Very early on, in the 1920s, Jazz, just as it had swept over the U.S., had taken hold in Canada. In 1924, Jack Evans had formed a band called "Jack Evans and his Blue Blowers", obviously a take off on Red McKenzie and his 'Mound City Blue Blowers'. The music was also the same, - a lively, quite infectious jazz. Even before Evans, ca 1922, there was an earlier orchestra called Captain Plunkett's Dumbells. This orchestra, too, was playing an authentic type of Dixieland Jazz. And before Plunkett, there was the Don Romanelli Orchestra playing for patrons of the SS Cayuga, a Lake Ontario day cruise steam boat. While his father, Luigi and his other brothers, were playing popular music, too. The Romanelli orchestras were active from the mid-20'a through the 30's.

Other great bands were operating in the 30's. Among which one could find Harry Bedlington & his Whispering Orchestra; Bus Browne & the Boys; Earl Melloway; Bert Niosi; Dal Richards, and the Horace Lapp Orchestra, just to name a few.

The 40's found such bands as Monty Levine's; The Modernaires (a co-op band by the way); Eddie Stroud; Johnny Holmes (with two yougsters named Maynard Ferguson and Oscar Peterson); Gordon Delamount and Paul Firman.

The 50's found such bands as Art Hallman Orchestra (with a young Jerry Colonna playing Trombone); Johnny Lindon; Boyd Valleau, and Paul Grosney, among others.

Many of the Canadian radio stations not only programmed locally, but also picked up feeds from the major U.S. Networks. Additionally, towns close to the U.S. border had no difficulty picking up the local U.S. stations. So Canadian listeners wound up with the best of both worlds, their own home-grown musicians and the best of the U.S. bands. It was definitely a win-win situation.

The great wall street crash of '29 was a world-wide depression that affected Canadians as much as it did the U.S. In a perverse way, the depression greatly helped the Canadian bands. With a lack of funds for entertainment, folks would stay home, listen to the radio and, for a little while, forget the cares of the day. This, of course, paralleled the situation in the U.S.

In 1932, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was formed, the fore-runner to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which was formed in 1936. It was the policy of the CBC to promote Canadian bands whenever possible, and this was a boon to the home grown orchestras.

In point of fact, the thirties was probably the finest hour of the Canadian Dance Bands. The radio stations preferred 'live' music to canned or recorded music, and this added that special excitement that only live performances can generate.

Canadian bands, on the other hand, tended to stay on with just one Hotel or Ballroom for years, also preferably with radio exposure. This way, they would build up the bands own reputation, as well as the hotel's.

Canada stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Towns clear across the praries, and in the golden west had their favorite spots. There are just too many to list them all, but, here are just a few.

Winnipeg had its Rancho Don Carlos, while Victoria had The Empress Hotel. There was the Grand Beach in Manitoba, while excursion steamers were traveling up and down the Pacific Ocean from Vancouver to Skagway, Alaska. And, in Vancouver proper, there many venues including The Cassino; The Alexandra Ballroom, and the Alma Academy The Hotel Vancouver had two rooms, The Panarama Roof and The Spanish Grill Room.

Banff had the Banff Springs Hotel. (What a magnificent hotel, what a magnificent site!)

Understandably, Toronto and Montreal were the largest hotel and dance hall centers. In Toronto, one could dine and dance at venues such as:

Cuthbert & Deller's Palais Royale Ballroom
Palace Pier (on Lake Ontario)
King Edward Hotel's Oak Room
Royal York's Imperial Room Built in 1929
Casa Loma (1927)  (where Glen Gray's orch got it's name.)
Silver Slipper
The CNE Tent
Masonic Temple
Shea's Hippodrome

While Montrealers were visiting:

Mount Royal Hotel
Venetian Gardens
The Forumn