The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra was an orchestra that played primarily at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, both the old and new locations. In addition to providing dinner music at the famous hotel, the orchestra made over 300 recordings and many radio broadcasts. It was established in the 1890s, and was directed by Carlo Curti in early 1900s, Joseph Knecht at least from 1908 to 1925, later by Jack Denny and others, and then Xavier Cugat from approximately 1933 to 1949.
26-665: Denny and the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra appeared in the movie Moonlight and Pretzels in 1933. Both Denny and Cugat had their own orchestras when they began playing at the Waldorf-Astoria, so the term "Waldorf-Astoria orchestras" might be an appropriate description. The Waldorf-Astoria hotel was originally built as two separate adjacent hotels, the Waldorf in 1893 and the Astoria in 1897. Both were on
52-536: A stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Max Schlossberg Max Schlossberg (5 November 1873 – 23 September 1936) was a Jewish - Baltic trumpeter, conductor , composer , and teacher . His legacy is a large number of successful trumpet students and the method book, Daily Drills and Technical Studies . Max Schlossberg was born in Libau , Courland , Russian Empire , now Liepāja, Latvia in 1873 to Nathan Schlossberg and an unknown mother. He went to
78-478: A flute player in the orchestra under Knecht. Several New York Times articles mention the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra with various conductors, including Harold Leonard (1926–1927), Meyer Davis (1929–1932), Nat Brandywine (1932), Jack Denny (1932), and Oscar Adler (1933). Meyer Davis's Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra is sometimes described as directed by Bill Artzt, Joe Moss, and Mischa Borr, instead of Davis himself. Denny departed when Xavier Cugat 's Orchestra began creating
104-572: A picture (see Commons below) which is labeled as including the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra in a publicity picture for the November 4, 1924, Eveready Hour broadcast. Neither the musicians nor the instrumentation match the 1918 photograph of the orchestra cited above. By 1928, the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra was heard Saturdays in the New York area on WABC and WEAF, in Washington, D.C., on WRC, and it
130-416: A stir at the Waldorf-Astoria. Cugat never had a contract with the Waldorf-Astoria, but his band reigned supreme there for 16 years. He began with a salary of $ 500 per week which escalated to $ 7,000 per week plus a percentage of the door. Knecht and Cugat each directed over 150 recordings with the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Denny also made a significant number of recordings, but only about fifteen appeared with
156-457: Is a 1933 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Karl Freund , about a man who puts on a Broadway show. The film was released by Universal Studios and featured Mary Brian and William Frawley , now best-known as "Fred Mertz" on the 1950s TV show I Love Lucy ; Freund was the groundbreaking cinematographer for I Love Lucy . The film was not produced in Hollywood, but was filmed at
182-609: The 1890s , he supported himself by conducting. Once in New York City, he performed with the New York Philharmonic for the remainder of his life, first under Gustav Mahler and finally under Arturo Toscanini . He was part of the faculty of Juilliard School . Some of his many trumpet students include Louis Davidson , Harry Glantz , Saul Caston , Renold Schilke , William Vacchiano , Mannie Klein , Bernie Glow , and James Stamp . Harry Freistadt compiled
208-593: The Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens , New York City , primarily used by Paramount Pictures . The dances were choreographed by Bobby Connolly . A contemporary review in Variety reported that the film "moves along at a sprightly pace and has sufficient pep to hold interest," noting the film's "several nice tunes," "some good dance routines," and "a good looking line of girls." The review also notes "[o]n
234-690: The Moscow Conservatory at the age of nine. He emigrated first to the United States in 1894 as his father had done previously, but returned to Riga shortly thereafter for compulsory military service which he never completed. There, Schlossberg married Jennie Lohak in 1902 before emigrating to the United States again that same year. In 1910, Max Schlossberg moved to The Bronx in New York City for his career. He spent
260-533: The Cugat recordings as "charted." The Orchestra was one of the earliest orchestras heard on radio. Broadcasts began on WJZ in Newark, New Jersey and continued throughout the 1920s as the network chain was established. On February 4, 1923, The Washington Post reported: The Sunday evening concert of the Waldorf-Astoria orchestra numbers, under the leadership of Joseph Knecht, will continue to be broadcast through
286-686: The Grand Ballroom. Later in the early 1930s, the orchestral accordionist John Serry Sr. collaborated in the early years of his career with the orchestra under the direction of Misha Borr at various performance venues within the Waldor-Astoria hotel including: The Starlight Room, The Grand Ballroom and the Waldorf Towers, as well as later in his career in 1948 at The Wedgewood Room. A 1919 New York Times article states that, " Joseph Knecht led an 'all-American' program recently by
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#1732765488031312-569: The Orchestra while attending the City College of New York . A search of the college's files shows Shilkret attended classes in the Fall 1904 semester and is listed as an alumnus, Class of ex'1910. This information establishes Knecht as director prior to 1910. Shilkret described the hotel as "almost a conservatory, rather than a hotel engagement. ... There were thirty-five men engaged steadily for
338-672: The Waldorf Orchestra, whose twenty-five men have played together for twenty years," but does not indicate whether or not the orchestra played for the Waldorf-Astoria for its entire twenty-year existence. Two New York Times articles note the beginning and ending of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra's thirteenth season of Sunday concerts, which would imply that the Sunday concert feature of the Orchestra began in 1912. New York Times articles from 1926 refer to "Knecht's Silvertone Dance Orchestra" and "Knecht's orchestra," without any reference to
364-403: The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra played at the Astoria, and a 1901 New York Times Article mentions "Prof. Clappe, leader of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, and the other fifteen performers." In his autobiography, Nathaniel Shilkret , a member of the orchestra in its early days, provides information about the Orchestra and anecdotal stories about several of its members. Shilkret says he was a member of
390-456: The Waldorf-Astoria name. The first recording by the Orchestra was Maytime Waltz , recorded on December 10, 1917 and issued as Victor 18432. Whitburn lists this recordings being charted as a number 9 hit the following year, and lists three other Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra recordings as being "charted," including Beautiful Ohio , which was listed as charted number one in 1919. The Orchestra made recordings for several different record companies, with
416-420: The Waldorf-Astoria, from which it seems that Knecht's association with the Waldorf-Astoria ended in 1925. A New York Times obituary says that Knecht died on May 30, 1931. A picture of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, dated March 4, 1918, and marked "to Mr. Oscar Tschirky on his 25th anniversary" is signed by each member of the orchestra. Tschirky was the maître d' of the Waldorf-Astoria and was very well known. From
442-634: The dining rooms. In the Rose Room, Caruso records were played, with our group following the music of the record." Shilkret said that there were nightly concerts from 9 pm to 10 pm, with the Orchestra enlarged to fifty on Sundays, and chamber music from 11 pm to 1 am, with Joseph Knecht as director. Music historian Howard Pollack says, "This hotel orchestra, comprising a highly trained group of mostly Italian and Jewish musicians, regularly gave serious concerts, including one that [George] Gershwin attended on April 13, 1913, at which [Charles] Hambitzer performed
468-423: The first movement of Anton Rubinstein 's Piano Concerto in D Minor. " Pollack says Hambitzer came to New York no later than 1908 and began playing in the string section (Hambitzer played many instruments) of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. In 1916, Nicholas Laucella collaborated as the principal flautist with Joseph Knecht in a performance of his work Introduction and Temple Dance for an appreciative audience in
494-573: The land that is now occupied by the Empire State Building , and the two hotels were connected after construction of the second one. The hotel had its current site on Park Avenue built in 1931. In addition to the normal function of a hotel to house its guests and provide them with amenities, the Waldorf-Astoria had an extensive program of social activities, to include concerts by top artists and an orchestra to provide music for its dinner guests. An 1898 New York Times article mentions that
520-422: The last recording directed by Knecht being made for Edison in November 1925. On Ca. 1921 Columbia records it is credited as "The Waldorf-Astoria Singing Orchestra". Denny recorded for Victor in 1932, including an experimental LP recording. Cugat also directed over 150 recordings with the Orchestra between 1937 and 1942, the earlier recordings for Victor and the later ones for Columbia. Whitburn lists twenty-one of
546-831: The manuscripts left behind by his teacher and father-in-law, Max Schlossberg, after his death. The resulting method book was Daily Drills and Technical Studies for Trumpet , first published in 1937 by J. & F. Hill before the copyright passed along to M. Baron Company in 1938. Max Schlossberg's son, Charles, edited an arrangement of the method for trombone titled Daily Drills and Technical Studies for Trombone . The daily drills consist of 156 exercises divided into eight parts: long note drills (37 exercises), intervals (11 exercises), octave drills (10 exercises), lip drills (11 exercises), chord drills (19 exercises), scale drills (27 exercises), chromatic scale drills (13 exercises), and short études (28 exercises). The étude labeled as exercise 156, now attributed to Guillaume Balay, has been omitted from
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#1732765488031572-586: The month of February, according to a statement made by WJZ, Newark. Sies describes details of a spring 1924 broadcast of classical music on Dinner Music from the Rose Room on WEAF (soon to be the flagship station of the NBC network), and the New York Times said that the Rose Room Dinner Music was a favorite program for listeners of WEAF for many years. The Eveready Hour article includes
598-401: The negative side of the ledger are a pretty dull and routine story, practically no laughs and no actual cast stars." A modern review of the film by Danny Reid notes that although it "was obviously made on a tight budget [...] and its numbers never escape feeling stage bound," it contains "a few undeniable charms that make it an enjoyable experience." This article about a musical film is
624-714: The remainder of his career performing and teaching there. He had three children with Jennie: Charles, Katherine Benjamin, and another daughter who would marry Harry Freistadt. In 1936, Schlossberg suffered a heart attack which prompted him to visit Bethlehem, New Hampshire , where he would later die. Following his time at the Moscow Conservatory, Max Schlossberg played trumpet in Saint Petersburg . After moving to Berlin , he studied under Julius Kosleck and toured with Arthur Nikisch , Hans Richter , and Felix Weingartner . Following his return to Latvia in
650-1185: The signatures on the picture, together with information from Shilkret's autobiography, his payroll for his radio orchestras from 1928 through 1933 and the New York Philharmonic Archives, the orchestra members, and their principal instrument when known, include the following, with question marks indicating the signatures were not clear: Joseph Knecht (director), V. Adamo, F. Cardone?, N. Cassellee?, Leonard D'Amico (violin), Edward Davis, Carl W. Dodge (cello), Joseph Febbraio (horn), R. Fritock, Nicholas Garagusi (violin; Boys' Symphony Orchestra of New York soloist and concertmaster in 1902), Roy R. Haines (trombone), Charles J. Hambitzer (George Gershwin's principal piano teacher), Louison? Heidelberg, Edward Kilenyi (violin), A. Kirchner (bassoon), Peter Le Fina, Frank Longo (piano), Benjamin Posner (violin), D. Reggel, D. Saeirtel, Max Schlossberg (trumpet), Nathaniel Shilkret (clarinet), Harry K. Spedick, Stefano L. Stefan?, F. Tantangelo, Van Praag, George Vaughn (clarinet), O. Walther. Shilkret also cites Dan Marshall as
676-503: Was also heard in Detroit (WWJ), Boston (WEEI) and WCAE (Hartford). The music was usually on at 6pm to provide what was labeled "dinner music," and NBC broadcast it throughout the United States in the 1930s. Minus a brass section, the 1932 orchestra that Jack Denny helmed at the Waldorf-Astoria employed three pianos, clarinets, saxophones, strings and possibly a French horn or oboe. Moonlight and Pretzels Moonlight and Pretzels
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