Carroll Gibbons

January 4, 1903 (age 51)

England during the British

In his late teens he travelled to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1924 he returned to London with the brassless Boston Orchestra for an engagement at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand. In 1929, Gibbons appeared in the British film Splinters as "Carroll Gibbons and His Masters Voice Orchestra". Gibbons made occasional return trips to the United States but settled permanently in England, though he did spend a couple of years (1930–1931) in Hollywood, where he worked as a staff composer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films. He took exclusive leadership of the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, which recorded hundreds of popular songs (many of which were sung by Anne Lenner) between June 1932 and his death in 1954, all featuring Gibbons on piano. Starting in about 1931, he also recorded many sophisticated records featuring a piano-led small group playing popular tunes and medleys under the name of Carroll Gibbons and his Boy Friends, of which some contained tracks by singer Hildegarde. As a composer, Gibbons"s most popular songs included "A Garden in the Rain" (1928) and "On The Air" (1932). The latter was covered by Rudy Vallée in 1933 and by Lud Gluskin in 1936. Gibbons" instrumental numbers "Bubbling Over" and "Moonbeam Dance" were also quite successful in the United Kingdom. Gibbons and his orchestra had a weekly show on Radio Luxembourg in the 1930s, sponsored by Hartley"s Jam. Gibbons died at the London Clinic in 1954 at the age of 51, of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack). He is one of several famous musicians buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England. Specialist dance band radio stations, such as Radio Dismuke, continue to play his records. Gibbons also features regularly on the weekly Manx Radio programme Sweet & Swing, presented by Jim and Howard Caine. The United Kingdom 1940s Radio Station, a dedicated Internet radio station, also regularly plays Gibbons"s records.

Carroll Gibbons

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composer conductor bandleader

Background

He was born and raised in Clinton, Massachusetts, one of 3 children of Peter and Mary Gibbons.

Career

In his late teens he travelled to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1924 he returned to London with the brassless Boston Orchestra for an engagement at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand. In 1929, Gibbons appeared in the British film Splinters as "Carroll Gibbons and His Masters Voice Orchestra".

Gibbons made occasional return trips to the United States but settled permanently in England, though he did spend a couple of years (1930–1931) in Hollywood, where he worked as a staff composer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films.

He took exclusive leadership of the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, which recorded hundreds of popular songs (many of which were sung by Anne Lenner) between June 1932 and his death in 1954, all featuring Gibbons on piano. Starting in about 1931, he also recorded many sophisticated records featuring a piano-led small group playing popular tunes and medleys under the name of Carroll Gibbons and his Boy Friends, of which some contained tracks by singer Hildegarde.

As a composer, Gibbons"s most popular songs included "A Garden in the Rain" (1928) and "On The Air" (1932). The latter was covered by Rudy Vallée in 1933 and by Lud Gluskin in 1936.

Gibbons" instrumental numbers "Bubbling Over" and "Moonbeam Dance" were also quite successful in the United Kingdom.

Gibbons and his orchestra had a weekly show on Radio Luxembourg in the 1930s, sponsored by Hartley"s Jam. Gibbons died at the London Clinic in 1954 at the age of 51, of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack). He is one of several famous musicians buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England.

Specialist dance band radio stations, such as Radio Dismuke, continue to play his records.

Gibbons also features regularly on the weekly Manx Radio programme Sweet & Swing, presented by Jim and Howard Caine. The United Kingdom 1940s Radio Station, a dedicated Internet radio station, also regularly plays Gibbons"s records.

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Carroll Gibbons

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