JACK HYLTON

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Teil 2:

1931-1935
During the 1931 tour of Europe previously mentioned, Hylton arranged a series of radio broadcasts to take place, from each major venue the band visited on their travels. They broadcast four times from Nice, six times from Prague and five times from Vienna.
During these dates, the wide-ranging repertoire of the band was increasing. One programme listed no less than sixty-four items ranging from Lehar’s The Merry Widow and Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# minor and Prelude in G# minor through the current hits of the day, to tunes which were already deemed to be jazz classics, such as St. Louis Blues, Tiger Rag, and Limehouse Blues.
By April, the band had returned to London and appeared at the London Palladium on April 4th. The press at the time noted that the band were playing an entirely new programme and were even more successful than on their previous visit. Of particular note was a Billy Ternent vehicle, entitled One Man Band, which featured him playing all the saxophones, the violin, all the brass instruments and other ‘sundry instruments’ such as the ocarina. Soon afterwards the band were rewarded with a two-week holiday, during which time a few more changes of personnel took place, including the departure of saxophonist E.O. ‘Poggy’ Pogson.
"‘Poggy’, now retired, is one of those instantly likeable characters, and everything seemed to happen to him. On arrival in the band-coach in Hamburg, ‘Poggy’ stepped out of the door nearest to his seat, straight into the canal, and played the engagement that night in borrowed clothes."
Pogson was replaced by Abe Romaine, who recalls his first engagements with the band.
"To catch up on the programme I was allowed to use music for my first appearance, but after one or two shows I had memorised the current programme, and from then on, no music was allowed on stage. This I have always felt was a great ‘selling point’ for the band, and I’m sure that much of the success on the continent had stemmed from the great ‘ease’ which was apparent on all the programmes."
In the autumn of 1931, Hylton’s long-standing recording contract with HMV was due for renewal and he stunned the dance band world by instead signing with relative newcomers Decca. Jack was, in fact, a major shareholder in Decca and this obviously affected his decision to record for the three-year-old company. Decca were in need of a big name on their books and Hylton provided that, creating a great deal of publicity for the company and adding greatly to their sales. Despite the lesser quality of the sound recordings, the Decca releases sold just as well as the HMV titles and included one of Hylton’s greatest successes, Rhymes, which is discussed elsewhere.
The first session for Decca was on November 2nd, 1931, when the band recorded twelve sides, including Tom Thumb’s Drum, a Leslie Sarony composition, which featured a drum solo by Neville Bishop, who had recently replaced Gilbert Webster (himself a replacement for Basil Wiltshire). It was during these early Decca sessions that Jack first met Patrick ‘Spike’ Hughes. Hughes would subsequently play double bass for Hylton and was widely regarded as an excellent jazz player, although he is perhaps better known for his writing in Melody Maker (under the pseudonym ‘Mike’) and his later critical writings.
"The company was fun and I found myself being taken off to tour Amsterdam, Brussels or Paris for a week at a time with the band...I don’t think Jack will mind my saying that I was bored to hell playing at his sessions, but there I think he was too and anyway, I could do with the money."
At the end of 1931, Jack Hylton and His Orchestra were again making history, as they became the first British band to broadcast live to America, which they did at 3.00am British time, on December 16th. The programme (who consisted of two fifteen-minute slots, with a similar sized break in between) was relayed live from Savoy Hill to the American NBC network, in a show sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes. On Christmas Day, the band were working on another radio broadcast, this time in a Decca sponsored hour-long show on Radio Paris. It was normal for this to be a record show, but Decca were keen to make exceptions for the Hylton band. This was a convenient way to start their next continental tour, beginning at the Empire Theatre in Paris and moving on, in early February of 1932, to the Carlton Hotel in Amsterdam. By February 14th, they had moved to Brussels and were again graced with the presence of the royal family, including King Albert himself at the Palais Des Beaux Arts. The tour finished in Nice on March 21st, having also travelled through Italy and Monaco.
Back in England, the band took part in their third Royal Command Performance, held at the London Palladium on May 3rd. The work in June included a second broadcast to America (this time at the BBC studios at 5 o’clock in the morning, as guests on Paul Whiteman’s NBC show) and July consisted of a month long tour of Ireland.
During 1932, Hylton was again honoured by the French Government, when he was appointed the Legion D’Honneur, again for his services to France and to music. He wore both this and his Officer De L’Instruction Publique with pride when travelling in Europe. The last part of 1932 consisted of the band’s biggest tour to date, which was due to cover some 30,000 miles and would make national newspaper headlines, as well as leading to the introduction to the band of German saxophonist and comedian Freddie Schweitzer.
"Schweitzer was a clown, and a great one. Dave Shand, the lead alto player with the band from 1931-1935, remembers him well: ‘As I sat next to him on the bandstand, I became the straight man to his clowning; he used to call me ‘mein partner’. One of his acts was to balance a violin on his forehead while playing a jazz chorus on the clarinet... Sure enough, after a few days practice, Freddie was balancing the huge bass fiddle on his forehead while playing the same jazz chorus on his clarinet."
The first date of this European tour was on October 14th, in Brussels. The band moved then to Germany and from there to the Soviet Union. Visas were refused by the Soviets, so Jack instead took the band to Czechoslovakia and there they were part of another piece of Jack Hylton folklore. He was commanded to appear before Admiral Horthy and Jack is widely quoted on this matter.
"In his own words Jack says he thought “p’raps he wants to sell me a song! When I got there I’m damned if he didn’t!” The admiral played his song at the piano while his son provided the accompaniment on a set of drums. The number, says Hylton, was as corny as could be."
Recording sessions also took place in Czechoslovakia, for the local Polydor label, before moving on to Vienna. The tour carried on over Christmas, with a brief engagement at the Victoria Palace in London, early in January, before flying back to Europe for a broadcast in Paris on January 3rd, 1933. Paris was the venue for a three-week stay at the Rex Cinema, which included a performance in front of the President of France. The tour then moved on to Belgium before finally bringing the band home at the end of February 1933.
Soon afterwards came what was, at the time, Jack’s most publicised entrepreneurial success, when the Duke Ellington Orchestra made their first trip abroad, with a six-week tour of Britain, beginning on June 9th, 1933 and continuing with a subsequent tour of Holland and France. The French and Dutch legs of the tour featured a show starring both the Ellington and Hylton bands.
Its reception in England was especially warm, with large audiences turning out for concerts and critics providing extensive coverage in newspapers and the trade press.
The event (which of course featured ‘Jack Hylton Presents’ on all the publicity) seemed to be a great success, with Hylton insisting on the same disciplined attitude from Duke’s men, as he expected from his own. Some commentators, however, were not as enamoured with Hylton as they were with Ellington.
"But I learned that Jack Hylton had specifically forbidden Duke’s men to play outside the concerts or they would be fined fifty dollars... In fact, Jack Hylton was there [at ‘Bricktops’, a cabaret venue in Paris] too. Flabby and pot-bellied like an English pork butcher, he was rocking grotesquely in his chair. Overwhelmed by heat and liquor, he had a red, congested face and was splattering food on his neighbors and wiping it off mechanically when it fell on his jacket. Alongside him, Duke gave the impression of a prince of the blood, on whom had been imposed the company of a stupid upstart."
During Hylton’s time with Decca, public taste was moving away from the so-called ‘hot’ dance music and tending towards a more sentimental style. As ever, Hylton gave the public exactly what they wanted, but following Ellington’s visit, he and the band had seen the first true union of jazz, dance and concert music, prompting the arrangement of Ellingtonia. This consisted of a chorus of many of Ellington’s better-known works, played by the band in the Ellington style.
Upon Ellington's return to America, Jack Hylton and His Orchestra opened at the London Palladium. Later in the year, Hylton fell ill and was admitted to hospital for an operation, but the band carried on in his absence, with Billy Ternent in command. Another extensive tour of the continent followed, on Jack’s return to full fitness, beginning on October 17th. They played extended periods in Brussels and Antwerp before embarking on a long run at the Rex Cinema in Paris. They eventually returned to Britain on January 29th, 1934. 1933 had been a quieter year for the band, but no less successful – Jack Hylton and His Orchestra were still the biggest band attraction in Britain and all over Europe, but in 1934 there would begin a gradual distraction for Jack away from bandleading.
Early in the year, Hylton and the band began rehearsing at the London Palladium for a show entitled America Calling, while Jack was also setting up a band to play at the Saville Theatre in London for a show called Here’s How. The latter show opened on February 21st, while Hylton’s own show opened on March 1st.
This year was also the tenth anniversary of the formation of the band and a special commemoration concert was staged at the Holborn Empire, accompanied by a special feature in popular music paper Melody Maker. In March, Hylton’s band replaced the touring American band of Cab Calloway at the London Palladium and in April, Hylton followed his staging of Duke Ellington by bringing from America tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins toured and recorded with the band in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, and was so well received that he stayed on in Europe for some four years afterwards.
August saw the band’s first venture into film, with an appearance in the Carl Brisson film, Two Hearts That Beat In Waltztime. Following this, in September Hylton left for America with his manager to try to engineer their forthcoming tour there. After a three-week holiday, the band played on in Jack’s absence, firstly in Rhyl, then for three weeks in Ireland. This time, Pat O’Malley was the musical director.
Jack returned to Britain in October and the London Hippodrome was the venue for another series of America Calling, this time featuring a batch of new stars he had brought back from the States – The Gaylords, The Inkspots, Charles Faqua, Jerry Daniels, Ivory Watson and Orville Jones. All would succeed both in radio and on record on their return to America.
The end of 1934 saw several major changes in personnel. Johnny Raitz, Johnny Rosen and Pat O’Malley all left the band after many years of service, while 1935 meant the start of the band’s fourteenth continental tour, this time featuring Coleman Hawkins. They began with a run at the Gaumont Cinema in Paris, performing four shows per day. The band moved on through The Hague and into Germany, where the Nazi authorities denied access to Hawkins due to the colour of his skin. The band carried on without him and performed for eight days at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. They then travelled back to Britain, via Amsterdam, arriving on February 11th, to start rehearsal for their next project.
March of 1935 was a time for more innovation by Jack Hylton when he and his band opened in a revue based solely around themselves, called Life Begins At Oxford Circus. The show, at the London Palladium, featured the band with several vocalists, notably Sam Browne and Helen Howard. The numbers from the show were the first to be recorded for Hylton’s new record contract – back at HMV, where he signed again in March and where he would stay until the end of his career. Hylton had left Decca at the end of 1933 and his discography shows that there were no recordings made between November 28th, 1933 (on Decca) and March 12th, 1935 (on HMV). During this eighteen month period, as we have seen, the band were sufficiently busy with performing for this not to have been a problem and it may well have come as welcome relief to some of the band members.
Yet another ‘first’ for the band occurred in the summer of 1935, when they were working at Twickenham Film Studios, on their own vehicle, She Shall Have Music, a similar production to their recent revue at the Palladium. The film featured the band playing on a broadcasting ship touring the world and showed the bands’ varied talents of comedy, singing and dancing, with the grand finale vocal taken by Jack himself.
"...although the comedy content by today’s standard is utterly dire and the plot a mite creaky, it was a largely successful attempt in an English studio to create something like a Busby/Berkeley musical."
This event marked a significant stage in the band’s development. Hylton was due to work in America and the press at the time was unsure of when he would return. When he did, the band would sound different and would be less of a ‘comedy show band’. The new sound would be more American, possibly due to his time there, and certainly more like the Big Band sounds which would be popular for many years after the break up of Hylton’s band. Success for Jack, however, seemed unending and his time in America would ultimately be a rewarding one.
1935-1936
The first suggestion of Hylton’s negotiations for an American trip were reported in the British music press on June 9th, 1934, with the headline ‘Mystery U.S. Offer To Hylton – Ten Weeks American Tour Proposed – Permit Difficulties Said To Be Solved’. The report went on to discuss what it said was a ‘concrete offer’ from an unnamed backer.
Hylton had tried several times in the past to arrange a visit to America for his band but the American Federation of Musicians was, at that time, in a much stronger position than its British counterpart, the Musicians Union. The American musicians threatened to strike if the band was allowed to perform, despite there having been several big name bands from America allowed to perform in this country (Ellington and Hawkins, of course, were brought over by Hylton himself).
"This very strange affair opens up all sorts of prospects, because it has been known for years that the American populace would be only too delighted at an opportunity of hearing and seeing Jack Hylton and his band, which is now accepted all over the world as the greatest stage band entertainment on earth... Having played virtually every capital of Europe, his eyes have for a long time been turned to the West, where he is anxious to prove that he has an act of international merit, and that he is in a position to challenge the big guns of American stage bands at their own game."
Despite the rumours, it would be over a year later before a deal was finally struck and even then, it was not to be of the nature suggested in the above Melody Maker article. The ban on British musicians was still in force, but a permit was gained for Hylton himself to work a maximum of thirteen hours in America, with a band of American musicians. He would also be allowed to take his own singers, comedians and arranging staff. Hylton was happy to accept this – the only other way he could lead a band there would be to take out naturalisation papers as an American, which he was not prepared to do. In the past, he had been offered lucrative deals for his personal employment in the USA, but turned them down for that reason. Hylton also must have realised that while in America he would be in a better position to negotiate with the authorities for either an extended visit, or more lenient rules in the future, especially if he proved successful.
"As Jack is the most useful ambassador that British dance music possesses, it is certain that he will seize the golden opportunity of his visit to make the Federation still more amenable."
On August 31st, 1935, Melody Maker reported again, this time on a deal that had definitely been signed by Hylton, with the radio sponsors Standard Oil, for a series of thirteen hour-long broadcasts known as The Standard Hour. So keen was the company to engage the services of Hylton that they agreed to pay not only him and his American musicians, but also the members of the original Hylton line-up, who would be paid to not play. This was an unprecedented move, but one which represented how much Hylton’s performance was wanted in America by everyone but the Federation of Musicians.
Later plans emerged as to how Hylton would be received on his arrival in America; ‘Aeroplane Escort Of Honour Arranged To Receive Hylton On Arrival At New York – Triumphal Ride Down Broadway Also Planned’ was the Melody Maker headline on October 5th.
"America is agog with expectation. Julius Stein has put the whole weight of his wonderful organisation, the Music Corporation of America, through which Hylton is booked, behind the plans for Jack’s reception and exploitation.
Standard Oil are all out to get the maximum publicity from the engagement, for which money, with the utmost indifference, is being paid out on a scale suggestive of the wealth of the founder of the firm, John D. Rockerfeller."
There was to be an escort of honour from six or more aeroplanes, followed by an open-topped car journey down the length of Broadway, then a cocktail reception in his honour and finally on to a charity ball. The article also detailed plans to record the first show for broadcast in London a few days before departure, with his British band, with another broadcast from the boat, the French liner Normandie, three miles outside New York – neutral territory. The broadcasts would then continue on American soil, with the new group of American musicians.
The first broadcast to America was duly completed on October 13th, 1935 from St. Georges Hall in London and the Melody Maker reported it as ‘a raging success’.
"So said hundreds of telegrams from America arriving at Jack Hylton’s office last Monday morning following his ‘regardless of cost’ Standard Oil broadcast... Both reception and performance were adjudged by the sponsors in New York as supremely successful, and it seems that the American public started straight away to concur."
This success was despite a crippling schedule – the band had spent the day at Twickenham Film Studios filming She Shall Have Music (as previously mentioned) and this was followed at 10.00pm with a few hours rehearsal before the 3.30am radio broadcast.
On October 16th, the band made a very public departure from Waterloo Station and onward to the Normandie. The British band would holiday in New York for over a week before returning to Britain to work under the baton of either Sonny Farrar, or guest conductor Buddy Rogers (an American film actor). Between March 30th and April 4th 1936, Charles Manning conducted the orchestra and it was then disbanded.
The American shows, called Jack Hylton And His Continental Revue, became increasingly popular and both American numbers and the more light-hearted English numbers were equally successful. Radio stations claimed that after the October 27th broadcast, Jack received more than 10,000 letters from American fans.
Since his arrival, Jack had been courted by almost every big theatre, but was unable to take up any offer, as his contract had restricted him just to radio broadcasts. After much negotiation from Hylton himself, the ban was lifted and within hours of this, on November 20th, he had signed a deal with the Palace Theatre in Chicago. The engagement would last for six days, after which the show moved on for a Thanksgiving Day performance in Cleveland. These theatre shows would run for just one hour, (as the American bands tended to share the bill with a feature film) and displayed the home-grown talents of Pat O’Malley (who would marry a few days later and subsequently settle in America), Magda Neeld, Peggy Dell, Freddie Schweitzer and Alec Templeton (already a successful radio personality in America).
By the beginning of 1936, the Standard Oil contract had expired, but the company re-signed Hylton for a radio series of The Standard Hour, which began on January 6th, 1936. By now, he was also free to play almost anywhere he pleased and on January 24th, the band were at the Gold Coast Room at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, where they played for dancing.
"Jack Hylton might well be called the little Corporal of the dance band world. Having pretty well conquered all of Europe with his rhythms, he set out from his native England some months ago to conquer America...Now, having let the radio and theatre taste the power of his guns, he has moved his regiment into the Gold Coast Room at the Drake and for his first dime and dance engagement in this country, he is quickly conquering a new field...On the large orchestra stage at the Drake...it is easy to see that Hylton’s men respect him. Their eyes are riveted on his baton and on his left hand, which shades their music."
On April 4th, the Standard Oil contract again came to an end, but only a day later Jack signed for the rival NBC network, to appear on the Real Silk sponsored programme, Life Is A Song. On April 11th, the previous resident band at the Drake Hotel, Horace Heidt’s Brigadeers (sic) were due to return, but Hylton was so successful that he was retained instead. When the run at the Drake finally ended, Hylton took the band on a short tour of Canada, eventually returning to conclude the Real Silk shows on June 28th. This orchestra was then disbanded, but Hylton made one last broadcast from America, with an all-star session band, in New York.
Hylton then sailed back to Britain, arriving on July 7th, 1936, having worked consistently in America for some ten months. His triumphs in Europe had been easily matched in the USA and his presence had ensured that the group of American musicians still retained the ‘Hylton sound’, something he would have to recapture on his return to British music making.
1936-1940
Jack Hylton’s first project upon his return to England from America on July 7th 1936 was to have a long holiday. Exactly one month later he undertook a broadcasting engagement for the BBC. However, Hylton had not yet reformed his band, so hired in several old Hyltonites, some top session musicians and a newly discovered vocal group, The Swingtette, who he had brought over from America.
The British stage debut for The Swingtette came on August 12th, 1936 with Mrs Jack Hylton and Her Orchestra at the Paramount Theatre in London. At the same time, Jack was recording his ensemble of old and new members, using arrangements by Dutchman Melle Virsma. The session was notable as being the last to feature vocalist Pat O’Malley who, following his success in the USA with Hylton, was to pursue a career there.
The band made several more recordings during 1936, with Jack refining his sound and making changes. On January 11th, 1937, the band embarked on a European tour, where they would travel through Berlin, Prague and Vienna before settling into the Scala Theatre in Berlin for a month long run. There they were to break box office records, regularly playing to over three thousand people per performance. Nazi leaders such as Herman Goering and Dr. Goebbels saw concerts on the tour. The same Nazi authorities were responsible for making sure there were no Jews in the band.
Jack and ‘the boys’ returned to England, via Holland on March 22nd, 1937 and just a week later was opening in a London Palladium show, Swing Is In The Air. By this time, the Hylton band was so successful that a Palladium show based around the band was the norm, rather than the exceptional event it had once been. This show featured singer Gloria Day, accordionist Joe Rossi, Hammond organ player Robin Richmond and Roy Smeck on guitar. The show ran successfully until June 26th, after which the band made another of their rare BBC broadcasts and spent the rest of 1937 playing various dates around Britain.
In January 1938, the band embarked on what would prove to be their sixteenth and final European tour. The band set sail for Holland on January 26th, with a twenty-piece band and seven featured vocalists, including newcomer June Malo.
"I was singing in a club in London and [Hylton] brought in Val Parnell one night and heard me singing and...asked me if I would like to join the band. Of course, I was very delighted and excited, but I said, ‘well of course I’m under contract here and I don’t know whether I can’. But being Jack...he was able, within twenty four hours, he’d got another girl to take over my contract and in my hand was an airline ticket to Berlin and I was due to fly two days later to open with the band at the Scala Theatre, which I did and it was the most exciting experience because I’d never heard anything like it before...Then I realised as the tabs opened and Jack started his signature tune Listen To The Band it was the people stamping their feet, in applause and I’ve never heard anything like it and it’s an experience I’ll never forget."
The tour took the band through Holland and into Germany for a second month long residency at the Scala Theatre (as mentioned above). Again, the band broke the box office records. On the return journey, they played briefly in Paris before returning to England in early March.
Typically, there was little time to rest. On March 14th, they set out on another tour of Britain, notable for a two-week stay at the Birmingham Hippodrome. By May, the band were back in London rehearsing for a new show, Happy Returns, at the Adelphi Theatre. The show ran from May 19th until July 2nd, but following this, they immediately began rehearsals for the next show, Cavalcado.
By this stage, Hylton was spending more of his time as an impresario. He sent out a nine-piece orchestra under Billy Ternent, touring a show entitled Band Waggon and in April 1939, Jack put an eleven-piece orchestra together under the baton of violinist and ex-Hylton employee Maurice Loban. This band was to perform with singer Diane Clare in a Sunday afternoon broadcast for both Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandy. The band featured Jack Raine on trumpet, Johnny Raitz on tenor saxophone and Freddie Bretherton on piano, all of whom were ex-members of various Hylton’s bands.
In July 1939, the band fronted by Hylton himself appeared at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne, as a fourteen piece ensemble and by August they had embarked on the filming for their second feature film, Band Waggon. The film starred Arthur Askey (whom Jack had helped to ‘discover’ several years previously), Richard Murdoch and Hylton singer Bruce Trent, with songs composed by Noel Gay and Harry Parr Davies. The big production number of the film was written by Annette Mills, entitled Boomps-A-Daisy.
By late 1939, Europe was at war and many of Jack’s old marching style songs from the early 1930’s were re-issued by Decca. Jack also began to broadcast more regularly on the BBC. In September, the band was featured in Band of the Week on the BBC, appearing twice daily for five days. In October, Hylton was beginning to spend less time in his bandleader role – for two radio broadcasts of dance music, Billy Ternent conducted, while Jack took over for the concert music later during the same week. Meanwhile, on November 27th, Freddie Bretherton replaced Billy Ternent for the continuing tour of Band Waggon. On December 20th, Jack conducted for another BBC broadcast, while Ternent took his place for the last week of the year for another set of Band Of The Week performances.
The war by now was beginning to take its toll on the dance bands, with essential members being called up for service. Fellow bandleader Ambrose suggested that a few musicians from each band should be exempt, to form a morale boosting National Dance Orchestra to entertain the troops. Hylton openly retorted in an article published in Melody Maker.
"The entertainment and dance band business is very important and essential, but winning the war comes first. Four of my boys have already been called up and I need hardly add that I made no effort to get them exempted. As all of us can and will do, I am carrying on with the boys I have left and not doing too badly either I hope."
In February 1940, Hylton and his band broadcast yet another series of Band Of The Week for the BBC, starting on February 11th, while Hylton was continuing his entrepreneurial activities, by buying the show ITMA, and putting it on at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The show featured Hylton’s old colleague Tommy Handley, and was a pointer to the way Hylton’s career would soon develop as an impresario.
On March 6th, 1940, the band went into the recording studio for what would prove to be the last time, cutting four sides all of which featured vocalist Sam Browne. The following month, they completed a previously postponed date at the Paris Opera House, which was given a forty-minute BBC broadcast slot. Just a week later, the band returned to there for their last overseas performance, for yet another BBC broadcast.
By the end of April, seven of Hylton’s key band members had been called up for war service. This fact combined one suspects with his now wide-ranging career, led Jack to disband his orchestra, rather than lowering his standards by using lesser musicians. The final concert took place at the Drury Lane Theatre, in London, on April 30th and the BBC broadcast the entire show. In a dance band career of nearly twenty years, Hylton had led one of the greatest show bands in the world, out-selling every other band in Europe and breaking all previous records for record sales and box office takings. He shrewdly bowed out at the very pinnacle of his career, in the heyday of the dance band era. Within a few years, most of the other big bands and dance bands were struggling with the financial pressures brought on by the end of the war.
Hylton’s career continued to flourish in other fields, fields in which he was already involved. Meanwhile, most of the current members reformed in Bristol under the direction of Billy Ternent for the BBC, as The Dance Orchestra. For a time, this band was controlled by the Hylton office, and would later become The Billy Ternent Orchestra, which began recording for Decca in 1941.
1940-1965
" ‘I’ll be an impresario, Pat ...I’ll put on shows and things.’ And put on shows and things is exactly what he did, though I think at the time he first told me of his ambitions, he had not the faintest idea, how or when he would do it."
Hylton’s career continued to flourish following the dismantling of his orchestra shortly after the outbreak of World War Two. However, his impresario skills had been working in the background for many years – he had worked on his own shows, hiring all types of entertainers, singers, dancers and comedians as well as musicians. Almost as soon as Hylton had officially disbanded his orchestra, he had begun his future career. The London Philharmonic had embarked upon an opera tour in Cardiff on October 1st, 1939, but their two previous festivals, which had gone very badly, had put their finances under severe strain. Jack, as ever knowing what the public wanted, took on the financial responsibility for the whole orchestra, suggested an ever changing repertoire of the most well known popular tunes and sent them out to play the provincial theatres and music halls, beginning on August 11th 1940 at the Glasgow Empire. The tour was conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent and Basil Cameron and opened up a whole new audience for the orchestra. Despite burned out, bombed theatres, lack of accommodation, the blackout and irregular railway timetables, the tour was an enormous success.
Hylton followed this with production duties on Peter Pan, then left for the United States, where he was for several months, to broadcast twelve programmes (as bandleader) to the American Forces. Upon his return, in 1941, Jack began producing the famous Crazy Gang shows. The Crazy Gang, the epitome of British humour in the 1930’s, had split due to personal differences, but Hylton saw an opening for a new show re-uniting all the original members (including Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen). Together they created the longest running theatrical company in London and were associated with Hylton for some twenty years, becoming almost a national institution.
For the rest of the decade, Hylton began to dominate theatre in London. He put on numerous shows, such as Lady Behave (1941), The Merry Widow (1943), Salute to Victory (1945), Can Can (1946), Romany Love (1947). In 1948, during auditions for another show, Hylton sat through 4,000 hopefuls looking for a part as a chorister. He decided upon one girl in particular – an unknown called Audrey Hepburn. The following year, he arranged a touring contract for the Stanley Black Orchestra, arranged a tour for Benjamino Gigli and sent out a touring version of The Love Racket to Australia, featuring another of his discoveries – Arthur Askey. The Royal Command Performance of November 1950 was dominated by acts managed by Jack Hylton, but all were surpassed when the grand finale featured Jack himself fronting his reformed band for one last performance. It shows Hylton’s eye for talent and the quality of the musicians who had passed through his band that eight were by now bandleaders in their own right. On that occasion, King George VI congratulated Jack, saying, “You have produced a large number of stars, they have done very well.”
1951 saw Jack put on two major American shows in London, Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate (with bandleader Lew Stone as musical director) and George Gershwin’s Porgy And Bess. 1951 was also the year that Hylton was honoured with his appointment as a freeman of the State of Israel, on April 15th.
Each year, Hylton put on more shows – 1952 saw another Royal Command Performance; 1953 was so successful that the Variety Club of Great Britain named Jack ‘Star Showman’ for his productions. 1955 saw a Royal Command Performance, five shows running in London, a Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool (featuring amongst others Alma Cogan, Morecambe and Wise, George Formby, Geraldo and his orchestra and the BBC Northern Variety Orchestra) and also Jack’s appointment by Associated-Rediffusion, a fledgling ITV company, to work in the Light Entertainment department. This was swiftly followed by the signing up of Billy Ternent as Musical Director for the whole company. During his five years in television, Hylton still continued to produce major West End shows; Oh My Papa (1957), Kismet (1957), School (1958), Simply Heavenly (1958), When In Rome (1959) and Young In Heart (1959).
"How a man who is chiefly remembered as a band leader and theatre impresario became involved with commercial television is a fascinating story...Many big names in show business were to regret their involvement with Jack Hylton Television Productions."
On July 15th, 1955, newspapers reported the appointment of Hylton as Advisor of Light Entertainment, for Associated-Rediffusion (A-R). It was not uncommon for a new company such as this to employ a high profile figure – Sir John Barbirolli had already been appointed as Music Advisor. Hylton subsequently registered Jack Hylton Television Productions Ltd., with himself as chairman, a typically shrewd move.
His contract initially required 1½ hours of broadcast time per week and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity for him to promote his shows and his artists. He thought it would build new stars for the stage whilst exploiting established stars on his roster. Unfortunately, his simplistic approach of pointing a camera at a stage show and hoping it would work as television fell far short of the expectations of the viewing public. For example, Hylton put on a performance of Love And Kisses (the follow-up to The Love Match), with Arthur Askey in a starring role. This was recorded in front of an invited audience in October 1955; four cameras were set up in the theatre and the show was performed once, recorded concurrently by all the cameras. The various angles were edited together and the show was chopped into five segments for the television shows. No concessions were made for television at all and the five segments were rather arbitrarily cut, giving a disjointed show, which made little sense in five parts and made for awkward viewing.
Some shows were successful with the public, but most critics looked unfavourably on almost everything coming from Jack Hylton Television Productions. Certainly, the output was not to the standard that A-R required. Hylton made some changes and improvements and learned to move away from the original idea of simply pointing a camera at the stage, but many still saw him aiming towards too lowbrow an audience.
"Jack Hylton has very strong and personal ideas about what the television audience wants. He sees us...as a typical Monday night audience at the Theatre Royal, Shuddersford...It is, of course, a profound misjudgement...The television audience, spoiled and capricious, has nothing in common with it, except eyes and ears."
Those involved with the project at this time, of course, saw things slightly differently. Steve Race, at the time working as Light Music Advisor for A-R worked closely with Hylton and described the times as ‘great days’ . Indeed, the viewing figures from the late 1950’s suggest that Jack Hylton Television Productions was a great success, with many of their programmes regularly making the Top Ten TAM and Neilsen TV Ratings chart. Alfred Marks Time, The Dickie Henderson Half-Hour, Friday Night With The Crazy Gang, and The Robert Dhery Show were successful in their first outings, but many were let down by poor scripts in a later series. Many celebrities (Elsie and Doris Waters, Eric Barker, Cyril Fletcher, Alfred Marks) had jeopardised their careers; appearing in shows which were poorly scripted and cheaply produced. These shows were not only received very badly by both the critics and the management of A-R, but also by the artists appearing in them, some of whom apologised on air for the quality of programming . The press, especially attacked most of the Hylton output and this may have proved too much for both Jack Hylton Television Productions and for A-R.
Hylton handed in his notice in a memo to the General Manager of A-R, Captain Brownrigg, on September 23rd, 1959. During his time in television, Jack Hylton recorded some two hundred and ninety five shows, utilising well over nine thousand entertainers. The final ‘Jack Hylton Presents’ logo (see Figure 3) appeared on April 13th, 1960, following several weeks of repeats of some of his better shows. Hylton’s idea of bringing the variety stage into the home was a good one, but he did not have the ability to translate this successfully to the small screen. This part of his career can be seen as a vital piece of television history and of variety theatre history from the first half of the Twentieth Century.
"Above all, there seems to have been a lack of imagination on the part of the Hylton organisation, an inability to think of new and exciting ideas for light entertainment. Instead of relying on Hylton’s considerable theatrical contacts and expertise, the company should really have been thinking in purely televisual terms. On the odd occasion when this happened the results were encouraging... but all too often, attempts to re-create the atmosphere of a club or stage review simply didn’t work."
Once Hylton realised that television was not to be one of his greatest successes he left and continued with his theatrical output as he had done since the early 1940’s. Early in 1960, he suffered a minor heart attack, which led him to slow down a great deal, on the advice of doctors. The last few years of his life are therefore a much quieter period. Despite slowing down, he still managed to run his organisation and continue to have success and is said to have “owned or controlled fifteen theatres in London’s West End”. At the height of his powers, Hylton employed somewhere between five hundred , eight hundred and 1,200 people – this figure is most likely to be nearer eight hundred, through all the various posts involved in creating so many television and theatre productions. His later successes as an impresario included Salad Days, the Julian Slade musical, for which he is well remembered, and King Kong, the first African jazz opera, as well as a large-scale production of Camelot, which began in 1964 and ran for 518 performances . Equally well remembered was the occasion on April 9th, 1963 when, aged 70, Jack married former Australian beauty queen Beverley Prowse, 41 years his junior. This is discussed in detail elsewhere.
However, on January 26th 1965, complaining of chest and stomach pains, Hylton was admitted to the London Clinic. He died there three days later, on January 29th, at 3.45pm, from a heart attack. Hylton’s wild spending habits and generosity left his estate with £242,288 gross, despite the many millions which he earned during his illustrious career. With duty of £83,484, this left £151,160 to be distributed many ways, with the first £30,000 reserved for his wife Beverley. As Hylton said to his son during his latter years, “I won’t leave you much, but we’ll have a good laugh spending it while I’m here!”
Following his death, tributes were received from all areas of show business; the greatest of these was manifest in a theatrical extravaganza which came together on May 28th, 1965 – The Stars Shine For Jack. The show was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the sight of Jack’s last theatre success, Camelot and was broadcast live on ATV. The show included a re-formed Crazy Gang, the cast of Camelot and other West End shows, Russ Conway, Arthur Askey, Shirley Bassey and Dickie Henderson as well as video tributes from Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Sophie Tucker and Jack Benny. The proceeds from the show went into the Jack Hylton Memorial Fund, which gave £35,000 to Lancaster University to build the Jack Hylton Music Rooms in his honour. The rooms still stand today and are used extensively by the university music department. A large picture of Hylton smiling hangs in the foyer of the rooms.
Even up to the time of his death, Hylton was considering his next move. While on a trip to America shortly before his death (when he had officially retired), Jack spent a great deal on new projects, which he apparently became very excited about. He bought the rights to Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand (Bernard Delfont eventually bought the rights and put the show on, through a deal with Arnold Goodman), Barefoot In the Park by Neil Simon (also later produced by someone else) and Nobody Loves An Albatross (it is not known what became of this).
Jack Hylton certainly lived life to the full and is reported to have said many times: “Think champagne – and you’ll be champagne. Think in terms of beer and a couple of quid a week and you’ll end up with nothing”. He became one of Britain’s greatest show business successes. He said shortly before his death: “I’d have it all over again... the same lot with the same errors and the same successes.”

01 November 1928, Paris
Der englische Tanzbandleader Jack Hylton (1951.3) besucht angeblich den Club La Java in Belleville und bietet Django Reinhardt einen Vertrag an, in seinem Orchester zu spielen. Aktuellen Untersuchungen zufolge waren Hylton und sein Orchester zu dieser Zeit jedoch auf Deutschlandtournee, und es erscheint unwahrscheinlich, dass er am 01. November in Paris war. Der wahrscheinlichste Zeitraum für dieses Szenario, falls es überhaupt stattgefunden hat, ist das Frühjahr 1928, als Hylton definitiv in Paris war.

Gruß
Heino