Big Band concerts back in the day

[jeep44]

My brother and I were discussing XM radios "40's on 4" channel, and what we liked (and didn't like) about it, When our 87 year old mother started mentioning all the big names she saw live back then. One thing that struck us as being rather odd was when she mentioned skipping school with her friends, and going to South Bend, Indiana to see Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra. The show was in the middle of the day, on a week day. We commented that we would have thought something like this would have been in the evening, but she said no, and that the place was packed.
Being in the Navy during WW2 allowed her to see many more big acts that we can only see in old Black and white Youtube clips today.

 

[Shangas]

I'm not sure about live concerts, but I do know that back in the day, it was very popular to broadcast jazz-bands live to air. They'd set up in a nightclub or the ballroom of a famous hotel, and croon and swing the night away. A radio-man would be nearby with a microphone to tune in on the music and send it back to the station, as well as to give commentary, and then the music would be broadcast live around the country.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra used to perform, and give live evening broadcasts, from the Cafe Rouge in the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan during the late 1930s. Here's a photo:

The Cafe Rouge:

Another band that used to do live broadcasts was Benny Goodman and His Orchestra. There were several more live-to-air bands, but I can't list them all.

Not quite what you were talking about, but I thought it might give a bit of insight.

 

[HodgePodge]

My brother and I were discussing XM radios "40's on 4" channel, and what we liked (and didn't like) about it,

Off topic, but...

I used to listen to that, and loved it, but then I started being in the car at the same time of day as that STUPID "standards" show that has little to nothing to do with the theme of the channel (the hosts voice and tone drive me batty, and he plays all sorts of 60s junk). Now I don't even bother, I just fire up the ipod.

 

[Fletch]

"Concerts" might not have been the name then. Typically a big band was a dance organization, playing ballrooms, hotel dining rooms, and dances at large venues, and/or a "show band," playing theaters on a vaudeville or (later) movie bill. Night club bands usually did both - dance music and a floor show.

A sit-down concert in a hall full of seats was a rarity until the 1940s, when the culture started to de-emphasize dancing. TD could have done one and packed any hall of course - but where it probably happened was a theater. They might do 2, 3, even 5 shows daily in the biggest cities, each one followed by a feature film and a bill of short subjects.

 

[dhermann1]

I recall one band member saying that when Miller played the Cafe Rouge at the Hotel Pennsylvania back in '38, they had 14 45 minute sets, straight through from noon till 2 AM, six nights a week for about 6 weeks. Tough gig. They apparently thought nothing od it.

 

[Fletch]

I imagine Glenn wouldn't have let them think anything of it.

 

[Angus Forbes]

Some time ago, I read the following on a blog called either chapelhillmemories or carolinamemories (I forget which): one of the prom dances at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early 1950s featured Tommy Dorsey (I love TD!), Jimmy Dorsey, Kay Kyser (who lived in Chapel Hill, IIRC), and another band which I don't remember. Must have been some concert . . .

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some dance bands did do proper sit-down concerts -- Paul Whiteman and Fred Waring were both doing them on occasion thru the early thirties, and both of these orchestras appeared at Carnegie Hall *before* Benny Goodman's landmark swing concert in 1938 -- with Whiteman having appeared there as early as 1928. The idea that Goodman was the "first non-classical act to appear at Carnegie Hall" is one of those Myths Of The Golden Era that doesn't often get questioned, but it's a myth nonetheless. Whiteman's concerts, especially, were high-society occasions, and tended to emphasize sophisticated compositions over the ordinary popular tunes of the day. After Goodman's 1938 concert, other swing bands followed his example, but such performances were far less common than vaudeville-type theatre dates or hotel bookings.

 

[Espee]

Many of the live radio band remotes were just 15 minutes long. You got a sample of Band A at a hotel in City 1, then the next program might offer Band 2 at a ballroom in City 2. They tended to be late, around 10:00 to midnight.
Several bands got half-hour weekly shows eventually.
You might look at otrcat dot com under "Musical" shows...