HAMPTON, Virginia – What do Betty White and Lena Horne have in common? I will answer the question, but please let me tell you a story first.

At the entrance to the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel between Hampton and Norfolk was a motel called Strawberry Banks. Though it was a motel, it was on the water, so it wasn’t one of those motels. It had a spectacular dining room that overlooked Hampton Roads, the home of N.O.B. Norfolk and the Atlantic Fleet. As they say, it had a view.

Strawberry Banks was much more than a motel; it was a waterside motel made in the image of a larger resort, and was owned by a Democratic state senator and run by the local Ferguson family. My friend Mary Kendall Ferguson White, whose uncle ran the place, liked to go there as a child and get Shirley Temples. It was that sort of Sunday lunch place.

Strawberry Banks, designed by Anthony F. Musolino, was named for the wild “strawberry banks” of Hampton Roads that early English settlers found; today the property is owned by Hampton University. I do not recall if the actual building is still there there. What I recall from it was that as a child, I would see the giant strawberry on the sign. The hotel was right at the toll plaza, and you often had to wait there. I remember, and I could have remembered wrongly, but I recall Lena Horne’s name on the sign, advertising upcoming performances. I think it was more than once, but not sure.

As a child in the 1970s, I didn’t know of Lena Horne’s legend. I just knew that she wasn’t the sort of artist I would hear on WGH, which was the top 40 station that played all the hits in the area. Lena Horne was out of fashion, she needed the work, and she found in smaller venues an appreciative audience who liked to have have a drink and listen to a pro sing the right songs, the right way.

She died the same week that Betty White pulled of a genius performance on Saturday Night Live.

So what’s the point? What’s the connection?

Talent. Mislaid, forgotten and overlooked talent. Older talent.

The video above is Lena Horne on Rosie O’Donnell’s show, talking about her 80th birthday benefit party for Save Our Singers. Said Horne, who talked of musicians who were past their prime and needed help: “I’ve known a whole lot of indigent singers.”

I see older actors who cannot find a role and I see the parallel between old stars, and old brands. Consumers still want the old brands, but companies do not know how to market or position them. And instead of it being the company’s fault, we blame changing fashions and youth culture.

In entertainment, we have country that obsessed with finding new talent. And thank goodness we find the new talent. But there is room for lots of types of talent. Ironically, it is the programs that embrace talent of all kinds that seem to be hits.

The Monday after Betty White’s performance, I was curious about whether I, as a 45-year-old fogey, was more a fan than, say, a 22-year-old. So I asked one. He said he had missed the show, but please not to tell him about the skits because he was waiting to go home and look at it himself. Everyone was talking about it.

Now, Betty White has been a smart performer, and she has had many different careers in her career. But what if someone hadn’t started the campaign on Facebook? What if there weren’t places for Lena Horne to have played in the 1970s? Yes, they both became classics, but it didn’t have to happen.

I think about it with many 1960s and 1970s singers and actors, who were well known in TV shows and Top 40, but now that they are in their AARP years, are finding it hard to find a role. Yes, thank goodness that voices like Keely Smith and Marilyn McCoo can find a gig at the wonderful Palm Beach hotel The Colony, but wouldn’t it be great to see them occasionally on the Tonight Show? How recently was Julie Andrews on The Tonight Show? The one performance she lists on her site is certainly over 10 years old.

And what of the artists I used to hear on WGH? Most of those artists are prisoners of their history. They are trotted out at those T. J. Lubinsky PBS fund-raising specials, and made to perform old songs. Yes, the artists are glad to have the work. And the fans are glad to see their old favorites. But what was exciting about seeing Betty White was that she was utilizing her talents to do something new. Would that T.J. and PBS took the idea to a new place, and began developing programming that was interested in these performers as more than museum artifacts, perhaps pairing them with younger artists.

This is not an essay written to beg programmers to book more old stars out of guilt. The point is that there is a large body of talented folk, aged 55 to 90, who have alot of skills, and could bring new life to the entertainment industry. And a most important point. A hint: these artists come cheap, and they work hard.

As tired as many of us are getting with American Idol, its genius is its respect for the body of work of older artists. Older artists are mentors, and no matter how tired they are, they are given respect, and share their talents with a new generation.

Editor’s Note: Lena Horne will be buried at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue.

Here are some of the top music labels associated with African-American music. We know there are more (think Black Swan, Blue Note records); we just wanted to get the list started.

Certainly, there are thousands of sites associated with African-American music across the country, from theaters to houses. We wanted to list a few of the actual record labels. Why is this so fascinating? Because when you look at all these places in person, you can see how ordinary they are.

1. Motown: Hitsville USA in Detroit is the best known American soul brand. What else can be said about Motown that hasn’t? Visit the Motown Historical Museum at Motown Historical Museum, 2648 W. Grand Boulevard, Detroit. Amazing that its just an American Foursquare-style house.
2. Stax Records: The Stax Museum of American Soul Music, located at the original site of the legendary Stax Records in the heart of Soulsville USA in Memphis, Tennessee, welcomes you to all things Stax. See www.soulsvilleusa.com
3. Philadelphia International Records: What is there not great to say about Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. All we can say is O’Jays, Teddy and Patti LaBelle. Oh, and get on the Love Train because it is touring this summer. The building at Broad and Cypress Streets in Philadelphia has the label name on the outside.
4. Chess Records: This Chicago recording institution is responsible for Etta James and a slew of other greats. The studio at 2120 South Michigan Avenue is a Chicago landmark.
5. Paramount Records. This Wisconsin label recorded some of the early greats. A website called ParamountsHome.com details the history of Paramount. ParamountsHome was founded by author of “Paramount’s Rise and Fall”, Alex van der Tuuk, and Grafton residents Pat and Angela Mack in the beginning of 2005. After realizing that such an archive has not been available on Paramount-related topics, we saw the need to educate. In addition, in cooperation with the local historical society, they offer a walking tour of Paramount related sights in Grafton, Wisconsin.
6. Sugar Hill Records. This legendary label that invented rap had a studio in Englewood, New Jersey. It was apparently destroyed by fire.

If you are interested in music museums in general, visit the Music Museum Alliance website, with info on all sorts of popular music attractions across the U.S.

Please add to our list. This is by no means all, but just a few of our favorites.

Vanhala has a great take on the new way of doing things in his business, and in every business.

Chaos is opportunity.

In the old days (a second ago) in the music biz there generally was a few acknowledged, proven ways to get things done. The perceptions of marketing and distribution channels were relatively fixed, marketers knew about and could reasonably project results off existing programs at known distribution points. You could say thing like “we’ll spend 2 bucks/unit in co-op and get X units ordered and N% sell-thru” …

Today, in the world we live in now, there are multiple ways to get things done. The next big thing has been a million little things. Small has been the new BIG. Chaos is Opportunity. Scary but exciting, the world today is about flexibility, creativity, authenticity, and distinction.

Of course we do, though sometimes the plastic air tubes for onboard entertainment would poke into your ear if the rubber end was loose, I think. As my Very Astute Companion says, there was “the magic of being able to plug anything into the arm of a chair. It didn’t look like it would transport music, did it?”

Like the L-1011s, DC-10s and 747s that they inhabited, on board airline entertainment is disappearing. It has moved rapidly to an era where fliers pick the music and movies, not the airlines. JetBlue and AirTran have XM, no different from what you get at home. And headphones for the last 20 years or so are now electronic, no longer those plastic air tubes that stewardesses sold in plastic bags.

The pneumatic airline headphones were made by AVID Airline Products, which made the first pneumatic headsets for Trans World Airlines in 1963. Their headsets, made in Middletown, Rhode Island, were on 97 percent of all airliners, according to their website. AVID is still a leader in supplies for the airline industry.

Two early pioneers of programming the industry were Chicago radio man John Doremus, who owned John Doremus Inc. There was also Orange, Calif.-based AEI Inflight. In Europe, there was Inflight Productions Ltd.

AEI did some innovative things. In 1999, for the 40th anniversary of the first 707 transcontinental flight, AEI put together a special program for American Airlines. American Airlines recreated the first flight with a Boeing 757 specially painted in the markings of the original Boeing 707 jet that made the historic flight on Jan. 25, 1959. American operated the commemorative flight as Flight 3, departing New York Kennedy Airport at noon and arriving in Los Angeles at 3 p.m. local time. AEI’s music program for the flight included 1959 music including “Mack the Knife.”

In May 2001, DMX Music of Los Angeles merged with AEI Music Network to form DMX/AEI Music. The company now does mood music for retailers. We wonder about some of the other playlists and archives of DMX/AEI, and whether these compilations would have value in an era of iTunes and iPods? Of course they would, though copyright issues abound. The reality? They would have value on radio, too. That is if they are still around; often companies do not realize the value of their history, and throw it away.

But there is value.

For instance, today radio stations are now REPLAYING original Kasey Kasem American Top 40 radio shows. What a fun thing AT-40 is to listen to, a treasure trove of nostalgia, not just for the songs, but for the commentary in between. The same could be said for airline disk jockeys, who were often experts in their particular genres. For instance, National Airlines had veteran producer Ray Wallick programming their Sunshine Jazz Hour.

And Delta now posts iMix lists of their on board music, so that folks can listen to the same songs on their iPods. Great idea. Says Smita Premkumar, a Delta staffer, on their company blog:

“Check this out y’all. We received so many requests from flight attendants and customers about how they want the names of songs that we play on-board (for boarding music). So we decided to create our own iMix on iTunes. Now you all can download the individual songs for 99 cents or get the whole collection if you want!”

Many of us can recall OUR airline playlists, especially on long flights where the loop played over and over again. The one playlist that BrandlandUSA recalls best is of a summer round trip from JFK to LHR on TWA in 1978. The songs that I recall in the soft rock category/channel are:

• “Once, Twice Three Times a Lady” by the Commodores
• “FM” by Steely Dan
• “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones
• “Reminiscing” by Little River Band
• “Love Will Find a Way” by Pablo Cruise

I made my own little iMix. However, I am not sure about the exact songs, but do not have a July or August 1978 edition of TWA Ambassador handy in order to see if my recollections are correct.

Interested in the history of the genre? Entertainment Weekly has a great story posted online. A timeline of inflight entertainment is online at the World Airline Entertainment Association. And the website Ultra Swank has a great story of airline culture during its heyday.

Each record brand has a story, often related to its founder. A&M is all about founder Herb Alpert, and evokes smooth orchestration, quality lyrics and jazz roots. Reprise evokes Frank Sinatra’s break from Capitol, and houses Michael Buble. Capitol oozes founder Johnny Mercer and the Beatles. Casablanca still evokes the 70s, with its Neil Bogart disco roots and artists like Kiss, Lipps Inc., Irene Cara, Donna Summer and Village People (the label was brilliantly revived in 2004 by Tommy Mottola with artists like Lindsay Lohan). Elektra has scholarly folk roots defined by Jac Holzman and Leonard Ripley, and has mostly been forgotten by Atlantic Records and turned into nasty rap purveyor. Asylum is all about David Geffen and Joni Mitchell. We could go on and on.

What is the brand story of Columbia, the nation’s oldest brand (1888) in recorded sound? What is it about the historic Columbia Records? It first evokes quality; the legacy of William Paley of CBS still oozes through Columbia. In all aspects—writing, marketing, graphics, typography and cover art—the label speaks to high design and creative standards.

Secondly, Columbia is all about technological leadership. It was Columbia, of course, that first moved to flat records. And it was Columbia that invented the LP and pushed it into the market. Columbia, with parent Sony in charge, still has that ability. Third, it has the Walking Eye. That’s the logo with the two sticks under an oval. The logo was developed during CBS’s greatest days when designers like Lou Dorfsman and William Golden ruled Eero Saarinen’s Black Rock. It is the best. Sadly, CBS sold Columbia Records to Sony.

But some good things have happened under Sony. The label supported the preservation of Spillers Records in downtown Cardiff, Wales. It continues to promote Columbia’s “Walking Eye” trademark and combine it with the satisfying deep red. Streisand and Springsteen continue to work for Columbia, and the latter will come out with a new album, soon. And CBS, spun off from Viacom and which is no longer connected to Columbia Records, in 2006 revived the CBS Records brand. In this new brand reinvention, CBS Records will develop new talent and (a little back to the future here) push it on CBS television shows as well as a newly revived CBS Radio Network. Brilliant.

But the worldwide record industry is in death spiral, and that includes Sony. Much of the record industry problems are completely self-created. With the exception of American Idol related artists, much of the popular music pushed by record labels is nasty, negative and unwelcome in a respectable household. In addition, executives are wearing hair shirts, and lack confidence. Some Sony exec told Fox News in a positive story about the Springsteen album that: “You are the last one writing about the record business. Don’t you realize it’s over?”

No, it’s not over. The problem is not file swapping. In generation after generation, the recording industry has responded to new technology and copyright threats, and won.

The problem is in poor content, and the fact that most labels no longer have brand identity. In the record industry’s heyday, if you saw a certain record label, it meant that the records issued by the label had a certain feeling, a certain theme. You knew when you got a record from Elektra, it meant something to do with scholarly folk credibility and stylish compositions. You were willing to try new things from an established label. But today, labels are catch-alls, and they mean nothing, so the consumer is not helped by the name. And this wishy-washy-ness does not help in signing artists; if labels don’t mean anything to consumers, they aren’t essential to artists either. No wonder once top-selling artists like Captain & Tennille and Joan Shaw/Salena Jones are issuing their own records, and new artists like Stone Temple Pilots go it alone.

Above all, the industry has invested deeply in vile, anti-social content. Most record labels are led by Boomers. This generation has an almost religious identification with popular music being caught up in rebellion and protest. That worked fantastically in 1969, but the market is different now. Newer generations, market research shows, do not feel that they need to go against parents. Thus parents and children together watch Burt Bacharach and Carpenters songs sung by new artists on American Idol.

In a recent CNBC special on the record industry decline, Universal Music CEO Edgar Bronfman acknowledged that his company was enduring 20 percent sales declines each year. “We have a format, the CD, that’s over 30 years old,” he said. The documentary later went to a room full of turks plotting how to sell unpleasant rap ring tones.

Columbia seems to have a different approach. It provides a home to Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett as well as new talent. Sony would do well to keep the identity of Columbia distinct, and look to the past for future strength. Meanwhile, it should expand the Columbia brand to mp3 music players, web music services and music industry technology research.