|
To support himself at first in New York, Les took jobs arranging for
the bands of Isham Jones, Larry Clinton and others. But he was keen to
lead his own band again, and with the help of two "angels," a
new Les Brown band was soon born.
The first angel was Eli Oberstein of Victor Records, who enlisted Les
to form a band to play at the Hotel Edison on Broadway. As there were more
than enough good musicians in New York at the time looking for work, Les
had no problem constructing a powerhouse ensemble. "We were there for
four months with a wire, an NBC wire," he said, referring to the live
radio link that enabled bands of the time to play simultaneously for the
audience in the ballroom with them, and for the radio audience around
country. It was invaluable exposure, and it led to the first of many
record deals, this one arranged by the agent Joe Glaser, Les’ second
"angel." "Joe Glaser got us on Bluebird records, a
subsidiary of Victor," Les said. "It was known as the ’35
cents label.’ Same one Glenn Miller was on. He did a little better than
we did at the time, but later on we caught up."
At the time, Les had a couple of different vocalists fronting the band,
including Miriam Shaw. but it was in 1940 that Les would hear a singer
that he felt was the perfect vocalist for his band, the one that would put
them over the top. Her name was Doris Day.
"A song-plugger told me that there was a great singer I had to
hear who cam into town with the Bob Crosby band named Doris Day," Les
remembered. "They found out that she had given her notice. I went and
saw the show, went backstage and hired her. I thought she was great. She
was a natural." And Les wasn’t the only one who thought that she
was great. "The public loved her," he said. "wherever she
went and whatever she sang, the public liked. It was a turnaround for us
that really helped. The band started cooking, you might say."
But, as often happens, romance got in the way. Doris was in love with
her high school sweetheart from Cincinnati, Al Jordan, who was now the
trombone player with the Jimmy Dorsey band. He encouraged her to return to
Cincinnati to settle down, which she did, leaving the band
Not one to be easily derailed, Les replaced Doris with the singer Betty
Bonney, and got back to work. It was then he had his first big hit, a
novelty tune written by his arranger Ben Homer and the deejay Alan
Courtney. Based on Joe Dimaggio’s amazing 56 game hitting streak that
had the entire nation talking that summer of ’41, it was called "Joltin’
Joe Dimaggio," and it became an enormously popular hit for the band.
"It was just a simple ditty," said Les, "but that was the
charm of it. And having that hit helped the band a lot. But we still weren’t
in the black, so to speak."
Joe Glaser continued to get good bookings for the band, always making
sure that they had a live radio wire. They spent an entire summer in
Armonk, New York, broadcasting live seven times a week. They went straight
from that gig to the venerable Black Hawk restaurant in Chicago for a one
month job that was extended for four months due tot the enormous demand.
"That’s when we finally started making money," Les said.
"But then the war came."
|
"Joe Glaser got us on Bluebird records, a
subsidiary of Victor," Les said. "It was known as the 35
cents label.’
|
