George Olsen and His Orchestra, 1931-1940

George Olsen was born in Portland, Oregon in 1893. George and His Music was the number one band in America in 1926. www.portlandwas.com Video MaCk MCfarland using film from The Nyback Collection www.dennisnybackfilms.com

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Music

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[VulgaroPerfect]

Thanks for this video.Where I can find the original song, from the ,,Speedy 1928 "? ( you know, ,,Horses horses horses..." ) .Thanks

[MichaelDaKingBaboso]

Wow I Cannot Believe My English Teacher Is The Grandson Of George Olsen

[Lyricmelody]

They are "The Bachelors". Bob Rice, Jack Clifford and the one on the right is my grandfather, Ronnie Mansfield who also had a radio show and was a regular on Fibber McGee and Molly. This footage is from a Paramount Pictures short film in 1940. I believe the woman in the piece is Jean Blaire. I have all of the still publicity pictures from the film but would love to get a copy of the film itself which features some solos as well.

[bearcub410]

i love george olsen , born too late thanks so much love it , where is my time machine when i need it .

[mesmeridium]

These clips are great to watch. George Olsen was slow to evolve his sound when guys like Benny Goodman were emerging. For the old bands, Goodman changed everything, as strings were phasing out. Olsen's later recordings still had a lot of that 20s sound to it, which was wearily received unfortunately.

His late 20s and early 30s stuff is absolutely brilliant. I have many recordings of that period stuffed on CD from LP compilations and 78s. He recorded A LOT of music. And good music it was too.

[78timothy]

Olsen gave up his original band in 1933, when Orville Knapp (Amateur Aviator, and Bandleader) died in a private plane crash. Olsen took over his band in 1934. This is that band, not Olsen's original band from the 1920's. This band recorded for Ben Selvin's label Majestic, as did a lot of west coast commercial bands did, like Eddie Howard, for example. Olsen's original band can be heard in Movies like "Whoopie", "Happy Days" (Fox 1930) & Follow Thru" w/Buddy Rogers, Nancy Carroll,& Zelma O'Neal

[poplogan]

One of my favorite novelty tunes ever is used as a clip here in the beggining. I have worn out my copy of " Horses" Victor 1927. This is a later filmed clip, but good. The "artificiality" comes from the massive and cumbersome equipment then available. Movie Camera's were huge, film speed responce was terificaly slow, and recording quality would now be bested by a small tape recorder, let alone anything digital.According to ever discourse I have read, every one was on edge, in case of a mistake.

[1276epr]

does anyone know if the vocalists on the clip are Borger, Rice and Frey?

[cvwtzhaar]

george olson took over the Orville Knapp Orchestra in 1936 after Orville Knapp died in a plane crash.

[bostonblakie]

I think that the staged formality of a musical performance, referred to in the video, was quite normal for that time. Then, it was not so easy to photograph, let alone film anything. It was more a special occasion worthy of that extra effort on the part of the performers and any other participants.