Horace Heidt

Horace Heidt would have been the last man to make grand claims about his musical abilities. What he did have as a band leader was an ear for talent and the knack for recruiting it, which led to his becoming one of the most successful band leaders of the late '30s and early '40s. From 1937 until 1945, Heidt and his orchestra enjoyed more than 50 hit records, and were virtually permanent fixtures on the radio. Additionally, his band was a virtual farm team for future major players in popular music, and even a few future jazz players of note passed through the lineup of Heidt's orchestra. Heidt was born on May 21, 1901 in Alameda, CA. He was encouraged to study piano by his mother, but he seemed an unlikely candidate for a performing career -- apart from lacking interest in music, he also suffered from a stammer during his youth that he only overcame later in life. Additionally, Heidt preferred athletics and was on the football team of the University of California at Berkeley. He seemed destined for a career in professional football until a back injury took him out of sports permanently. With no sports career in front of him, Heidt decided to organize a small band, then called Horace Heidt and His Californians, which played its first concert in 1923 at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. By 1929, the band had gotten bigger and had gone through some name changes -- they were booked on a national tour of the vaudeville circuit, which led to an engagement at the Palace Theater in New York City. His national breakthrough took place seven years later, at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, where he got his first radio broadcast and began the gimmick -- a cash giveaway on the air -- that would help make his program a hit for nine years. By that time, the band was known as Horace Heidt and...