Hal McIntyre (born Harold William McIntyre; November 29, 1914,

Cromwell, Connecticut Cromwell ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, located within the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 14,225 at the 2020 census. History The land where Cromwell is now located, was once na ...

– May 5, 1959, Los Angeles, California) was an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader. McIntyre played extensively as a teenager and led his own octet in 1935. Shortly thereafter, he was offered a temporary slot as an alto saxophonist behind

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

; this lasted only ten days, but

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 ...

heard of his ability and drafted him as a founding member of the

Glenn Miller Orchestra Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was an American swing dance band that was formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most pop ...

, where he played from 1937 to 1941. Miller encouraged McIntyre to start his own group again, and the McIntyre Orchestra first played in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle ( ; in ) is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located approximately from Midtow ...

in 1941; the ensemble included vocalists Gloria Van, Ruth Gaylor, and Al Nobel, bassist Eddie Safranski, and saxophonist Allen Eager. They played many major

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called ''balls''. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially histori ...

s throughout the United States, and played overseas for troops during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He toured extensively with singer Sunny Gale until the summer of 1951. He maintained the orchestra into the 1950s, backing

The Mills Brothers The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed The Four Mills Brothers and originally known as Four Boys and a Guitar, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies and g ...

for their 1952 smash hit " Glow Worm". He co-wrote the song "Daisy Mae" with

Billy May Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet (TV series), The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad (TV series), T ...

which was recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. McIntyre was critically injured in an apartment fire in 1959, and died at a hospital a few days later.

Radio

Beginning January 2, 1945, McIntyre and his orchestra had a weekly broadcast on the

Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the ...

. One feature of the program was that on each program the orchestra would "play the theme song of one of America's college fraternities as a salute to some member of that fraternity who has distinguished himself in the war effort."

References

Inline citations General references * Jason Ankeny, ''Hal McIntyre'' All Music Guide * George T. Simon (1912–2001), ''The Big Bands,'' revised edition, Macmillan Publishing Co.,

Collier Books Crowell-Collier Publishing Company was an American publisher that owned the popular magazines ''Collier's'', ''Woman's Home Companion'' and ''The American Magazine''. Crowell's subsidiary, P.F. Collier and Son, published ''Collier's Encyclopedia ...

(1974) * Charles Eugene Claghorn (12-12-1911 – Oct 30, 2005),
Biographical Dictionary of American Music, p. 290
'' Parker Publishing Co.,

West Nyack, New York West Nyack is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of Blauvelt, east of Nanuet, southwest of Valley Cottage, southeast of Bardonia, and west of Central ...

(1973), * Charles Eugene Claghorn (12-12-1911 – Oct 30, 2005), ''Biographical Dictionary of Jazz'',

Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was a major American publishing#Textbook_publishing, educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth cen ...

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Englewood Cliffs is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,342, an increase of 61 (+1.2%) from the 2010 census count of 5,281, which in turn reflected a ...

(1982) * ''Biography Index,'' a cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September 1988 to August 1990, H.W. Wilson Co., New York (1990) * Roger D. Kinkle (1916–2000), ''The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz, 1900-1950'', Three volumes, Arlington House Publishers,

(1974) *

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited th ...

(born 1949), ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music,'' Third edition. Eight volumes. MUZE, London (1998); Grove's Dictionaries, New York (1998) * Barry Dean Kernfeld (born 1950), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz,'' First edition, Two volumes, Macmillan Press, London (1988) * Barry Dean Kernfeld (born 1950), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz,''

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

, New York (1994) * Barry Dean Kernfeld (born 1950), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz,'' Second edition, Three volumes,

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

, London (2002) * Donald Clarke (born 1940), ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music,''

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

, New York (1989) {{DEFAULTSORT:McIntyre, Hal 1914 births 1959 deaths American jazz bandleaders American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists American jazz clarinetists American big band bandleaders 20th-century American saxophonists People from Cromwell, Connecticut Jazz musicians from Connecticut 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Glenn Miller Orchestra members Deaths from fire in the United States