser Orchestra, to a successful career in real estate when the big-band craze fizzled, and now back, in recent years, to song. "I'm beginning to get fan mail again," says Babbitt, who will be singing his best-known songs, with the help of the UCI Jazz Ensemble, in '40s-style music and dance sessions Friday and Saturday at the Irvine campus. "Isn't that crazy?"

"I sat on Santa's lap, but he didn't ask me what I want for Christmas," said Kathleen Frink, as her husband, Emory, headed for the buffet tables. The Frinks were among 225 couples at the Newport Beach Marriott on Saturday for the annual "Christmas Carol Ball" sponsored by the 552 Club, a support group for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

The strains of Glenn Miller's "Tuxedo Junction" wafting from a loudspeaker set an appropriately nostalgic tone as more than 125 people gathered on the ocean front sidewalk in Newport Beach on Tuesday awaiting the answer to the question, "What ever happened to the Rendezvous Ballroom?"

James Kern (Kay) Kyser, the "Old Perfesser" on radio's beloved "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge," died Tuesday of a heart attack. Kyser, who years after he abandoned his band admitted he couldn't read a note of music or play an instrument, was 79 and died in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he had devoted the last 35 years of his life to Christian Science. From 1933 until 1949 Kyser and his assemblage of musical madcaps rode atop the radio ratings.

It's not quite the same as getting a $7 plane ticket to any destination in the Americas, but Golden West College's first annual Starshower '92 concert series tries. For five Thursday evenings beginning tonight, the tree-lined, 1,000-capacity amphitheater on the Huntington Beach campus will play host to a wide swath of the music of the Americas. The series kickoff tonight features Huayucaltia, a multicultural quintet of Latino musicians.

Like boat parades and surfing Santas, the Christmas Carol Ball that benefits Hoag Hospital is a Newport Beach Yuletide tradition. This year, the 552 Club of the Hoag Hospital Foundation that staged the Saturday gala added a new feature: a "Festival of Trees" that turned the Newport Beach Marriott ballroom into a sparkling forest.

They say that every time you ring a bell, an angel gets its wings in heaven. --Rena Godshall, director, Our Lady Queen of Angels Bell Choir Hordes of angels got their wings Tuesday at the Five Crowns restaurant in Corona del Mar, where the Spyglass Committee of the Orange County Philharmonic Society met, as it has now for four years, for Christmas lunch. This year, a bell choir added to the yuletide cheer.

Joe Graydon doesn't think he's being nostalgic when he hums Glenn Miller's "In the Mood," gives a soft rendition of "Slow Boat to China" or whistles some other hit tune from the big-band era of the 1930s and 1940s. As far as Graydon is concerned, he's very much in the present. "To me, it's like big band never left. It's very current to me," said the Glendale resident and concert producer. "I feel like I know every note of every arrangement that was a hit in those days."

For local music-makers, there is bad news as well as goodon the eve of Sunday's Orange County Musicians' Bash in Costa Mesa, the annual blowout that this year will feature 50 local jazz and classical groups on five stages.