Jewish Bandleaders and WWII

A Spotlight Blog piece, written by Tony Zendle

This is a story pieced together from a myriad of sources about a fairly unique bunch of musicians who came to national prominence in the last century, and for whom World War 2 was a defining time.

By 1939, The Golden Age of Dance Bands which had begun in the early 1920’s was still going strong and at its very core were Jewish sidemen and Jewish dance band leaders, many of whom had risen from the poverty of the East End to national prominence and fame. Bandleaders like Geraldo, Ambrose, Harry Roy, and Lou Stone were household names. Yet a chill wind was blowing from Central Europe. In 1933 the Nazis took control in Germany, and as a result Jewish German dance band leaders fled to where they felt safe; when non-Jewish band leaders such as Henry Hall and Jack Hylton toured Germany they were instructed only to play tunes written by non-Jewish composers and to leave their Jewish artists behind.

Virtually all the dance band leaders and their sidemen were second generation immigrants; many of their families had come to Britain from Continental Europe so they will have had some idea of what was coming, although they may have fooled themselves that this was just a temporary phase. After all, the Jewish bandleader Harry Roy’s gramophone records were still being produced by German record companies as late as 1939. When war came Jewish bandleaders and their sidemen had a choice to make. They could not carry on as usual - people had stopped going to dances in the same volume as before, and many of the men who had gone dancing were now in the armed forces. Normal life was suspended.

War hit the bandleaders and their sidemen in different ways. For some it was a chance to serve their country in the Armed Forces. A few joined up. Lou Preagar joined the army, Stanley Black the RAF, the 28-year old Ray Ellington also joined the RAF, but as a PT instructor; Sydney Lipton, the purveyor of “sweet music” at the Grosvenor Hotel in London joined the Royal Artillery, initially apparently as a motorcycle rider. Lipton was to achieve a Mention in Dispatches and ended the war as a Captain in the Royal Signals.

Sidney Lipman

Sid Phillips, who had worked with Ambrose, had performed mainly in Europe for about 5 years from 1925 and, we are told, learnt five languages. A biography of Lipton states that “In 1940, [he] was called into London's wartime 'Specials' police, and soon after into the RAF, where his command of languages earned him a commission in the intelligence branch”. No doubt his fluent Yiddish helped him with German speakers, and perhaps one of the 5 was Yiddish (or German!) We know so little about others, but a common feature seems to be that many who joined up were pretty quickly assimilated into Service Bands. Harry Roy’s sideman, the well-known and respected Nat Temple, joined the Grenadier Guards and played in their orchestras. Humphrey Lyttleton, who was a Lieutenant in the Grenadier Gardens and saw action at Salerno told a nice little story:

During my spell at the Guards Depot I began to brush up my trumpet-playing. Apart from the opportunity for practice provided by the long periods of inactivity, there were also quite a regular number of dances held in the main gymnasium. For these functions a unit from the regimental Band of the Grenadier Guards used to provide the dance music.

The standard was high, which is not surprising, because during the war many of the leading jazz and dance musicians were enlisted into the Household Brigade bands. So throughout the war many idols of the followers of popular music could be seen trudging along at the head of a column of guardsmen. At one of the dances at Caterham I sat in on trumpet with the band. Being struck by the clarinet-playing of the bandsman sitting next to me I asked him what his name was. When he said: ‘Nat Temple, sir,’ I very nearly stood to attention and saluted.

The RAF went further and formed its own dance band called the Squadronnaires which performed at bases, and on the radio. They stripped many of the dance bands of their best personnel, notably Harry Lewis, saxophonist and clarinettist, who left the Squadronnaires in 1943 to manage his wife, Vera Lynn. One important consideration was whether you were a member of the armed services. When such icons as Harry Roy, Maurice Winnick, and Lew Stone entertained Service Personnel, they did so as civilians underneath the banner of ENSA - the Entertainments National Service Association established “to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II”.

Geraldo in North Africa

Another term for ENSA was Every Night Something Awful, so it would have been a relief for serving troops to have top performers such as Geraldo performing for them. In fact Geraldo (whose real name was Gerald Bright) was appointed Supervisor of Bands for ENSA, and toured Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with his own orchestra during the war. He was in many ways the closest to the servicemen, never having lost his accent. He said “In 1943 we went out to entertain the troops in North Africa and Italy - and that was a job that was so worth doing. It may sound egotistical, but they appreciated us so much. There's hardly a day goes by when I don't encounter someone who was there - in the desert or somewhere.”

The problem with ENSA was that the artists were civilians, and had to be kept away from the battlefront. There was no such restriction for those who had joined up, and so an organisation called Stars in Battledress (SIB) was set up. As Service Personnel they could be closer to the action. Indeed it was reputed that the non-Jewish comedian Charlie Chester was almost in the second wave on D-Day. The bandleader Bert Firman enlisted in the Staffordshire Regiment and was asked to join “SIB”. He had the honour of being in the first entertainment party to cross the Rhine and accompany the 51st Highland Division into Bremen, and perform on the frontline. During the War, Firman is noted for having also toured Persia (sic), Syria, Egypt, and Palestine.

The war finished, and people began to pick up their lives. For some it was a disaster. For example, once the Liverpool Blitz began in late 1940, it was inevitable that bandleader Johnny Rosen, who had for years played at Lewis’s Department Store restaurants in Manchester and Liverpool, would have his lucrative contract terminated, which it was, in May 1941. Rosen went bankrupt in 1943, and died later that year. There was the story too of Nat Bookbinder (Elkie Brooks uncle) who was owner of the Casino Club in Warrington. He went up against the US Army when they tried to segregate his dance hall/night club into a whites only establishment, telling him that if he didn’t comply his club would be out of bounds to US Personnel. Amazingly enough the Secretary of State at the War Department, James Grigg, an old-style colonialist who was sympathetic to the colour bar, backed up the ban, and the ballroom was declared ‘out of bounds' to British and Canadian soldiers, and then to all RAF and Naval personnel. Noticeably, Grigg didn’t try it on with any establishments in London, a weak man who was just trying to pander to the Americans. Unsurprisingly the heroic Bookbinder went out of business, and surprise, surprise, was promptly called up. History Today states “When Mr Bookbinder left the army, he was refused his job back in the entertainments firm that had employed him. The British Legion took up his case, and he found work eventually at a club in Manchester. He died at the age of fifty-five.”

For some, the war was just the end of the gravy train. Bandleaders like Ambrose and Harry Roy were well out of fashion in the fifties, tastes having changed towards Jazz and Pop.

Some carried on for the while. Bert Firman went to Paris where his band included Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. Others changed gear and achieved success. Geraldo went into management and among other things booked bands for Cunard, which became known as “Geraldo’s Navy”. Stanley Black became one of the best-known British musicians, composing and arranging many film scores and conducting many of Britain’s orchestras. In 1962 he received the Ivor Novello Award for the music behind the film “Summer Holiday”.

Some just carried on, and didn’t retire until they had to from old age. Phil Moss made a decent living touring the Northern Circuit, playing at dance venues. Nat Temple was in regular demand at simchas, and remained well known because of his regular appearances on “Crackerjack”, the BBC children’s show. Finally there was the ultimate survivor, Joe Loss. Loss never tied himself to a particular format of music and was as happy with pop as with the waltz. He remained in the public eye, especially as the house band for “Come Dancing”.

Summing up then, World War Two had been the end of one chapter in British music and the beginning of another. Out went the Golden Age and in came the Jazz Big Bands, Rock and Roll, and then Pop. Over a relatively short period of time the Dance Halls shut down or became bingo halls and the like. As a result of their unique place at the heart of dance band music, Jewish musicians were at the centre of that change in the social fabric of our country and were affected by it. As I have shown, some adapted, some did not, some stayed in the business, some did not, some just faded away. Whatever happened to them, they were an important part of British History and should not be forgotten.

Tony Zendle has written “Kosher Foxtrot”,“The Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia”, “Jews and the Sea”, and “Counting the Stars”. Available on Amazon.