November 2002

November 28, 2002
 

 
Marianne
Victor Arden-Phil Ohman & their Orch.    1928
(Victor 21776-B)
 

Lover Come Back To Me
Victor Arden-Phil Ohman & their Orch.   1928
(Victor 21776-A)

This week's selections are from the musical comedy The New Moon which opened at New York's Imperial Theatre on September  19, 1928.  The show ran for 509 performances and featured music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. 

The piano duo of Victor Arden and Phil Ohman became well known in the 1920s through piano rolls and recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company.  Both appeared in the cast of the Gershwin musicals Lady Be Good and Oh Kay! and their band performed in the pit for several other Broadway productions.  Arden and Ohman were also pioneers in radio and had their own broadcasts as early as the mid 1920s.  By the 1930s, both had separate careers with Arden heading up the house band on several network radio programs through the late 1940s.  The duo reunited briefly  to make recordings for the Brunswick label in the mid 1930s. 

November 21, 2002
 
 

 
Wake Up And Sing
Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra
Lew Sherwood, vocal                            1936
(Victor 25254-A)
 

South Wind
Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra
Lew Sherwood, vocal                            1936
(Victor 25585-B)

Duchin, a pianist with the Leo Reisman Orchestra, started his own band in 1931 and it soon became the most successful society band of the decade.  He interrupted his musical career during World War II to join the Navy where he was a Lieutenant.   The band was as popular as ever in 1951 when Duchin died of Leukemia at the age of 41.  His life was the subject of the 1956 film The Eddy Duchin Story.  In 1962, Duchin's son Peter formed a dance band patterned after his father's.  Today, he is still active with his band and other musical endeavors.
 
 

EXTRA

Just for fun, I thought I would demonstrate one of the features available on the audio restoration software I use.   All of the selections featured on my website were, of course, recorded before the advent of stereo.  The audio restoration software, however, has the ability to take a mono recording and make it sound like stereo.   Here is how the above recording of "South Wind" sounds in simulated stereo.  (Note: In order to stream the audio file, you must have a 56 k modem or higher Internet connection.  If your modem speed is lower than 56k, you will need to right click on the folder icon and download the file to your hard drive before listening.) 

South Wind(fake stereo effect added)
Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra
Lew Sherwood, vocal                            1936
(Victor 25585-B)
 

November 14, 2002
 
 

 
I'm Doin' That Thing
Gus Arnheim & His Cocoanut Grove Orch.  1930
(Victor 22505-B)

Gus Arnheim is best remembered for his five year run at the legendary Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel. 

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Cocoanut Grove was known as "The Playground of the Stars" and  was the nightspot for West Coast's  and Hollywood's rich and famous. A booking at the Cocoanut Grove meant instant exposure to the power brokers of entertainment world.

The Ambassador Hotel, which opened in 1921, was an impressive Mediterranean style structure situated on 23 landscaped acres on Wilshire Boulevard.  In addition to the over 400 rooms in the hotel itself, there were 76 bungalows on the property for guests who wanted greater privacy.   The hotel's swimming pool was the world's largest. 

Arnheim got his start at the Ambassador as a pianist for Abe Lyman's Orchestra, which was the hotel's house band from 1921 - 1925.  When Lyman moved his band to Chicago in 1925, Arnheim chose to remain as a member of Ray West's band.  In 1927, Arnheim was given the opportunity to form his own band at the Ambassador.  The band's style was often upbeat and had a  somewhat jazzy yet sophisticated sound.   Because of its Cocoanut Grove booking, the band received lots of radio exposure through both live network broadcasts as well as through broadcasts of pre-recorded transcriptions distributed to individual stations.  Arnheim also had a recording contract with Victor.

While at the Ambassador, the Arnheim band played a role in launching the careers of two of the period's most famous "crooners."  In 1930, when the Paul Whiteman band was about to head back East after traveling to Hollywood to film  The King of Jazz,  his "Rhythm Boys" vocal trio of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker decided to stay behind and strike out on their own.  A few months later, they secured a booking to appear with the Arnheim band at the Cocoanut Grove.  Crosby's unique vocal style was an instant hit at the club and with its radio audience. In later years Crosby credited the exposure he received at the Ambassador as being a major factor in his success. 

Another famous vocal career that was launched at the Ambassador was that of Russ Columbo who served as a stand in for Crosby on Arnheim's radio broadcasts.  Columbo's career, however, was tragically cut short when he died in 1934 as the result of a freak accident with an antique gun.

After Arnheim left the Cocoanut Grove, his band was  replaced by the Jimmie Grier and  Phil Harris orchestras.

In the decades afterward, the Ambassador continued to function as a host of famous people and events.  Several of the early Academy Award ceremonies were held at the Ambassador.   In 1968, however, its fame turned to infamy when Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the hotel's kitchen.   The hotel closed in 1989.  My understanding is that the Cocoanut Grove remained in operation as a nightclub until the end. 

Since its closing, the Ambassador's future has been very much in doubt.   The abandoned hotel has been popular filming location for Hollywood producers and a number of scenes from well known movies have been shot on its grounds. (See this website for a list as well as some photos of how the Ambassador appears today)  The property is currently owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District which is seriously considering demolishing the hotel and replacing it with a new school building.  (See here for details.)  It is my hope that a plan can be worked out that will enable the district to reuse the structure rather than demolishing  it.  The Ambassador and the Cocoanut Grove are cultural icons of early 20th century America.  Destroying them would be a tragic waste - especially when the property can be easily converted.  As America recovers from the cultural and aesthetic nightmare of the 1960s and 1970s,  more and more people are finally coming to realize that, in terms of architecture, entertainment and popular culture, the early decades of the 20th century represent a sort of "Golden Age" that we should once again strive for.  I think chances are good that, at some point in the future, the Ambassador's place in our history and culture will be more widely appreciated and that it might once again become viable as a hotel and entertainment showplace.  Converting it into a school rather than replacing it with some dreadful government building would be one way of keeping it intact until such a time.
 

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I'm Yours
Bert Lown and His Hotel Biltmore Orchestra         Biltmore Rhythm Boys, vocal                1930
(Victor 22541-A)
 

Though Bert Lown has been largely forgotten, his band was well known and made a number of nice recordings during the early 1930s.   The height of the band's success was from late 1929 through mid 1932 when it was the house band at New York's Biltmore Hotel.  The engagement provided the band national visibility through radio broadcasts as well as a recording contract with Victor.  However, after it came to an end, the band made only a handful of recordings and faded from view.  Lown disbanded in the mid 1930s and worked as a booking agent for other bands.  Later on, in the 1950s, he worked in management positions for CBS Television. 

"I'm Yours" was a very successful song in 1930 and was recorded by a number of artists - but Lown's version is my favorite.   The recording on the flip side of the record "Here Comes The Sun" is featured in the playlist of my online radio station.