Eddy Duchin
b. 10 April 1910, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA, d. 9 February 1951, New York, USA. Immortalised by Tyrone Power, who portrayed the pianist-bandleader in the film-biography THE EDDY DUCHIN STORY, with Carmen Cavallaro providing the soundtrack keyboard work. Though trained as a pharmacist, he opted to become a professional musician during the late '20s and, after auditioning against stiff opposition for the piano chair in Leo Reisman's Orchestra, eventually gained the job. Featured as part of Reisman's band at New York's Central Park Casino during the next three years, he became extremely popular due to his suave appearance and sophisticated, flashy piano style, and in 1931 he formed his own band, taking over the residency at the Casino. With violinist Milt Shaw providing many of the outfit's supper-club type arrangements during the '30s, Duchin gained dates at many swanky venues, won various radio shows, appeared in such films as CORONADO (1935) and THE HIT PARADE (1937), also winning a record contract, first with Victor, then later with Brunswick and Columbia. With the event of Pearl Harbor, Duchin entered the navy, becoming a lieutenant, then in 1945 he returned to civilian life and began leading one of the musical aggregations to bear his name, though his popularity was less than it had been prior to the war years. His health gradually declined and in February 1951 he died of leukaemia. Although considered to be purely a society entertainer right to the end, the Duchin band did swing with reasonable heat on some occasions and once made a most unsociety-like record of Old Man Mose, which was banned by some authorities due to an unfortunate pronunciation of the word ‘bucket’ which occurred frequently throughout the song's lyric. After Eddy's death his son Peter, another ultra-smooth pianist, continued to uphold the family tradition by becoming a bandleader with upper-class connections.