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The orchestra's specialty was music familiar to its audiences,<ref name=dunningota/> including light classics. Arrangements usually featured piano, harp, and strings more than saxophones, trombones, and trumpets. Road performances included "elaborate production numbers.<ref name=wwII/>
The orchestra's specialty was music familiar to its audiences,<ref name=dunningota/> including light classics. Arrangements usually featured piano, harp, and strings more than saxophones, trombones, and trumpets. Road performances included "elaborate production numbers.<ref name=wwII/>


Spitalny stressed class and decorum in the group's performances, in contrast to the "blatant sex appeal" of a contemporary all-female orchestra, [[Ina Ray Hutton]]'s [[Melodears]].<ref name="wwII">{{cite book|last1=Young|first1=William H.|last2=Young|first2=Nancy K.|title=World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A-I|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313356520|pages=16-17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjbR9EXABPEC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=%22Evelyn+Silverstone%22+violin&source=bl&ots=rwfKFMIcOg&sig=OTts-7dhJUJUOgCJiAJzFnetUgs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqwZjq6efaAhVpxoMKHdQkChAQ6AEIRTAJ#v=onepage&q=%22Evelyn%20Silverstone%22%20violin&f=false|accessdate=2 May 2018|language=en}}</ref> He required the musicians to dress in formal evening gowns<ref name=wwII/>, with the purchase of one lot of dresses in the mid-1930s costing $18,000.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bigsby|first1=Evelyn|title=Thirty Five Girls With No Secrets|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Site-Early-Radio/Archive-Radio-Life-IDX/IDX/Radio-Life-1945-01-07-OCR-Page-0006.pdf|accessdate=2 May 2018|work=Radio Life|date=January 7, 1945|pages=6,}}</ref>
Spitalny stressed class and decorum in the group's performances, in contrast to the "blatant sex appeal" of a contemporary all-female orchestra, [[Ina Ray Hutton]]'s [[Melodears]].<ref name="wwII">{{cite book|last1=Young|first1=William H.|last2=Young|first2=Nancy K.|title=World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A-I|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313356520|pages=16-17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjbR9EXABPEC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=%22Evelyn+Silverstone%22+violin&source=bl&ots=rwfKFMIcOg&sig=OTts-7dhJUJUOgCJiAJzFnetUgs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqwZjq6efaAhVpxoMKHdQkChAQ6AEIRTAJ#v=onepage&q=%22Evelyn%20Silverstone%22%20violin&f=false|accessdate=2 May 2018|language=en}}</ref> He required the musicians to dress in formal evening gowns<ref name=wwII/>, with the purchase of one lot of dresses in the mid-1940s costing $18,000.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bigsby|first1=Evelyn|title=Thirty Five Girls With No Secrets|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Site-Early-Radio/Archive-Radio-Life-IDX/IDX/Radio-Life-1945-01-07-OCR-Page-0006.pdf|accessdate=2 May 2018|work=Radio Life|date=January 7, 1945|pages=6,}}</ref>


==Personnel==
==Personnel==

Revision as of 20:58, 2 May 2018


The Hour of Charm Orchestra was an American musical group led by Phil Spitalny. Popular in the 1930s and 1940s,[1] it was an all-female orchestra in an era when most orchestra members were male.[2]

Background

Inspired by witnessing a 1932 concert that featured "an electrifying performance by a brilliant female violinist,"[2] Spitalny disbanded a male orchestra and began a tour of the United States, seeking female musicians for a new orchestra. His auditions of 1,500 women produced a 32-member orchestra that debuted at the Capitol Theatre in New York City in 1934.[3]

Style

The orchestra's specialty was music familiar to its audiences,[2] including light classics. Arrangements usually featured piano, harp, and strings more than saxophones, trombones, and trumpets. Road performances included "elaborate production numbers.[4]

Spitalny stressed class and decorum in the group's performances, in contrast to the "blatant sex appeal" of a contemporary all-female orchestra, Ina Ray Hutton's Melodears.[4] He required the musicians to dress in formal evening gowns[4], with the purchase of one lot of dresses in the mid-1940s costing $18,000.[5]

Personnel

Versatility was a key element of the orchestra. Some members sang solos, and all of them formed a vocal chorus. Each was proficient on at least two instruments; one, Jan Baker, could play 12.[2]

Evelyn Kaye Klein (known professionally as Evelyn Silverstone),[6] whom Spitalny met at the Juilliard School in New York, became the orchestra's first violinist and concertmistress. She joined him on the audition tour, seeking other members for the group. She was billed as "Evelyn and Her Magic Violin", with the violin being a 1756 Bergonzi.[2]

Spitalny had a policy of billing the orchestra's members only by first name.[7]

Film

Spitalny and the musicians from The Hour of Charm appeared in two feature films. In When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942), the group portrayed substitute musicians who filled in for male musicians who were abroad during World War II.[8] In Here Come the Co-Eds (1945), the women portrayed residents of a girls' dormitory who played and sang music.[9]

The group also made short subjects, mostly for Universal Pictures -- "more short subject films than any other all-girl band except for Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears."[8] The productions included Moments of Charm (1939), Musical Charmers (1936), Big City Fantasy (1934) and Phil Spitalny and His Musical Queens (1934).[8]

Critical reception

Paul Denis, in a review published in the October 25, 1941, issue of the trade publication Billboard, noted that the orchestra's performance at the Strand Theatre in New York, was "strong on fine melodious singing and instrumental music, but weak on comedy and surprise."[10]

Recognition

In 1937, the Radio Committee of the Women's National Exposition of Arts and Industries recognized the orchestra with its Achievement Award for notable accomplishments by women in radio.[3]

References

  1. ^ Hoff, Chris; Harnett, Sam (August 2, 2016). "The World According to Sound: The Hour of Charm Orchestra". KQED. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 331–332. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3.
  3. ^ a b "Phil Spitalny, Leader of All‐Girl Orchestra, Dies at 80". The New York Times. New York, New York City. October 12, 1970. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Young, William H.; Young, Nancy K. (2010). World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A-I. ABC-CLIO. pp. 16–17. ISBN 9780313356520. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  5. ^ Bigsby, Evelyn (January 7, 1945). "Thirty Five Girls With No Secrets" (PDF). Radio Life. pp. 6, . Retrieved 2 May 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  6. ^ "(no title on page)". @Bcast_Md: Special Collections in Media & Culture. University of Maryland in College Park. January 1, 2015. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Queens of Harmony (1937)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  8. ^ a b c McGee, Kristin A. (2010). Some Liked It Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928–1959. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 9780819569677. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  9. ^ Tucker, Sherrie (2001). Swing Shift: “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940s. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822328178. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  10. ^ Denis, Paul (October 25, 1941). "Review of Units: Phil Spitalny" (PDF). Billboard. p. 23. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
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