SATIN DOLL
"Satin Doll" is a jazz standard written in 1953 by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn with lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
The song was a big hit, and was actually used as Duke Ellington's closing number in his concerts.
A macabre bit of trivia about this song:
In June of 1981, The Steve Miller Orchestra was playing "Satin Doll" at the grand opening event of the new Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City.
The hotel's star feature was a 60-foot suspended passenger walkway that spanned the enormous atrium.
Hundreds of revelers on the walkway were watching the festivities below, swaying to the music.
Then disaster struck- the walkway collapsed.
According to a New York Times article, "Several authorities have noted that the rhythmic movement of dancing or foot-tapping by a large number of people could have caused vibrations that would cause such a suspension span to collapse, as some bridges have done."
In all, the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse killed 114 people and injured more than 200 more.
However, in 1982, it was determined that the accident was actually caused by faulty construction: a cost-saving change in architectural plans that resulted in woefully inadequate support for the walkway.
As one engineer testified, "a hastily made design concept that never should have been built".
Hallmark, the owner of the construction company subsidiary that built the hotel, paid $140 million in damages.
It wasn’t until 2009 that Hallmark donated $25,000 to a memorial fund for victims and rescue workers.
Hyatt said it would not contribute, as the hotel location was now a Sheraton.
The Sheraton donated $5,000.
Finally, the Skywalk Memorial was dedicated on November 12, 2015 in Hospital Hill Park, which lies in the shadow of the former Hyatt Regency.
1 Comments
Guy
Very well done, love Duke Ellington and jazz . Wish I could play like that.