The Man With The Horn

Ray Anthony Champions Big Band Music For Over Six Decades With Consistency

The following article on Ray Anthony was originally published in the February 2002 issue of Jazz Connection Magazine.

  Bandleader Ray Anthony took his exceptional trumpet chops, Cary Grant-like looks, and a relentless energy for self-promotion and turned them into a long and prosperous series of music business enterprises.

"I can't remember a time when music wasn't part of my life," said Anthony, 80, via telephone from his home in Beverly Hills, CA. "Music puts wings on the human soul. Nothing can touch people the way music can. And every day is a new opportunity to create, change, stretch and reach for new heights doing something that I absolutely love  -  entertaining people through great music."

For over 60 years Anthony has been entertaining people through great music from the bell of his golden trumpet first as a sideman with the Al Donahue, Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey orchestras and then as a bandleader in his own right with a Navy aggregation during World War II and then leading one of the most popular and successful bands during the post-World War II period.

Throughout the 1950s and  '60s Anthony was one of Capitol Records' biggest recording artists cranking out such hits as The Bunny Hop, Dragnet, The Peter Gunn Theme, Thunderbird and Mr. Anthony's Boogie, among others.

"I'd like to think that I play with a lot of feeling," he said.

Anthony was born Raymond Antonini on Jan. 20, 1922, in Bentleyville, PA. His father taught him music and he began his musical career at age five playing cornet in the "Antonini Family Orchestra," comprised of his sister, two brothers and father.

"I was heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge and Harry James," Anthony said.

The Antonini Family eventually settled in Cleveland, OH. While in high school, Anthony played in various high school bands as well as in local professional outfits like those led by Vince Patti and Jack Crawford.

"I learned a lot from Vince and the first time I went on the road I was with Jack's band," Anthony said. "I always kept coming back to Cleveland which was my home town."

By the time he was a junior in high school, the young trumpeter made the decision to change his name, he said.

"We thought that Antonini would be hard for people to remember," Anthony said. "I started to go by the last name of Anthony and I changed it legally a few years later."

The teen trumpeter was making a name for himself in the Cleveland area. In the fall of 1940, Anthony auditioned and was hired by violinist Al Donahue to play lead trumpet in his "Low Down Rhythm In A Top Hat" band. Donahue began his career as a society band leader but by 1940 he was leading a swing band. The band featured two young singers, Phil Brito and Dee Keating. For two years Paula Kelly had been the featured vocalist but left a few months before Anthony joined the outfit. The two would eventually work together as members of trombonist Glenn Miller's band.

"This was the first nationally known band that I had played with and I enjoyed my time with Al very much," Anthony said.

Anthony's first recordings with the Donahue band were waxed on Sept. 11, 1940, for Okeh Records with Burning The Midnight Oil and The Blue Jump, both instrumentals; and My Disposition, with Phil Brito on the vocal, and Too Much Love, featuring Dee Keating on the vocal. In the over four months he was with Donahue, Anthony recorded a dozen sides.

In early December 1940, Anthony had a chance to listen to Miller's band in person while in Boston and it impressed the young trumpet player. 

"Their showmanship, what they did with their hats and trumpets and movements, was unreal!" Anthony said.

Anthony's real reason for seeing the Miller band in Boston was in hopes of securing a job from the renowned bandleader.

"I had heard that Glenn was looking for a trumpet player and I thought that being the ripe old age of 18, that I could fit the bill," Anthony said. "Glenn also heard about this young kid, me, playing pretty good trumpet. I almost lost out, though. When I told Glenn I was under contract to Al Donahue, that I'd have to get out of it, he hired Billy May, not believing I'd get out of it. When I came back to Glenn and told him that I did get out of it, he said, 'Well, I already hired somebody.' I told him that I was now out of a job. He fired another guy and hired me right on the spot."

Donahue, knowing that the young trumpeter could go farther in Miller's band than with his, released Anthony from his contract. Anthony's first recording with the Miller band was Anvil Chorus, Parts I &II (Dec. 13-27, 1940) for RCA's Bluebird label. Arranged by Jerry Gray, the Giuseppe Verdi piece was recorded on two sides of a 78 and was often used as a rousing finale for Miller's Chesterfield radio broadcasts.

Other Miller personnel on this recording session included Dale "Mickey" McMickle, Johnny Best and Billy May, trumpets; Jim Priddy, Paul Tanner and Frank D'Annolfo, trombones; Hal McIntyre, Tex Beneke, Willie Schwartz, Ernie Caceres and Al Klink, saxophones; Chummy MacGregor, piano; Trigger Alpert, bass; Jack Lathrop, guitar; and Maurice Purtill, drums.

While Best and May would split the jazz solos, McMickle and Anthony split the lead book, Anthony said.

"Strangely enough, at a young age, I was a good lead trumpet player," Anthony said. "Where I got the conception of being able to lead a big band like that, I don't even know myself."

From the perspective of an 18-year-old, Anthony felt as if he was on top of the world being in Miller's band, he said.

"I was in the most popular band in the country at that time," Anthony said. "We played all kinds of music, swing tunes as well as sweet tunes. Every place we went to perform was sold out before we arrived. Miller was like the Elvis Presley of his day."

During his year-and-a-half stay with Miller, Anthony's relationship with the noted bandleader was often times stormy. Some musicians from the band have tried to describe the personalities of the two men as Anthony to oil and Miller to water: the two never mixed well together.

"Glenn fired me twice," Anthony said. "And I often say to this day, if I had a punk like me in the band, I'd fire him, too! I didn't know how cocky I was, but I must have been. Now, Glenn was an ordinary looking man, he play just ordinary, he wasn't a great musician. There was no reason I couldn't be doing the same thing he was doing."

During his tenure with Miller, Anthony helped to record numerous hits that have become associated with the Miller orchestra such as Song Of The Volga Boatman (Jan. 17, 1941), Adios (June 25, 1941), Perfidia (Feb. 19,1941), Elmer's Tune (1941) and A String Of Pearls (Nov. 3, 1941).

Anthony was with the Miller orchestra went out to Hollywood in 1941 to film its first appearance in a movie, Sun Valley Serenade, starring John Payne, Sonja Henie and Milton Berle. One of the songs that Miller performed in that film, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, turned out to be a tremendous hit for him. The song, both in the film and on record (May 7, 1941), featured Tex Beneke, Paula Kelly and The Modernaires on the vocal. 

Chattanooga Choo-Choo was such a big hit that RCA Victor presented Miller the first actual golden disc of that recording on Feb. 10, 1942, according to The Guinness Book Of World Records.

After America entered World War II, Anthony left the Miller band in early 1942 to enlist in the Navy. It would be a few months before he would have to report for active duty, so Jimmy Dorsey hired him during that interim period.

"Jimmy was a sweet man," Anthony said. "He was very much a musician and led a really popular band."

While Miller and Dorsey had good commercial bands, both played different styles, Anthony said.

"Jimmy's big hits came from Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell which were more slower, romantic pieces," he said. "Miller's band recorded every week. We recorded four sides once a week. His big hits, even though he was also know for his ballad style, were mostly swing numbers like In The Mood."

After his first year in the Navy, Anthony was placed in charge of a service show band which toured island bases in the Pacific, where his aggregation won an award as the top service band.

"It amazed me that at some of the more obscure islands that we played at, we were able to cross other Navy bands led by Bob Crosby, Dick Jurgens and Claude Thornhill," Anthony said.

The date Dec. 15, 1944, is a sad day for Glenn Miller aficionados. It was on that foggy day that Major Glenn Miller and two other officers boarded a Norseman UC-64A aircraft from England to Paris and never reached their destination. Anthony was on Midway Island during that time when he heard the news of his former boss's disappearance over the English Channel.

"It was like hearing about the death of the President of the United States," Anthony said. "It was that strong."

After his discharge in 1946, Anthony formed his own dance orchestra which opened at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis for a five-week engagement beginning on Feb. 15, 1946. Joining the band at this time was Anthony's brother, Leo Anthony, who played alto and baritone saxophones. He would be a mainstay in his brother's band for several decades.

While in Chicago in November 1946, the newly formed Anthony band recorded its first sides on Sonora Records. Those songs were I'll Close My Eyes (vocal by Bill Johnson), Margie (vocal by the ensemble), Please Be Kind (vocal by Dee Keating who was with Al Donahue's band during the same time as Anthony was), Isn't This Better Than Walkin' In The Rain? (vocal by Bill Johnson), We Knew It All The Time (Dee Keating and Bill Johnson, vocals), Meet Me At No Special Place (Dee Keating, vocal), Would You Believe Me? (Bill Johnson, vocal) and That's My Desire (vocal by Dee Keating), a cover version of singer Frankie Laine's first million-selling hit.

In February 1947, Anthony and his band trekked out to Hollywood  for a three-week stint at the Hollywood Palladium and to Columbia Pictures to make their first film short. The songs they recorded for the film's sound track included I'll Close My Eyes (vocal by Bill Johnson), Let's Go Back And Kiss The Boys Again and Funiculi, Funicula.

The Anthony band would go on to make two other film shorts, one for Will Cowan Films in July, 1950, and the other in October, 1952, that is currently distributed on the MCA Video Cassette series, Swing: The Best Of The Big Bands, Vol. 1-4.  The selections that Anthony plays on these video cassettes include Skip To My Lou, All Anthony And No Cleopatra and Mr. Anthony's Boogie.

Anthony's band was just starting to build momentum when the second musicians' union strike of the decade was set to take place throughout 1948. The trumpet playing leader and his band went into the studios on Dec. 30, 1947, to record eight sides on Signature Records: Bye Bye Blues, Gloria, London Bridge Is Falling Down, Passing Fancy, Peace Of Mind (all featuring Ronnie Deauville on the vocal), and three instrumentals, Oh! Moon, Trumpet Time and The Man With The Horn, which Anthony would use as his theme song.

During this time Anthony was developing his band's sound and eventually combined elements of the top bands of his day into his, he said.

"We were searching for our own identity as a band and until we got one, we took the best of the best," Anthony explained. "We took the sax sound from the Glenn Miller band, we took the trombone sound from Tommy Dorsey. I, being a trumpet player, was naturally compared to Harry James at the time and so we felt the combination of sounds might be one of our own."

In 1949, Anthony signed a five-year contract with Capitol Records but ended up staying with the Los Angeles-based recording company for much longer.

"Signing with Capitol was a lucky break for us," Anthony said. "We wound up staying with Capitol for 19 years."

By signing with Capitol, Anthony joined a pantheon of top-name recording artists that would help to make the seven-year-old company a formidable force to be reckoned with in the recording industry:  Margaret Whiting, Kay Starr, Jo Stafford, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Peggy Lee, Nat "King" Cole, Ella Mae Morse, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Gordon MacRae, Mel Blanc, Skitch Henderson, Buddy Cole, Jan Garber, Tex Ritter, Billy May, Woody Herman, June Christy, Dean Martin, and a few years later, Frank Sinatra, along with Nelson Riddle, among others.

Anthony recorded his first sides for Capitol on March 23 of that year with House Party, Veloa (vocals by Pat Baldwin, Ken Trimble and The Skyliners), A New Shade Of Blues (vocal by Dick Noel), and two days later with The Wreck On The Highway (vocal by Ken Trimble), Darktown Strutter's Ball and Yesterdays. Veteran arrangers Dean Kincaide, Charles Shirley and George Williams were also hired to arrange for the band.

Staying that long in partnership with a major record label such as Capitol was a feat in itself. Maintaining a big band during this period of time was nothing short of a miracle as many top-name bands of the day were folding after the end World War II. Despite some early disappointments, Anthony remained focused.

"It was difficult for us in the beginning because we weren't popular enough," Anthony said. "Once we became popular, we ranked as the Number One Band in the country in all trade magazine polls from 1950-1955. It was after the important 'big band time,' but we did quite well."

Doing quite well is an understatement for Anthony. During this period he seemed to have the "Midas touch." His band toured exclusively and played all the top spots across the country. He has probably played more college prom dates than anyone else in recent history. He was also the most played instrumental recording artist on radio. 

While at Capitol Records, he released over 100 albums and 500 singles. His biggest album of all time is Dream Dancing (recorded Jan. 11-20, 1956). With arrangements provided by George Williams, personnel on the album included a stellar line up big band era and studio stalwarts in Johnny Best, trumpet; Murray McEachern, trombone; Abe Most and Willie Schwartz, alto saxes and clarinet; Georgie Auld, tenor sax; Al Hendrickson, guitar; and Larry Bunker, drums.

Other hit albums include Worried Mind,  Ray Anthony Plays Steve Allen (June 1958), Dancing Over The Waves (1958), and Dream Dancing Memories.

Anthony's first hit single was his interpretation of the standard, Tenderly (Feb. 21, 1950), followed by Stardust (Feb. 22, 1950) and a remake of his theme song, The Man With The Horn (May 6, 1950), which showcased his rich, lush tone. Other hit singles include Slaughter On Tenth Avenue (April16,1952); and compositions Anthony did in collaboration with arranger George Williams: Mr. Anthony's Blues (Aug. 20, 1950), Mr. Anthony's Boogie (Dec. 17, 1950), with its brassy sound and infectious shuffle, and Thunderbird (Dec. 12, 1952); and Oh Mein Papa (Nov. 17, 1953, with vocal by the Anthony Choir).

Anthony first million seller, a piece co-written with Leonard Auletti, was a dance tune that sparked a craze even shorter-lived than the Macarena. That song was The Bunny Hop (recorded March 7, 1953).

His biggest hit came in 1954, when, after bugging Jack Webb for months to get him to release the recording rights, Anthony recorded a cover of the theme to Webb's cop show, Dragnet. The song was recorded on July 25, 1953, with drummer Mel Lewis playing a prominent role on the tune.  

Anthony's third million-selling single was his rockin' cover of Henry Mancini's theme song from the television detective drama, Peter Gunn. Recorded Aug. 4, 1958, it's probably the best-selling single recording of that tune.

"We did a lot of singles in those days and we did about four albums a year," Anthony said. "That's a lot of recordings. I always remember the big hits like Dragnet, Bunny Hop and Peter Gunn. They stand out and they were great recordings for me."

In 1955, at the height of his popularity, Anthony gave up touring with his big band to stay in Los Angeles to study voice and acting with Sanford Meisner and Estelle Harmon.

"The band business was getting even less effective for big bands and I was tired of the constant traveling," Anthony said. "The band went out occasionally like for a ten-week tour."

In 1960, Anthony, seeing the coming trend away from big bands, developed a small group for nightclub variety performances called "Ray Anthony and the Bookends." Anthony's instrumental group included his own trumpet, Bob Fitzpatrick, trombone; Joe Maini, tenor sax; Leo Anthony, Ray's brother, baritone sax; Arnold Ross, piano; Don Simpson, bass; and Jerry McKenzie, drums. Featured vocalists included Anthony and two female "Bookends"  -  Diane Hall and Annita Ray. The ensemble lasted for twenty years and was a big draw at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas for many years.

"We traveled all over the world performing with that group," Anthony said.

Anthony appeared as an actor and bandleader in fifteen motion pictures. The Anthony band's first appearance in a feature film occurred in 1955 in 20th Century Fox's Daddy Long Legs starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron. The band was showcased in a college dance scene.

Other films in which Anthony's band appeared include The Girl Can't Help It (1956) starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell and Edmund O'Brien; and This Could Be The Night (1957) starring Jean Simmons, Paul Douglas and Tony Franciosa.

As an actor, Anthony had speaking roles in High School Confidential (1958) starring Russ Tamblyn, Jackie Coogan and Mamie Van Doren; Girls Town (1959) starring Mamie Van Doren; The Beat Generation (1959) starring Steve Cochran and Mamie Van Doren;  Night Of The Quarter Moon (1959) starring Julie London; Five Fingers (1959) starring David Hedison and Oscar Homolka; The Big Operator (1959); Birds Do It (1968) starring Soupy Sales; and his most prominent acting  role in The Five Pennies (1959) starring Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tuesday Weld and Louis Armstrong. Loosely based on the life of jazz cornetist Red Nichols, Anthony portrayed Jimmy Dorsey, in the film.

Anthony took the new medium of television and made it work for him hosting five of his own television shows, two of which were syndicated. Anthony's first  television program, The Ray Anthony Show, sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes, aired over the CBS network in 1953 as the summer replacement for Perry Como. Anthony did three 15-minute big band variety shows per week for thirteen weeks that featured singers Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly The show was such a hit that it was aired again the following summer.

During the 1956-57 season, Plymouth sponsored The Ray Anthony Show for 30 weeks over the ABC network. The weekly one-hour big band variety show featured its own family of entertainers as well as occasional guests.

In 1963, The Ray Anthony Show went into syndication as Club Anthony. The 30-minute TV show, shot in a night club setting, lasted for 26 weeks and featured Anthony's small band and "The Bookends" (one of which was Vikki Carr), as well as outside guests. 

During 1969-70, Anthony's new show, Swinging Scene, also went into syndication. Broadcast in color, the one-hour weekly variety show featured big bands, "The Bookends" plus numerous outside guests.

Anthony has also appeared as a guest on The Merv Griffin Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Tonight Show, The Chevrolet Comedy Hour with George Goebel, and The Jerry Lewis Telethon, among others. He served as musical director and co-host for the Stop Arthritis Telethon. In August 1980, Anthony and his band performed for two hours live on KCET, the Public Broadcasting Station's affiliate in Los Angeles, for their pledge festival.

Anthony also won a place in the hearts of exotica lovers by marrying buxom B-movie queen Mamie Van Doren, but the marriage ended in divorce. 

Anthony received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star is appropriately situated across from the place he helped to build, the Capitol Records Towers Building. 

In 1968, with the trend toward big band music waning, Capitol Records decided not to renew its contract with Anthony. That year, he entered into an agreement with Ranwood Records and stayed with them for nine years releasing ten albums and thirty singles.

In 1976, Anthony formed his own record label, Aero Space Records, producing over 40 albums to date since its inception.

"There are still records coming from other companies, so that has upped our total to about 40 CDs that are out on the market right now," Anthony said.

Anthony's latest CD, Dream Dancing III: The Romantic Mood, has just been released, he said.

In 1980, he formed an organization of bandleaders called "Big Bands '80s" to perpetuate the revived interest in big band music. As president, he started out with a group of Los Angeles-based leaders who, together with Anthony, compiled a comprehensive mailing list of big band fans and radio stations. Anthony then produced an LP featuring himself and five other big bands playing two tracks each and shipped it to 500 radio stations. At that time there were less than a dozen stations playing big band music. Today, through Anthony's efforts, there are close to 1000.

In 1981, Anthony formed the Big Band Record Library, a mail order business for big band CDs.

"People were looking for this kind of music and they couldn't find it, so we created a place for people to order these records," Anthony said. "It's gotten bigger."

To order any CDs, audio cassettes or videos from Aero Space Records or the Big Band Record Library, log on to Anthony's web site at  www.bigbandrecordlibrary.com   

Other entrepreneurial ventures that Anthony has been affiliated with include running a music publishing house, contracting bands (he bought out Billy May's short-lived big band when it folded), and a nightclub in Hollywood. 

During the early 1980s, Anthony reorganized his big band to play dates in an around the Los Angeles area such as Disneyland and the Hollywood Palladium. In January 1985, Anthony and his big band were invited to play for the 50th Presidential Inaugural Ball of President Ronald Reagan, and were also asked to perform at The White House for the opening festivities of the week-long event.

These days the Anthony aggregation plays quite often for the public at the Cocoanut Club at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

"We do more special engagements these days staying pretty close to Los Angeles," Anthony said. "Occasionally we'll do Palm Springs or Las Vegas. We go out on a big band cruises about twice a year. We also do a lot of private parties."

While Anthony's love for big band music is widely known, his impressions of today's music is less than complimentary.

"It's all bad," he said. "You don't have music anymore. There are a few songs out there with melodies, but not many."

For the past six decades Anthony has been a champion of big band music. His contribution to that musical genre can best be summed up in one word  -   consistency, he said.

"We became the Number One band for five years following in the footsteps of Glenn Miller and bands like that," Anthony said. "For a good period of time we consistently put out records, and had some hit records along the way. We kept big band music going when there was none."

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