Follow the Band is a 1943 black-and-white musical film directed by Jean Yarbrough, one of many Universal churned out during World War II. It stars Eddie Quillan, Mary Beth Hughes, and Leon Errol, and is noteworthy as an early credit for Robert Mitchum.
Marvin Howe is hired to work on the floor of the Clover Leaf Dairy Farm in Rutledge, Vermont, but much to his employer's dismay, he spends most of his working hours practicing playing the trombone, and not doing what he is supposed to. His boss, "Pop" Turnbull - the owner of the dairy, doesn't know that he is involved with Pop's daughter, Juanita, and is negatively surprised when the couple announces their engagement one day. Another man who works at the farm, Tate Winters, is also romantically interested in Juanita, and when he finds out about the engagement he convinces Pop that Marvin should be sent away on business. So Pop make Marvin go to New York City in order to obtain a membership National Dairymen's Association for him. Tate is well aware of that Pop repeatedly has been refused such a membership in the past, mainly because Pop raises goats and not cows. This makes the task nearly impossible for Marvin to perform.
When Marvin arrives in New York he doesn't get to see the president of the Dairymen's Association, Jeremiah K. Barton. The president has told his secretary, Lucille Rose, to fend Marvin off and tell him that Jeremiah will be busy with a conference for a whole week. But the plan backfires. Instead of going home again, Marvin checks in at a boardinghouse for the week and stays in the city. The boardinghouse is owned by a Mrs. Forbes. While Marvin waits for an audience with Jeremiah, he takes time to play his trombone, which he brought with him.
Mrs. Forbes son Skinnay hears Marvin play the trombone and likes what he hears. He offers Marvin to become a member of his jazz band. He accepts the offer, and furthermore, Skinnay's friend, the intriguing Dolly O'Brien, convinces Marvin to play with the band at a nightclub owned by her uncle, Big Mike O'Brien - the Rendezvous. During the show at night, Marvin accidentally becomes a local hero when he pops out gang leader Alphonse as he is trying to destroy the nightclub after being fired by Big Mike. Marvin gets the nickname "The Hot Toot".
In the wake of these events, Pop decides to bring Juanita to the Big Apple, in order to demonstrate how the big city has changed the man she is planning to marry - all in an attempt to steer her clear of the marriage and choose Tate instead. Juanita is led to believe that Dolly is Marvin's new girl friend, and she breaks off their engagement, thus playing right into her father's and Tate's hands. She goes back to Rutledge, heart broken.
Meanwhile, Marvin is offered a national radio show contract to play with Skinnay's jazz band. But Marvin is heart broken too, and instead of jumping at the opportunity he quits the band entirely and goes home to Rutledge to win Juanita back. He arrives just as Juanita is about to marry Tate. The band members of Skinnay's and Dolly follow Marvin back to Rutledge to help out. Dolly gets a chance to talk alone to Juanita, and she reveals the truth to her. After this Marvin and Juanita are reunited, just in time for the band to be able to perform on the radio for the first time. [1]
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by his starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Dead Man is a 1995 American acid western film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, Gabriel Byrne, Mili Avital, and Robert Mitchum. The movie, set in the late-1800s, follows William Blake, a meek accountant on the run after murdering a man. He has a chance encounter with enigmatic Native American spirit-guide "Nobody", who believes Blake is the reincarnation of the visionary English poet William Blake.
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen is an American jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He was known for portraying John Wilkes Booth in the silent film The Birth of a Nation (1915) and for directing such films as the widescreen epic The Big Trail (1930) starring John Wayne in his first leading role, The Roaring Twenties starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra (1941) starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, and White Heat (1949) starring James Cagney and Edmond O'Brien. He directed his last film in 1964.
Kenneth Daniel Ball was an English jazz musician, best known as the bandleader, lead trumpet player and vocalist in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.
Pete Kelly's Blues is a 1955 musical–crime film based on the 1951 radio series. It was directed by and starred Jack Webb in the title role of a bandleader and musician. Janet Leigh is featured as party girl Ivy Conrad, and Edmond O'Brien as a gangster who applies pressure to Kelly. Peggy Lee portrays alcoholic jazz singer Rose Hopkins. Ella Fitzgerald makes a cameo as singer Maggie Jackson. Lee Marvin, Martin Milner, and Jayne Mansfield also make early career appearances.
The Genius of Ray Charles is a 1959 Ray Charles album, released in October by Atlantic Records, the seventh album since the debut Ray Charles in 1957. The album consists of swinging pop with big band arrangements. It comprises a first half of big band songs and a second half of string-backed ballads. The Genius of Ray Charles sold fewer than 500,000 copies and charted at number 17 on the Billboard 200. "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'" were released as singles in 1959.
Al Grey was an American jazz trombonist who was a member of the Count Basie orchestra. He was known for his plunger mute technique and wrote an instructional book in 1987 called Plunger Techniques.
Leon Errol was an Australian comedian and actor in the United States, popular in the first half of the 20th century for his appearances in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in films.
Russell Morgan was an American big band leader and arranger during the 1930s and 1940s. He was best known for being the one of the composers of the song "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", with Larry Stock and James Cavanaugh, and was the first to record it in 1944.
Edward Quillan was an American film actor and singer whose career began as a child on the vaudeville stages and silent film and continued through the age of television in the 1980s.
Miles & Quincy: Live at Montreux is a collaborative live album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and conductor Quincy Jones. It was recorded at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival and released by Warner Bros. Records in 1993.
George Paxton was an American big band leader, saxophonist, arranger, and publisher during the 1930s and 1940s. He was president of Coed Records and a producer for the label.
99 and 44/100% Dead! is a 1974 American action-comedy film directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Richard Harris. The title is a play on an advertising slogan for Ivory soap.
Frank Lacy is an American jazz trombonist who has spent many years as a member of the Mingus Big Band.
Clark Gayton is an American multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer and musicians' rights advocate.
The Tonight Show Band is the house band that plays on the American television variety show The Tonight Show. From 1962 until 1992, when the show was known as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the band was a 17-piece big band, and was an important showcase for jazz on American television. During the Carson era, the band was always billed as "The NBC Orchestra" and sometimes "Doc Severinsen and the NBC Orchestra".
Dennis Mackrel is an American jazz drummer, composer, and arranger who was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
Tate Houston was a Detroit-based American baritone and tenor saxophonist.
Garden of the Moon is a 1938 American comedy film directed by Busby Berkeley and screenplay by Jerry Wald and story by Richard Macaulay. The film stars Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, John Payne, Johnnie Davis, Melville Cooper and Isabel Jeans. The film was released by Warner Bros. on October 1, 1938.