Background
Hall was born in Shawnee Mound, Missouri.
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Wilbur Hall
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He was working in vaudeville when in 1924 he was hired by Paul Whiteman. Hall stayed with Whiteman"s orchestra until 1930, mainly featured as a trombone player (his speciality on this instrument was a lightning-fast rendition of Felix Arndt"s Nola, which he also recorded in 1929). However, Hall was apt a playing several other instruments - conventional as well as unconventional.
Amongst the latter was his ability to play melodies on a bicycle pump.
Whiteman"s main arranger Ferde Grofé even wrote a special feature number for Hall on this "instrument" called Free Air: Based on Noises from a Garage. Hall can also be seen playing his pump as well as some tricky novelty violin playing in the early color film The King of Jazz.
This routine, a frantically athletic rendition of "People’s Goes the Weasel", played while wearing "slapshoes", a common comedy prop from the days of Vaudeville, partly resembles the earlier work by vaudevillian Little Tich. After leaving Whiteman Hall toured as a solo act with the Publix circuit and then joined the Ken Murray Blackouts in Los Los Angeles
He died in Newbury Park, California.
An act called Wilbur Hall and Renée Fields appeared in the variety program Eastern Cabaret on British Broadcasting Corporation Television December 12 and 17, 1938.
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Born
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Died
June 30, 1983 (aged 88) -
Nationality
United States