[ Jimmy "Trump" Davidson Orch ], (30's)
b. Sudbury, Ontario. d.
Joined Luigi Romanelli's orchestra in 1929, as a vocalist, and later played trumpet with the band. He stayed with Romanelli for 7 years. In 1936 he formed his first orchestra when he was booked the Club Esquire, later called the Club Top Hat.

Ray Noble's American band had been booked to play at Shea's Hippodrome. Ray noticed Davidson's orchestra, and was very impressed. Noble used Trump's band for his British tour the following year in 1937 and 1938, with Noble as the nominal Leader. The tour included a 2 week engagement at London's Palladium. Some of the sidemen included: Johnny Burt (who later spent 2 years as Paul Whiteman's arranger); Cokie Campbell; Trump himself; his brother Ted Davidson, sax; Vern Kahanen; Reef McGarvey, drums, and Joe Niosi. The band exhibited technical excellence but, overall, was not well received by the British music critics.

In 1939, Trump returned home to Canada, and was booked to play the Dardanella Ballroom at Wasaga Beach. Later in the year, he joined the Horace Lapp Orchestra at the Royal York Hotel as a sideman. In 1944, he again formed an orchestra that was booked into the Palace Pier. After a residency that lasted for 18 years, Trump ran into a little bad luck, - the Pier burned down in 1963.

      [ Gordon Day & his Rhythm Knights ], (30's)
An early Toronto dance band.

      [ Joe DeCourcy & his Orch ], (30's)
This orchestra played all of the Ontario ballrooms in the 1930s. The most famous was the Old Mill in Toronto. But the band was also booked into the Connaught Hotel in Hamilton, the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, etc.

      [ Gordon Delamont Orch ], (40's)
Gordon learned the band business when he was lead trumpet with the Frank Bogart Orchestra. He disbanded in the 1950s and became a music teacher.

      [ Jack Denny Orch ], Studio Orch) (30's - 40's)
Jack Denny had a wonderful society band with no brass section - just saxophones and strings - with lots of doubling in clarinets and double-reeds. He played the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal and then the Waldorf-Astoria in NYC. While at the Mount Royal, his band had the unusual feature of three pianos.

This band made records only in 1932 for RCA Victor. His other bands were more conventionally styled.

      [ Jack Denton's Orch ], (50's)
Jack's orchestra was active in the 1950's and 1960's, thus bucking a trend. At a time when other leaders were disbanding and turning to other interests, He continued on, playing many of the ballrooms in Toronto including: The Old Mill; the Palace Pier; Oshawa's Jubilee Pavilion, the Casa Loma and the Top Hat. Jack Fortin, the band's trumpeter, has told us that once they played "The Best New Dance Band contest", where the bands had to perform the Jackie Gleason Show Theme Song, - and Jackie Gleason was himself the Judge at the contest. Ca.1958/'59; Jack Fortin, Johnny Powell and Tex Pomeroy were in the trumpet section.
Thanks to Mr Jack Fortin for this information.

      [ Charles Dornberger Orch.], (30's)
b. ca. 1900/1902, New York, NY, USA. d.
Note:
Charlie's was an American band. But he enjoyed his greatest success in Canada, and I have chosen to place his entry here in the Canadian BigBands Database.
The information herein has been graciously supplied by Ms Mary McCormick, Frieda Dornberger's grand niece.

"I was just reading some of the articles in the scrapbook. One article says he was born in 1900 in New York city. According to another article, Charles played the sax primarily, and also played the piano, clarinet & accordian, and it says "many other instruments in his band..."

"The Dornberger family was originally from Germany, and made a good living at the Dornberger Linen Factory before World War 1. Charles' mother, Pauline, was from Alsace Lorraine. I'm not sure if any of the children were born in Germany or all were born in New York. Charles was the youngest (we think) of the 3 Dornberger children, born approx. 1900/1902. Charles' brother Fred, the oldest, was a prize fighter in his youth, and played the stock market later in life. He died a few years ago (mid-1990's). Their sister, Frieda - my grandmother, was very active socially, however she died in the early '50's of cancer, I never knew her. (Her married name was Frieda Bek)"

"My mother doesn't think that Charles ever had any formal training. My mom said she remembers he played many different instruments, and seeing several of them in their hall closet, but she doesn't remember which he played with the band." (He played the sax. -mlp)

Dornberger got his start with the Paul Whiteman Ochestra. In time, he formed his own band; recorded with Victor Records, and did some musical shorts for Warner Bros. Charlie had been a pilot for approx. 9 years before he started the band, In 1918, Paul Whiteman was serving in the U.S. Navy, organizing and training musicians for the Naval Training Camp Symphony. After WW1 ended, Whiteman moved back to San Francisco, organized a dance Orchestra. After his service discharge, Whiteman was soon playing at the city's prestigious Fairmont Hotel. He formed another band when given the opportunity to play in the southern part of the state, in Santa Barbara's Belvedere Hotel. He next opened at the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles. The eight musicians under his direction were pianist Charles Caldwell, trombonist Buster Johnson, tuba player J.K. Wallace, trumpeter Henry Busse, drummer Harold McDonald, saxophonists Leslie Canfield and Charles Dornberger, and banjoist Mike Pingitore.

Among the Charlie Dornberger orchestra's recordings are:
  "Human Hearts":, (605 kb) -- Charles Dornberger Orch. (One of the early Edison recordings: ED 51083R 8644 Oct. 27, 1922

  "Way Down In My Heart":, (532 kb) - Charles Dornberger Orch.- voc Carl Zoehrns. Rec;d: VIC 19768B 32543 April 25, 1925

  "Red Lips Kiss My Blues Away":, (439 kb) -- Charles Dornberger Orch.-Voc: Franklyn Baur. VIC 20615A 38014 April 27, 1927
These recordings were kindly supplied by Mr Leonard Schwartz, and digitally re-engineered.

After retiring from the music business, Charlie opened a bar in Santa Ana, CA. called "The Circus Tent". He was killed when the plane he was piloting crashed. Dornberger was married, but his wife had left him and they had no children. He was with his girlfriend when his plane crashed.