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Roaring 20s: Henry Halstead & HO - Ain't That Too Bad? 1927

3,635 views · Published 10 March 2013 · 2:55 · Indexed 31 October 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2013 · Music

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Henry Halstead & His Orchestra -- Ain't That Too Bad? Fox Trot (Chick Endor /Eddie Ward) Victor 1927 (USA)

NOTE: Henry HALSTEAD -- American bandleader, violinist. Born.1897 in El Paso, Texas - died 1984 in California. As a young boy, Halstead learned to play violin.In age of  19 he was playing in clubs and hotels at the tables. In 1919, Henry Halstead formed an ensamble with 2 other men that went on to become famous:  Abe Lyman (drums) and Gus Arnheim (piano). They played together at the Sunset Inn in Santa Monica, California. Roy Fox, not well known in America but later a ranking bandmaster in England, played the trumpet on occasion with them. In 1923 Halstead was the director of his own dance orchestra, which got its first engagement at St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and during the whole 1920s was enormously successful.  This was the early days of radio, and Halstead had the good fortune to broadcast over the very powerful KGO in San Francisco. He was "on" for about an hour a night, six nights a week. As a consequence, his band became one of the best known in the western United States. In the spring of 1926, Red Nichols joined the band and the Halstead's orchestra came to Los Angeles to play at Miller's Lafayette and later,  at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Many vocalists and entertainers performed with the Henry Halstead Orchestra, including such celebrities as Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Gus Edwards. Halstead's band gained reputation as the "favourite band of the whole Movieland" and they performed at private parties held by the top Hollywood film stars, including Rudy Valentino, Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Grata Garbo or Clark Gable. Also, through the 1930s, Halstead popularity did not wane. He was on the cover of Billboard issue of July 27, 1935 and was very busy at the East- and the West Coast dance floors as well as on air, and sharing his time predominantly between the Cocoanut Grove in LA and Hotel-Park Central in New York. He recorded over 100 sides for Victor.

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