Description
Henry Halstead (1897-1984) was a U.S. bandleader who began his career in early 1922. Over the next 20 years Halstead's band engagements extended from coast to coast, including the Blossom Room at Hotel Roosevelt, New York City; the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California; the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco; the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago; and a season at "Fatty" Arbuckle's "Plantation" in Culver City. The early Henry Halstead Orchestra during the early 1920s was enormously successful at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco for about three years. This was the early days of radio, and he had the good fortune to broadcast over the very powerful (for those days) KGO in San Francisco. He was "on" for about an hour a night, six nights a week. As a consequence, his band became the best known organization in the western United States and Hawaii. This band broke up in the late summer of 1925. Hank decided that he would go out on his own - form a new band, literally "hire a hall" and run his own enterprise.. The band consisted of: Ted Schilling, Glenn Hopkins, Ross Dugat, Ernie Reed, Chuck Moll, Abe Maule, Hal Chanslor, Zebe Mann, Phil Harris and Craig Leach. When they joined Halstead in Seattle the band was a huge success. In the spring of 1926, the Halstead band came to Los Angeles to play Miller's Lafayette. Red Nichols joined the band for this opening.Halstead's orchestra appeared in numerous short subjects on the screen and made over 100 records. In addition, Halstead appeared in short films released by RKO Radio. During his career as the West Coast's premier dance orchestra Hank Halstead's boys played for nearly all the movie people at their private entertainments. Halstead was on the cover of Billboard issue of July 27, 1935 at that time known as Henry "Hank" Halstead and His Cocoanut Grove Orchestra playing at the Hotel-Park Central, New York. Many vocalists and entertainers performed with the Henry Halstead Orchestra. Maxine Harding with her deep-dyed blues singing was a Soloist with Henry Halstead's Orchestra. Clarence Rand's voice also was featured, so was Myrtle Harwin, Niela Goodelle, Margaret Reed, Peggy Mann. This wonderful record was made in 1926. Vocal by Craig Leitch (some sources state "Leach"). Sadly, it was in quite poor condition; yet I did my best to restore sound up to an acceptable standard.