Showing 372 results

Authority record

Gorney, Jay

  • LC 89006629
  • Person
  • 1896 - 1990

Jay Gorney (December 12, 1894 – June 14, 1990), was born Abraham Jacob Gornetzsky in Poland, to a Jewish family. After witnessing the Bialystok pogrom in 1906, his family fled to the United States, where they settled in Detroit, Michigan. Gorney took piano lessons and played in the school orchestra, bars and for silent films.

Gorney studied law and music theory at the University of Michigan, breaking only to serve in the navy during World War I. He practiced law briefly, before relocating to New York City with his first wife. He began his songwriting career on Tin Pan Alley, collaborating with Yip Harburg on numerous songs for Broadway musicals of the 1920s. The pair's most famous song, “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” was based on a Russian lullaby from Gorney’s childhood. The song debuted in the 1932 Shubert production of New Americana, becoming the anthem of the Great Depression. In the 1940s, he worked at Columbia Pictures as executive producer of musicals and is credited with jumpstarting Shirley Temple’s career.

Gorney was blacklisted for his liberal views during the Cold War.

Gorney's second marriage was to public relations consultant Sondra Karyl (Kattlove). Sondra published Gorney’s biography titled Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? in 2005. He had three children; one with his first wife and two with his second.

August, Jan

  • LC 94006657
  • Person
  • 1904-09-24 - 1976-01-17

Jan August was born Jan Augustoff in New York City, the youngest of five children. Jan’s parents, having paid for music lessons for the four older siblings who lacked any musical aptitude, chose not to repeat the mistake with their youngest. Jan learned to play the piano by ear as a child; as an adult he learned to read and arrange music. He mastered the xylophone, vibraphone and Solovox as well as the piano. In 1946, his instrumental recording of “Misirlou,” a Greek folk song, sold more than 1,000,000 records.
As a young man, Jan performed as a pianist with the Paul Specht Band in Greenwich Village nightclubs. In the 1930’s, Paul Whiteman invited him to play in his orchestra; Jan also performed with Ferde Grofé. With the musical shift from jazz to swing in the 1940’s, Jan returned to performing solo in clubs. His style attracted the attention of Irving Gwirtz of Diamond Records, who signed him to a recording contract. He received union scale wages of approximately $35 for his recording of “Bob-a-Loo”; the recording of “Misirlou” reached the Top Ten on the charts and launched his career.
Jan hosted and performed on radio, notably a 15-minute weekly broadcast on the Mutual Radio Network from 1947-1948. In 1948 and 1950, he appeared on "The Toast of the Town" and from 1949-1951 he accompanied singer Roberta Quinlan on her NBC variety show. Later he hosted "Jan August’s Revere Camera Show". In 1949, he served as the subject of a 9-minute film short entitled "Audition for August" with Kitty Kallen. In the 1950’s, Jan signed a recording contract with the Mercury label recording instrumental versions of popular hits laced with Latin rhythms. He also toured with his own orchestra in the United States and Canada. After arranging and recording more than 140 songs, Jan retired in 1967. He died of heart disease about a decade later.
Shortly before Jan's death, a musician performing under the name Jan August made the news in Florida, but it was an imposter.

Andrews, Patty, 1918 - 2013.

  • LC00068999
  • Person
  • 1918-02-16 - 2013-01-30

Patty Andrews was the youngest of the three Andrews sisters, the lead singer for the group, and usually sang the melody part in the trio. She pursued a solo career after the group broke up, occasionally reuniting with Maxene for reunion tours in the 1960s and '70s. She died of natural causes at the age of 94.

Hope, Dolores

  • LC2006038770
  • Person
  • 1909-05-27 - 2011-09-19

Staiger, Libi

  • LC2007035169
  • Person
  • 1928-01-10 - 2019-09-25

Kahn, Donald, 1918-2008

  • LC2008127545
  • Person
  • 1918-07-17 - 2008-04-11

Donald Gustav Kahn (July 17, 1918—April 11, 2008), the only son of Gus and Grace LeBoy Kahn, was born in Chicago during the early phase of his father’s songwriting career. He realized as a five-year old that he wanted to follow in his father’s musical footsteps, but as a composer and arranger, not a lyricist. Donald studied music at Pomona College and served in the Air Force during World War II. In 1956, he collaborated with noted lyricist Stanley Styne to create his most popular work, “A Beautiful Friendship.” The song was recorded by a number of artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Margaret Whiting, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole. In the 1970s, Donald wrote music for Sesame Street. Although he labored in the shadow of his father, he worked tirelessly to keep his father’s legacy alive and was a strong proponent for Whoopee!, a 1990s revival of Whoopee.

Andrews, LaVerne, 1911 - 1967.

  • LC2008129501
  • Person
  • 1911-07-06 - 1967-05-08

LaVerne Andrews was the oldest of the three Andrews sisters, the founder of the group, and usually sang the lowest harmony part in the trio. She died after a prolonged battle with cancer at the age of 55.

Kennedy, Bob

  • LC2008153153
  • Person
  • 1922 - 2008-06-26

Lloyd, David

  • LC2011090811
  • Person
  • 1934-07-07 - 2009-11-10

Kostelanetz, Andre

  • LC2012035308
  • Person
  • 1901-12-22 - 1980-01-13

Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980) was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was a conductor and arranger, known for arranging and recording classical music for mass audiences. Kostelanetz pioneered microphone techniques still used today. He was married three times and had no children.

Armstrong, Louis, 1901 - 1971

  • LC50001506
  • Person
  • 1901-08-04 - 1971-07-06

Louis Armstrong was an American trumpet player and is considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. Born and raised in New Orleans, as a child Armstrong worked for a local Jewish family, the Karnoffskys; they encouraged his interest in music, and as an adult Armstrong often spoke and wrote about their generosity. The first instrument he learned to play was the cornet, imitating performances by ear and receiving only a little formal training. By the time he was an adult, he was playing both cornet and trumpet on the riverboats that traveled up and down the Mississippi. It was during those years that he learned to sightread music and use written arrangements rather than playing entirely from memory, although he continued to improvise as well.
Armstrong moved to Chicago in the early 1920s, becoming an integral part of the city's jazz scene and issuing his first recordings. He moved to New York briefly in 1924 to play trumpet with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra before returning to Chicago. There he produced a series of recording with his "Hot Five" and "Hot Seven" (the Hot Five plus a drummer and a tuba). In 1929 he went back to New York to play in the all-black musical revue "Hot Chocolates". He spent much of the Great Depression touring both the United States and Europe before finally settling in New York.
Through the 1940s and '50s Armstrong recorded, toured, and acted almost continuously. He was an internationally recognized figure and traveled all over the world. In 1959 he suffered a heart attack, but he eventually recovered and in 1964 recorded the song "Hello, Dolly!". The song reached number one on the charts, displacing the Beatles for a time and making Armstrong the oldest person ever to have a number one hit. By the end of the 1960s, however, his failing health forced him to stop touring. He died of a heart attack barely a month before his 70th birthday.

Faye, Alice

  • LC50003081
  • Person
  • 1915-05-05 - 1998-05-09

Alice Faye (May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was a successful musical film star before walking off the lot of Fox Studios to focus on her personal life. Born Alice Jean Leppert in New York City, Faye began her career as a chorus girl before finding a spot in George White’s Scandals of 1931, a Broadway show in which Rudy Vallée starred. Vallée later hired her as a singer on his radio show. In 1934, she moved to film when Fox Studios turned the George White’s Scandals of 1931 into a movie and hired her to play Vallée’s love interest. Over the next eleven years, Faye showcased her warm contralto voice in over 30 films, mostly plotless, lighthearted entertainment. She was a favorite of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter, and introduced more songs to the Hit Parade than any other female Hollywood movie star. In 1945, Faye accepted a dramatic lead role in Fallen Angel; however, the final version emphasized Fox Studio’s new protégé Linda Darnell rather than Faye. She left the studio and did not return for seventeen years.

Beiderbecke, Bix, 1903-1931

  • LC50006777
  • Person
  • 1903-03-10 - 1931-08-06

Bix Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist who was an outstanding improviser and composer of the 1920s. He played with a distinctive tone and strikingly original improvisational style. He is considered the first major white jazz soloist. Beiderbecke’s only competitor among cornetists in the 1920s was Louis Armstrong, but the two cannot be compared due to their different styles and sounds.
Bix was born March 10, 1903 in Davenport, Iowa. His mother was a musician who played piano and was the organist for the First Presbyterian Church. Bix was a bit of a child prodigy, picking out tunes on the piano when he was three years old. While he had formal training in piano, he taught himself the cornet largely by ear, which led him to adopt a non-standard fingering some critics have connected to his original sound. Bix attended Davenport High School from 1918 to 1921, during which time he sat in and played professionally with various bands. His parents disapproved of his playing music so in 1921 they enrolled him in the exclusive Lake Forest Academy, just north of Chicago. However, his interest in music remained and he often visited Chicago to listen to jazz bands in night clubs and speakeasies. He was ultimately expelled from school and returned to Davenport in 1923.
That same year Bix joined the Wolverine Orchestra and recorded with them later the following year. In late 1924 Bix left the Wolverines to join Jean Goldkette’s Orchestra, but his inability to read sheet music resulted in him eventually losing the job. In 1926 he played with Frankie Trumbauer’s Orchestra with whom he recorded “In a Mist.” In 1927 Bix joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, which was the highest paid dance band of the 1920s. Bix played on four hit records, all under the Whiteman name: “Together,” “Ramona,” “My Angel,” and “Ol’ Man River,” which featured Bing Crosby on vocals. Bix made his greatest recordings in 1927; he helped define the jazz ballad with his solos on “Singin’ the Blues” and “I’m Coming, Virginia”. “In a Mist” (1927), one of a handful of his piano compositions and the only one he ever recorded, was a solo masterpiece that fused jazz with classical influences.
For Bix, the downside of being with Whiteman was the relentless touring and recording schedule, which exacerbated his lifelong troubles with alcohol. On November 30, 1928, while on tour in Cleveland, Bix suffered what was termed a “nervous crisis”; but it has been suggested that it was actually an acute attack of delirium tremens brought about by Bix’s attempt to curb his alcohol intake. Bix returned to Davenport in February 1929 to convalesce and Whiteman famously kept Bix’s chair open in his honor, hoping he would return.
Bix returned to New York in January 1930 but was never the same again. He did not rejoin the Whiteman Orchestra and performed only sparingly. On his last recording session in September 1930, Bix played on the original recording of Hoagy Carmichael’s new song, “Georgia on My Mind,” which would go on to become a jazz and popular music standard. He lived the rest of his life in a rooming house in Queens, New York, where he was known to drink heavily while composing his solo piano pieces, “Candlelight,” “Flashes,” and “In the Dark,” none of which he ever recorded. He died at age 28 on August 6, 1931 as the result of an alcoholic seizure.

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