Carmen Cavallaro and His Orchestra

After leaving Al Kavelin's band, Carmen Cavallaro set up a small combo which he eventually expanded into a fourteen-piece big band. It made its debut at the Statler Hotel in St. Louis in 1939. Before long, Cavallaro -- a good-looking gent and a consummate showman with superb piano technique -- drew huge crowds and was regularly booked into top venues like New York's Waldorf Astoria and the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco. A publicist tagged Cavallaro with the sobriquet "The Poet of the Piano", a tribute to the speed of his octave playing. His orchestra was one of the flashiest dance bands in the business and received much coast-to-coast exposure on "The Sheaffer Parade" radio show. On air, most of Cavallaro's arrangements were played faster (at radio speed) rather than at normal dance tempo.

The line-up consisted of three trumpets, four saxes, a five or six-piece string section (including a viola and/or cello), a strong rhythm section and (of course) Cavallaro's piano. Curiously, there were no trombones. Lead vocalist was Larry Douglas who later became a well-known night club performer. Arrangements were by Sid Feller, subsequently famous for his lengthy association with Ray Charles. The band's most popular song was Chopin's "Polonaise" which sold a million copies after its release in March 1945. Cavallaro appeared in several Hollywood films as himself and famously dubbed Tyrone Power's piano playing on the soundtrack of The Eddy Duchin Story (1956).