Belleville History Alive!

Tickling the ivory keys for Belleville listeners, page 2

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< SUBMITTED PHOTO The late Jimmy Corradi often showed a fine sense of humour to those around him. Here he is seen dressed up in a costume while playing at a Halloween party. The photo is undated. < Fitzgibbons' Shell Service Station at the corner of Coleman and West Bridge. There I'd sit with him while he lettered my new truck. As he was working, he would sip awTay a twenty-sixer of rye and ginger ale with ice in a glass. "He was such a gentleman that he would not even drink in a crude form like straight from a bottle or in a styrofoam cup. He had to have a glass, he had to have ice," chuckled Parsons. Following his sign-painting job, Parsons would take him to CJBQ radio station to perform at his noon feature show. "He was an excellent piano player. When he came to Belleville, he came with a vaudeville act. There were no electronic sounds those days. You had to be really clever to play piano in that field because you had to change with every different act. It would have been like playing in a circus," said Parsons. Bellieville resident Phil Flagler, who retired from CJBQ in 2000, recalled Corradi already being one of the live per- formers at the station when he was hired in April, 1947. "I remember him as outgoing and friendly," said Flagler. "His skill was an art. He was a classically trained pianist. But on his radio show he didn't do classic. He didn't do Chopin and so on. He did something like Sigmund Romberg type of music -- light classical music." Corradi was one of the 'charter' work- ers of CJBQ in 1946. He performed Sundays at noon for half an hour when the station went on air. His program called Etchings in Black and White ran constantly for 3 7 years making it the

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