Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra in 1924. Will Rogers (standing right), Art Gillham, Wendell Hall, Carson Robison, the Eveready Quartet, Graham McNamee.Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra album with a Cugat caricature
The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra was an orchestra that played primarily at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, both the old and new locations. In addition to providing dinner music at the famous hotel, the orchestra made over 300 recordings[1] and many radio broadcasts. It was established in the 1890s, and was directed by Carlo Curti in early 1900s, Joseph Knecht at least from 1908 to 1925, later by Jack Denny and others, and then Xavier Cugat from approximately 1933 to 1949.
Denny and the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra appeared in the movie Moonlight and Pretzels in 1933.[2][3][4] Both Denny and Cugat had their own orchestras when they began playing at the Waldorf-Astoria, so the term "Waldorf-Astoria orchestras" might be an appropriate description.
History
The Waldorf-Astoria hotel was originally built as two separate adjacent hotels, the Waldorf in 1893 and the Astoria in 1897. Both were on the land that is now occupied by the Empire State Building, and the two hotels were connected after construction of the second one. The hotel had its current site on Park Avenue built in 1931. In addition to the normal function of a hotel to house its guests and provide them with amenities, the Waldorf-Astoria had an extensive program of social activities, to include concerts by top artists and an orchestra to provide music for its dinner guests.
An 1898 New York Times article mentions that the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra played at the Astoria,[5] and a 1901 New York Times Article mentions "Prof. Clappe, leader of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, and the other fifteen performers."[6][full citation needed]
In his autobiography, Nathaniel Shilkret, a member of the orchestra in its early days, provides information about the Orchestra and anecdotal stories about several of its members.[7][8] Shilkret says he was a member of the Orchestra while attending the City College of New York. A search of the college's files shows Shilkret attended classes in the Fall 1904 semester and is listed as an alumnus, Class of ex'1910.[8] This information establishes Knecht as director prior to 1910. Shilkret described the hotel as "almost a conservatory, rather than a hotel engagement. ... There were thirty-five men engaged steadily for the dining rooms. In the Rose Room, Caruso records were played, with our group following the music of the record." Shilkret said that there were nightly concerts from 9 pm to 10 pm, with the Orchestra enlarged to fifty on Sundays, and chamber music from 11 pm to 1 am, with Joseph Knecht as director.
Music historian Howard Pollack says, "This hotel orchestra, comprising a highly trained group of mostly Italian and Jewish musicians, regularly gave serious concerts, including one that [George] Gershwin attended on April 13, 1913, at which [Charles] Hambitzer performed the first movement of Anton Rubinstein's Piano Concerto in D Minor."[9] Pollack says Hambitzer came to New York no later than 1908 and began playing in the string section (Hambitzer played many instruments) of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. In 1916, Nicholas Laucella collaborated as the principal flautist with Joseph Knecht in a performance of his work Introduction and Temple Dance for an appreciative audience in the Grand Ballroom.[10] Later in the early 1930s, the orchestral accordionist John Serry Sr. collaborated in the early years of his career with the orchestra under the direction of Misha Borr at various performance venues within the Waldor-Astoria hotel including: The Starlight Room, The Grand Ballroom and the Waldorf Towers, as well as later in his career in 1948 at The Wedgewood Room.[11][12]
A 1919 New York Times article states that, "Joseph Knecht led an 'all-American' program recently by the Waldorf Orchestra, whose twenty-five men have played together for twenty years," but does not indicate whether or not the orchestra played for the Waldorf-Astoria for its entire twenty-year existence.[13] Two New York Times articles note the beginning and ending of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra's thirteenth season of Sunday concerts,[14][15] which would imply that the Sunday concert feature of the Orchestra began in 1912. New York Times articles from 1926 refer to "Knecht's Silvertone Dance Orchestra" and "Knecht's orchestra," without any reference to the Waldorf-Astoria, from which it seems that Knecht's association with the Waldorf-Astoria ended in 1925.[16][17][full citation needed] A New York Times obituary says that Knecht died on May 30, 1931.[18][full citation needed]
A picture of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, dated March 4, 1918, and marked "to Mr. Oscar Tschirky on his 25th anniversary" is signed by each member of the orchestra.[citation needed] Tschirky was the maître d' of the Waldorf-Astoria and was very well known. From the signatures on the picture, together with information from Shilkret's autobiography, his payroll for his radio orchestras from 1928 through 1933 and the New York Philharmonic Archives,[21] the orchestra members, and their principal instrument when known, include the following, with question marks indicating the signatures were not clear: Joseph Knecht (director), V. Adamo, F. Cardone?, N. Cassellee?, Leonard D'Amico (violin), Edward Davis, Carl W. Dodge (cello), Joseph Febbraio (horn), R. Fritock, Nicholas Garagusi (violin; Boys' Symphony Orchestra of New York soloist and concertmaster in 1902), Roy R. Haines (trombone), Charles J. Hambitzer (George Gershwin's principal piano teacher), Louison? Heidelberg, Edward Kilenyi (violin), A. Kirchner (bassoon), Peter Le Fina, Frank Longo (piano), Benjamin Posner (violin), D. Reggel, D. Saeirtel, Max Schlossberg (trumpet), Nathaniel Shilkret (clarinet), Harry K. Spedick, Stefano L. Stefan?, F. Tantangelo, Van Praag, George Vaughn (clarinet), O. Walther. Shilkret also cites Dan Marshall as a flute player in the orchestra under Knecht.[7]
Several New York Times articles mention the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra with various conductors, including Harold Leonard (1926–1927), Meyer Davis (1929–1932), Nat Brandywine (1932), Jack Denny (1932), and Oscar Adler (1933). Meyer Davis's Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra is sometimes described as directed by Bill Artzt, Joe Moss, and Mischa Borr, instead of Davis himself.[22] Denny departed when Xavier Cugat's Orchestra began creating a stir at the Waldorf-Astoria.[when?] Cugat never had a contract with the Waldorf-Astoria, but his band reigned supreme there for 16 years. He began with a salary of $500 per week which escalated to $7,000 per week plus a percentage of the door.[2]
Knecht and Cugat each directed over 150 recordings with the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Denny also made a significant number of recordings, but only about fifteen appeared with the Waldorf-Astoria name.[1]
The first recording by the Orchestra was Maytime Waltz, recorded on December 10, 1917 and issued as Victor 18432. Whitburn[23] lists this recordings being charted as a number 9 hit the following year, and lists three other Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra recordings as being "charted," including Beautiful Ohio, which was listed as charted number one in 1919. The Orchestra made recordings for several different record companies, with the last recording directed by Knecht being made for Edison in November 1925.[1] On Ca. 1921 Columbia records it is credited as "The Waldorf-Astoria Singing Orchestra".
Denny recorded for Victor in 1932, including an experimental LP recording.
Cugat also directed over 150 recordings with the Orchestra between 1937 and 1942, the earlier recordings for Victor and the later ones for Columbia.[1] Whitburn lists twenty-one of the Cugat recordings as "charted."[23]
Radio broadcasts
The Orchestra was one of the earliest orchestras heard on radio. Broadcasts began on WJZ in Newark, New Jersey and continued throughout the 1920s as the network chain was established.[24]
The Sunday evening concert of the Waldorf-Astoria orchestra numbers, under the leadership of Joseph Knecht, will continue to be broadcast through the month of February, according to a statement made by WJZ, Newark.[24]
Sies describes details of a spring 1924 broadcast of classical music on Dinner Music from the Rose Room on WEAF (soon to be the flagship station of the NBC network),[25] and the New York Times said that the Rose Room Dinner Music was a favorite program for listeners of WEAF for many years.[18]
The Eveready Hour article includes a picture (see Commons below) which is labeled as including the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra in a publicity picture for the November 4, 1924, Eveready Hour broadcast. Neither the musicians nor the instrumentation match the 1918 photograph of the orchestra cited above.
By 1928, the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra was heard Saturdays in the New York area on WABC and WEAF, in Washington, D.C., on WRC, and it was also heard in Detroit (WWJ), Boston (WEEI) and WCAE (Hartford). The music was usually on at 6pm to provide what was labeled "dinner music," and NBC broadcast it throughout the United States in the 1930s. Minus a brass section, the 1932 orchestra that Jack Denny helmed at the Waldorf-Astoria employed three pianos, clarinets, saxophones, strings and possibly a French horn or oboe.
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime".
Ferdinand Rudolph von Grofé, known as Ferde Grofé was an American composer, arranger, pianist, and instrumentalist. He is best known for his 1931 five-movement symphonic poem, Grand Canyon Suite, and for orchestrating George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for its 1924 premiere.
Xavier Cugat was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City, he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf–Astoria before and after World War II. He was also a cartoonist and a restaurateur. The personal papers of Xavier Cugat are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story 625 ft (191 m) Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze and Weaver and completed in 1931. The building was the world's tallest hotel until 1957, when it was surpassed by Moscow's Hotel Ukraina. An icon of glamor and luxury, the Waldorf Astoria is one of the world's most prestigious and best-known hotels. Once owned by Conrad Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, a division of Hilton Hotels, operates under the name of the original hotel in locations around the world. Both the exterior and the interior of the New York's Waldorf Astoria are designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as official landmarks.
Nathaniel Shilkret was an American musician, composer, conductor and musical director.
John Serry Sr. was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voice of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives during the Golden Age of Radio. He also concertized on the accordion as a member of several orchestras and jazz ensembles for nearly forty years between the 1930s and 1960s.
Camel Caravan was a musical variety radio program, sponsored by Camel cigarettes, that aired on NBC Radio and CBS Radio from 1933 to 1954. Various vocalists, musicians and comedy acts were heard during the 21 years this show was on the air, including such talents as Benny Goodman, Georgia Gibbs, Anita O'Day and Vaughn Monroe.
Nadine Dana Suesse was an American musician, composer and lyricist.
Werner Janssen was an American composer and conductor of classical music and film scores. He was the first New York-born conductor to lead the New York Philharmonic. For his film work he was nominated for six Academy Awards.
Week-End at the Waldorf, an American comedy drama film starring Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, and Van Johnson. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, its Samuel and Bella Spewack screenplay is based on playwright Guy Bolton's stage adaptation of the 1929 Vicki Baum novel Grand Hotel, which had been filmed as a straight drama as Grand Hotel in 1932.
"I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" is a popular song with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, published in 1932. The song was introduced in the musical Music in the Air. The first hit recording of the song was released in 1932 by Jack Denny and His The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, featuring the vocals of Paul Small. It has since been recorded and sampled by many artists, including Mac Miller on the track "Knock Knock" from his 2010 mixtape K.I.D.S..
The Eveready Hour was the first commercially sponsored variety program in the history of broadcasting. It premiered December 4, 1923, on WEAF Radio in New York City. As radio's first sponsored network program, it was paid for by the National Carbon Company, which at the time owned Eveready Battery. The host for many years was the banjo-playing vocalist Wendell Hall, "The Red Headed Music Maker", who wrote the popular "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'". Hall was married on The Eveready Hour in 1924.
Genesis Suite is a 1945 work for narrator, chorus and orchestra. A musical interpretation of the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis, the suite was a collaborative work by seven composers, some of whom wrote film music in Hollywood. The project was conceived by Nathaniel Shilkret, a noted conductor and composer of music for recording, radio and film. Shilkret wrote one of the seven pieces and invited the remaining composers to submit contributions as work-for-hire. Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky wrote, respectively, the first and last parts. The Biblical text used in the spoken word narrative is the American King James Version. It was intended to be a crossover from art music to popular music.
Concerto for Trombone is a 1942 instrumental crossover work in three movements, which trombonist Tommy Dorsey, one of the best known musical entertainment stars of his time, commissioned from Nathaniel Shilkret, a noted conductor and composer of music for recording, radio and film.
Palmolive Beauty Box Theater was an American radio program that featured an operetta or other musical each week from April 24, 1934, to October 6, 1937. It was sponsored by Palmolive soap and produced by Bill Bacher.
"Na Baixa do Sapateiro" is a famous Brazilian song, written by Ary Barroso. Its title comes from a street in Salvador, Bahia, where many cobblers once worked. It was originally released in 1938 as the B side to Salada Mista, which did not achieve the same level of success. This first recording was sung by Carmen Miranda with Orchestra Odeon. She never released the song on disc in the United States. The song was originally going to be featured in the Carmen Miranda film Banana da Terra (1939), but was replaced with "O Que É Que A Baiana Tem?", because of the high license fee demanded by Ary Barroso to use his song. However the song has been recorded many other times by a large number of artists. The song gained international fame when it was featured in the Disney film The Three Caballeros (1944).
Joseph M. Knecht was the conductor of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra from 1908 to 1925.
Charles Hambitzer was an American composer, pianist and teacher. He is noted for having been a teacher of George Gershwin.
Nicholas Laucella was an American concert flautist and composer. During the course of a professional musical career which spanned over three decades, he performed as the principal flute with several leading orchestral ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City.
Jack Denny was an American dance band leader during the pre-World War II years. He was born in the United States and started his musical career in Montreal, Quebec in 1920.
References
1 2 3 4 Rust, Brian, The American Dance Band Discography 1917–1942, Volume 1, Arlington House, New York, 1975, pp. 374–378, 399–402, and 974–981. ISBN0870002481
1 2 Shilkret, Nathaniel, ed. Shell, Niel and Barbara Shilkret, Nathaniel Shilkret: Sixty Years in the Music Business, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2005, pp. 26–32. ISBN0-8108-5128-8
1 2 Shilkret, Nathaniel, Barbara Shilkret, and Niel Shell, Feast or Famine: Sixty Years in the Music Business, archival edition of Shilkret autobiography, 2001, pp. 36–45 and 364–365 (copies deposited in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, The City College of New York Archival Library, The New York Philharmonic Archives, The Victor Archives (SONY)).
↑ Pollack, Howard, George Gershwin: His Life and Work, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2006, p. 26. ISBN978-0-520-24864-9 (Pollack quotes Shilkret as saying that Hambitzer was "one of the greatest pianists I ever heard. I would say he was a genius.")
↑ Schweikert, Norman, The Personnel of the New York Philharmonic and Those Organizations Merging With That Organization, 1842–1992: 1. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra, 1842–1928; 2. The New York Symphony Orchestra, 1877–1928 (includes Leopold Damrosch's 1877 orchestra); 3. New/National Symphony Orchestra, 1919–1921; 4. The New York Philharmonic- Symphony Orchestra, 1928–1992, unpublished; copy deposited at the New York Philharmonic Archives.
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You may listen to Xavier Cugat conducting the Waldorf Astoria Orchestra performing Consuelo Velázquez's rhumba Bésame Mucho in 1945 here on archive.org 
