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Home , Bill Finegan, Charlie Spivak, Conrad Gozzo, Hal McIntyre, Lou Stein, Mousey Alexander

17. Big Bands of the 19505

he big bands were losing their great popularity in Anthony, meanwhile went into the Navy in 1942 for the early 1950s for many reasons, most of them four years. Teconomic. But there were a number ofbig bands After World War II, Anthony returned to Cleveland, still recording and some were still touring. Two of the formed another band, and signed a contract with Capitol most popular were from Greater Cleveland and one, Records. It was during this period, the late 1940s, that launched in 1952, performed not only for a high school there was a revival of music. Anthony prom in Cleveland, but also with the Cleveland began playing many of the old Miller tunes, including Orchestra. his own arrangement of "." His band was not playing much , but it did swing at times and became very popular, making dozens of records and Anthony was born playing countless college proms. For his recording Raymond Antonini in dates, Anthony frequently used top studio jazz Bentleyville, musicians including Conrad Gozzo, , Pennsylvania January , Mel Lewis and Plas Johnson, who later 20, 1922 and moved played Clevelander 's "Pink Panther to Cleveland with Theme" for the movie soundtrack. Anthony's most his parents and five popular record was the theme song of a popular radio brothers when he and television series . was very young. His Leading a band through the 1950s, Anthony helped father, who led a extend the era. He eventually settled in band in Cleveland, and in the 1980s was conducting a mail order gave him service for big band and jazz records. lessons when he was only five. Shortly after he graduated One of the most from old Audubon popular big bands in Junior High School the country in the and while attending John Adams High School, he was early 1950s - and one leading his own band. He joined the musicians' union of the strangest - was at the age of IS. led by a musician who When he was 16 (in 1938), Ray Anthony went out on was born and grew up the road with the Al Donahue Orchestra. When he was 18, in Northeast Ohio. he was auditioned by the very popular Glenn Miller. It was Ralph Flanagan an on-the-job audition. Anthony recalled he rushed to the was born in Lorain Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City and almost fell off April 7th, 1919. By the bandstand in his excitement about playing with the the time he was in his nation's most popular band. He said the first number they early 20s, he was threw at him was the very popular "Tuxedo Junction," playing piano and which he had never played before. He said he got through arranging for the it in "acceptable style" and joined the Miller band. But, sweet band ofRocky River native . After according to George Simon in his book, The Big Bands, serving in the merchant marines during World War II, Anthony never really hit it offespecially well with Miller Flanagan became a studio musician for RCA Victor and left the band six months later. Records in New York and began arranging for such Anthony later played with and bandleaders as , Hal McIntyre, Gene returned to Cleveland to form his own band. Among the Krupa, Boyd Raeburn and Clevelander Blue Baron. musicians in that band was Hank Geer, a saxophonist During the Glenn Miller revival of the late 1940s, who had just graduated from Collinwood High School. RCA Victor re-issued all sorts of old Miller recordings As a high school student, Geer had played with the and airchecks and was looking for new ways to continue Orchestra, the house band at the Trianon the momentum of the Miller popularity. Record Ballroom. After high school, Geer spent the summer producer Herb Hendler hired Flanagan to record some touring with Anthony's band. He left just in time to Miller songs for a minor record label. When Hendler enroll at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where he later went to work for RCA, Flanagan was working as a would lead an outstanding college dance band. staff arranger for the Mitchell Ayers Orchestra which 168 Cleveland Jazz History . was playing on the television show. not like being a public figure. "He loved the money," Hendler suggested to his RCA bosses that Flanagan said Woods, "but he hated being a band leader." And the front a Miller-type band and make some new records in ballroom operators, who liked his music, didn't like him. the Miller style. The bosses at RCA apparently Flanagan's band manager, later called the leader "A confused Flanagan with who had written a mouse of a man," who seemed to do everything he number of excellent arrangements for the Miller possibly could to alienate almost everyone. When his Orchestra. Actually, Flanagan had no connection fans approached the bandstand, he would tum away. whatsoever with the Miller Orchestra, but Hendler When they tugged at his trousers, he kicked at them. figured that by creating a band that sounded something One time in Albuquerque, said Woods, "Flanagan like Miller's, RCA would either create a popular new kicked a girl in the teeth and her boyfriend tried to drag band or at least stimulate the sales ofold Miller records. the bandleader offthe stage." He managed to achieve both objectives. In the fall of1951, the Flanagan band was booked in Flanagan wrote some new arrangements and used a package tour through a series of Michigan cities with musicians from the Perry Como Show to record them in the Mills Brothers. The legendary African-American 1949. RCA Victor mounted a huge promotional singers asked ifthey could ride on the bus with the band, campaign and the records began to sell. Heavy disc but, according to Woods, Flanagan refused to permit the jockey play prompted requests for the band to tour Mills Brothers on his bus. ballrooms in the East and Midwest. Hendler found One time in the mid-1950s, Flanagan attracted the himself in a box because, despite the popular records, amazement of newspapers by taking an early morning there was no Ralph Flanagan Orchestra. It was strictly stroll in the nude along an East Coast beach. a pick-up studio band. So, Hendler hired Bernie Woods, Some of the Lorain native' s biggest problems were the former music editor of Variety, to help form a prompted by his love offlying. He had a pilot's license touring band, manage it, and get booking contracts. and enjoyed flying his own plane when the band was Woods not only got bookings, he also got an agreement touring. One time in Iowa, he spotted the band bus from for commercial radio broadcasts from wherever the band the air and flew in low twice, buzzing the band. When was playing. The ballroom owners were attracted by the he landed the plane at a nearby airport, he was greeted prospect of added publicity. by some not-very-friendly policemen. In March of 1950, with a new, young group of Another time, when he was scheduled to play at the touring musicians, Flanagan set out on the road with his Steel Pier in Atlantic City, Woods went up in Flanagan' s Glenn Miller-sounding band, but Flanagan quickly plane to toss advertising leaflets out the window. As provoked the anger of other big band leaders. He was Flanagan piloted the plane up and down the beach and charging only $1,000 a night during the week and Woods threw leaflets out the window, the plane $1 ,500 on weekends while most ofthe other big bands narrowly missed a steel cable that was attached to an were getting $2,500 a night. openly advertising balloon. accused Flanagan oftrying to undermine the older, more Another time, Flanagan tried to fly into Vandenberg established bands. Air Force Base in California where there was extremely Propelled by the heavy RCA promotion ofthe MilIer­ style records, Flanagan's ploy worked. Woods, in a 1994 book entitled When the Music Stopped, said the Flanagan band quickly became "the most sought-after band in the country." There is no doubt the band was popular. During its first year and a halfon the road, the band got only one night off per week, played for more than three million people, and grossed about $1.5 million, an unheard offigure for the era. Among the band's most popular songs were "Hot Toddy" and "Shaker Heights Stomp." While the Flanagan Orchestra was playing new songs arranged in the Glenn Miller style, there was little jazz content, but the college kids thought they were dancing to the same kind of music that propelled the early years of the swing era. The biggest problem, according to Woods, was Flanagan. In his book, Woods said Flanagan simply did Ralph Flanagan and his airplane The Big Bands of the 1950s 169 heavy security. He was told by the control tower to veer The early 1950s was an odd time to form a new big off; private planes were not allowed in the military air band. Ballrooms around the country had closed. The space. Woods said the Air Force was set to blast costs ofoperating big bands had skyrocketed and record Flanagan out ofthe sky until the Air Force pilot spotted companies and radio stations were spotlighting singers the band name on the side of his plane. rather than bands. In , he was taking off from Midway Airport Despite the current trends, Sauter and Finegan called when the control tower told him to wait for an incoming the best studio musicians they could fmd into RCA's airliner. Flanagan decided to try to take offanyway. As Manhattan Center studios on May 12, 1952 and recorded the big airline was landing, it blew over Flanagan's their first two sides, "Doodletown Fifers" and "Azure­ plane as it was taxiing for takeoff. He escaped serious T6 (paris Blues). injury but fmally the authorities lifted his pilot's license. Among the Flanagan also managed to get in trouble with labor musicians on the unions. He frequently refused to give his band members record date were the required number of days off. The American some excellent Federation of Musicians also jumped on him for jazz artists ­ embarrassing his band members. trumpeter Bobby It wasn't just the musicians' union. At the Capitol Nichols, Theatre in New York, Flanagan got into trouble with a trombonist Bill theatre union. In a dispute in which union members said he Harris, pianist was violating union rules by personally moving equipment Ralph Bums and into the theatre, he knocked down an angry stage hand. A drummer Don few minutes later, a sandbag from the flies above the stage Lamond, all dropped and narrowly missed Flanagan's head. from the Woody Woods also recalled that one time in Phoenix Herman band. Flanagan went to a barber shop and fell asleep in the A couple of Bill Finegan in 1990 chair. The barber gave him a very close haircut. When weeks later, he woke up, he discovered the barber had snipped away after trombonist at his hair-piece. Kai Winding joined the band, they recorded an almost Fed up with the leader's strange behavior, Woods left classical version of "April In Paris" with soprano the Flanagan band after about a year and a half. Florence Blumberg singing a haunting, virtually Flanagan continued to tour and record until the late wordless obligato with Nichols' muted trumpet, and 1950s when popular vocalists, early rock 'n roll, "Midnight On The Ganges." mounting big band costs, and his own antics destroyed The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra combined elements of the popularity of the Ralph Flanagan Orchestra. jazz, classical music and pops in clever and frequently Flanagan continued arranging in the 1960s. humorous arrangements. They used all manner of instruments - the entire woodwind family, a keyboard The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra glockenspiel, celeste, harp, recorder, tubas, bells, tuned The students at Cleveland's Cathedral Latin High water glasses, a toy trumpet and even kazoos. Finegan School prom were fascinated by the unusual music, but told me, "People never knew what to make ofus because they couldn't dance to it. They stood around and nobody could put a label on it. We were often asked, listened as the orchestra played music in a way they had 'What is it?" We would simply say, 'It's music.' They never heard before. would ask, 'Is it jazz?' We'd say, 'Well sure, there's It was the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, a revolutionary, some jazz there.' We had some great jazz players in our inventive and whimsical big band that performed from band. Some people would say, 'The band doesn't 1952 to 1957. swing.' We'd say, 'You haven't listened to it.' Every When I first heard the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra the single thing we played was not a swing piece like Count week after Dwight Eisenhower was nominated for Basie or Duke Ellington or , but there's president, I recalled had played with swing in there. There's jazz in it. It has many elements. Charlie Barnet's band and arranged for and We never tried to put a label on it. It was just music." ("Superman" and "Clarinet a la King" It was different and interesting music, but it was not among others). I recognized Finegan as the man who all jazz despite the presence of such other jazz artists as had arranged for five years for the Glenn Miller , , Mundell Lowe, George Orchestra. He arranged Miller's hugely successful Duvivier, Milt Hinton, AI Klink and . "Little Brown Jug." When Finegan came to Cleveland in November of 170 Cleveland Jazz History

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra on the road 1991 to be the guest conductor of the Cleveland Jazz When the Sauter - Finegan Orchestra performed Orchestra, he told me, "Most of the things we were "Midnight Sleighride," based on Prokofiev' s "Lt. Kije writing were sort of in transition from the dance music Suite", which begans with the sound of a horse' s hoofs ofthe big bands into more concert-listening type things. in the snow, Finegan soloed. He beat his hands against We had a foot in each camp there for a while." his chest in rhythm. Finegan later said it was probably He said, "We started recording these things in New his best solo work on record - "or on snow!" Later York with no intention of going out on the road with it Finegan said of his chest-thumping, "I made a fool of and playing in person. We hoped to just make records." myself for five years." When the orchestra began getting rave reviews and When they did "The Honey Jump," most ofthe band its records began selling well, booking agent Willard members played a battery of kazoos. On "Yankee Alexander urged the band to go on the road. Finegan Doodletown," Sauter soloed on a toy trumpet. recalled, "The frrst summer we went out, we worked our The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra performed a joint way to Chicago and I think we played mostly ballrooms concert with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. in amusement parks, and they weren't too ready to listen Together they played "Concerto for Jazz Band and to concert material. They'd look at the band and they'd Symphony Orchestra." In addition to the concerto, see a tuba and a harp and the percussion section and Finegan recalled, "They played a couple of things and hear the xylophone and they'd say, 'How can you dance we played a few things. It was a great concert. We to that? ' They were used to brass and with really enjoyed being here." the old dance bands. Eventually economic pressures caught up with the Finegan remembered, "The funniest remark ofall time Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. Sauter took a job as music was one night when somebody hollered up, 'Hey, when director of a radio station in West Germany. Finegan are you gonna play something we can dance to?' One of continued with the band for a while using studio our players (Sonny Russo) hollered right back, musicians, but fmally disbanded the orchestra in March 'When are you gonna dance something we can play to?'" of 1957. Eventually they were forced to play some dance Sauter, who later did the orchestrations for the album music. Finegan said, "We quickly wrote some charts of Focus on Stan Getz, died of a heart attack in 1981. things people could dance to, and we would do some of Finegan later wrote arrangements for the Glenn Miller our regular things." ghost band and the Mel Lewis Orchestra, which The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra played February 19, included Cleveland's Joe Lovano, and taught jazz at the 1954 at the Aragon Ballroom in Cleveland. University of Bridgeport. I saw the band in Wilmington, Delaware. Their bus Some ofthe former Cathedral Latin students were at carried a large sign proclaiming, "Music Is Fun!" In the Cuyahoga Community College in November, 1991 , middle of the wild assortment of instruments and red when Bill Finegan, then 74, returned to direct the blazers on the bandstand, Finegan conducted from a large Cleveland Jazz Orchestra playing some of his audio control board (years before musicians went crazy arrangements. It was the frrst time any other band had with sound systems). He used the mixer, which had been played the complex Sauter-Fingean charts. built by Sauter's brother, an engineer with Bell Labs, to The CJO performed another Sauter-Finegan concert increase the volume ofsmall instruments in the orchestra. in January of 1999.