Leo Reisman's Orch. - My Sweeter Than Sweet, 1929

Leo Reisman & His Orchestra, voc. L. Lewin - My Sweeter Than Sweet, Victor 1929

NOTE: In the slideshow are the illustrations by Joseph Christian LEYENDECKER (March 23, 1874 Montabaur, Germany - July 25, 1951 in New Rochelle, New York) - who was a 20th century American illustrator. He is most well known for his men's fashion advertisements, particularly the Arrow Collar Man, and as Norman Rockwell's predecessor as the premier illustrator of covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1882, the Leyendecker family immigrated to Chicago, Illinois, where they founded the successful McAvoy Brewing Company. After studying under John H. Vanderpoel at the Chicago Art Institute, J.C. Leyendecker and his younger brother Frank enrolled in the Académie Julian in Paris for a year, where they were exposed to the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret, and also Alfons Mucha, founder of the Art Nouveau movement. While Frank returned to the U.S. with serious addictions and a lack of direction, Joseph returned with a drive for success and a clear vision of whats sold and how to achieve it. Soon he got his first commission for a Saturday Evening Post cover the beginning of his forty-four year association with the most popular magazine in the country. In 1900, Joe, Frank, and their sister Mary moved to New York City, taking full advantage of all the opportunities that the city offered, finding much in the way of corporate illustration commissions. During the next decade, both brothers began lucrative relationships with manufactures such as Interwoven Socks, B. Kuppenheimer & Co., and Cluett Peabody & Company, for which he created the Arrow Collar Man (the first brand name in advertising), based on his lover and favorite model, Charles Beach.

In 1914, the Leyendeckers, accompanied by Charles Beach, moved into their mansion and studio in New Rochelle, New York, where Joe would reside for the rest of his life. J.C. Leyendecker's biographers describe his lifestyle as that of an openly gay man, but by the time of his death he had become a secretive recluse. In an era when such a sexual orientation was taboo, Leyendecker's personal life was brushed aside in the popular media in favor of focusing on his fame as an artist. Leyendecker may have attempted to disguise the homoerotic content of his drawings by including women adoring the handsome men. A few images are more overtly homoerotic, such as advertisements for Gillette, in which scantily clad men teach each other how to use disposable razors, while other like the sports or military covers refer to man-to-man homosexual desires in almost clandestine way.

Due to his fame as an illustrator, Leyendecker was able to indulge in a very luxurious lifestyle which in many ways embodied the decadence of the Roaring Twenties. However, when commissions began to wane in the 1930s, he was forced to curtail spending considerably. By the time of his death, Leyendecker had let all of the household staff at his New Rochelle estate go, with he and Beach attempting to maintain the extensive estate themselves. He is buried alongside parents and Frank at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York. Charles's grave site is unknown.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Joseph
• Leyendecker
• gay
• vintage
• poster
• homoerotic
• art
• New
• York
• Twenties
• 1920
• America
• jazz
• orchestra
• hot
• dance
• band
• flapper
• Great
• Gatsby
• era
• 78rpm
• turntable
• shellack

[HarborGuy]

Pure Heaven - really a great recording - I am almost ready to hop up and dance. Thanks a big 5 STARS!!

[240252]

Thanks Harborguy, Leo Reisman's band shares the fate of Ben Bernie's band, - another hot jazzy dance orchestra in the late 1920s, that after 1930 totally changed their style, becoming one of many bands playing typcal "sweet hotel dance tunes" with predominant string section

[jozefsterkens]

Sublime!

[240252]

Thanks! I absolutely love that delicate, spohisticeted piano/banjo duett at 2:10

[genia106]

SWEET! , DELICIOUS! SCRUMPTIOUS!

Grzegorz My Darling, How utterly DIVINE!

Please have Leo play this when Rudy, YOU and I make our entrance at the Soiree at the Hotel du Paris in Monte Carlo ala :11. I simply must have that Handsome Man at :36 at our table for the entire evening! Merci Mon Cher.

[240252]

Genia, as usually you are Sweeter Than Sweet. I already phoned Leo who happens to be with concerts in Monte Carlo. He was absolutely mad to hear you are coming! He and his lads will play whatever you want, untill dawn. Rudy happens to be familiar with Serge (that guy at :36). Well, he is not too clever yet enough rich and spoiled to be a good companion for us. Will you believve Coco and Peggy decidet to coutrail their stay in Venice to join us?

[jd03150]

This recording is great but what I found most interesting were the photos. They reminded me of brands that were common in my boyhood and early manhood. I had not seen or heard Kuppenheimner mentioned in decades. I guess Kuppies are no longer around and I recently heard that another of my favorite brands, Hart, Schaffner and Marx has also gone belly-up. There is nothing so constant as change, but thank goodness we still have this great music.

[willgonow]

great video, strong use of colour, with a great tune 2 go with it,thanks for sharing !

[Percival892]

A dance with Ann Dvorak to this music would be enough to make my life complete.

[fredjmp]

Beautiful! Excellent work!

[bingbongstar]

Excellent song and beautiful artwork...they don't make it like that anymore!

[Bobchai]

JCJasion: Actually, the earliest recording I've heard was not Ben Pollack, but Frank Trumbauer of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

I don't own any Hit-of-the-Week records, but I have an LP compilation of many of those songs. I once spotted a HOTW in a Goodwill store, and should have grabbed it, because when I came back the next day, it was gone!

[JCJasion]

My introduction to this song was via the Vincent Lopez Orchestra, as recorded on one of the first Hit-Of-The-Week one-sided paper/plastic laminate records

[Bobchai]

240252: Actually, I enjoy sweet hotel dance tunes, so long as they are not fom a Mickey Mouse band, And Reisman was not.

[merrihew]

No, no no. :-) It was Leyendecker I was referring to. I should have been more careful. Reisman made many, many fine records.

[Bobchai]

merrihew: Leo Reisman? homoerotic? Well, when he did "The Continental" later in 1933, it likely was -- elegant but exhuberantly homoerotic, but "Crazy Rhythm" in 1928, the only song his band is noted for today? Hardly. You obviously have more access to Reisman's early discs than I do. --Bob