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1954: The Golden Years.
On Febuary 11th 1952 a rather nervious Eddie walked out on to the stage of the Portsmouth Theatre Royal in the show 'Record Hit Parade.' Alongside the Malcolm Mitchell Trio, comedian George Doonan and impressionist Joyce Golding, Eddie was billed as Britain's Harry James.However things did not go quiet to plan when he was forced to apologise to the audience on finding he could not finish his act due to a cracked lip.The following week the show moved to Finsbury Park, but again he was forced to withdraw from the wednesday and thursday performance. He returned on friday and according to the Melody Maker 'Critics could have found little wrong with Eddie's forceful and controlled playing, which slayed large sections of the audience.'
Eddie had not abandoned the recording studio and in March a recording with Lizebeth Webb called 'Its all in the game' was released.In April a further disaster struck when two members of the Mitchell trio recieved a severe electrical shock on stage.
They were attending the dinner dance of the Tottenham Court Road Police station at the Empire Rooms when Malcolm Mitchell on being announced grabbed the microphone. He immediately recieved a shock which paralysed him. Teddy Broughton rushing to his aid also recieved a large shock which left him unconscious. Both men were treated for burns. However eddie continued the show with the help of accompanist Johnny Pearson.
In June further releases followed including 'Hora Staccato' and 'My Yiddishe Momme', and on the 12th of July the Record Hit parade tour finished. On the 14th they were back on the road in Hull in a new show called Record Roundabout. Jewish singer and comic Issy Bonn was also on the programme and in August he joined Eddie in two new releases 'Here in my heart' and 'My mothers lullaby'.
January 1953 saw Eddie's next recording 'My Love My Life',and again he teamed up with Issy Bonn on a May release of 'As sure as there's a Heaven' followed by 'The bells of home'.
However his big break was just around the corner. In July he was looking for a B side to his next single called 'Mystery Street'. Josie his wife later recalled " For a long time I'd been hearing a certain tune over the car radio coming from a continental station. Then Norrie Paramor of Columbia Records told Eddie he had an unknown Swiss number he wanted him to hear. It turned out to be 'O Mein Papa', my tune! I told Eddie at once that he must do it, I felt it would do things for him." The tune was from a Swiss film called 'Fireworks' and in July Eddie entered the recording studios on Abbey Road. It took about an hour to record and on returning home to his flat on the Charing Cross road he told his wife that "the Golden boy's arrived, we're going to be rich."
In september the record was released but it was not 'Mystery Street' that caught the publics attention but 'O Mein Papa'and not initially in Britain but the USA. By the end of the year the record had reached No 6 in the American charts and had won Eddie a Gold Disc for selling over a million copies, the first instrumentalist to achieve such an accolade. In January 1954 'O Mein Papa' topped the British charts and stayed there for nine weeks. It also made a little bit of history in being the first NO 1 to have been recorded at the Abbey Road studios.
Eddie was hot property, with newspapers dubbing him 'The Man with the Golden Wallet'. On the 16th January the 'Melody Maker' newspaper reported that he had signed a contract to appear in Blackpool for the summer season for a fee that would net him £7000, and Ed Sullivan was offering $2000 for a three minute personal appearence on his TV show. Harry James the renowned American trumpet player released his version of 'my papa', which in orchestration and style was very similiar TO Eddie's. In an interview Eddie said "I guess I should be flattered. At last an American jazzman is following one of us. If we keep it up we'll have them stitched right up the hem". The report goes on to say that,'Calvert, a bombastic but likeable little man goes to America soon to collect his golden disc. The unions will not allow him to play his own trumpet while he is there. But Eddie says he will BLOW his own trumpet. Nothing could stop him.'