Big band remote

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A big band remote (aka dance band remote) was a remote broadcast, popular on radio during the 1930s and 1940s, involving a coast-to-coast live transmission of a big band. As early as 1930, Ben Bernie was heard in weekly remotes from Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel.

Broadcasts were usually transmitted by the major radio networks directly from hotels, ballrooms, restaurants and clubs. During World War II, the remote locations included military bases and defense plants. Band remotes mostly originated in major cities, including Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago. The Chicago broadcasts featured bands headed by Count Basie, Frankie Carle, Duke Ellington, Jan Garber, Jerry Gray, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Eddy Howard (from the Aragon Ballroom), Dick Jurgens, Kay Kyser (from the Blackhawk Restaurant), Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra (from the Blackhawk), Ted Weems, Shep Fields (from the Palmer House) and Griff Williams.

The usual procedure involved the network sending a two-man team, announcer and engineer, with remote radio equipment to a designated location. The announcer would open with music behind an introduction:

Coming to you from Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook on Route 23, just off the Pompton Turnpike in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, we present the music of Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra.

For your dancing pleasure, Columbia brings you the music of Count Basie and his orchestra, coming to you from the Famous Door on Fifty-Second Street in New York City.

Artie Shaw's many remote broadcasts included the Rose Room of Boston's Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Blue Room of New York's Hotel Lincoln was the location of his only regular radio series as headliner. Sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes, Shaw broadcast on CBS from November 20, 1938 until November 14, 1939. Before he launched Sun Records, Sam Phillips ran regular big band remotes with the Chuck Foster orchestra and others from the Peabody Hotel Skyway Ballroom in Memphis, Tennessee. The tradition continued into the 1950s with jazz club remotes on NBC's Monitor by Al Hibbler and others.

Bands heard on radio remotes during the 1930s-40s included:

Desi Arnaz
Gus Arnheim
Charlie Barnet (from the Brown Hotel in Denver)
Count Basie (from Kansas City's Reno Club, the Famous Door in New York and California's Palomar Ballroom)
Bunny Berigan
Cab Calloway (from the Savoy Ballroom)
Bob Chester
Larry Clinton
Francis Craig (from the Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville)
Bob Crosby
Tommy Dorsey (from the Glen Island Casino)
Roy Eldridge
Duke Ellington (from the London Palladium in the UK)
Skinnay Ennis (from the Statler Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles)
Shep Fields (from the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles & the Palmer House in Chicago)
Jan Garber (from the Blue Room of the Hotel Roosevelt in New Orleans)
Benny Goodman (from the Hotel New Yorker)
Glen Gray
Phil Harris (from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu)
Harry James (from the Hollywood Palladium)
Stan Kenton
Andy Kirk
Gene Krupa (from The Roof of the Hotel Astor in Manhattan)
Freddy Martin (from the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles)
Ray McKinley
Glenn Miller (from the Cafe Rouge of New York's Pennsylvania Hotel)
Ozzie Nelson (from New York's Lexington Hotel)
Will Osborne
Tony Pastor (from the Century Room of the Hotel Adolphus in Dallas)
Jan Savitt
Bobby Sherwood (from Camp Atterbury, Indiana),
Jack Teagarden
Orrin Tucker (from Elitch's Gardens in Denver)
Chick Webb.

Sources

Ansbro, George. I Have a Lady in the Balcony. McFarland, 2000.

References

Listen to

External links

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Last updated on Friday February 15, 2008 at 10:40:56 PST (GMT -0800)
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