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Roaring 20s: Harry Archer and His Orch. - Sunny, 1925

2,287 views · Published 7 June 2015 · 2:43 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2015 · Music

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Harry Archer & His Orch. – Sunny, from “Sunny” (Introducing “D’ye Love Me?”) Fox Trot (J.Kern), Brunswick 1925 (USA)

NOTE: Ever since I presented here Harry Archer’s recording of “Who?”  in Sept. 2013, I was able to find quite a lot about that American bandleader and composer of the Roaring Twenties born in my favorite State of Iowa,  and I am glad I can present now a more completed bio of him. 

Harry ARCHER – American dance band leader and composer during the 1920s/30s. His best remembered hit was a song “I Love You” featured in Broadway musical hit “Little Jessie James” of 1923 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5akujPUe3dQ . Born: Harry Auracher in Creston, Iowa, he was taught music at home by his mother, then he learned playing the trombone at Michigan Military Academy and studied music at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., and Princeton University. From 1916-21 he had his own dance orchestra in Chicago, and later played for Paul Whiteman. He even appeared, as an actor, in a few silent movies.  His life changed after he and Harlan Thompson wrote the musical “Little Jessie James”,  a bedroom farce set in a New York apartment only vaguely and satirically based upon historical character of Jesse James (note the deliberate play with spelling of two names in the title: Jessie vs. Jesse”. .  Opening Aug. 1923, at the Longacre theater, "Jessie" ran well over 400 performances and introduced two hit songs, "I Love You" and "It Must Be Love." The show was later taken on the road by four touring companies, then exported to Europe and Australia, where it played eight months. In London, it was called "Lucky Break" and played 198 performances in 1934 and 1935. Also in collaboration with Thompson, Archer created "My Girl" in 1924, which ran six months on Broadway. The New York Times described it as "the snappy little musical comedy at the Vanderbilt." One review said of the song "You and I" that "all the feet in the auditorium were set tapping." The next year, the same team produced "Merry Merry," a backstage musical, followed in 1926 by "Twinkle Twinkle." Archer also did the scores for "Peek-a-Boo" (1921), "Paradise Alley" (1924) and "Just a Minute" (1928). One of his last shows was "Strip Girl" (1935). Archer's other hit songs of the era included "White Sails," "You Know I Know" "I Was Blue", "I'm Goin' to Dance With the Fellow Wot Brung Me" https://youtu.be/sSCKdj17BCE and "On a Desert Isle," a huge hit and a favorite of recording companies. In 1953, "I Love You" was chosen for an memorable scene in the movie "Stalag 17," in which American servicemen held prisoner in Germany during World War II dance with one another at a Christmas party in their barracks.

See the flip side of this record with Harry Archer’s performance of  Jerome Kern’s “Who?” – which is one of the hottest versions of that wonderful hit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo61HB2O2rE 

The slideshow presents randomly chosen posters and slides from several sunny summer resorts in Europe of the Jazz Age. Aware, that in the original show the title “Sunny” is the girl’s name, I decided however to use this word merely as an adjective, especially when we are having in Poland such a hot and indeed sunny weather, like today.  Yes, hurray! Another hot and bright Summer is about to begin!

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