billyhamilton

Wm. Hamilton, V. Lopez, Dave Danziger (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• Seuss. said:

  Vincent Lopez (1895-1975) was an American Bandleader and pianist (dixieland and ragtime, mainly) with a weekly radio show on WJZ. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Lopez Billy Hamilton was a well known clarinetist in the 20s. In the early 20s the two played together in Lopez and Hamilton’s Kings of Harmony. By 1925 the band had grown in size and was renamed Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra though Hamilton was still featured on clarinet Dave Danziger is likely violinist J. David Danziger. In Summer 1925 the Vincent Lopez orchestra left from New York on the Leviathan for a 2 month gig in London playing at the Piccadilly Hotel and the Kit-Kat Club. Their departure from NYC reads like a slapstick movie scene

  Lopez was tipped off in advance that some of his creditors might be intending to seize the band instruments. These were therefore hastily re-packed into crates labelled “Gear Machinery”, “China -Handle With Care” and “Typewriters -This Side Up”! Lopez himself boarded the ship at 5.OOam on the morning of departure, and took good care not to emerge from Billy Hamilton’s cabin and take up his own until the three mile limit had been passed.

  The band's violinist for this trip was not Danziger but none other than Xavier Cugat. Danziger was on the SS Paris with the others on their return from London. Danziger had his own show on WJZ for a while and they certainly knew each other.

• swanq said:

  The Lopez Orchestra trip to England is described at:
  www.mgthomas.co.uk/dancebands/american%20visitors/pages/v...
  which says, "The band and Lopez left New York on 1st. May, 1925, aboard the “Leviathan”." and "the band sailed for New York on the S. S. “Paris” on the 8th July, 1925. (According to his book, Lopez sailed with the band, but the “Sailings” column in Variety for 8th July shows Vincent Lopez and band as being aboard the “Paris”, whilst there is another entry for 4th July showing Lopez alone as sailing on the “Berengaria”. Maybe his original intention was to return a few days ahead of the band.)"
  
  Judging from the Bain number for this negative, "6397-10" the picture could easily have been taken on the Paris, because the nearby picture of Nicholas Longworth has the number "6397-8" would have been taken on the Paris. See

• Jon (LOC P&P) said:

  Thanks Seuss. and swanq for figuring out who these people are and for the funny story. We'll update the catalog record.

• Seuss. said:

  Lopez and Hamilton in action