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Hungry to get on the road with a good band, Les and The Rainbow Men
left town for a concert tour of New England. It was at revere Beach,
outside of Boston, that members of the Duke University big band –
the notorius Duke Blue Devils –
caught Les’ act. Recognizing greatness in their midst, they immediately
invited him to attend Duke in order to join the Blue Devils.
Though Les
greatly preferred leading his own band, this was the Depression, and it
was an offer too good to pass up: "They talked me into going to Duke
because by going there and playing a concert every night at the student
union, you got free room and board. And in 1932, believe me, free room and
board was very good." Tuition at Duke that year was only  $200 yet it was still a struggle, leading Les to pawn instruments.
"That’s how bad the depression was. My dad managed to come up with
the money most of the time, and when he couldn’t, I had to sell the
bassoon."
Les enrolled at Duke and performed with the Blue Devils for four years,
taking over as leader in his junior year. They were such a hot band that
Decca records gave them a record deal, unprecedented for a college band.
It was the first of a great many records that Les Brown would record.
Later ones, however, were more successful in terms of sales: "It was
1936, the first year I ever recorded anything. Sales were not too hot –
there were twelve guys in the band, and we found out that twelve parents
bought the record."
After he graduated, Les took the band on the road for an extended tour,
despite the fact that many of the members had yet to finish their studies.
When their parents implored them, after more than a year on the road, to
return to school, the group disbanded. Les headed to New York in the band
car, a second-hand ’32 Ford, with no regrets. "I was happy to be
done with the Blue devils, because it was what we called a ‘cooperative
band,’ which meant that the leader does all the work and all the guys
share in the money. So I was happy to break it up. I started my own band
in New York, so if there were any profits –
and there weren’t any for about three years –
I’d get them."
The final performance of Les and the Blue Devils, as fate would have
it, was in 1936 at Budd Lake, New Jersey, the hometown fo Georgia Claire
DeWolfe. Two years later, in September of 1938, Claire and Les became
husband and wife, and they made their home in Manhattan. In 1940, a son –
Les, Jr. –
was born.
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"Sales were not too hot –
there were twelve guys in the band, and we found out that twelve parents
bought the record."
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