- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHarry Haag James
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Harry James was born in a rundown hotel next to the city jail in Albany, Georgia. His mother and father were members of a circus - she as a trapeze artist and he a band leader - with the Mighty Haag Circus. At seven, they settled in Beaumont, Texas where Harry learned to play drums. By twelve, he was playing trumpet in the Christy Brothers Circus band. In 1936 James joined Ben Pollack's band, soon leaving to lead the brass section of Benny Goodman's band. He even once applied to Lawrence Welk's band but was turned down because they said he played too loud and it was not Welk's style. After three years with Goodman, he wanted to leave, and with Goodman's backing, he formed the Music Makers. In 1943 he married pinup queen Betty Grable, his second of four wives. He had earlier married and divorced Louise Tobin, a singer. Grable kept appearing in movies and Harry kept playing while they raised horses. He made his debut in Philadelphia at the Ben Franklin Hotel and soon was a nationwide favorite of dance lovers and jazz addicts, rocking the rafters at the Hollywood Paladium, Chicago's famous College Inn at the Hotel Sherman, Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook in Cedar Cove, NJ, and then onto New York City. It was the Lincoln Hotel in NYC that the Music Makers called home, but James also starred at the Paramount Theater in the spring of 1943, with thousands of teenagers flocking to see him. His version of You Made Me Love You was a big hit and a favorite of many through the war years. James was a great discoverer of talent, finding Frank Sinatra working as a waiter in a New Jersey restaurant and giving him a job singing in his band. Dick Haymes, Kitty Kallen, Connie Haines and Helen Forrest can all thank James for giving them their first real break. In 1963 his band was featured at Disneyland, still known as the Music Makers. He played his last gig at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on June 26, 1983, just a few days before dying of lymphatic cancer.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Mike McKinley
- SpousesJoan Boyd(December 27, 1967 - March 1970) (divorced, 1 child)Betty Grable(July 5, 1943 - October 9, 1965) (divorced, 2 children)Louise Tobin(May 4, 1935 - July 3, 1943) (divorced, 2 children)
- His son, Tim James, was an attorney working with the attorney general of Texas and was one of those responsible for enticing TV personality Marvin Zindler to investigate the famous Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, Texas - eventually leading to its closure. The story became the basis of the Broadway and movie musical, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982).
- He and Betty Grable had two daughters: Victoria Elizabeth James (born 3 March 1944), and Jessica James (born 20 May 1947).
- When traveling with his circus parents he was billed as "The Youngest Contortionist in the World.".
- Bought a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording at 6683 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- Entombed in Eden Vale Mausoleum, Las Vegas, Nevada.
- When I was boy down in Texas a bunch of us used to go to the theater every Saturday morning. The organist played the songs that we knew and the crowd of us would join in singing. That was the way we let off steam. It was a good thing for all of us and, take it from me, many a boy was kept straight by singing those songs.
- Some of our most popular numbers are by the great classical composers. Take our arrangements of 'The Flight of the Bumble Bee' or of 'The Afternoon of a Faun'. The kids go crazy over them In order to give them their proper rendering I added a string section to our band and, believe me, many people thought I was going nuts when when I hired those long-underwear boys. But it is not only the kids who like our stuff. Kreisler himself approved a record we made of our arrangement of his 'Caprice Viennoise'.
- Band leaders must be like automobile manufacturers before the war. They must be bringing out new models all the time. We have to vary our programs, playing sweet numbers and jump numbers, and we have to play them different ways.
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