Jerry Blaine

  • Born

    December 31, 1910
    Allenwood, New Jersey

  • Died

    March 3, 1973 (age 62)
    Long Island, New York

  • Featured Vocalists

    Phyllis Kenny

Jerry Blaine began in the music business at age 14 as a pianist. In late 1936, he formed his own band, Jerry Blaine and His Streamline Rhythm Orchestra, which performed mostly to New York City audiences.[1] The band spent much of 1937 and early 1938 at the Cocoanut Grove in New York’s Park Central Hotel, where they were heard on coast-to-coast radio. The orchestra returned to the hotel later in 1938.

Described as “pleasant, wide-eyed and moon-faced,” Blaine, who also sang, recorded for Bluebird in 1937 and 1938. Female vocalist for the band was Phyllis Kenny, who joined at the start and left in mid-1938. The group also appeared in one of Max Fleischer’s “Screen Songs” shorts for Paramount in 1938, performing “You Took the Words Right Out of My Heart.”

Blaine continued to lead an orchestra into at least 1940, touring through the east. During the war, he worked as a test pilot for an airplane company. In 1945, Blaine worked as sales manager for the Cosmo label. In 1946, he co-founded Cosnat, a distribution company, and in 1948 he co-founded publishing firm Jubilee Music Company. Blaine’s interests eventually diverged and grew into a large corporation with several record labels and a manufacturing firm which aside from disks also made disposable thermometers. He retired as president and chairman of Jubilee Industries in 1970. Jerry Blaine passed away in 1973.

Notes

  1. A 1970 article in Billboard states that Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller played in Blaine’s orchestra, with Miller as an arranger. This is hilariously untrue. ↩︎

Sources

  1. “Orchestra Notes.” Billboard 5 Dec. 1936: 14.
  2. Colson, George. “Cocoanut Grove, Park Central, New York.” Billboard 16 Jan. 1937: 12.
  3. Orodenker, M.H. “Review of Records.” Billboard 13 Nov. 1937: 18.
  4. Zolotow, Maurice. “Airing the Bands.” Billboard 8 Jan. 1938: 16.
  5. Denis, Paul. “Cocoanut Grove, Park Central, New York.” Billboard 12 Feb. 1938: 20.
  6. “Cocoanut Grove, Park Central, New York.” Billboard 14 May 1938: 20.
  7. Ross, George. “Broadway.” The Pittsburgh Press 16 Jul. 1938: 10.
  8. “Orchestra Notes.” Billboard 20 Aug. 1938: 12.
  9. Lang, J.H. Jr. “Drive-In Spot To Feature Cork.” Down Beat 15 Jun. 1940: 13.
  10. “Orchestra Notes.” Billboard 13 Jul. 1940: 10.
  11. “Night Clubs-Vaudeville: Deshler-Wallick Hotel, Ionian Room, Columbus, O.” Billboard 14 Sep. 1940: 19.
  12. “He's No Chump.” Billboard 29 May 1943: 6.
  13. “First Four Cosmo Diskings Set for Release This Week.” Billboard 21 Jul. 1945: 18.
  14. “'Too Soon,' by Obscure Quintet, Latest Boom Disk.” Billboard 4 Sep. 1948: 17.
  15. “Blaine, De May Form Jubilee Music Pub'ry.” Billboard 30 Oct. 1948: 17.
  16. “Blaine Exits as Jubilee Chief.” Billboard 20 Jun. 1970: 3.