Henry Halstead: Difference between revisions

{{RefimproveMore citations needed|date=July 2015}}

| name = =Henry Halstead

| image = =Henry Halstead 1927.jpg

| caption = Henry Halstead Orchestra

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1897|11|16}}

| birth_place = [[El Paso, Texas]], U.S.

| genre = [[Jazz]]

| occupation = Bandleader

| instrument = Violin

| years_active =

| label = [[Victor Records|Victor]]

Halstead had from 15 to 20 band members at any given time. His orchestra appeared in numerous short subjects on the screen and made over 100 records, mainly with [[Victor Records]]. He appeared in short films released by [[RKO Radio]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Halstead and his Orchestra|url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/henry-halstead-and-his-orchestra/ |website=Red Hot Jazz Archive |date=7 April 2020 |accessdate=7 April 2020 }}</ref>

After rising to fame on radio and on the west coast, his orchestra was named the Favorite Band of Movieland. His fans included [[Marion Davies]], [[Sylvia Sidney]], [[Fredric March]], [[Claudette Colbert]], [[Kay Francis]], [[Rudolph Valentino]], [[Roscoe Arbuckle]], [[Maurice Chevalier]], [[Clark Gable]], [[Norma Shearer]], [[Greta Garbo]], [[Clive Brook]], [[Gary Cooper]], [[Marian Nixon]], [[Jack Oakie]], [[Charles Rogers (actor)|Buddy Rogers]], and [[Ruth Chatterton]].

Henry Halstead was born November 16, 1897, in El Paso, Texas, and died on March 19, 1984, in California. As a young boy, he learned to play violin. After studying the violin for ten years, he turned professional when at 19, playing clubs and hotels. In 1919, he played violin [[Abe Lyman]] and [[Gus Arnheim]]. They were in a band at the Sunset Inn in Santa Monica, California, with Lyman on drums Gus Arnheim on piano. Roy Fox played the trumpet on occasion with them.

The early Henry Halstead Orchestra during the early 1920s was enormously successful at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco for about three years. He broacastbroadcast on KGO in San Francisco for about an hour a night, six nights a week. His band became the best known organization in the western United States and Hawaii.

While Halstead and his family were living in San BernadinoBernardino, California, he and his band were playing at some of the local night spots in town. He needed to live close due to his ailing parents. In March 1944 he was making visits to one of the local mountain communities by the name of Big Bear. He enjoyed the area and was losing many of his band members to the draft. He himself was beyond the draft age and did not serve in World War II. It was a time for change and he moved his family to Big Bear Lake where he bought into a partnership on one of the local night spots known as Navajo Ballroom.<ref>The Grizzly 26 May 1944 page 3</ref>

Halstead was married to blues vocalist Marjorie Whitney Halter, who sang with the [[King's Jesters]]. She was born on April 5, 1917. Henry and Marjorie had two children. While they were living in San BernadinoBernardino, California, Joan Susan Halstead was born on Dec 3,in 1943. Hank Jr. was born on April 8, 1946, while the family was living in Big Bear, California.<ref>The Grizzly 12 Apr 1946 page 2</ref> Marjorie and Henry divorced in the 1960s. Marjorie died on December 26, 1996.<ref>Nevada Death Index</ref> After the divorce, Henry married Mary Larson on June 20, 1980.

AroundAfter Halstead and Marjorie were divorced., Halstead continued within the real estate business. He worked with Del Webb in creating the Deer Valley section of Phoenix. He was honored by having one of the streets named after him: West Halstead Drive. In the late 1960s Henry moved to California. He lived in San Diego for a short time, and died in Hemet, California. He is buried in San Diego.<ref>Conversation with Joan Halstead 21 July 2014</ref>

The orchestra performed at the Blossom Room at Hotel Roosevelt, New York City; the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California; the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco; the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago; and a season at Fatty Arbuckle's "Plantation" in Culver City where such entertainers as [[Al Jolson]], [[Sophie Tucker]], [[Gus Edwards (songwritervaudeville)|Gus Edwards]], and [[Leatrice Joy]] were headliners on his shows.

Hollywood actor [[Lew Ayres]] was discovered in the Henry Halstead band in 1927. Ayres said "I was a member of Henry Halstead's orchestra in 1927 at the Mission Beach Ballroom, San Diego, California...summer. My instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar. After a hiatus, I rejoined Mr. Halstead with a new group, including Phil Harris, on New Years Eve the same year for the opening night of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel... a memorable occasion." Henry Halstead is given credit for making the first [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] [[Vitaphone]] movie short with Warner Brothers in 1927 called ''Carnival Night in Paris'' where [[Lew Ayres]] was discovered playing banjo.<ref name="Coffin2012"/> The three music selections for the Vitaphone production where listed as follows: 1. Volga Boatman, 2. At Sundown, 3. Rosy Cheeks.

[[Category:20th-century American conductors (music)]]