[ Art Hallman & his Orch ], (1940's - 50's)
Theme Song: "A Moment More With You"
Art was a vocalist, and he coached many other singers, including many of his own vocalist. Among them was pretty Joan Fairfax, who briefly had her own band in the 1960's; Terry Dale; Shirley Harmer; Marilyn Kent who was Miss Canada in 1952, and Lorrain McAllister.

He started out as a child singing in school choirs, and later studied the piano and the saxophone. When he was 19, he took a job on one of the summer tour boats that traveled between his hometown of Vancouver and Alaska.

A little later, he became the staff pianist on Vancouver's radio station CJOR. The studios were directly over the Alexandra Ballroom, where Mart Kenney's orchestra was booked. Mart hired him as a pianist-singer, and he stayed with Mart for 13 years.

In 1944, he formed his first band for a booking into the Casa Loma, and remained active all thru the 1950's. Among his sidemen were Johnny Cowell on sax; Harry Hamilton on trumpet, and Jerry Colonna was his Trombonist.

      [ Art Harmony Seven ], (1920's)
Currently no information available.

      [ Nelson Hatch Band ], (1930's)
Currently no information available.
This 1930's orchestra played the Old Mill Club.

      [ Norman Harris Orch. ], (1940's - '50's)
Active in the 1940's. Harry Culley was in the sax chair, while Dunc Snider was the drummer. In the mid-40's, Harris' band played the Oak Room of the King Edward Hotel. His featured vocalist was Margaret Henry.

      [ Samuel Hersenhoren Orch ], (Studio Orch) (40's)
Currently no information available.

      [ Earl Hill Orch ], (1930's - '50's)
Currently no information available.
This band was also known as 'The Capitolians' due to their long run at Winnipeg's Capitol Theatre. And, here's a photo of the Earl Hill and His Famous Capitolians, as they appeared onstage of the Capitol. (Photo courtesy of Ms. Brenda Wakeman, whose grandfather was Ken Murdie, trumpet player and singer with the band. ( Also called " HOT LIPS MURDIE" )     (Visitors with High Speed Internet access may wish to view this Larger View of the Capitolians, 133kb.)     Ms. Wakeman has recalled that Ken Murdie's given name was Cunningham Borthic Rankin Murdie. "Ken" certainly would have been easier for the public to remember. Murdie also played with the " Blue Melody Orchestra", and the "Northwestern Canadian Mounted Police Band".

In August of 1929, the Earl Hill Orchestra played at the official opening of River Park's newly constructed Dance Hall on the occasion of the 'DOKEY' (Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan) convention. During the mid-1930s, the band was resident at the Hotel Saskatchewan, Regina, and was also heard on the CBC radio network.
The BigBands Database Plus thanks Ms. Wakeman for her help and photographs with this entry on Earl Hill orchestra.

      [ Johnny Holmes Orch ], Oscar Peterson; Maynard Ferguson (40's)
b. 1916, Montreal, CA, USA.
This white musician came from a middle class Montreal family. His Father and older brother were laborers, who played a litle cornet and trombone - respectively. They did help Johnny with some little music instruction, but basically, Johnny taught himself to play cornet and read music. He quit school at age 12 to help support the family, working as an office boy for $7.00 a week, during the great depression. By age 14, he was playing the trumpet well enough for one of the local symphony orchestras to offer him a position. Since the job only paid $6.00, he had to turn it down.

Johnny and his father and brother began playing in a large band at Pentecostal church (on Drummond Street). The bandleader then formed an even larger, 22 piece, brass band, and then taught Johnny the basics of arranging. Experimenting with various Brass voicings, Johnny wrote a large numbrs of arrangements for the group, and also tutored many of the younger players in the band, for .25 cents per half-hour lesson.

In 1940, Johnny helped to form a Ten Piece co-operative swing band called The Esquires. The Esquires played mostly standard dance music 'Stocks'. As the oldest man, he was 24, he was made the business manager as well as lead trumpeter. Slowly, the War took the men, and Johnny had to find others. Eventually the band became known as the Johnny Holmes Orchestra, and the music quality increased when Johnny began writing virtually all of the bands scores giving the band a sort of Les Brown (& his 'Band of Reknown' Orch.) sound.

In common with a great many successful bandleaders, Holmes was also a good businessman. He should this side of his character when he next rented Victoria Hall (Westmount) and produced the weekly dance shows himself. Johnny was working full time as a pharmaceuticals salesman, and he used his earnings to rent the Hall. He hired the ticket sellers, soft drink sellers, paid the musicians salaries, and also pain for the publicity. The gamble worked. In 1941, the band was up to 15 men, and over 800 dancers packed the hall on weekends. By 1942, Johnny felt secure enough to quit his job as salesman and to devote his full time to the band. For the following six years, he made a fair living even though the band was only working three nights a week. Even so, he always paid the sidemen higher than union scale; he hired the work crews who moved the band's equipment to various venues; he purchased his own stage props, and even hired nightclub acts for his shows.

In the summer of 1946, the band went on a two-week tour one-nighters throughout Ontario. Even though the band was still somewhat semi-professional, they were very well known in Montreal, played the Chez Maurice Danceland occasionally, and once outdrew the visiting Stan Kenton Band. Perhaps one of the reasons for this was the band's young Black pianist, - Oscar Peterson, who, at age 17, had joined the band in 1942.

Holmes recognized 'a diamond in the rough' when he heard Peterson play. He took the young pianist under his wing with frequent meetings at Johnny's home where the two would go over the band's music. A very warm friendship developed between the two men. Holmes, a so-so pianist, couldn't show Oscar much, but he was able to teach the young man Jazz conception and delivery, using records to illustrate ideas on phrasing and performance. In later years, Peterson said that Holmes' influence was profound. "I was overdoing......and was completely lost.....Holmes was responsible for changing this; he built up my technique and was responsible for the style I put on records." (--"Oscar Peterson", Liberty, Jan. 12, 1946, pg 19. Harold Dingman author.) There was another youngster who was also greatly helped by Holmes, this time a White youngster, - -Maynard Ferguson (a child prodigy, who at just age 15 was already playing in his brother Percy's band, and at age 17 was leading that band with Percy playing).

By the end of the 1940's, the big band era was coming to a close in Canada, as well as in the U.S.A. Ferguson and Peterson had left Montreal and the audiences were steadily growing smaller at the pavillions that were still operating. Holmes could read the writing on the wall, and in 1950, he left the band to again become a salesman. His orchestra lasted another year before disbanding.

In 1959, CBC radio in Montreal invited Holmes to put on a weekly radio show. Over the following decade, Johnny led studio orchestras with professional jazzmen, and with new arrangements. CBC even released some recordings of the bands. (As early as 1950, Montreal was no longer the Canadian recording capital...Toronto was!)

      [ George Hooey Band ], (30's)
Currently no information available. Here's a photograph of the George Hooey Band. Bill Pudifin is far right top row (next to the Bass). Next to him (on Bill's Left) is trumpeter Frank Clark. THe next man may be Ernie Van Raalte. Leader George Hooey is standing in front of the piano. For various technical reasons we were not able to resize the photo, so we have presented it here in a large format. It will take a few minutes to load, but shows the sidemen in perfect detail.
In the mid-1930's, the band had these fine sidemen:
RHYTHM
     Piano: George Hooey
     Drums: Stan Hustlebee
     Bass: Bobby Lee
SAXES
     Altos: Bill Cline, Art Worden
     Tenors:Tommy Cronin, Roy Major
BRASS
     Trpts: Frank Clark, Bill Pudifin, Ernie Van Raalte
     TBone: Bill Brundish
VOCALS
     Jazz: Herb Lee
     Ballads: Charlie Bailey