Showing 4 results

Authority record
The Great American Songbook Foundation

Saxon, Joyce Mauer

  • SF2021JSLL
  • Person
  • 1928-02-14 - 2015-11-16

Joyce Mauer was born in Chicago, Illinois to Bill and Cleo Mauer. At the age of five, a bout of tonsillitis spread to her eyes, damaging her vision. Childhood glaucoma caused additional damage to her vision and she became legally blind. Bedridden until the age of ten, Mauer began listening to music on the radio, especially swing, jazz, and classical. When she recovered her health, she began to play the piano. Her parents insisted that she hide her blindness and enrolled her in drama classes. As a teen she had some small parts on local radio. After high school, she began performing in local clubs around Chicago such as the Sherman House, Acorn on Oak, Danny's Hideaway, and Como Inn. She married and divorced Jack Reiling, then married Marty Saxon who managed her career. At 62, she began playing the piano at Nordstrom Department Store.

Glenn, Albert "Al" Vincent

  • SF2018AGRK
  • Person
  • 1912 - 2008

Albert “Al” Vincent Glenn (1912-2008) was born and raised in Brockton, MA. He had his own orchestra called the Hotel Van Ness Orchestra that played at the Hotel Van Ness in Burlington, Vermont on Lake Champlain for about eighteen months in 1934-35. He also played at other hotels and resorts on the east coast and wrote many of his own arrangements. He moved to Berkley, California where he attended the University of California. There, he played with orchestras including Pete Dragon & His Orchestra in Oakland, CA. While in Oakland, he changed his last name from Getchie to Glenn. He graduated in 1941 as an optometrist and married Katharine (Kay) Wilson (a Berkley native); they had one daughter, Gay-Leigh Ann. During World War II he was stationed at Letterman Hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco.

Cummins, Jeanne

  • Person
  • 1925-04-26 - 2019-01-11

Cummins, the youngest of three children, was born Ethel Mae to Clifford and Rose (nee Bulah) Thompson in Glouster, Ohio. The family moved to Columbus where she graduated from West High School in 1943. She changed her name to Jeanne Bennett and joined the Bernie Cummins Orchestra. On May 13, 1946, she married Walter Cummins, the lead male vocalist in the band. soon after marrying, the couple left the band and settled in Columbus where they raised six children. Bernie passed away in 1990. Jeanne continued to perform locally into her 70s.