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Casa Loma Orchestra
The Casa Loma Orchestra was an American dance band active from 1929 to 1963. Until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands. With the decline of the big band business following the end of World War II, it disbanded in 1947. However, from 1957 to 1963, it re-emerged as a recording session band in Hollywood, made up of top-flight studio musicians under the direction of its most notable leader of the past, Glen Gray. The reconstituted band made a limited number appearances live and on television and recorded fifteen LP albums for Capitol Records before Gray died in 1963. The band recorded and released the original version of the jazz and big band standard "Sunrise Serenade" in 1938 with Frankie Carle on piano. History The band assembled in 1927 as the Orange Blossoms, one of several Detroit groups that came out of the Jean Goldkette office. The band adopted the name "Casa Loma" by the tim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glen Gray
Glenn Gray Knoblauch (June 7, 1900 – August 23, 1963), known professionally as Glen Gray, was an American jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.''The Mississippi Rag'', "Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra," George A. Borgman, October 2006, page 1 Early years Gray was born to Lurdie P. and Agnes (Gray) Knoblauch in Roanoke, Illinois, United States. His father was a saloon keeper and railroad worker who died when Glen was two years of age. He had an older sister. His widowed mother married George H. DeWilde, a coal miner, and moved her family to Roanoke. Gray graduated from Roanoke High School, in 1917 where he played basketball and acquired his nickname, "Spike". Career Gray attended the American Conservatory of Music in 1921 but left during his first year to go to Peoria, Illinois, to play with George Haschert's orchestra. From 1924 to 1929, he played with several orchestras in Detroit, Michigan. Gray served as leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra thou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Bros
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1923 by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner, the company established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation, television, and video games and is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The company is known for its film studio division the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, the Warner Animation Group, Castle Rock Entertainment, and DC Studios. Among its other assets, stands the television production company Warner Bros. Television Studios. Bugs Bunny, a cartoon character created by Tex Avery, Ben Hardaway, Chuck Jones, Bob Givens and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Kapp
Jack Kapp (born Jacob Kaplitzky; June 15, 1901 – March 25, 1949) was a record company executive with Brunswick Records who founded the American Decca Records in 1934 along with British Decca founder Edward Lewis and later American Decca head Milton Rackmil. He oversaw Bing Crosby's rise to success as a recording artist in the early 1930s, and, four decades later, Crosby still gave appreciation to Kapp for diversifying his song catalogue into various styles and genres, saying, "I thought he was crazy, but I just did what he told me." Kapp could not read or sing music, but to his talent he stressed the credo, "Where's the melody?" Biography He was born in Chicago, Illinois to a Jewish family of immigrants from Russia. His father, Myer Kaplitzky, was a distributor for Columbia Records in 1905 and the founder of the Imperial Talking Machine Shop in Chicago. Kapp worked at the store after high school, and was known for having memorized the catalog numbers of every record in the inve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Nichols
Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905 – June 28, 1965) was an American jazz cornetist, composer, and jazz bandleader. Biography Early life and career Nichols was born in Ogden, Utah, United States. His father was a college music professor, and Nichols was something of a child prodigy, playing difficult set pieces for his father's brass band by the age of 12. Young Nichols heard the early recordings of the Original Dixieland Jass Band, Original Dixieland Jazz Band and later those of Bix Beiderbecke, and these had a strong influence on him. His style became polished, clean, and incisive. In the early 1920s, Nichols moved to the Midwest and joined a band called the Syncopating Seven. When that band broke up, he joined the Johnny Johnson Orchestra and went with it to New York City in 1923. In New York, he met trombonist Miff Mole, and the two were inseparable for the next decade. Before signing with Brunswick, Nichols and Mole recorded for Perfect Records, Pathé-Perfect un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Hackett
Robert Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was an American jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet, and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hackett was a featured soloist on some of the Jackie Gleason mood music albums during the 1950s. Biography Bobby Hackett was born in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He made his name as a follower of cornet player Bix Beiderbecke. Benny Goodman hired the talented 23 year old to recreate Bix's "I'm Coming Virginia" solo at his (Goodman's) 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. In the late 1930s, Hackett played lead trumpet in the Vic Schoen Orchestra which backed the Andrews Sisters. Hackett can be heard on the soundtrack to the 1940 Fred Astaire movie, '' Second Chorus''. In 1939, the talent agency MCA asked Bobby Hackett to form a big band with its backing. When the band failed, he was in substantial debt to MCA after it folded. He joined the bands of Horace Heidt and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herb Ellis
Mitchell Herbert Ellis (August 4, 1921 – March 28, 2010), known professionally as Herb Ellis, was an American jazz guitarist. During the 1950s, he was in a trio with pianist Oscar Peterson. Biography Born in Farmersville, Texas, and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Ellis first heard the electric guitar performed by George Barnes on a radio program. This experience is said to have inspired him to take up the guitar. He became proficient on the instrument by the time he entered North Texas State University. Ellis majored in music, but because they did not yet have a guitar program at that time, he studied the string bass. Unfortunately, due to lack of funds, his college days were short-lived. In 1941, Ellis dropped out of college and toured for six months with a band from the University of Kansas. In 1943, he joined Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, and it was with Gray's band that he got his first recognition in the jazz magazines. After Gray's band, Ellis joined the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camel Caravan
A camel train or caravan is a series of camels carrying passengers and goods on a regular or semi-regular service between points. Despite rarely travelling faster than human walking speed, for centuries camels' ability to withstand harsh conditions made them ideal for communication and trade in the desert areas of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Camel trains were also used sparingly elsewhere around the globe. Since the early 20th century they have been largely replaced by motorized vehicles or air traffic. Africa, Asia and the Middle East By far the greatest use of camel trains occurs between North and West Africa by the Tuareg, Shuwa and Hassaniyya, as well as by culturally-affiliated groups like the Toubou, Hausa and Songhay. These camel trains conduct trade in and around the Sahara Desert and Sahel. Trains travel as far south as central Nigeria and northern Cameroon in the west, and northern Kenya in the east of the continent. In antiquity, the Arabian Peninsul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugenie Baird
Eugenie Baird (November 19, 1923 – June 12, 1988) was an American big-band, jazz, and radio singer. Career Baird was from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Eugene Baird, whose obituary described him as a construction foreman, but another source said that she came "from a theatrical family." She sang in choral groups in grammar school. Radio Baird's early experiences in radio included a thrice-weekly program of her own on KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She gained that spot via audition as a high school student. For a year, Baird was Bing Crosby's singing partner on Kraft Music Hall on NBC. She hosted the radio program ''Eugenie Baird Sings'' on ABC in 1946 and she "was selected from more than 50 girls to sing the top tunes of all time." on Paul Whiteman's ''Forever Tops'' weekly program (also on ABC) that same year For the job, she moved from New York to Hollywood. The show debuted on January 21, 1946 and continued into 1947. She sang on ''The Jack Smi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swing Era
The swing era (also frequently referred to as the big band era) was the period (1933–1947) when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though this was its most popular period, the music had actually been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Bennie Moten, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines, and Fletcher Henderson, and white bands from the 1920s led by the likes of Jean Goldkette, Russ Morgan and Isham Jones. An early milestone in the era was from "the King of Swing" Benny Goodman's performance at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, bringing the music to the rest of the country. The 1930s also became the era of other great soloists: the tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Lester Young; the alto saxophonists Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges; the drummers Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, Jo Jones and Sid Catlett; the pianists Fats Waller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jumeirah Essex House
The JW Marriott Essex House (commonly known as the Essex House) is a luxury hotel at 160 Central Park South in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the southern border of Central Park. Opened in 1931, the hotel is 44 stories tall and contains 426 Art Deco–style rooms and 101 suites, as well as 147 condominium residences. It features a distinctive red neon rooftop sign. JW Marriott Essex House New York is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. History JW Marriott Essex House is on part of the site of an eight-building housing cooperative complex called Navarro Flats, developed by José Francisco de Navarro from 1882 to 1884. At the time, Central Park South contained a multitude of high-class apartment buildings. However, Navarro Flats was not successful, and it closed by the 1920s. Construction began on October 30, 1929, one day after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The hotel was first intended to be named ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starin's Glen Island
Starin's Glen Island was a summer resort in the community of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York, developed by shipping magnate and U.S. Congressman John H. Starin in the late 1800s. Starin's resort, referred to as "America's pleasure grounds" was the first theme park in the country. The park's original design exhibited the five cultures of the western world on individual islands linked together with piers and causeways. The extreme popularity of the park resulted in a building boom in New Rochelle in the first decade of the twentieth century. The resort was located on Glen Island, in New Rochelle's Lower Harbor, just off of Long Island Sound. The island is situated between Davids, Neptune, and Travers islands in New Rochelle, and Hunter Island in nearby Pelham Bay Park, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Although now one island, the site originally consisted of one large main island in close proximity to at least four smaller nearby islands, a number of rocky outcr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
