Abe Lyman (August 4, 1897 – October 23, 1957) was a popular bandleader from the 1920s to the 1940s. He made recordings, appeared in films and provided the music for numerous radio shows, including ''

Your Hit Parade ''Your Hit Parade'' was an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During its 24-year ru ...

''. His name at birth was Abraham Simon. He and his brother, Mike, changed their last name to Lyman because they both thought it sounded better. Abe learned to play the drums when he was young, and at the age of 14 he had a job as a drummer in a Chicago café. Around 1919, he was regularly playing music with two other notable future big band leaders, Henry Halstead and Gus Arnheim, in California. In Los Angeles Mike Lyman opened the Sunset, a night club popular with such film stars as

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Norma Talmadge Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most pop ...

, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and

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. When Abe's nine-piece band first played at the Sunset, it was a success, but the club closed after celebrities signed contracts stating they were not to be seen at clubs. For an engagement at the Cocoanut Grove in The Ambassador Hotel on April 1, 1922, Abe added a violinist and saxophonist. Opening night drew a large crowd of 1500 guests in the Cocoanut Grove, plus another 500 more outside. Lyman appeared on radio as early as 1922. His orchestra was broadcast from The Ambassador Hotel by late March on KOG. After the band cut their first record under the local label Nordskog Records, they moved a year later to

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History From 1916 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing prod ...

in the summer of 1923. There they made many recordings and were one of Brunswick's leading orchestras through 1935, when Lyman signed to Decca Records. In late 1937, Lyman signed with Victor where he was assigned their Bluebird label. He recorded prolifically for them through 1942. The Lyman Orchestra toured Europe in 1929, appearing at the Kit Cat Club and the

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in London and at the

Moulin Rouge Moulin Rouge (, ; ) is a cabaret in Paris, on Boulevard de Clichy, at Place Blanche, the intersection of, and terminus of Rue Blanche. In 1889, the Moulin Rouge was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Ol ...

and the Perroquet in Paris. Lyman and his orchestra were featured in a number of early talkies, including '' Hold Everything'' (1930), ''

Paramount on Parade ''Paramount on Parade'' is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, O ...

'' (1930), '' Good News'' (1930) and ''

Madam Satan ''Madam Satan'' or ''Madame Satan'' is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film in black and white with Multicolor sequences. It was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starred Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, and Ro ...

'' (1930). In 1931, Abe Lyman and his orchestra recorded a number of soundtracks for the '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon series. Notable musicians in the Lyman Orchestra included Ray Lopez,

Gussie Mueller Gustave "Gussie" Mueller (April 17, 1890 – December 16, 1965) was an early jazz clarinetist. The New Orleans, Louisiana-born Mueller was a top clarinetist with Papa Jack Laine's bands in New Orleans before going to Chicago, Illinois with ...

, and Orlando "Slim" Martin. Charlie Chaplin guest-conducted the band in two occasions: in 1923 and 1926, in both cases recording songs written by Chaplin himself. During the 1930s, the Lyman Orchestra was heard regularly on such shows as ''

Accordiana ''Accordiana'' was a musical radio series which was heard on CBS in 1934, airing at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday evenings. The 30-minute program featured soprano Vivienne Segal and tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose voc ...

'' and ''Waltz Time'' every Friday evening and on NBC, ''Coast to Coast''. Under the name "Rose Blane" Lyman's wife was vocalist with the band during this period. Lyman and his orchestra sat in for Phil Harris on the Jack Benny program in 1943 when Harris served in the Merchant Marines. After the end of the recording ban, Lyman briefly switched to Columbia in 1945, making his final records for that label. When Lyman was 50 years old, he left the music industry and went into the restaurant management business. He died in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 60.

References

Ate Van Delden: "Abe Lyman-The Early Years"Abe Lyman (1899-1957)
Red Hot Jazz Archive

External links

Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Hotel Orchestra
Red Hot Jazz Archive
Abe Lyman recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyman, Abe American jazz bandleaders Big band bandleaders 1897 births 1957 deaths 20th-century American conductors (music)