Remembering Mr. New Year’s Eve
by Patience Wieland
Every new year brings the promise of excitement, change, and adventure – and the question of what lies ahead. It’s no wonder then, that throughout North America, we prefer the company of a trusted old friend to take us through the night of December 31st, across time and into the new year.
For more than seventy-five years, throughout the twentieth century and into the next, there’s been a Mr. New Year’s Eve, guiding the way for millions of fans in North America, and beyond.
The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven
First was the suave, dapper Canadian who nevertheless sported the casual nickname “Guy”. Born Gaetano Alberto Lombardo in 1902, Guy Lombardo was the oldest of six siblings, raised in the small city of London, Ontario (a little over 100 miles from Toronto). While the family was musical, and close-knit, their future success was by no means guaranteed. Reportedly, Guy’s first gig was as a twelve year old violinist at the London “Mother’s Club”, where he played a duet with younger brother (and future songwriter) Carmen, a flautist. They would expand into an ensemble with the addition of other players, eventually adding all the Lombardo children as performers, save one sister and brother – but in 1919, the Lombardos’ father temporarily forbade them from playing, after a dispute with a shifty club owner. Their father’s ultimatum had an unintended effect: soon after, the three brothers – still teenagers – committed to music full time.
By the dawn of the roaring twenties, Guy’s fledging group was already playing gigs around Ontario, including a regular gig at the Hopkins Casino, near Lake Erie. In 1924, the teenagers took a big chance by relocating to Cleveland, Ohio, where they at first struggled to make a name for themselves.
The key – both to their success and their longevity — was in developing their own, unique sound, which was more “steady” and “sweet” than merely “hot”. Jazz groups like the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, and dances like the Charleston, were the rage among the mid-twenties’ “flaming youth”. Like Whiteman, who referred to himself as “The King of Jazz” and sought out middle of the road arrangements of popular hits, Lombardo gambled on the dancers. He theorized that a steady stream of melody and beats would be easier to move to.
Then as now, some of the musicians balked, wanting to show their skills through improvisation. But even without being one of jazz’s great innovators, the Lombardos – and the newly christened Royal Canadian big band – sold hundreds of thousands of records – and later counted jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong among their fans. Dancers and listeners alike loved the steady coziness of their “sweet” sound, which became better known as “The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven”.
In 1929, the Royal Canadians’ music was fused with a new tradition, as they became the winter season’s main musical attraction, bringing down the house at the Roosevelt Hotel. Having already been introduced to a national audience in 1927, while playing a radio gig from Chicago, millions started listening every December 31st to Guy Lombardo’s orchestra. Lombardo’s New Year’s broadcast from the Roosevelt Grill became a new tradition in North America – and as beloved and warm as a favorite pair of shoes. When the Roosevelt Hotel closed, the Royal Canadians kept playing, moving to the famed Waldorf-Astoria; when television supplanted radio, they joined the medium, as TV cameras cut back and forth between Times Square and the Waldorf-Astoria’s rooftop party.
