Horace Heidt Orchestra
| Horace Heidt | |
|---|---|
Heidt in 1937
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| Background information | |
| Born |
May 21, 1901 Alameda, California, U.S. |
| Died | December 1, 1986 Los Angeles |
| Genres | Big band |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, bandleader |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Associated acts | Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights |
Horace Heidt (May 21, 1901 – December 1, 1986) was an American pianist, big band leader, and radio and television personality. His band, Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights, toured vaudeville and performed on radio and television during the 1930s and 1940s.
Born in Alameda, California, Heidt attended Culver Academies. At the University of California, Berkeley, he was a guard on the football team. A broken back suffered in a practice session caused him to give up football, leading him to turn his attention to music. He and some classmates formed a band, The Californians.
From 1932 to 1953, he was one of the more popular radio bandleaders, heard on both NBC and CBS in a variety of different formats over the years. He began on the NBC Blue Network in 1932 with Shell Oil's Ship of Joy and Answers by the Dancers. During the late 1930s on CBS he did Captain Dobbsie's Ship of Joy and Horace Heidt's Alemite Brigadiers before returning to NBC for 1937–39 broadcasts.
Singer Matt Dennis got his start with Heidt's band, and Art Carney was the band's singing comedian. The Heidt band's recordings were highly successful, with "Gone with the Wind" going to No. 1 in 1937 and "Ti-Pi-Tin" to No. 1 in 1938. In 1939, "The Man with the Mandolin" ranked No. 2 on the charts.
His and his band played on the NBC Pot o' Gold radio show (1939–41). The 1941 film of the same title, produced by James Roosevelt (son of the U.S. president) and directed by George Marshall, starred James Stewart and Paulette Goddard, and it featured Heidt portraying himself with his band. Carney can be glimpsed in some of the film's musical numbers. The movie gives a fairly accurate depiction of Heidt's radio show but features staged sequences, such as a scene in which a Minnesota farmer (allegedly phoned at random by Heidt during his radio show) is played by well-known character actor John Qualen.
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