Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 16th Nov 2021

Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. It was a collective that was the top swing band before Benny Goodman. Loved for its complex, danceable arrangements, Coleman Hawkins named it as his favourite band.

HEAR this Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 16 November) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

I’m Greg Poppleton and I’ve brought you The Phantom Dancer every week on 107.3 2SER radio Sydney since 1985.

Here’s a 1941 Warner Brothers short of the band featuring Lindy Hoppers, Dean Collins and Jewel McGowan. Key band soloists are also introduced in the fimal song…

COLLECTIVE

The Casa Loma Orchestra began in 1927 as a unit of the Jean Goldkette organisation under the name ‘Orange Blossoms’. Orange Blossoms, in the early 20th century was the newspaper headline for reports on wedding receptions.

The name, Casa Loma, came in 1929 when they were booked to play at the Casa Loma in Toronto, which suddenly closed. Stranded in that city, the musicians formed a musical collective, first under the direction of violinist Hank Biagini. In 1933, saxophonist Glen Gray was voted to front the band as the ‘first among equals’.

In 1930, the Casa Loma Orchestra was incorporated in New York with the members becoming owners, shareholders and board members. The band members were hired on the grounds of musical and congenial competence and followed strict conduct and financial rules. Because the band operated as a collective group, as opposed to almost all other bands that had a leader for whom everyone worked, the band maintained a stable collection of personnel that varied little. Members who broke the rules could be summoned before the board, have their contract bought out, and be ejected from the band.

Even the orchestra’s talent arranger, Gene Gifford, who created the unique Casa Loma sound, fell victim to the band’s strict rules, being bought out in 1935 for alcohol-related infractions.

In 1943, Eugenie Baird became the first woman vocalist with the Casa Loma Orchestra.

Here she is being interviewed by Guy Lombardo on 1955 TV. She also sings, You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You…

RADIO

The orchestra featured in the mid-1930s incarnation of the long-running ‘Camel Caravan’ series, which you’ll hear an excerpt from on this week’s Phantom Dancer. You’ll also hear a radio transcription of their famous sound made in 1934, and the orchestra live in 1943 and on the air with Eugenie Baird singing in 1944.

16 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney
LISTEN ONLINE

Community Radio Network Show CRN #518

107.3 2SER Tuesday 16 NOVEMBER 2021
12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm
National Program
5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am
3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am
4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am
2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am
2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am
2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am
2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am
3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm
7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm
6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am
2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am
1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am
2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm
5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm
Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am
Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm
7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am
3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am
3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm

Set 1
Ginny Simms Show
Theme + Come To Baby
Ginny Simms (voc) Frank deVol Orchestra
‘The Ginny Simms Show’
WABC CBS NYC
11 Jan 1946
I’ll Always Be With You
Alton Williams (voc) Frank deVol Orchestra
‘The Ginny Simms Show’
WABC CBS NYC
11 Jan 1946
What a Deal
Ginny Simms (voc) Frank deVol Orchestra
‘The Ginny Simms Show’
WABC CBS NYC
11 Jan 1946
Indian Love Song
Ginny Simms and Gene Kelly (voc) Frank deVol Orchestra
‘The Ginny Simms Show’
WABC CBS NYC
11 Jan 1946
Set 2
Cocoanut Grove
Music in the Moonlight (theme) + Say That You Are Teasing Me
Jimmie Grier Orchestra (voc) Gogo Delys
‘Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription’
Los Angeles
1932
Bon Voyage to Your Ship of Dreams
Jimmie Grier Orchestra (voc) Donald Novis
‘Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription’
Los Angeles
1932
Dinah + Music in the Moonlight (theme)
Jimmie Grier Orchestra (voc) The Three Cheers
‘Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription’
Los Angeles
1932
Set 3
 Glen Gray 1945 Radio
Smoke Rings (theme) + Begin the Beguine
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (cl) Fats Daniels
‘One Night Stand’
Casino Gardens
Ocan Park Ca
AFRS Re-broadcast
24 Oct 1945
A Door Will Open
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (voc) Skip Nelson
‘One Night Stand’
Casino Gardens
Ocan Park Ca
AFRS Re-broadcast
24 Oct 1945
Midnight
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra
‘One Night Stand’
Casino Gardens
Ocan Park Ca
AFRS Re-broadcast
24 Oct 1945
What a Drag
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (voc) Fats Daniel
‘One Night Stand’
Casino Gardens
Ocan Park Ca
AFRS Re-broadcast
24 Oct 1945
Set 4
Glen Gray Vinyl
Maniac’s Ball
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra
Radio Transcription
1934
Zonky
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra
‘Camel Caravan’
WABC CBS NY
17 Dec 1935
My Heart Tells Me
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (voc) Eugenie Baird
Aircheck
Hotel New Yorker
Aug 1944
Blackberry Jam
Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra
‘Spotlight Bands’
Columbus OH
AFRS Re-broadcast
19 Nov 1943
Set 5
1920s Orchestras
My Mother Was a  Lady + She May Have Seen Better Days
Tonsorial Twitterbugs Quartet
‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’
WJZ NBC Blue NY
14 Jul 1941
I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem
Paul Lavalle
‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’
WJZ NBC Blue NY
14 Jul 1941
The Booglie Wooglie Piggy
Diane Courtney
‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’
WJZ NBC Blue NY
14 Jul 1941
Beyond the Moon
Toots Mondello
‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’
WJZ NBC Blue NY
14 Jul 1941
Bugle Woogie + Close
Henry Levine
‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’
WJZ NBC Blue NY
14 Jul 1941
Set 6
Boogie Piano
Original Boogie
Lil Armstrong
‘DuPont Show of the Week’
‘Chicago and All That Jazz’
NBC TV
26 Nov 1961
Who Put The Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy’s Ovaltine?
Harry ‘The Hipster’ Gibson
Radio Transcription
8 Feb 1946
Piano Boogie
Dorothy Donegan
Comm Rec
Chicago
1942
What’s His Story?
Harry ‘The Hipster’ Gibson
Radio Transcription
8 Feb 1946
Set 7
Eddie Condon
Blues + Riverboat Shuffle
Eddie Condon Group
‘Eddie Condon’s Floorshow’
WPIX TV NYC
1948
St Louis Blues
Eddie Condon Group
‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue NYC
27 Jan 1945
Davenport Blues
Carl Kress and Tony Mottola guitar duet
‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue NYC
22 Jul 1944
Blues
Eddie Condon Group with Charlie Barnet and Charlie Shavers
‘Eddie Condon’s Floorshow’
WPIX TV NYC
13 Dec 1948
Set 8
1940s Swing Radio
Let’s Dance (theme) + Darktown Strutters’ Ball
Benny Goodman Orchestra
‘Jubilee’
AFRS NYC
21 Jul 1944
Loose Wig
Lionel Hampton Orchestra
‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood
16 Oct 1944
Honeydripper Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra (voc) Quartet
‘Spotlight Bands’
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
Blue Network
23 Nov 1945
Wham + Close
Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra
‘Spotlight Bands’
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
Blue Network
23 Nov 1945

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