Belgian postcard offered by Kores 'Carboplane', no. 145. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Harry James in Do You Love Me (Gregory Ratoff, 1946).
Harry James (1916-1983) was an American trumpeter and film actor. He was also one of the most popular big band leaders of the first half of the 1940s, and is considered the discoverer of singer Frank Sinatra. James continued to lead his orchestra until just before his death, 40 years later.
Henry Haag 'Harry' James was born in a rundown hotel next to the city jail in Albany, Georgia, in 1916. Harry was the son of Everette Robert James, the bandleader and trumpet player in the orchestra for the Mighty Haag Circus, and Maybelle Stewart Clark James, an aerialist of the circus. When Harry was four, he started to work as a contortionist and was billed as "The Youngest Contortionist in the World." At seven, the family settled in Beaumont, Texas, where Harry learned to play drums. His father taught him the trumpet from the age of 10, and two years later, he played trumpet in the band of the Christy Brothers Circus, for which his family was then working. Harry won a trumpet competition and then went on to play in local dance groups. He played regularly in Herman Waldman's orchestra, where he was noticed by nationally popular bandleader Ben Pollack. James joined his orchestra in 1935 and made his first recordings with Pollack in 1936. Shortly afterwards, he joined Benny Goodman, then leading one of the country's most popular bands, where he was one of the star soloists until 1938. During his time with Goodman, he was already recording under his own name for Brunswick Records (later absorbed by Columbia Records). He also played on recordings by Teddy Wilson (1937) and Lionel Hampton (1938). In 1939, he launched his big band that became known as Harry James and His Music Makers. Mike McKinley at IMDb: "He made his debut in Philadelphia at the Ben Franklin Hotel and soon was a nationwide favorite of dance lovers and jazz addicts, rocking the rafters at the Hollywood Paladium, Chicago's famous College Inn at the Hotel Sherman, Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook in Cedar Cove, NJ, and then onto New York City." With this orchestra, Harry James played and toured until the 1980s. Until 1953, the bandleader scored more than seventy hits in America. His first hit was ‘All or Nothing at All’ in 1939. The orchestra played music between Jazz and dance music, as was common in the swing era. The orchestra was often supplemented by strings. Several musicians of (later) name and fame played in the group, including Ray Conniff, Willie Smith, Buddy Rich, Nick Fatool and Juan Tizol. Several vocalists also became well-known, including Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest, Kitty Kallen and Louise Tobin, with whom he was married for eight years (1935-1943) and had two children. The most famous singer to sing with James was undoubtedly Frank Sinatra. Sinatra worked as a waiter in a New Jersey restaurant, and James gave him a job singing in his band. By the end of that year, Sinatra switched to Tommy Dorsey's band.
1939-1940 was a difficult period for Harry James. He was even dumped by Columbia Records. James changed musical tack and came up with a sweeter sound. He returned to Columbia and soon the hits came, such as ‘Music Makers’ and ‘Lament to Love’ (both 1941). William Ruhlmann at AllMusic: "Late in the year, James reached the Top Five with an instrumental treatment of the 1913 song 'You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It).' This was the record that established him as a star. But with its sweet style and what was frequently described as James' "schmaltzy" trumpet playing, it was also, according to jazz critic Dan Morgenstern (as quoted in the 1999 biography 'Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James' by Peter J. Levinson), "the record that the jazz critics never forgave Harry for recording."). In 1942, James scored seven top-ten hits, three of which featured vocals by Helen Forrest. James was second only to Glenn Miller as the most successful recording artist of the year. He also had hits in the following years, including several with material he had recorded before the recording tape, such as a reissue of ‘All or Nothing at All’ sung by Sinatra. He performed for radio and took over the programme Chesterfield Time from bandleader Glenn Miller, when Miller went into the armed forces. James was ineligible for military service due to a back injury. He also played in hotels and theatres in New York, but wartime travel restrictions and the recording ban called by the musicians' union, which took effect in August 1942, limited James' touring and recording activities. Then another avenue opened up: Hollywood. His first film was Syncopation (William Dieterle, 1942), covering a quarter-century of American 'syncopated' music. It was followed by Private Buckaroo (Edward F. Cline, 1942) with The Andrews Sisters and Springtime in the Rockies (Irving Cummings, 1942), which also starred Betty Grable. The two married in 1943 and had two children. They divorced in 1965. Goodman also appeared in the films Two Girls and a Sailor (Richard Thorpe, 1944) and Bathing Beauty (George Sidney, 1944) starring Esther Williams. After the end of the recording ban, James was able to record new material again, and by 1945, he had seven top-ten hits. After the war, the hits dried up, and in a period of decline of the big bands, James also disbanded his orchestra. By 1947, he was back with a slimmed-down band, playing more Jazz.
In the following years, Harry James acted in several films. He played on the soundtrack to the film Young Man with a Horn (Michael Curtiz, 1950), in which Kirk Douglas played James' trumpet. He scored hits with Doris Day and Frank Sinatra and had his own television show, The Harry James Show, in 1951. He played himself in the film biography The Benny Goodman Story (Valentine Davies, 1955). In the mid-1950s, he switched to another record label, Capitol Records, for which he recorded many albums. His band sounded like Count Basie's at the time, so the bandleader employed ex-Basie arrangers like Neal Hefti. There were two more film appearances, The Big Beat (Will Cowan, 1958) and The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961). With his band, he toured at home and abroad and performed in hotels in Las Vegas. In that city, he met his third wife, showgirl Joan Boyd, to whom he was married only briefly (1968-1970). When James was diagnosed with cancer (malignant lymphoma) in 1983, he continued to play, giving his last concert on 26 June 1983, only nine days before his death at 67. He was entombed in the Eden Vale Mausoleum, Las Vegas, Nevada. In the same year, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. He had five children, including two daughters with Bety Grable: Victoria Elizabeth James (1944), and Jessica James (1947). William Ruhlman: "No one questioned James' talent as a jazz trumpeter, though after his commercial ascendance in 1941, many jazz critics dismissed him. After his period of greatest success, he turned back to a more jazz-oriented style, which failed to change the overall impression of him, if only because he was no longer as much in the public eye. Nevertheless, his swing hits remain among the most popular music of the era. In addition to the Columbia recordings from his heyday, there are numerous other titles in his discography, notably many airchecks, though his recordings of the '50s are also worth seeking out." The orchestra bearing the name of Harry James is still active, being conducted by trumpeter Fred Radke.
Sources: William Ruhlmann (AllMusic), Mike McKinley (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb
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