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Oregon Experience is a production of OPB in partnership with the Oregon Historical Society.

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♪ If your heartaches seem ♪ ♪ To hang around too long... ♪ MAN: Johnny is remembered for starting the '50s off with a big record like "Cry" because it was huge.

MAN: What he added to music is vibrant energy.

He was like an innovator.

♪ Shake a hand Shake a hand... ♪ MAN: Musically, he's considered the link between Sinatra and Elvis.

MAN: He's kind of a musical pioneer, but I would say he's also kind of a cultural pioneer.

As a person who was deaf, as a person who was bisexual, part of his appeal was that he just stood out.

[ women screaming ] WOMAN: The women just went wild over him He led the way for rock 'n' roll.

♪ ...ahead and cry ♪ Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure now to present to you one of America's greatest singing entertainers... Until our next guest appeared on the horizon, nobody had ever heard anything like it.

Our special guest is Johnnie Ray!

[ crowd screaming ] ♪ Shake a hand Shake a hand... ♪ MAN: If you grew up in the '50s, there's a chance that you might have seen Johnnie Ray on TV, because he was a guest star in a lot of variety shows.

♪ Shake a hand if you can ♪ [ audience applauding ] We've had some great musicians in Oregon: Doc Severinsen, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Kingsmen.

But if you really look at the success of their career, Johnnie had way more hit songs.

MAN: In the early '50s, he was a major pop star, major teen idol.

He's someone who really disrupted the pop landscape.

♪ Now listen to me, you go Your way, I gotta go mine... ♪ But he's someone who is often forgotten because Johnnie Ray was really a performer who emerged before television was really deeply mainstream.

So there really is very little actual TV footage of him.

♪ Don't talk about me Baby, when I'm gone ♪ NARRATOR: Most of the footage that does exist comes from Johnnie Ray's last manager, Alan Eichler.

Johnny Ray should be remembered for his music and for his influence on music.

When Johnnie died in 1990, he gave Eichler his films of TV and concert performances dating back to 1951.

They capture an electrifying young singer... ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh... ♪ ...with a sound that would usher in a new era of music.

♪ Well, now I heard An introduction ♪ ALAN: His performing style was the future.

He had changed the style of performing, grabbing the microphone, running around the stage.

People used to just stay in one position and sing.

He was all over the place, he'd go out in the audience.

♪ Walk and talk With my Lord... ♪ And he was full of real raw emotion.

♪ He's the lily of the valley ♪ ♪ He's as bright As the morning sun ♪ ♪ I'm gonna walk, walk, walk And talk with my Lord ♪ ♪ Let's go!

♪ ♪ So I'm gonna walk, walk, walk And talk with my Lord... ♪ CURRIER: There's a certain amount of his live performance that you could say inspired Elvis Presley to do his hip-shaking movements onstage.

Some people have even stated that Johnnie was actually the beginning of rock 'n' roll.

♪ Talk with my...Lord ♪ [ audience screaming excitedly ] He told deejay John McNally that he was influenced by early jazz legends.

When I was just a kid up in Oregon, I got into Duke Ellington very young.

And so when I go back to my childhood and I think of pop music, I always identify with Duke Ellington.

CURRIER: Jazz music at that time was the popular music.

The culture that came out of all that, with the dancing and the clubs, it kind of metamorphosized into the early R&B music and into rock 'n' roll music where dancing was a very important part of the music experience.

NARRATOR: In the 1940s, Portland was a jazz town.

It's here that teenage Johnnie attended Franklin High School and got his professional start singing on the local radio show "Stars of Tomorrow."

While he was in high school, he would sneak out of the house at night, go downtown and play in the bars in town that had a piano.

[ ♪♪♪ ] He told deejay John Gilliland it was during this time that he wrote what would be the hit song "Whiskey and Gin."

♪ I got a gal Who drinks whiskey and gin... ♪ "Whiskey and Gin" was written in about four minutes at a party.

A bunch of us kids went to a party and they said, "John, write a song."

I said, "Okay."

♪ ...who drinks Whiskey and gin ♪ And I was probably 17 or 18 at the time.

I didn't know what I was singing about.

[ Johnnie chuckles ] Oh, yeah.

You got a bunch of those.

That's Uncle Johnnie and Grandpa playing at the house in Fruitland.

I don't remember where this was taken, but...

I don't either, but it is my favorite of him.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

NARRATOR: He was once a world-famous celebrity, but to Oregon brothers Randy and Roger, he was Uncle Johnnie.

Grandma and Grandpa on the outside and Mom and Uncle Johnnie.

Their mother, Elma, was his older sister.

He meant the world to mom.

It was just the two of them, and they were very, very close.

John Alvin Ray was born in 1927 and spent his early years on the family farm near Dallas, Oregon.

He was called Johnnie, and he spelled the name with an I-E, though it was often misspelled.

Even as a young child, he was drawn to music.

I'm told stories of him being 4 and 5 years old and standing at the piano and just playing songs by ear.

I think he just had that gene stuck in him somewhere from a very early age.

He was able to figure out music just by putting it on the piano and where the notes would go, and it seemed to come out.

But it would require that he would have to play it loud to hear it well.

From an early age, Johnnie Ray was hard of hearing.

The story goes he suffered an injury at a Boy Scout event.

During a game of blanket toss, he was thrown into the air and landed on the ground, damaging his left ear.

He often told reporters that incident caused his hearing loss, but his nephew says it probably started earlier.

ROGER: As best I understand it, there was a congenital problem from the beginning.

One ear was totally deaf and the other ear was partially.

In 1956, Johnnie told Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person that for years, no one knew he had hearing loss.

When I was very young, about 11 years old, a teacher told my folks that I was losing my hearing and suggested that perhaps I should be put into a deaf and dumb school, which of course makes quite an impression on a kid my age at that time.

And of course my parents had me fitted for a hearing aid.

EICHLER: He wore an old-fashioned hearing aid with the wire hanging down and the big battery pack.

He had to wear that because he was deaf without it.

I think he was the first performer to wear it onstage.

That became like a trademark.

But as a child, he was sometimes bullied for it.

He told deejay John McNally that he often felt isolated from other kids.

When I started losing my hearing, I would sort of seclude myself from people.

I used to go for long walks.

I'd take my dog with me.

And I don't think the word "lonely," it wasn't quite-- That's not quite the correct word, but I was extremely aware of isolation at a very young age.

NARRATOR: He became obsessed with show business and spent his free time performing music.

He told me about going to see Sophie Tucker, and she said, "Young man, if you want to be in show business, the first thing I'd do is get the hell out of Portland."

[ chuckles ] So he did, he went to Los Angeles.

And he supported himself by working in different clubs, playing piano and singing.

But his goal was really to be an actor.

But he didn't have any luck.

Soon, he returned to Oregon.

He played the regional bar circuit in Eugene, Medford, Coos Bay and Ashland.

And he was writing original songs, including this one that he recorded in Roseburg.

♪ Tell the lady I said goodbye ♪ ♪ Tell the lady I'm through... ♪ NARRATOR: He considered this a low point in his life, and he channeled that into his music.

RANDY: He told me, "This is the piano I wrote "Little White Cloud That Cried."

We've kept it in the family for years.

To this day, it's still my mother and father's favorite of anything that I ever composed or had the pleasure of recording.

"The Little White Cloud That Cried" would become one of his first hits and a lifelong standard.

♪ I went walking Down by the river ♪ [ audience cheering, applauding ] ♪ Feeling very sad inside ♪ ♪ When all at once I saw in the sky ♪ ♪ The little white cloud That cried... ♪ With new music and inspiration, he hit the road again.

RANDALL: He traveled to L.A. and then back towards New York, and that's where he met a lot of people with different types of music.

♪ Every time it rains I think of you... ♪ EICHLER: He was working a club in Detroit called the Flame Show Bar, which he described as a black-and-tan club, which drew both Black people and white people.

♪ And it's rainin' Teardrops from my eyes... ♪ STEPHENS: The Flame Bar was one of the main African American clubs among Midwestern performers.

That's really where Johnnie Ray was able to kind of cultivate some of those influences and develop his persona.

JOHNNIE: If it hadn't been for the Black community, actually, there really wouldn't be any Johnnie Ray around, because at that time I was supported by-- Virtually all Black people were my friends, and at that time I didn't have any white friends.

And I was literally fed and clothed and kept in that community.

STEPHENS: In the early '50s, Johnnie Ray wrote a story for Ebony magazine that focused on the influence of African American singers, but he also advocated for desegregation, which, again, was very unusual.

And I think it helped him establish a certain amount of credibility with African American audiences and with folks who listen to and enjoy R&B music.

You're bobbin' with Robin.

EICHLER: A disc jockey in Detroit alerted a scout from Columbia Records that they ought to come and catch his act, that he was totally different.

Here's a boy with a very individual style.

♪ Tell the lady I said goodbye... ♪ EICHLER: And they signed him to their Black label, the OKeh label, which was Rhythm and Blues mostly.

♪ Tell my friends I'm wise to a woman's lies... ♪ The first release was "Whiskey and Gin" and "Tell the Lady I Said Goodbye" with the Flame Show Bar orchestra.

This would be my favorite Johnnie Ray collectible.

His very first 78, "Tell the Lady I Said Goodbye" and "Whiskey and Gin."

And this would have been the one went out to radio stations and they said, "Hey, play this, it's going to be a hit."

NARRATOR: Gary Norris has been collecting Johnnie Ray material for decades.

That's a great record.

He wrote both sides of his first record.

That's pretty unique.

♪ And then She turns out the light ♪ ♪ There ain't A cloud in sight ♪ ♪ She leads me to the river Where the still waters flow ♪ ♪ Oh, I got a gal... ♪ The energy that he projects as he sings the songs is very different than a lot of singers, and he didn't consider himself a singer, you know?

he was very adamant about that, "I'm a song stylist."

♪ Who knows where love begins Or how it ends ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, I guess I know... ♪ NARRATOR: It was a sound audiences embraced.

But just as his star was rising, Johnnie ended up in jail.

He was arrested.

He was accused of propositioning a policeman.

He pled guilty and paid a $25 fine.

STEPHENS: From all accounts, Johnnie Ray was essentially bisexual.

And it was well known in the industry.

You know, it was kind of an open secret.

It was not a good time to be openly anything.

He was drinking heavily in this period and cited for being drunk in public, once while roller skating through a hotel lobby.

No matter all the rumors and all the talk about his drinking and his carousing and his sexual orientation, he was still kind of the boy next door.

[ girls screaming excitedly ] In the fall of 1951, his career exploded with the song "Cry."

♪ If your heartaches seem ♪ ♪ To hang around too long... ♪ It was huge.

That record just went crazy everywhere.

With the release of "Cry," he had the number one and number two songs on the Billboard pop charts, and he topped the R&B charts.

STEPHENS: The fact that "Cry" topped the R&B charts, that would suggest that folks who are going to stores that catered more to African American buyers, they were genuinely interested in his music.

♪ So let your hair down ♪ ♪ And go right on, baby And cry ♪ NARRATOR: But he also had critics.

His unorthodox style challenged norms.

NORRIS: He got made fun of a lot for the supposed crying and the emotional outbursts.

STEPHENS: And he's someone who really confounded a lot of people because he just didn't quite fit in.

So he was kind of an oddity at the time.

♪ When waking... ♪ In early 1952, he made his television debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town.

♪ Think it's real... ♪ He was a frequent guest and used an appearance to launch a foundation for the deaf and hard of hearing.

He's raising a fund of money for these youngsters to buy hearing aids.

I'm very much aware of the mental things that can come about because of a handicap like that, especially with a child.

STEPHENS: At that time, there really were not deaf pop singers.

That was a very unusual phenomena.

You know, any kind of disability at that time was still relatively rare in public and was often very stigmatized.

For the deaf and hard of hearing community, Johnnie is a pioneer.

[ mouthing words ] Myles de Bastion is deaf and, like Johnnie, a musician who uses all of his senses to experience music.

[ upbeat jazz music playing ] EICHLER: He told me that he couldn't hear the drums.

He only felt the vibration of the drums with his feet.

And the bass he couldn't hear at all.

He said the bass is for the audience.

[ laughs ] ♪ Davy Jones got me down In his quiet little shack ♪ ♪ Rock bottom, baby Rock bottom... ♪ In 1952, he was moved from the small OKeh Records to the main Columbia label under direction of the so-called hitmaker Mitch Miller.

-♪ Up above my head ♪ -♪ Up above my head ♪ ♪ I hear music in the air... ♪ Through 1952, a series of records followed, along with nonstop tours of performances and shows... ♪ And I really do believe I really do believe ♪ ♪ There's a heaven somewhere ♪ ...and more money than he had ever dreamed.

-Hey, John.

-Hmm?

This is the contract that Johnnie Ray sent over.

He's going to be on my television show.

Well, he's got a lot of nerve asking for this kind of money.

-How much?

-He wants $10,000!

Look, Johnnie Ray always gets that much money for his personal appearances.

He always gets $10,000?

Yes.

Then why is he crying all the time?

[ audience laughs ] ♪ Yes, tonight, Josephine Yes, tonight ♪ ♪ Yes, tonight... ♪ He returned to Oregon a star, receiving a key to the city of Portland and presiding over Johnnie Ray Days in Dallas.

♪ Give my heart to you ♪ ♪ Don't ask me if I love you 'Cause you know it's true ♪ ♪ Tonight, Josephine... ♪ This is our display of Johnnie Ray.

And he's one of our real stars of the county.

He did a lot for the county.

He brought in a lot of money for the schools.

My mom wouldn't let me watch anything of Elvis', but she just loved Johnnie Ray.

So he was okay.

He could do all those little movements and it didn't bother her, but he's just really loved by the women of Polk County.

RANDALL: He took very good care of his family.

The farm that he bought for his mom and dad out in Fruitland was one of the first things he did.

He gave a performance at his old high school... and attended a fundraising event for Portland's Fox Theater.

And just when he seemed on top of the world, the tabloids uncovered his 1951 arrest.

STEPHENS: There was the implication in several stories published in Confidential magazine that he was gay, and so one of the things that happened is that in the early '50s, he married Marilyn Morrison.

And she was the daughter of the manager of a popular nightclub in L.A. On May 25, 1952, surrounded by family and press photographers, Johnnie and Marilyn married.

So his marriage to Marilyn Morrison I think temporarily may have allayed some of those fears and concerns, but it was a short-lived marriage.

He never formally remarried again.

Though he had long-term relationships with both women and men.

By 1954, his long-held dream to be an actor finally came true when he was cast in the big-budget musical No Business Like Show Business.

He didn't wear his hearing aid in the movie.

Since he couldn't hear his fellow actors, he reportedly memorized the entire script.

Mind if I go on ahead?

Got a date?

No, no.

It's such a beautiful night, I just feel like walking.

I've got some thinking to do.

Okay, if that's your idea of fun.

It was his only major movie role.

Instead, he focused on recording for Columbia.

EICHLER: All the recordings are good, but none of them capture that early magic.

He was under a contract that controlled what he released.

Columbia, under Mitch Miller, wanted Johnnie to appeal to the masses and recorded a series of pop standards.

He was like a raw talent with rhythm and blues roots, and they turned him into white bread.

♪ Let's walk that-a-way Not this-a-way ♪ ♪ That-a-way We can be alone... ♪ Mitch Miller had his own idea of pop music, and he did not like rock 'n' roll.

So nobody on Columbia recorded rock 'n' roll.

But that wasn't the case at RCA.

♪ Well, since my baby... ♪ In 1956, Elvis enthralled audiences with one of his first TV appearances on the Dorsey Brothers' show.

♪ At the end of lonely street At Heartbreak Hotel... ♪ Within a year, "Heartbreak Hotel" sold 10 million singles and Elvis became known as the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

EICHLER: Elvis used to study him.

When Johnnie played Vegas, Elvis would come every night.

He learned a lot of his stage technique from watching Johnnie.

And he acknowledged it.

He admitted that Johnnie was an influence.

♪ You ain't nothing But a hound dog... ♪ At one point, Elvis was called "the next Johnnie Ray."

♪ I have no desire To start declaring war ♪ ♪ When an Elvis Presley record Is played... ♪ ♪ You know I can't be found... ♪ Both men publicly praised the other, and Johnnie downplayed his own talents.

♪ Just walking in the rain... ♪ [ music stops playing ] The right record company could have kept him going in that R&B style and stressed that more, which would have been acceptable to rock 'n' roll fans.

His stardom started to fade here, I guess, in the late '50s, early '60s, because he hadn't had a big hit in a while, but he remained a huge star in England and Australia.

Through the '50s, he hosted his own British TV shows.

♪ All of me Why not take all of me... ♪ CURRIER: In England, Johnnie was much bigger than he was in the United States.

His singles were consistently hitting the top 10 in England.

NORRIS: He is their favorite American.

Not Elvis, Johnnie.

In 1958, he underwent an operation to try to repair his hearing.

It failed.

Then in 1959, he was arrested again for solicitation.

This time, he fought the charges.

STEPHENS: He won because his lawyers were able to prove that he was entrapped.

And then shortly after that, he gave a performance at Harrah's and he got a standing ovation.

The following years saw health problems and a declining career that included a brief tour with his friend Judy Garland, who was struggling with addiction.

There's a documentary called The Last Performance about that tour, and it's got wonderful footage of Johnnie and Judy rehearsing together... ♪ I was the only one... ♪ NORRIS: He stuck with her when everyone had turned their backs on her and her career was really in trouble.

He was one of the few people that showed up to her last wedding, standing in as best man.

-And?

-♪ Only one... ♪ She would die of an overdose just weeks after the tour ended.

This was the first engagement that Johnnie and I did together.

♪ Yes, tonight, Josephine ♪ Yes, tonight ♪ ♪ Yes, tonight... ♪ In the 1970s, Alan worked to revitalize Johnnie's career with talk shows, appearances, and performances at venues large and small.

Onstage, he was still magnetic.

There was something about him when he put that tuxedo on.

He never lost that.

Whenever he would go to Europe and then down to Australia, the fans reacted the way they always had, you know, the screaming and cheering.

[ audience cheering, applauding ] ♪ Johnnie Ray, He's always crying... ♪ I got a call from Billy Idol's people... saying that he was filming a video and they wanted to have Johnnie in it.

Musicians that had grown up listening to his music, like Dexys Midnight Runners, put him in their music videos.

♪ Poor old Johnnie Ray... ♪ So all this was happening, and the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were giving him credit as being their inspiration.

In October 1989, he returned to Salem, Oregon, to perform a fundraiser.

A few months later, in 1990, he died of complications from liver failure at the age of 63.

At the time of his death, "Cry" had sold 25 million copies.

♪ I went walking Down by the river ♪ Today, he is buried beside his parents.

♪ Feeling very sad inside... ♪ ROGER: I'd like his legacy to be as not the founder of rock 'n' roll but the person who made it possible for people like Elvis Presley.

STEPHENS: I think in many ways he was kind of a pioneer.

He really did his own thing and openly embraced who he was.

Johnnie Ray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a posthumous Grammy, and is in the Oregon Musicians Hall of Fame.

CURRIER: He was one of the most successful artists to ever come out of this state.

And today, nobody really cares.

Alan is trying to change that by digitizing Johnnie's rare performances and posting them online.

EICHLER: I think he's due for rediscovery, because he was an important figure in popular music and he shouldn't be forgotten.

♪ That's how I know ♪ ♪ I'll always remember ♪ ♪ That little white cloud ♪ ♪ That sat right down ♪ ♪ And cried ♪ There's more about Johnnie Ray on Oregon Experience online.

To learn more, visit opb.org.

♪ Well, well, well Well, you asked me ♪ ♪ If I'm happy ♪ ♪ And if I had My peace within ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, oh, yes ♪ ♪ If I'm worried About tomorrow ♪ ♪ When I reach My journey's end... ♪ Leading support for Oregon Experience is provided by... Major support provided by... Additional support provided by the contributing members of OPB and viewers like you.