BREAKING NEWS: Guy Lombardo to be inducted into Gennett Records Walk of Fame in Richmond, Indiana
Doug Flood to speak at classy, red carpet ceremony on behalf of the Guy Lombardo Music Centre and the City of London. Do London's so-called leaders even care?
Gennett Records Walk of Fame
Second Annual Induction and Celebration
Whitewater Gorge Municipal Park, Richmond, Indiana
Saturday, September 6, 2008
ABOUT 90 YEARS AGO, the Starr Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana, made a business decision that would affect the future of popular music and popular culture.
The company would add phonograph records to its product line to boost sales of the phonographs it had recently begun manufacturing along with pianos.
At first, recordings were issued on the "Starr" label, but the name soon changed to "Gennett," after Starr president Henry Gennett.
The millions of records sold on the Gennett label and its many affiliates contributed mightily to the flood of new music entering the cultural mainstream between World War I and the Great Depression.
That music is now familiar almost everywhere as jazz, blues, gospel, country and popular song.
Gennett recorded an enormous number of musicians who, along with their musical styles, had not been heard outside their home regions.
In giving those pioneers a wider audience, Gennett became a prototype of the "independent" record companies that still search out new sounds and convey them to new listeners.
The exposure Gennett artists gained set many on the road to stardom and some on the road to musical immortality as they began to inspire their peers as well as please the public.
Today, the Starr-Gennett Foundation honors 10 more of the most accomplished artists by installing them in the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in Richmond’s Gorge Park.
The Walk of Fame helps interpret the park’s Starr Piano Company and Gennett Records Historic Site, which will become a Mecca for lovers of traditional music from Indiana, the nation, and the world at large.
The Foundation’s national advisory board composed of musicians and music educators selects Walk of Fame honorees.
Welcome to the second annual Walk of Fame Induction and Celebration!
Guy Lombardo, 1902-1977
Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo was born in London, Ontario, to a Canadian mother of Italian descent (maiden name Paladino) and Italian immigrant father.
A tailor by trade, Guy’s father loved music and transferred that enthusiasm to five of his seven children. The brothers all learned to play wind instruments and one doubled on drums.
Guy, however, took up the violin. Their mother found opportunities for them to perform as an ensemble at teas and garden parties and by 1916 they had added several players to their adolescent band.
At first, their repertoire included hot jazz as well as dance music. Later, to differentiate themselves from other bands of the day, they settled on "sweet" numbers that their audiences seemed to enjoy most for dancing.
Their subsequent style featured melody much more than improvisation and was expressed with a distinctive saxophone sound.
In 1923, they crossed the U.S.-Canadian border into Ohio and began to perform at clubs in the Cleveland area.
In March, 1924, they journeyed to Richmond, Indiana, to make their first recordings. The following year they named their band "The Royal Canadians."
Capitalizing on their new momentum, they gave a ballroom performance in 1927 that was broadcast by a Chicago radio station to the delight of listeners.
In 1928, they adopted their famous promotional slogan, "The sweetest music this side of heaven."
Although Guy had always led the band as well as played in it, he now put aside his violin and became its out-front conductor and performance emcee.
From then on he cultivated the bandstand "personality" that would help make him a celebrity.
In 1929, the band began an engagement in New York City that led to another hit radio broadcast, this time on New Year’s Eve. It started a tradition that would last for nearly 50 years and forever link Guy Lombardo with "Auld Lang Syne" and Times Square.
The Royal Canadians went on to record for other companies, eventually selling more than 100 million records. The band is also credited with introducing 300 songs, some of which were composed by Guy’s brother, Carmen.
Among them are classics such as "Boo Hoo," "Coquette," "Powder Your Face with Sunshine," "Return to Me," " Seems Like Old Times," and "Sweethearts on Parade."
Guy Lombardo and his band became immensely popular in the 1930s and ‘40s and remained active throughout the '50s and '60s.
Perhaps Lombardo’s greatest tribute was paid by one Gennett veteran to another, when jazz legend Louis Armstrong called The Royal Canadians his favorite band.
The other 2008 Gennett Records Walk of Fame inductees are: Duke Ellington, 1899-1974; Coleman Hawkins, 1904-1969; Fletcher Henderson, 1897-1952; Blind Lemon Jefferson, ca. 1894-1929; Uncle Dave Macon, 1870-1952; Charley Patton, 1891-1934; Fats Waller, 1904-1943; Homer Rodeheaver, 1880-1955 and Red Nichols, 1905-1965.
