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arisbe ([personal profile] arisbe) wrote2003-11-08 06:54 pm

"Are you ready, Hezzie?"

HOOSIER HOT SHOTS the history of the creators of rural midwestern jazz

For some three decades, "Are you ready, Hezzie?" was, in terms of current jargon, a way cool question. It was a widely used informal query among Americans who were in touch with the then most modern entertainment media. But like "I dood it," "Well, I'll be a dirty bird," and "In like Flynn," the once familiar "Are you ready, Hezzie?" has fallen by the vernacular wayside. Members of the pre-baby boomer generations will recall that the questions originated with the Hoosier Hot Shots, a quartet of merry minstrels who regularly committed musical mayhem on stage, screen, radio, and records from the mid thirties into the seventies.

Full story here.