- Born
- Died
- Birth nameElmer Lewis Dunham
- Sonny Dunham was born on November 16, 1911 in Brockton, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Behind the Eight Ball (1942), Sonny Dunham and His Orchestra in Jive Busters (1944) and Rhythm Masters (1949). He died on July 9, 1990 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Played valve trombone from the age of seven, slide trombone from the age of eleven. Switched to trumpet during the 1920's, while performing with Paul Tremaine's Orchestra in New York.
- Ten of the fourteen musicians in Dunham's band doubled up on trumpet.
- Led several short-lived orchestras (his first was 'Sonny Lee & His New York Yankees' in 1931; he fronted another group, 1936-37), before commercial success with a big band organised in 1940, which included among its personnel the trumpeter Pete Candoli, tenor saxophonist Corky Corcoran and Danish-born trombonist Kai Winding. Dunham's theme song was "Memories of You", a track he had made his own as a soloist with the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1937.
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