A
big band remote was a
remote broadcastIn broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast is broadcasting done from a location away from a formal television studio and is considered an electronic field production . A remote pickup unit is usually used to transmit the audio and/or video back to the television station, where it joins the...
, popular on radio during the 1930s and 1940s, involving a coast-to-coast live transmission of a
big bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
.
As early as 1923, listeners could tune in
The Waldorf-Astoria OrchestraThe Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, in addition to providing dinner music at the famous hotel of the same name, made over 300 recordingsRust, Brian, The American Dance Band Discography 1890—1942, Volume 1, Arlington House, New York, 1975, pp. 374--378, 399--402, and 974—981. ISBN 0-870000-248-1 and many...
. The Oriole Orchestra (Dan Russo and Ted Fio Rito) was performing at Chicago's
Edgewater Beach HotelThe Edgewater Beach Hotel was a hotel in the far-north neighborhood community of Edgewater in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1916 and owned by John Tobin Connery and James Patrick Connery, it was located between Sheridan Road and Lake Michigan at Berwyn Avenue. The complex had a private beach and...
when they did their first radio remote broadcast on March 29, 1924, and two years later, they opened the famous
Aragon BallroomThe Aragon Ballroom is the name of a ballroom in Chicago, Illinois.Located on West Lawrence Avenue approximately five miles north of downtown in the Uptown neighborhood, it was built in 1926 and designed in the Moorish architectural style with the interior resembling a Spanish village and named...
in July 1926, doing radio remotes nationally from both the Aragon and the
Trianon BallroomsThe Trianon Ballrooms were located in a number of cities during America's bigband era. The most prominent Trianon was in Chicago, Illinois, but there were others as well, located in places such as Cleveland, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toledo, and the Los Angeles suburb of South Gate...
. In 1929, after
Rudy Vallée's OrchestraRudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
vacated Manhattan's Heigh-Ho Club to do a movie in Hollywood, Will Osborne's dance band found fame with a nationwide audience due to radio remotes from the Heigh-Ho. That same year,
Phil SpitalnyPhil Spitalny was a musician, music critic, composer and bandleader heard often on radio during the 1930s and 1940s...
and his orchestra broadcast on NBC from the
Hotel PennsylvaniaThe Hotel Pennsylvania is a hotel located at 401 7th Avenue in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden in New York City.- History :...
in New York.
By 1930,
Ben BernieBen Bernie , born Bernard Anzelevitz, was an American jazz violinist and radio personality, often introduced as The Old Maestro. He was noted for his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue....
was heard in weekly remotes from
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's
Roosevelt HotelThe Roosevelt Hotel is at Madison Avenue and 45th Street in midtown Manhattan, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. The New York City hotel opened on September 22, 1924. The hotel closed in 1995 and reopened in 1997 after a $65-million extensive renovation.-Guest rooms:There are a total...
. On November 24, 1937,
Glenn MillerAlton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
did a remote on NBC from
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's Raymor Ballroom on
Huntington AvenueHuntington Avenue is a secondary thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts beginning at Copley Square, and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods...
(one block from
Symphony HallSymphony Hall is a concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. The hall was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1999...
). In 1939, both NBC and Mutual broadcast Glenn Miller and his orchestra from the
Glen Island CasinoGlen Island Park is a park, located on an island in Long Island Sound. The park is owned and operated by Westchester County and shares Glen Island with a privately operated but county-owned entertainment facility, the Glen Island Harbour Club....
(
New Rochelle, New YorkNew Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...
), an unusual dual-network remote with some 1,800 people present in the Casino ballroom.
Broadcasts were usually transmitted by the major
radio networkThere are two types of radio networks currently in use around the world: the one-to-many broadcast type commonly used for public information and mass media entertainment; and the two-way type used more commonly for public safety and public services such as police, fire, taxicabs, and delivery...
s directly from hotels, ballrooms, restaurants and clubs. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the remote locations expanded to include military bases and defense plants. Band remotes mostly originated in major cities, including Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago. The Chicago broadcasts featured bands headed by
Count BasieWilliam "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
,
Frankie CarleFrankie Carle – , born Francis Nunzio Carlone, was a American pianist and bandleader. As a very popular bandleader in the 1940s and 1950s, Carle was nicknamed "The Wizard of the Keyboard"."Sunrise Serenade," however, was Carle's best-known composition, rising to No...
,
Duke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
,
Jan GarberJan Garber was an American jazz bandleader.-Biography:Garber was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had his own band by the time he was 21 . He became known as "The Idol of the Airwaves" in his heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, playing jazz in the vein of contemporaries such as Paul Whiteman and Guy...
,
Jerry GrayJerry Gray was an American violinist, arranger, composer, and leader of swing dance orchestras bearing his name. He is widely known for his work with popular music during the Swing era. His name is inextricably linked to two of the most famous bandleaders of the time, Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller...
,
Woody HermanWoodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
,
Earl HinesEarl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...
,
Eddy HowardEddy Howard was an American vocalist and bandleader who was popular during the 1940s and 1950s.-Biography:...
(from the Aragon Ballroom),
Dick JurgensDick Henry Jurgens was an American swing music bandleader, who enjoyed great popularity in the late 1930s and early 1940s....
,
Kay KyserJames Kern Kyser was a popular bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.-Early years:He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Paul Bynum Kyser and Emily Royster Kyser. Editor Vermont C. Royster was his cousin...
(from the
Blackhawk RestaurantThe Blackhawk was a restaurant in the Chicago Loop from 1920 to 1984. It served a menu of American cuisine, notably prime rib and a signature "spinning salad bowl," and was, in the early part of its history a nationally known entertainment venue for Big Band music...
),
Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk OrchestraCoon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts...
(from the Blackhawk),
Ted WeemsWilfred Theodore Weems was an American bandleader and musician. Weems' work in music was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Biography :...
,
Shep FieldsShep Fields was the band leader for the "Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm" orchestra during the Big Band era of the 1930s.-Biography:...
(from the
Palmer HouseThe Palmer House Hilton is a famous and historic hotel in downtown Chicago.-History:There have been three Palmer House Hotels at the corner of State and Monroe Streets in Chicago....
) and Griff Williams.
The usual procedure involved the network sending a two-man team, announcer and engineer, with remote radio equipment to a designated location. The announcer would open with music behind an introduction:
- Coming to you from Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook on Route 23, just off the Pompton Turnpike in Cedar Grove, New Jersey
-Climate:Cedar Grove has a humid subtropical climate, with warm/hot humid summers and cool/cold winters. The climate is slightly colder overall during the summer than in New York City because there is no urban heat island effect....
, we present the music of Charlie BarnetCharles Daly Barnet was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle".-Early life:...
and His Orchestra.
- For your dancing pleasure, Columbia brings you the music of Count Basie and his orchestra, coming to you from the Famous Door on Fifty-Second Street in New York City.
Artie ShawArthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
's many remote broadcasts included the Rose Room of Boston's Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Blue Room of New York's Hotel Lincoln was the location of his only regular radio series as headliner. Sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes, Shaw broadcast on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from November 20, 1938 until November 14, 1939. Before he launched
Sun RecordsSun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...
,
Sam PhillipsSamuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
ran regular big band remotes with the Chuck Foster orchestra and others from the
Peabody Hotel Skyway BallroomThe Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is well known for the famous "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop, but which make daily treks to the hotel's lobby in a daily "March of Ducks" celebration.- History :...
in
Memphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. The tradition continued into the 1950s with
Ray AnthonyRay Anthony is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.- Biography :...
doing band remotes on CBS in 1951-52. In the mid-1950s, NBC broadcast
jazz clubJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
remotes on
MonitorNBC Monitor was an American weekend radio program broadcast from June 12, 1955, until January 26, 1975. Airing live and nationwide on the NBC Radio Network, it originally aired beginning Saturday morning at 8am and continuing through the weekend until 12 midnight on Sunday...
featuring
Howard RumseyHoward Rumsey is a Californian bassist primarily known for his leadership of the Los Angeles group the Lighthouse All-Stars in the 1950s.-Life:...
,
Al HibblerAlbert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...
and others.
Bands heard on 1930s-40s radio remotes
- Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
- Gus Arnheim
Gus Arnheim was an early popular band leader. He is noted for writing several songs with his first hit being "I Cried for You" from 1923. He was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s...
- Charlie Barnet
Charles Daly Barnet was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle".-Early life:...
(from the Brown Hotel in Denver)
- Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra
Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts...
(from the Blackhawk Restaurant),
- Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
(from Kansas City's Reno Club, the Famous Door in New York and California's Palomar BallroomThe Palomar Ballroom, built in 1925, was a famous ballroom in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was destroyed by a fire in late 1939....
)
- Bunny Berigan
Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan was an American jazz trumpeter who rose to fame during the swing era, but whose virtuosity and influence were shortened by a losing battle with alcoholism that ended in his early death at age 33. He composed the jazz instrumentals "Chicken and Waffles" and "Blues"...
- Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
(from the Savoy Ballroom)
- Bob Chester
Bob Chester was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and tenor saxophonist.Chester's stepfather ran General Motors's Fisher Body Works. He began his career as a sideman under Irving Aaronson, Ben Bernie, and Ben Pollack. He formed his own group in Detroit in 1939, with a Glenn...
- Larry Clinton
Larry Clinton was a trumpeter who became a prominent American bandleader.-Biography:Clinton was born in Brooklyn, New York. He became a versatile musician, capable of playing trumpet, trombone, and clarinet...
- Francis Craig (from the Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville)
- Bob Crosby
George Robert "Bob" Crosby was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.-Family:...
- Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
(from the Glen Island Casino)
- Roy Eldridge
Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...
- Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
(from the London Palladium in the UK)
- Skinnay Ennis (from the Statler Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles)
- Shep Fields
Shep Fields was the band leader for the "Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm" orchestra during the Big Band era of the 1930s.-Biography:...
(from the Biltmore HotelBowman-Biltmore Hotels was a chain created by hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman.The name evokes the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate, whose buildings and gardens within are privately owned historical landmarks and tourist attractions in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The name has...
in Los Angeles and the Palmer HouseThe Palmer House Hilton is a famous and historic hotel in downtown Chicago.-History:There have been three Palmer House Hotels at the corner of State and Monroe Streets in Chicago....
in Chicago)
- Ella Fitzgerald and Her Orchestra
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
(from the Roseland Ballroom, NBC, February 16, 1949)
- Jan Garber
Jan Garber was an American jazz bandleader.-Biography:Garber was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had his own band by the time he was 21 . He became known as "The Idol of the Airwaves" in his heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, playing jazz in the vein of contemporaries such as Paul Whiteman and Guy...
(from the Blue Room of the Hotel Roosevelt in New Orleans)
- Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
(from the Hotel New Yorker)
- Glen Gray
Glen Gray Knoblauch, better known as Glen Gray, was a jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra....
- Phil Harris
Harris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...
(from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu)
- Tiny Hill
Harry Lawrence “Tiny” Hill was a band leader of the Big Band era. During the height of his career Hill was billed as “America’s Biggest Bandleader” because of his weight of over . His signature song was “Angry” which he first recorded in 1939 on Columbia records Vocalion label...
(from the Trianon BallroomThe Trianon Ballrooms were located in a number of cities during America's bigband era. The most prominent Trianon was in Chicago, Illinois, but there were others as well, located in places such as Cleveland, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toledo, and the Los Angeles suburb of South Gate...
, South Gate CA, June 1946)
- Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
(from the Hollywood Palladium)
- Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
- Andy Kirk
Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist best known as a bandleader of the "Twelve Clouds of Joy," popular during the swing era....
- Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
(from The Roof of the Hotel Astor in Manhattan)
- Kay Kyser
James Kern Kyser was a popular bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.-Early years:He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Paul Bynum Kyser and Emily Royster Kyser. Editor Vermont C. Royster was his cousin...
(from the Blackhawk Restaurant)
- Freddy Martin
Frederick Alfred Martin was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist.-Early life:Martin was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised largely in an orphanage and with various relatives, Martin started out playing drums, then switched to C-melody saxophone and later tenor saxophone, the latter the one...
(from the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles)
- Ray McKinley
Ray McKinley was an American jazz drummer, singer, and bandleader.McKinley got his start working with local bands in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, before joining Smith Ballew in 1929, when he met Glenn Miller. The two formed a friendship which lasted from 1929 until Miller's death in 1944....
- Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
(from the Cafe Rouge of New York's Pennsylvania Hotel and Boston's Raymor Ballroom)
- Ozzie Nelson
Oswald George "Ozzie" Nelson was an American entertainer and band leader who originated and starred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet radio and television series with his wife and two sons.-Early life:...
(from New York's Lexington Hotel)
- Will Osborne (from the Heigh-Ho Club in New York)
- Tony Pastor
Tony Pastor was an American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid-to-late nineteenth century...
(from the Century Room of the Hotel Adolphus in Dallas)
- Jan Savitt
Jan Savitt was an American bandleader, musical arranger, and violinist....
- Barney Rapp
Barney Rapp was an American orchestra leader and jazz musician from 1920's to the 1940s.-Career:Born Barney Rappaport in New Haven, Connecticut, Rapp first organized a jazz orchestra in the 1920s that played dancing music called "Barney Rapp and his New Englanders". He later moved to Ohio,...
with vocalist Doris DayDoris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
(from Rapp's own club, The Sign of the Drum, in Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
)
- Bobby Sherwood
Bobby Sherwood was a trumpet player, bandleader, actor and composer. He appeared in three films including Pal Joey in 1957. His sons Billy and Michael are both musicians....
(from Camp Atterbury, Indiana),
- Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...
- Orrin Tucker
Robert Orrin Tucker was an American bandleader born in St. Louis, Missouri, whose theme song was "Drifting and Dreaming". His biggest hit was "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!" , sung by vocalist "Wee" Bonnie Baker....
(from Elitch's Gardens in Denver)
- Chick Webb
William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...
.
See also
Martin StreekMartin Streek was a Canadian radio DJ known for his work on CFNY-FM in Toronto, Ontario. His on-air duties included hosting the Thursday 30, live-to-air from the Phoenix Night Club, and live-to-air from the Velvet Underground. He committed suicide on July 6, 2009.-Youth:Streek grew up in the...
, Canadian broadcaster/DJ who did live-to-air broadcasts at Toronto nightclubs from the 1980s to the 2000s
Sources
Listen to
External links