Unfortunately, I have not been
able to find much information about the Arthur Gibbs band. Apparently,
the band only had two records issued - one on April 24, 1923 in which this
week's selections were recorded and the other from a second recording session
on October 10 of the same year. The second recording session
is notable in that it resulted in the very first recording of the famous
1920s hit song "Charleston."
The song "Louisville Lou," composed
by Milton Ager, experienced a revival in the very short running 1983 Broadway
production Peg.
Fair
One
The Benson Orchestra of Chicago
1920
(Victor 18697-A)
I'd
Love To Fall Asleep And Wake
Up
In My Mammy's Arms
The Benson Orchestra of Chicago
1920
(Victor 18697-B )
The Benson Orchestra was a very
prominent early 1920s Chicago dance band. The band was named after
Edgar A. Benson who functioned behind the scenes as its manager and cello
player. The band had several front men over the years
including pianist Roy Bargy, Don Bestor and Fred Hamm.
EXTRA
This section will present
78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop
and jazz fare that I usually present. Here I will feature
recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities
as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
Gems
From "The Pink Lady"
Victor Military Band
1911
(Victor 35423-A )
Gems
From "The Spring Maid"
Victor Military Band
1911
(Victor 35423-B )
Here are some selections from two
Edwardian era Broadway operettas.
The Pink Lady, with music
by Ivan Caryll, opened in March 1911 at New York's New Amsterdam Theatre
and ran for 316 performances. While Caryll a very well known and
highly prolific composer of operettas between the 1890s and the 1910s,
his works have beem mostly forgotten.
The Spring Maid was an American
adaptation of Austrian composer Heinrich
Reinhardt's operetta Die Sprudelfee which opened at the Cartheater
in Vienna in 1909. The Broadway production opened at the Liberty
Theatre on December 26, 1910 and ran for 192 performances.
The production enjoyed a 16 performance return engagement at the New Amsterdam
Theatre in January 1913. Reinhardt is another composer whose works
have been largely forgotten.
