Volume 11 , Issue 30

Horace Heidt & His Musical Knights

Horace Heidt led one of the most successful commercial orchestras of the dance band era. Heidt's bands were known as Horace Heidt & His Californias, Horace Heidt & His Musicial Knights, Horace Heidt and His Brigadiers.

Heidt studied piano as a youth, but his main interest was athletics. He played football for the University of California at Berkeley and planned on turning professional. However, a back injury ended his ambitions, and he decided instead to enter the music business, forming a small orchestra in 1923, originally called Horace Heidt and His Californians.

The band's popularity, and size, grew as the decade progressed. In 1929 the group joined the Fanchon-Marco vaudeville circuit and later toured Europe. Upon their return to the states they disbanded.

In 1932, Heidt formed a new orchestra. By 1936 Horace Heidt and His Brigadiers had their own national radio program out of the Drake Theater in Chicago. Heidt gained tremendous popularity when he began to feature cash giveaways to listeners. Called the "Pot o' Gold" program, it became a sensation and even spawned a feature film.

Heidt's orchestra later came to be known by its best remembered moniker, Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights.

In the late 1930's, Heidt was impressed by the popularity of swing music and he began to hire some of the era's outstanding musicians, such as Bobby Hackett, Frank DeVol, Irving Fazola, Shorty Sherock, Frankie Carleson, Joe Rushton, and Jess Stacy.

Heidt remained popular throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, recording on the Brunswick label. A dispute with his management company, M.C.A., however, forced him to leave the business in 1945. He temporarily retired and concentrated on his many real estate holdings, including ownership of the Los Angeles Trianon Ballroom. In 1947, when his contract with M.C.A. expired, he came out of retirement and organized a new orchestra which appeared on the Philip Morris sponsored Talent Show and Youth Opportunity radio programs. The band also hosted The Swift Show Wagon on television in 1955. He retired permanently soon after.

In his early years Heidt had suffered from stammering. He later opened the Horace Heidt School for Stammering to help others affected by the disability. Heidt was a shrewd businessman. Through sound investments he emerged as the wealthiest orchestra leader of his day. Horace Heidt passed away in 1986. His son, Horace Jr., continues to lead a band in his father's image.
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