Cole Porter’s, “Kiss Me Kate”

Alfred Dreake gives Patricia Morison reason to sing “I Hate Men” in Kiss Me, Kate.

Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun

The original cast album of Ethel Merman in the Music Theatre of Lincoln Center production of Annie Get Your Gun.

Ethel Merman performs in Matt Dubey and Harold Karr’s Happy Hunting

Frank Sinatra performs at New York’s Paramount Theater on Times Square

Sinatra’s big move came when he left Tommy Dorsey in 1942 (owing Dorsey thousands on his contract), and, from that point on, his career soared. He launched his solo career in a spectacular way, with a week of appearances with Benny Goodman’s orchestra at New York’s Paramount Theater on Times Square. We know now that some of the fans may have been paid to scream—but thousands of girls swooned for free during the weeklong engagement that anointed Sinatra the greatest popular singer of the day. His sense of humor, sex appeal, slight whiff of danger, and those mesmerizing blue eyes—not to mention the carefully chosen songs that resonated with his audience—made him an instant favorite of the bobby-soxers.

Lilo and Peter Cookson in “Can-Can”

Lilo and Peter Cookson in front of Jo Mielziner’s magnificent backdrop for “Can-Can.” The drop was so stupendous, Cole Porter was inspired to write “I Love Paris” after seeing it.

Sheet music for “Night and Day”

Fred Astaire on “Night and Day”.

It had a long range, very low and kind of very high, and it was long, as they all said, and I was trying to figure out what kind of dance could be arranged for it. I asked him to play it again and again, and after four or five times I began to get with it…It was a known fact that it made the show. “Gay Divorce” had an awfully rough trip when it first opened on the road and later in New York. It was known after it caught on as “The Night and Day Show”.

Nothing presently is shown in this category.

Nothing presently is shown in this category.

Sheet music for the 1936 MGM film, Born to Dance

The King of Jazz

Way back in the distance is Whiteman, leading the orchestra in the 1930 film musical, The King of Jazz.” They don’t make musicals like that anymore.

Nat King Cole, “Ballads of the Day”

Nat King Cole’s recording, Ballads of the Day, had an original release date of 1956. The recording includes: “A Blossom Fell”; “Unbelievable”; “Blue Gardenia”; “Angel Eyes”; “It Happens To Be Me”; “Smile”; “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup”; “Alone Too Long”; “My One Sin”; “Return to Paradise”; “If Love Is Good to Me”; “The Sand and the Sea." Orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle; by Billy May on “Angel Eyes."

Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin music

Paul Whiteman and his Concert Orchestra play the music of George Gershwin. Whiteman commissioned Gershwin to write a classical piece for the famous Aeolian Hall concert.

David Hyde Pierce and Michael Feinstein

David Hyde Pierce and Michael Feinstein perform at Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York.

Michael Feinstein and Jim Caruso

Michael Feinstein and Jim Caruso at Cast Party, as Michael Feinstein prepares to perform Irving Berlin’s “There’s No Business Like Show Business” with previously undiscovered lyrics from Berlin.

The Paul Whiteman Orchestra

The Paul Whiteman Orchestra, augmented for the historic 1924 Aeolian Hall concert in which George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” premiered.

The Sinatra Project

Michael Feinstein performs songs from his “Sinatra Project” CD in London, with a seventeen-piece big band conducted by arranger Bill Elliott.