Background

Gray was born on June 7, 1900 in Roanoke, Illinois, the son of Lurdie C. Knoblauch, musician and clerk in the family store, and Agnes Cunningham Gray. He had an older sister. His father died when Glen was two years of age, and his widowed mother married George H. DeWilde, a coal miner.

Education

At an early age Gray learned to play several woodwind instruments, but it was on the saxophone that he made his reputation as a musician. After graduating from Roanoke (Illinois) High School, he attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and also studied music at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Career

For a time in the early 1920's Gray had his own group, Spike's Jazz Band, in which his sister played the piano. In 1924 he joined the Orange Blossom Band, a part of Jean Goldkette's Detroit-based musical organization. When he began his professional career in music, Gray legally changed his surname. The Orange Blossoms contracted to play at the Casa Loma Hotel in Toronto, Canada. When the nightclub there failed to open, the band took the name, went on tour, and in 1929 arrived in New York City, where it became known as the Casa Loma Orchestra, Incorporated, with Gray as the company president. He continued to play in the saxophone section while violinist Mel Jenssen fronted the band until 1937. When Jenssen left, Gray became the leader. The Casa Loma Orchestra's chief arranger from 1930 to 1935 was guitarist Gene Gifford, who was largely responsible for the band's style. His arrangements helped set the characteristic musical expression of the Swing Era: danceable rhythms on slow numbers and riff-based up-tempo tunes. Gifford also composed the band's theme song, "Smoke Rings. " The first major booking for the Casa Lomans in New York City was at the Roseland Ballroom. In the late summer of 1931 they went to Atlantic City, and after an extensive tour of the Middle West returned to the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York, in 1933, for the first of several regular summer appearances there. In the autumn of that year the orchestra moved to the Essex House in New York City, the start of many performances in that location. Also in 1933 it was hired for the "Camel Caravan, " the first radio series to feature a swing band. In the autumn of 1935, the group appeared at the Paramount Theater in New York City, inaugurating its famous stage-band policy. Shortly thereafter the Casa Lomans began a long engagement at the Rainbow Room atop Radio City. These and other performances, including some at the Terrace Room of the Hotel New Yorker, helped to build and maintain the orchestra's wide acceptance by both college students and the general public. Early in 1937 the Casa Lomans left New York on a tour of the West that eventually took them to the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. At this time they were hired to play for the "Burns and Allen Radio Show" (1938). Thus, by the time the group was ten years old, it was one of the nation's leading dance bands, having placed in the Metronome popularity polls in 1937 and 1940, in the swing and sweet band categories, and having won the Down Beat poll as the dance band favorite in 1938. It also enjoyed a large and steady sale of phonograph records. Probably its best-known records were "No Name Jive, " "Casa Loma Stomp, " and the band's theme song. At the height of their popularity, the Casa Lomans played in the nation's major movie theaters and dance halls, on college campuses, and in the motion pictures Time out for Rhythm (1941) and Gals, Inc. (1943). During the early 1940's the group retained its public favor, but according to critics, its musical performance level declined because key members left. The Casa Loma Orchestra Corporation was dissolved in 1942, but Gray continued to lead the orchestra until 1950, when he retired. In 1956 he began supervising recording sessions that featured the original Casa Loma sound and a series of tributes to the big bands of the 1930's performed by outstanding studio musicians. This project was so successful that Gray was asked to make public appearances with his own group. He refused to do so, preferring to spend his time in semiretirement with his wife and son. He died at Plymouth, Massachusetts on August 23, 1963.

Achievements

• Gray is best remembered as the leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra. More than any other single orchestra, they set the stage for the big band era.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Swinging Sounds of the Great Bands

    (Between 1957 and 1964, Capitol released a series of LPs e...)

  • More Sounds of the Great Swing Bands

    (The hugely popular Casa Loma Orchestra swing through Moon...)

  • The Complete Okeh and Brunswick Hits

    (Of 25 hits on this package, only about a quarter of them ...)

  • Glen Gray & His Casa Loma Orchestra: Live at Meadowbrook Ballroom, Cedar Grove, NJ 1940

    (2 half hour broadcasts from a well-rehearsed Casa Loma Or...)

  • Swing Tonic - 1939-1946 ORIGINAL RECORDINGS REMASTERED 2CD SET

    (An excellent introduction to the Jasmine catalogue! This ...)

  • 1940

    (Gray and the band show their versatility with these instr...)

  • Swingin' Decade

    (The Casa Loma Orchestra led by Glen Gray was an immensely...)

  • Continental

    (A premier release from the 1935 Casa Lomans. Included amo...)

  • Essence of Swing

Personality

Gray was handsome, tall, dignified, and a fine musician. These qualities, coupled with his excellent business ability, helped lead the Casa Lomans to success.

Connections

Gray was married to Marion Douglass. The couple had one son.

Father:

Lurdie C. Knoblauch

Mother:

Agnes Cunningham Gray

Spouse:

Marion Douglass

References

• The Wonderful Era of the Great Dance Bands
• Simon Says: The Sights and Sounds of the Swing Era, 1935-1955
• The dance band era;: The dancing decades from ragtime to swing: 1910-1950
• The Big Bands