Al Donahue (June 12, 1904,

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood comprising more than in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, E ...

- February 20, 1983,

Fallbrook, California Fallbrook is a census-designated place in northern San Diego County, California. It had a population of 32,267 at the 2020 census. Fallbrook is immediately east of the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton. It is known for its avocado groves and c ...

) was an American violinist and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

leader. Donahue got his start playing in Boston-area campus bands and led a band at Boston's Weber Duck Inn in 1925. The ensemble attracted enough notice to obtain engagements at Florida hotels; one of these, the Bermudiana, contracted with Donahue to set up bands to play at all its hotels, as well as onboard Eastern Steamship ocean liners.Leo Walker, The Big Band Almanac. Ward Ritchie Press, 1978, p. 96. During the mid-1930s he substituted for

Ray Noble Raymond Stanley Noble (17 December 1903 – 3 April 1978) was an English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor; he also performed in the United S ...

as leader at the Rainbow Room of

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...

. Over time he moved from playing sweet pop music to

swing music Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement ...

and toured nationally. He took an engagement at the

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas (formally 2 Pallas), ...

in Hollywood immediately after

Glenn Miller Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombonist, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces ...

's departure. Paula Kelly, Dee Keating,

Lynne Stevens Lynne may refer to: *Lynne (surname) *Lynne (given name) *Lynne, Florida Lynne is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Marion County, Florida, Marion County, in the U.S. state of Florida. It is located along Florida ...

, Phil Brito, and

Snooky Lanson Roy Landman (March 27, 1914 – July 2, 1990),DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 159. better known as Snooky Lanson, was an Am ...

all served as vocalists in his ensemble at times. Donahue recorded copiously between 1935 and 1942, recording for

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

Vocalion Vocalion Records is an American record label, originally founded by the Aeolian Company, a piano and organ manufacturer before being bought out by Brunswick in 1924. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pian ...

, and

Okeh OKeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name originally was spelled "OkeH" from the init ...

. His biggest hit was a rendition of " Jeepers Creepers", which went to #1 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

chart in 1938. He also later recorded for University Recording Company. After World War II he moved the ensemble again toward light music, playing throughout the West Coast and appearing in films such as ''

Sweet Genevieve ''Sweet Genevieve'' is a 1947 American comedy film directed by Arthur Dreifuss and starring Jean Porter, Jimmy Lydon and Lucien Littlefield. It was produced by Sam Katzman for distribution by Columbia Pictures. Plot The town of River City is obs ...

''. Later, he would return to cruise ships once more, directing music for the

Furness Bermuda Line Furness Bermuda Line was a United Kingdom, UK shipping line that operated in the 20th century. It was part of Furness Withy, Furness, Withy and ran passenger liners between Port of New York and New Jersey, New York and the British Overseas Territo ...

; from 1950 to 1963 he played on the ' and the ''

Ocean Monarch ''Ocean Monarch'' is the name of a number of ships. * , a barque that caught fire in 1848 with the loss of nearly 180 lives * , Russell and Co., Port Glasgow. * , a Furness, Withy ship * , a Shaw, Savill & Albion ship * ''Ocean Monarch'' (1955), t ...

''. He opened a record store in

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

, but the government took the store over, forcing Donahue to abandon the business. Following this, he settled in

Oceanside, California Oceanside is a beach city in the North County (San Diego area), North County area of San Diego County, California, United States. The city had a population of 174,068 at the 2020 United States census, making it the most populous city in the Nort ...

, where he ran a store called Ponzi's House of Music until his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donahue, Al American bandleaders American violinists Musicians from Massachusetts 1904 births 1983 deaths 20th-century violinists