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Roaring Twenties: Arrowhead Inn Orch., 1928

4,862 views · Published 3 October 2008 · 3:20 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2008 · Music

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Arrowhead Inn Orchestra (A Meyer Davis Unit)  Good Little, Bad Little You (Green /Stept) Brunswick 1928
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NOTE: Interesting story hides behind a subtitle: „A Meyer Davis Unit". Meyer Davis was a biggest businessman among U. S. band leaders in the Jazz Era. He had  89 orchestras, with his name clearly printed on each, 1,100 musicians and $3,500,000-a-year pay roll. Ever since 1913 he has played for socialites what jazzmen call "long-underwear" music, sweet and tuneful. At 18 he muscled into a Bar Harbor hotel whose dance music had been supplied by Boston Symphony men. Now Eastern dowagers would sooner serve gin and ginger ale at their parties than employ non-Davis bands: during one Summer holiday season, Meyer Davis played at 59 out of 60 top-flight parties, including The Philadelphia Assembly—oldest annual party in the U. S. Meyer Davis played through five administrations at the White House. A small Meyer Davis band (without Meyer Davis) could be hired for as little as $125, but most people liked them large. The Philadelphia Wideners once had 75 men, the A. Atwater rented 90, and Ralph Beaver Strassburger in Manhattan - the equivalent of a symphony orchestra: 103. During the holidays, Meyer Davis had flown up & down the Eastern seaboard, conducting orchestras for balls, assemblies, routs, benefits. If Meyer Davis bands played at 30 parties at night,  the leader had visited at least two of the parties in person. The Numer Two in the family business - Hilda Emery Davis, the band leader's wife - was an able pianist, who played with the Davis orchestra in the early Bar Harbor days. She also composed, collected books and manuscripts, notably Byroniana.

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