Guy Lombardo: Louis Armstrong’s Favourite Band

Gaetano Alberto Lombardo, stage name Guy Lombardo, formed the Royal Canadians in 1924, when he made his first records, with his brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor, and other musicians from his hometown. They billed themselves as creating “the sweetest music this side of Heaven.”

The Lombardos sold between 100 and 300 million records during their lifetimes, many featuring the band’s lead singer from 1940 onward, Kenny Gardner.

After their Gennett session, the Guy Lombardo recorded two sessions for Brunswick; a rejected session in Cleveland in late 1926, and an issued session for Vocalion in early 1927.

The band then signed to Columbia and recorded prolifically between 1927 and 1931.

In early 1932, they signed to Brunswick and continued their success through 1934 when they signed to Decca (1934–35).

They then signed to Victor in later 1935 and stayed until the middle of 1938 when again they signed to Decca. In 1938, Lombardo became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Between 1941 and 1948, their sister Rose Marie, the youngest of seven siblings, joined the Royal Canadians as the band’s first and possibly only female vocalist.

LOMBARDO

After Guy Lombardo’s death in 1977, his surviving brothers Victor and Lebert took over the Royal Canadians, though Victor left the band early in 1978 over creative differences. From 1980 the name was franchised out to various band leaders.

Lebert died in 1993, passing rights to the band name to three of his six children. The band was revived in 1989 by Al Pierson and remained active.

NEW YEAR’S EVE

Lombardo is remembered for almost a half-century of New Year’s Eve big band remotes, first on radio, then on television.

His orchestra played at the Roosevelt Grill in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City from 1929 (“radio’s first nationwide New Year’s Eve broadcast” which popularized Auld Lang Syne) to 1959.

From 1959 to 1976 Guy Lombardo played at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Live broadcasts (and later telecasts) of their performances were a large part of New Year’s celebrations across North America.

Millions of people watched the show with friends at house parties. Because of this popularity, Lombardo was called “Mr. New Year’s Eve”.

The band’s first New Year’s Eve radio broadcast was in 1929; within a few years, they were heard live on the CBS Radio Network before midnight Eastern Time, then on the NBC Radio Network after midnight.

On December 31, 1956, the Lombardo band did their first New Year’s TV special on CBS; the program (and Lombardo’s 20 subsequent New Year’s Eve TV shows) included a live segment from Times Square.

Although CBS carried most of the Lombardo New Year’s specials, from 1965 to 1970, the special was syndicated live to individual TV stations instead of broadcast on a network. After Lombardo’s death, the band’s New Year’s specials continued for two more years on CBS.

The Royal Canadians’ recording of “Auld Lang Syne” still plays as the first song of the new year in Times Square.

RADIO, TV and MOVIES

On radio, from June 14, 1953, Guy Lombardo and his orchestra had Guy Lombardo Time, the summer replacement for Jack Benny.

In 1954, Lombardo briefly hosted a half-hour syndicated series called The Guy Lombardo Show, and in 1956 Lombardo hosted a show on CBS for three months called Guy Lombardo’s Diamond Jubilee.

Guy Lombardo played himself in the hit series Route 66 in the 1963 episode “But What Do You Do in March?”

In 1975, Lombardo played himself again, in the first regular episode of Ellery Queen, “The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne,” which was set at a Dec. 31, 1946 New Year’s Eve gathering.

Lombardo and his orchestra were part of the 1934 film Many Happy Returns. He made a cameo appearance in the 1970 film The Phynx. Clips of his own show appeared in the 1977 film Looking for Mr. Goodbar starring Diane Keaton.