Wilbur Francis Hall, sometimes billed as Willie Hall (November 18, 1894 – June 30, 1983), was an American
trombonist,
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
ist, and
entertainer.
Early life
Hall was born in
Shawnee Mound, Missouri
Shawnee Mound is an unincorporated community in northeastern Henry County, Missouri, Henry County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The community is on Missouri Route 13 ten miles north of Clinton, Missouri, Clinton. Post Oak, Missouri, Post Oak is ...
.
Career
Hall was working in
vaudeville when, in 1924, he was hired by
Paul Whiteman. Hall stayed with Whiteman's orchestra until 1930, mainly featured as a trombone player (his speciality on this instrument was a lightning-fast rendition of
Felix Arndt's ''Nola'', which he also recorded in 1929). However, Hall was apt a playing several other instruments, conventional as well as unconventional. Amongst the latter was his ability to play melodies on a
bicycle pump. Whiteman's main
arranger
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
Ferde Grofé
Ferdinand Rudolph von Grofé, known as Ferde Grofé (March 27, 1892 April 3, 1972) (pronounced FUR-dee GROW-fay) was an American composer, arrangement, arranger, pianist and instrumentalist. He is best known for his 1931 five-movement tone poem, ...
even wrote a special feature number for Hall on this "instrument" called ''Free Air: Based on Noises from a Garage''. Hall can also be seen playing his pump and novelty violin in the early color film ''
The King of Jazz''. This routine, called "
Pop Goes the Weasel", partly resembles the earlier work by vaudevillian
Little Tich.
After leaving Whiteman Hall toured as a solo act with the Publix circuit and then joined the Ken Murray Blackouts in
Los Angeles. Later, he toured nationally and internationally with his wife, mixing music with comedy, He also appeared on
television where he would reprise his violin bit from ''The King of Jazz'' on the
Ken Murray and
Spike Jones shows in the 1950s and on ''
The Gong Show'' in the 1970s.
An act called "Wilbur Hall and Renée Fields" appeared in the
variety program
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compà ...
''
Eastern Cabaret
''Eastern Cabaret'' was a live variety programme series broadcast in 193839 on BBC Television. It was one of several spin-offs from the BBC series ''Cabaret''. Four episodes were broadcast; they were produced by Harry Pringle, the first was ...
'' on
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
December 12 and 17, 1938. The same month, an advertisement by Fred Collins' Agency in British newspaper ''
The Era'', known for its theatrical content, announced a forthcoming appearance in
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
, Scotland by the same act, who may have been Wilbur and his wife.
Personal life
Hall died in
Newbury Park, California.
References
Sources
* Don Rayno: ''Paul Whiteman - Pioneer in American Music, Volume 1'' (Lanham, Maryland and Oxford 2003)
* DVD. "The Best of Spike Jones" (1955, 3-disk, Infinity Entertainment, 2009, previously released on VHS videotape.)
External links
*
*
American jazz trombonists
Male trombonists
Vaudeville performers
American male jazz musicians
{{US-jazz-trombonist-stub