Phil Spitalny

Phil Spitalny (born November 7, 1890 in Tetiyiv , Ukraine , † October 11, 1970 in Miami Beach ) was an American band leader , best known for founding a women's big band in the swing era.

Live and act

Spitalny was a Russian émigré and played the clarinet from an early age . He studied piano and violin at the Odessa Conservatory. In 1905 he came to Cleveland with his family in the USA , where he played in the hotel orchestra (with his brothers) and the precursors of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. He moved to Boston, where he formed a 50-member band that played at Loew's State Theater and directed a dance orchestra with which he toured and recorded for Victor from 1924 to 1926. In 1928 he moved to New York City and founded the Phil Spitalny Hotel Pennsylvania Orchestra , which was quite successful until the Great Depression in the United States forced him to give up. He met Evelyn Kaye Klein, a violinist who had studied at the Juilliard School and performed as Evelyn and her magic violin , and built an all-girl orchestra around her. After selecting from over 1000 candidates for auditions, the orchestra had a cast of 22 women and was a great success. It was not only named Phil Spitalny and His All Girl Orchestra , but also the Hour of Charm Orchestra after the radio show Hour of Charm , on which it was heard regularly from 1935 (first on CBS, 1936 to 1946 for NBC under the sponsorship of General Electric and again for CBS from 1946 to 1948). In order to get the first radio sponsorship contract, Spitalny arranged a blind audition - the sponsor Linit Bath Oil only found out afterwards that he had chosen a women's band. Spitalny conceived the band as a novelty attraction of an all women band under the motto Sweet and Charming .

The arrangements were made by Kaye (Spitalny's wife from 1946), the trombonist Velma Rooke and the pianist Rosa Linda. They played mostly dance music.

According to the contract, the musicians were not allowed to marry for two years (and had to announce a marriage six months in advance and also pay attention to their "reputation"), were given their appearance (hairstyle and weight under 122 pounds) and initially practiced five to four times a day six hours. It was played by heart without notes on the stage (so as not to distract from the stage presentation). Due to their success, the band traveled comfortably in their own train compartments compared to other all-girl bands. Sherrie Tucker mentions in her book Swing Shift (2000) that he had an irritating habit of interviewing new band members in their underwear (but doesn't seem to have gone any further). The band has been in two feature films: When Johnny comes marching home (1942) and Here come the Co-eds (1945) with Abbott and Costello .

In the early 1950s he appeared several times on the Ed Sullivan Show and moved to Miami in 1955, where he retired and worked as a music critic for a local newspaper. His widow Evelyn Kaye Klein died in 1990.

He was also a composer and worked with other composers such as Gus Kahn and Lee "Stubby" Gordon. He co-wrote Save the Last Dance for Me with Frank Magine and Walter Hirsch (later a hit by The Drifters ).

Spitalny has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Web links

References and comments

↑ She was not the only one of the musicians who trained at Juilliard, the flautist Frances Blaisdell also studied there. She was in the orchestra from 1934 to 1937.
↑ However, he took over many of the Parisian Redheads (Bricktops)
↑ Linda Dahl Stormy Weather , Limelight 1996, pp. 52f

personal data
SURNAME	Spitalny, Phil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American clarinetist and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH	November 7, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tetiyiv , Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH	October 11, 1970
Place of death	Miami Beach

[1] She was not the only one of the musicians who trained at Juilliard, the flautist Frances Blaisdell also studied there. She was in the orchestra from 1934 to 1937.

[2] However, he took over many of the Parisian Redheads (Bricktops)

[3] Linda Dahl Stormy Weather , Limelight 1996, pp. 52f