[ Marek Weber Orch. ]
This Austrian-born violinist and bandleader studied both in Berlin and Vienna. At just age 17, Weber was already showing his talent as a leader when conducting a Berlin hotel orchestra, and developing skills that he would later utilize in leading large orchestras specializing in Viennese Waltz music. After emigrating to the United States, Weber had a successful career in Radio and Recordings. During 1938-'39, he was the conductor for the 'Contented Hour' radio show (sponsored by Carnation Brand Condensed Milk), and continued to be musically active well into the 1940s.

Interestingly, during his lifetime, Marek donated his violins to the Indiana University School of Music, where they were used by needy students. Later, in her will, his widow Mrs. Anna Weber established an endowment for the university that continued her husband's philanthropy and his love of music. Honoring the memory of her husband, The Anna Weber Endowment Fund provides two violin scholarships, at the IU School of Music, to be given annually to a male and a female student who demonstrate financial need.

   [ Anson Weeks Orch. ]
b. Feb. 14, 1896, Oakland, CA, USA, d. Feb. 7, 1969, Sacramento, CA, USA.
Theme Song: "I'm Writing You This Little Melody"
Overview
The many contrasting vogues of the 1920's created a surge in 'Hotel Bands'. In the first half of the decade, the bands mostly entertained the New York Social Set. But by the end of the decade, the recording industry made such bandleaders as Paul Whiteman, Ted Weems and Jan Garber popular celebrities. Radio only added to their popularity with nightly broadcasts live from the hotel ballrooms. On the West Coast, Anson Weeks was a pioneering Bandleader. As early as 1924, he formed his first orchestra in Oakland, CA (across the bay from San Francisco). The band's popularity grew rapidly. The Weeks orchestra gained national recognition with his weekly radio program "The Lucky Strike Magic Carpet Show".

"Come Dancin' with Anson" was a well used phrase. In his early years, Anson was a fixture at the Mark Hopkins Hotel Peacock Room, in San Francisco, CA.

During the early '30s, Anson's orchestra had such men as singers Tony Martin; Bob Crosby and Carl Ravazza; with future leaders such as Xavier Cougat and Griff Williams. Here's a photograph of the 1931 Anson Weeks Orch.. While this is a close-up of Anson at the Piano. In the mid '30s, Dale Evans, was his girl vocalist. (née: Frances Octavia Smith, Oct. 31, 1912, Uvalde, TX, USA. She would later go on to become a famous "Cowgirl" in Hollywood films, and the wife of Cowboy star Roy Rogers. Here's a photograph of Roy and Dale, together.)

In the mid 30's, a bus taking Anson to a gig, had a serious accident. Anson was so badly injured that the doctors thought that it was the end of his career. However, Anson recovered and was again touring with his band in the 1940's. Here's a later publicity photo of Anson Weeks. By 1946, the big band boom was going bust and Anson retired. He went into the Real Estate business, in Santa Rosa, CA.

First let's listen to the Crosby boys singing, Bob and his Brother Bing.
  "Waitin' At The Gate For Katie", (543 kb): Anson Weeks Orchestra with vocal by BOB Crosby

  "Please", (511 kb): Anson Weeks Orchestra with vocal by BING Crosby

  "It's All In The Game", (506 kb): Anson Weeks Orchestra with vocal

  "I Love You", (536 kb): Anson Weeks Orchestra with vocal

  "Louisville Lady", (521 kb): Anson Weeks Orchestra with vocal

  "My Little Senorita", (512 kb): Anson Weeks Orchestra with vocal
These songs graciously contributed by Mr. Irving Schwartz, and then digitally re-mastered.

As well as being a fine conductor, Anson was also a gifted composer. Among his many compositions are:
"I'm Sorry Dear"
"That Same Old Dream"
"We'll Get a Bang Out Of Life"

In 1956, after many requests, he formed another band, and took it touring. Who was watching the store at the 'Mark' while Anson was on the road? Why, none other than his son, Jack. Anson's career spanned more than 40 years.

   [ Ted Weems Orch. ]
b. Sept. 26, 1901, Pitcairn, PA, d. May 6, 1963, Tulsa, OK
Theme Song: "Out of the Night"
Violin and Trombone.
Overview
Here's a photo of Ted Weems, and here's a better publicity photo of Ted, whose band was a Mid-West favorite all during the 1920s - 30s and 1940s. In 1929, they gained national recognition with their hit novelty song "Piccolo Pete". The band worked Vaudeville and Ballroom venues but were best known for their work on network Radio shows such as Fibber McGee and Molly, James Melton, and Jack Benny. Among the band's vocalists were Marilyn Maxwell; Perry Como; Art Jarrett, and Red Ingle.

   VIDEO: "Ted Weems Orchestra"   Filmed July 17, 1930, on the 'Steel Pier', Atlantic City, NJ, USA, with Norma Schutt's Chorus Girls. (film clip: peglegsam)

   "You're The Cream In My Coffee", (533 kb):

   "The Girl Friend Of A Boy Friend Of Mine", (531 kb):

   "Piccolo Pete", (541 kb):

   "Miss Annabelle Lee", (543 kb):

   "Shes Got It", (455 kb):

Above tracks are courtesy of Mr. Leonard Schwartz

The band played mostly in the Chicago area. It was a decent orchestra, perhaps best known for it's many singers. Among the Females, there was 'little" Mary Lee and Marvell Maxwell ( who later changed her name to Marilyn Maxwell and became a hollywood star). Among the Male singers, there were Country Washburn; Parker Gibbs; Red Ingle (who later made the hit record of "Timtayshun" with Jo Stafford (Cinderella G. Stumpp); Elmo Tanner did the whistling and their premiere vocalist was Perry Como.

Perhaps the bands biggest hit was "Heartaches". They recorded the song in 1933, but it went nowhere. Some DJ in No. Carolina started plugging it in 1947 and it became a national hit. Bob Edwards was the singer on "Mickey", the reverse side of Heartaches. Bob's agent was Merle Jacobs, who also negotiated contracts for another singer, - Dean Martin. Both Martin and Edwards sang with the Sammy Watkins Orchestra, a popular Cleveland, OH. band during the 1930's and 1940's.

During WW11, he and all of his musicians did a hitch in the Merchant Marine. Died May, 1963, 61 yrs of age.

   [ Laurence Welk and his Champagne Music ]
B: March 11, 1903 Strasburg, ND, USA, D: May 17, 1992 Santa Monica, CA, USA.
Theme: "Bubbles In The Wine" (Vocalion 4368)
Played: Accordion
Overview
It is probably not too far from the truth to say that Larry Welk's orchestra was the most successful band in America. Larry started his first band in 1925. His orchestras have always been Polka, Novelty and Dance bands, aimed at middle-America. Call them corny or whatever, they were designed to entertain and in this Larry succeeded. He often told his critics that he had spent many years touring with the band, and the experience had told him just what his audiences wanted. So he disregarded the advice that some people gave him about changing over to a 'swinging' type of orchestra and just kept giving people what they wanted. He must have known something, because his band was still bringing in the folks into the 1990's. The band still continues in its' own venue in Nashville, TN, with many of the original members, and their children.

Lawrence Welk was one of eight children. His parents were farmers who had recently emigrated to the United States from Russia. They originally were from Alsace-Lorraine (when it was part of Germany). He was taken out of school while in grammar school so he could work on his parents farm. Lawrence did not learn to speak English until he was in his early twenties.

Taught to play the accordion by his father, Lawrence earned extra money for his family by entertaining at weddings and church dances. When he was 17, he formed a "band" that consisted of him and a drummer. Known as "The Biggest Little Band In America" this "band" played on radio station KNAX (Yankton, SD) "for free" so Welk could advertise social events where he was playing.

Lawrence left home for good when he was 21 and in 1927 formed "The Hotsy-Totsy Boys". This band was followed in short order by "Lawrence Welk's Fruit Gum Orchestra" which featured his gimmick of giving away free sticks of gum to anyone attending a performance. Eventually the bands popularity led to work throughout the Dakotas and Minnesota. Radio jobs gave the band more exposure.

At one point in Welk's life, he was working at Radio Station WFAA, in Dallas,Texas. Maxine Gray was a very young singer on the station's 5AM Early Bird Show. Welk would watch her singing from the studio's control room. He liked what he saw and heard, and Welk persuaded Maxine to become his first "Champagne Lady" for the magnificent sum of $50 a week. Here's a photo of a young Maxine Gray , sitting on Welk's lap. (left side of picture. Her mother is on the right side of picture. They are in front of the band's touring bus.) All during the big band era, it was very common for 'mother' to accompany her daughter whenever the band toured. (The "girl" singer was usually the only 'girl' among the 15 or so bandsmen.) In later years, Maxine appeared with the Hal Kemp orchestra, Ted Weems Orch., David Rose Orch., and the Jan Garber Orchestra., Here's a publicity photo of the grown up Maxine Gray

According to one of Welk's autobiographies, in 1938 the band was playing at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, and during a radio broadcast the announcer read a letter from a fan which said that listening to Welk's music "was like sipping champagne". From this remark the "Champagne Music of Lawrence Welk" was born.

The Welk band toured throughout the country until the late 1940's when Lawrence decided to settle in Los Angeles. In 1951, the band was working at the Aragon Ballroom when KLTA television began broadcasting their shows. The Lawrence Welk Show played on Southern California TV for four years until 1955 when he was hired by Chrysler for a weekly show on the ABC network. The show premiered on July 2, 1955 and ran until September 1971 when ABC cancelled it because they felt it was not attractive to a young audience. Lawrence immediately worked out a deal with independent stations and the show continued in syndication from 1971 to 1982. Welk demanded his shows be "clean and wholesome" and he insisted his performers have the same moral standards he had. The only controversial incident that happened during all his years on TV was his firing of "Champagne Lady" Alice Lon, in 1959, because he felt her dress was too short. Welk was flooded with letters from angry fans and he tried to hire Lon back but she refused to work with him again.

Welk continued to add new performers to his TV troupe in an attempt to keep up with the times. Proof of his success is that the Welk band had more records on Billboard magazine weekly Top 100 chart than any other big band during the rock and roll era. From 1960 through 1965, his band had twelve charted records. The three biggest sellers were 'Last Date' (11 weeks on the charts- peak #21), 'Baby Elephant Walk' (16 weeks on charts - peak #48) and 'Calcutta' (17 weeks on charts - peak #1 for 2 weeks).

Re-runs of The Lawrence Welk show and re-union specials have been shown on public televsion stations since 1987. The 'Lawrence Welk Champagne Theater' was recently built in Branson, MO where a current version of the band continues to play, supplemented by members of his TV band, and the children of those performers.

Lawrence was a good businessman, developing 'Lawrence Welk Village', a 1,000 acre resort-retirment complex in Escondido, CA, where the current version of the Welk band often performs. Ramwood Productions, which he founded, owns the publishing rights to over 20,000 songs including the complete catalog of the music of Jerome Kern.

Recorded for: Gennet, Vocalion, Okeh, Decca, Coral, Dot, Ranwood
Sidemen inc: Pete Fountain, Myron Floren, Henry Questa, JoAnn Castle, Bob Ralston
Vocalists inc: Walter Bloom, Lois Best, Mildred Stanley, Jayne Walton (fm the 78RPM era); Roberta Linn, Alice Lon, Larry Hooper, Norma Zimmer, Guy & Ralna, Lennon Sisters, Joe Feeney, Ava Barber (from the TV years)
Thanks to Mr. Robin Lenhart for the above notes on Lawrence Welk.

   [ Alvy West Orch. ]
Alto Sax. Nee Alvin Weisfeld. Originally played alto sax with Zinn Arthur's New York City Roseland Dance Orch. A good recording, little known recording orchestra.

   [ Paul Weston Orch. ]
b. March 12, 1912, Springfield, MA d. September 20, 1996
Overview
The creators of "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" owe their origin to Weston's vision. Weston, today best remembered as the father of "mood music", was the first to explore the possibilities of creating background music for everyday life. His lush, orchestrated numbers were meant to provide atmosphere for dining, relaxing or romancing. Paul's career included working as a sidemen, vocal arranger, musical director for many radio and television programs, composer, and Record album producer.

Although Weston majored in Economics at Dartmouth College (in New Hampshire), he loved the era's Swing music and soon led his own band - The Green Serenaders - at the school. While doing post-graduate studies at Columbia University in New York, Paul sold some arrangements to bandleader Joe Haymes, who in turn sold them to Rudy Vallee. After graduating, his musical career started as an arranger for the Rudy Vallee and "Fleischman Hour" radio shows. He left Vallee to work (briefly) with Bing Crosby. The years 1935 to 1940 were spent with the Tommy Dorsey band. Tommy had just had his famous "split" with his brother Jimmy, and had left the Dorsey Brothers band. Tommy bought the Joe Haymes Orchestra, and among other changes, hired Weston. While with this band, Paul met his future wife, vocalist Jo Stafford (then a member of the Pied Pipers vocal group).

When he left Dorsey's group, in 1940, Weston freelanced as a conductor and arranger. He wrote beautiful vocal arrangements for Jo Stafford's extraordinary talents, and many of her records became classics of the 1940's pop genre. Also among his first jobs were writing vocal arrangements for vocalist Dinah Shore's early recordings, and arrangements for the Bob Crosby Orchestra. In 1942, Bob Crosby's band was booked for the Hollywood film, 'Holiday Inn', starring Crosby's orchestra, his Brother Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Weston, who had gone West with the band, did the musical arrangements for the film.

This led to more work at Paramount Pictures where Weston met songwriter and singer Johnny Mercer, then in the planning stages of forming Capitol Records. In 1942, Paul became the A&R Musical Director for Capitol, -- the newly-formed collaboration of composers Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Records retailer Glen Wallichs. For the first time, Weston was free to record his own music. In 1944, Weston's first 78-rpm album of Mood Music, called "Music For Dreaming", was quickly followed by such LP albums as "Music For Memories", "Music For Romancing", "Music For the Fireside", and "Music for Quiet Dancing". The slow sentimental ballads in these albums used a big band foundation, with an added string section and a concert harp. While at Capitol, Weston worked with such artists as, Jo Stafford, Betty Hutton and Margaret Whiting. During this time, his friendship with Stafford deepened; ending in marriage (1952). They had two children, Tim and Amy. He also worked as the conductor on Mercer's 'Music Shop' radio program and on the Jo Stafford 'Chesterfield (Cigarettes) Supper Club' radio program.

Weston then left Capitol and from 1951 to 1957, he worked at Columbia Records with such other artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Doris Day, while continuing to compose mood music. During 1951 and '52, he had his own radio show for CBS. During 1954, he conducted for (his wife) Jo Stafford's CBS television program.

In 1957, he returned to Capitol. The Mood Music albums, that he had recorded a decade before, were still so popular that one of his first Capitol assignments was to re-record some of those albums using the new Stereo sound technology.

Weston not only returned to Capitol Records, but he also became musical director for the NBC-TV div. of RCA (1957-'62). Weston's TV credits include such shows as the wonderful comedian Sid Caesar; 'Cowboy' star Roy Rogers; Art Carney's award-winning 'Peter and the Wolf'; the first season of Lowen and Martin's Laugh-In; the Bob Newhart Comedy Show; Danny Kaye (4 years), and two years each with Jonathan Winters and with Jim Nabors. Weston also worked seven years on Bing Crosby's radio show. After "retiring" from television, he worked for three years as musical director for "Disney on Parade" show.

The 1950's and '60s include an interesting sidelight on Weston and Stafford's career. The couple recorded several albums under the pseudonym of "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards". These recordings were parodies of a bad 'lounge' act. Weston, as pianist Jonathan, would play arrangements in 7/4 time, trip over chords, and engage in other maladroits such as speeding suddenly on one bar and slowing down again on the next. At the same time Stafford, as singer Darlene, would miss her cues, sing off-key, stumble over the lyrics, and display rather unusual vocal sounds. The records were very well received by the public, and their "Jonathan and Darlene In Paris" won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album. Among the other Jonathan and Darlene recordings are: "The Original Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards, Vocals by Darlene Edwards"; "Darlene Remembers Duke", "Jonathan Plays Fats"; "Songs for Sheiks and Flappers"; and "Singalong with Jonathan and Darlene". (Sing-Along king Mitch Miller has blamed this last for the death of his "Sing-Along" career.) Jonathan and Darlene were reprised in the 1970s and their "Stayin' Alive" became a big hit.

From just "Mood Music", Weston slowly worked up more pretentious albums, virtually small 'suites' with geographical themes. Among these were "Gateway To The West" (Western Americana themes by British composer/leader Robert Farnon), and the famous symphonic piece, "Crescent City Suite" (his own New Orleans theme), -both for Columbia Records. Perhaps his most popular original composition is "Day By Day".

In the early 1970s, Stafford and Weston both retired from active performing. They founded Corinthian Records and began to reissue their own material in the then new CD format. He was also one of the founders -and first president - of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Paul Weston passed away in September of 1996, at the end of a full career, at age 84, in St. Johns Hospital, Santa Monica, CA.
Among his releases are:
         "Crescent City", by Paul Weston (1957)
         "Gateway To The West", Robert Farnon music.
         "I'll Be Seeing You", Sammy Fain (1944/1958) music.

   Jay Whidden Orch.
Please see our British Database entry on Jay Whidden.