Harry James

Harry James was born in a rundown hotel next to the city jail in Albany Georgia His mother and father were members of a circus she as a trapeze artist and he a band leader with the Mighty Haag Circus At seven they settled in Beaumont Texas where Harry learned yo play drums By twelve he was playing trumpet in the Christy Brothers circus band In 1936 James joined Ben Pollacks band soon leaving to lead the brass section of Benny Goodmans band He even once applied to Lawrence Welks band but was turned down because they said he played too loud and it was not Welks style After three years with Goodman he wanted to leave and with Goodmans backing he formed the Music Makers In 1943 he married pinup queen Betty Grable his second of four wives He had earlier married and divorced Louise Tobin a singer Grable kept appearing in movies and Harry kept playing while they raised horses He made his debut in Philadelphia at the Ben Franklin Hotel and soon was a nationwide favorite of dance lovers and jazz addicts rocking the rafters at the Hollywood Paladium Chicagos famous College Inn at the Hotel Sherman Frank Daileys Meadowbrook in Cedar Cove NJ and then onto New York City It was the Lincoln Hotel in NYC that the Music Makers called home but James also starred at the Paramount Theater in the spring of 1943 with thousands of teenagers flocking to see him His version of You Made Me Love You was a big hit and a favorite of many through the war years James was a great discoverer of talent finding Frank Sinatra working as a waiter in a New Jersey restaurant and giving him a job singing in his band Dick Haymes Kitty Kallen Connie Haines and Helen Forrest can all thank James for giving them their first real break In 1963 his band was featured at Disneyland still known as the Music Makers He played his last gig at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on June 26 1983 just a few days before dying of lymphatic cancer