from 2011
THE BIG BANDS AT DISNEYLAND

by Scott Wolf

Disneyland may not only be the Happiest Place on Earth, but one of the most swinging as well! During my recent visit to the historical Carnation Plaza Gardens, located right at the end of Main Street, U.S.A., there was quite a crowd lining the perimeter of the arena, enjoying the music of our past, and the dance floor was packed! There were the couples that were obviously seasoned dancers, there was a father dancing with his little girl who couldn’t be more than five years old while the mother was snapping photo after photo of her beaming smile. There were teenagers giving some dance moves a shot while other teenagers knew the moves as if they were there during the height of the Big Band era in the 1940s. And there were the regulars, pleasantly observing the scene, obviously bringing back fond memories of the past.

Elisabeth Graham Elliot has been with Disneyland for nearly 17 years. As a Stage Manager, she acts as a hostess to the guests, to ensure that everybody, from the oldest adults to the youngest children, can have fun and stay safe. “I’ve been with the Guest Talent Programs for my entire career here, and have been a professional band stage manager for over ten years as well. Swing dancing at Plaza Gardens on Saturday nights is a grand tradition. It’s amazing the number of people that come by and say, ‘Do you do this all the time?!’ They have no idea that Disneyland has this tradition, and of course it’s wonderful for me to be able to say, ‘Oh yeah, this has been going on since almost the beginning, and of course, the greats have played on this stage!’

“When I take my guest groups (of student musicians from around the country) to perform, and they play on this stage, I tell them, ‘You know, Count Basie played this stage.’ It’s wonderful to be able to pass on that tradition and that heritage.”

Music has always been an important part of the Disneyland experience, with the traditional Disneyland Band performing there since opening day. And while that band remains an essential element of the overall ambience of the park today, on June 28, 1957 things really got swinging! For the first time Disneyland would extend its operating hours until 1am on Friday and Saturday nights for Date Nite, in an attempt to attract young couples as a dating hot spot. Couples could purchase Date Nite discounted tickets which permitted admission only after 5pm. Carnation Plaza Gardens became the chosen central Date Nite location, and the local Elliott Brothers band were brought in as the Date Niters who had the ability to perform everything from the slow dances to rock ‘n’ roll to the “La Raspa,” which became a Date Nite tradition.

Both “Elliott” brothers found great success together, as well as solo musicians, using their given names, Bill Ulyate and Lloyd Ulyate. In 1949 they formed their band of sixteen members, all top-notch musicians, but with the popularity of the Big Bands fading, they decided to slim their group down to ten pieces and a vocalist.

Former Disneyland president, Jack Lindquist, who was with Disney for 38 years, recalls, “My favorite memory of the Big Bands was the Elliott Brothers because they were our Big Band. The Elliott Brothers were an outstanding orchestra. Their timing was very poor. They came in at the tail end of the Big Band era. I think the Elliott Brothers could have been a major Big Band, but for us, the timing was perfect.”

In 1961, with the days of the Big Bands gone by, Disneyland talent booker Chuck Corson remembers that Disneyland had discussed the possibility of bringing in some of the legendary bands to perform at the park.

Chuck still fondly remembers booking Disneyland's very first big name big band. "I was able to find a guy I knew from New York who was booking Benny Goodman. Everybody said, 'You’ll never get Benny Goodman!' He was the last of the big kings, but we did, we got him for a week!"

Benny performed in Tomorrowland and was a smash hit, with crowds packed 20 deep. That successful appearance led to a new tradition at Disneyland which began the following year. In fact, it remains one of Chuck's favorite memories of all his Disney days.  "We had what we used to call Big Band Festivals and we’d bring together several big bands all at the same time and put them on various stages all around the park. I will never forget I had Count Basie and Duke Ellington there on the same weekend, and Wayne King, Vaughn Monroe, Les Brown, and the biggest thrill to me and to them was we’d get together for a luncheon and all the band directors were there. It was great fun because these guys don't see each other that much. We had so much fun jibbering and talking and hashing over the old days at the Paramount." 

Sonny Anderson, who followed Chuck Corson as talent booker had a similar passion for the big bands. He said, “I brought them all in. We'd bring them in for a week in the summer. Each one would play seven days and that was everyone from Count Basie to Duke Ellington to Buddy Rich. That was twelve weeks of the Big Bands here every year!”

Sonny began his 38 year Disney career playing drums in the Disneyland Band during it's inaugural year, and went on to become a renowned talent booker for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

For Disney, he traveled the globe, looking for the world’s best talent, and to find authentic talent for the countries represented in Epcot’s World Showcase. All of which contributed to twice being named Billboard International’s Talent Buyer of the Year.

Sadly, Sonny passed away while I was writing this article, and our last conversation was about the Big Bands.

Even after the days of the Big Band Festivals ended, the bands could still reliably be found at Carnation Plaza Gardens, and beginning in 1970, so could Riley Gaynor. Riley was originally hired to be a projectionist for Disneyland’s attractions in 1960, but a decade later he became a sound technician. He not only handled the live mixing and audio levels of bands and performances, but he also triggered the prerecorded voices of Mickey Mouse and friends for the various character shows that occurred there. Although Riley worked on a wide range of entertainment, the Big Bands remained a passion of his.

When Big Band leader Tex Beneke wanted photos of his orchestra at the park, Riley was happy to take pictures with his high quality camera. “I got all the pictures and gave it to him to have him sign it, and he said, ‘You know, you ought to do this for each and every band that comes in here,’” and that’s just what Riley did. At the beginning he even got the bandleaders to sign the photos for him, too!

On the day we met, Riley brought one of his nine photo albums to share with me, filled with hundreds of 8”x10” photos, all his own shots. As we poured through the images, he reminisced and pointed out interesting facts along the way, such as how park guests would often sit on the floor in front of the bandstand, several rows deep, enjoying the music as concerts.

Riley was also on hand for any surprises, such as when radio and television personality Phil Harris, who Disney fans most remember as the voice of Baloo in “The Jungle Book,” came into the park as a guest, and celebrated bandleader Harry James convinced him to sing a number with the band.

As the years progressed and Big Band music was becoming more and scarce, Disneyland became the quintessential spot for Big Band fans. In fact, in 1984 it inspired a television series on the Disney Channel, “Big Bands at Disneyland,” hosted by Big Band singer and former host of TV’s “The Hollywood Squares,” Peter Marshall.

Peter explained, “I would introduce the Big Band leaders, do an interview and then take them off. We had people like Count Basie's orchestra, Glenn Miller's, Woody Herman and I interviewed Woody, I interviewed Cab Calloway and Bob Crosby. We had the Jimmy Dorsey band and the Artie Shaw band and I interviewed Artie Shaw. Les Brown, the Tommy Dorsey band and Buddy Rich, who was an old friend. Lionel Hampton - that was the best band of all by the way. So it was fun. It was a great series to do. We'd do one a week. It started in June of '84 and it ran thru September.”

Stan Freese, who is the current talent booker for Disneyland was there in the 1990s, during an inevitable transition, “We realized that the leaders themselves were gone and we were getting ghost bands, they call it, and that is they would be playing the music from that band’s book, but it would be local guys and a local front man, like Art Depew fronted the Harry James band, for instance. Oftentimes, each band would use a lot of the same local L.A. musicians, so when you were looking up there it sounded like the correct band but week after week it had a lot of the same guys. Great players, but Disney said, ‘Without the actual leader, Stan, why don’t YOU put something together?’ So I did. I put our own Disneyland Big Band together, first with local union musicians here in Orange County, and I fronted it, and then later on used actual Disneyland Band members on the weekends, so we had different mutations of Stan Freese and the Disneyland Big Band up there.”

Doc Anello and the Swing Machine is always a crowd please at Plaza Gardens. The leader, John “Doc” Anello, is no newcomer to Disney. After leading his own big band, he began his Disney career as Production Manager at Disneyland in 1975, making sure all entertainment venues in the park were up and running smoothly. In his second year, as Education Program Director, Doc took over another great Disney band tradition, the All American College Band Program, assembling top college musicians from around the country to participate at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, to gain experience and educational opportunities. In 1992, Doc became the Manager of Talent Booking for Disneyland and the Disneyland Hotel, when Sonny Anderson was primarily working in Florida. Doc remembers, “I left that position I believe in 1996 and decided I would just kick back and start my band again. Stan Freese was working here and I told him I’ve got the band, and we started playing here and I’ve been here ever since, just playing the one night a month. It’s been a great association.”

The Swing Machine is one of the last bands around to feature members who performed with the original Big Bands and backed singers such as Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme. Sitting backstage at Plaza Gardens with the band, Doc pointed out, “Jim (Hahn) played with the Glenn Miller band, Fred (Carroll)’s played with a half a dozen bands here and back east. Pat (Chartrand) played with Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnett and more. Larry (Walters) was with Woody Herman and Harry James, and was the bandleader of the Sunshine Balloon (that performed at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland Terrace).”

Of course, no matter how great the Big Bands were at Disneyland, the tradition could not continue without the fans and admirers who continue to flock to Carnation Plaza Gardens. Whether teenagers on their first date, or married couples reliving memories of their past, the Big Bands at Disneyland brought and still bring something different for everyone who enjoys it.

81 year old Tony Domenick and his wife have been married for 56 years and have been coming to the Big Bands at Disneyland for most of those years, ever since the Big Bands first began at the park. “In those days, it was more formal. We came dressed up. We came with suits and ties and the ladies with long dresses and we were all dressed up. There really were some super dancers! In this group of people now there are some very good dancers, too. They’ve taken lessons.”

Although health issues have stopped Tony and his wife from dancing only two years ago, that doesn’t stop them from coming to enjoy the music. As for Disneyland memories, he said, “I have so many it’s unbelievable. I saw all the Big Bands! The last time that Count Basie was here we came eight straight nights! He was here eight nights. We would come on a Saturday and spend the whole night until 1:00 in the morning! We danced all night! Never sat down!”

75 year old Bill Sexton regularly danced to the Big Bands at Disneyland in the ‘60s. He first learned dancing in college and has enjoyed it ever since. While he danced at places like the Hollywood Palladium and Balboa Pavilion, he’s grateful that he can still come to Carnation Plaza Gardens for “dates” with his wife, where they put on their dancing shoes (literally!) and cut a rug. He remembered, “We’d dance from June 1st to September 21st. We’d come five of the seven days! Lionel Hampton, Tex Beneke, Ray Anthony, Les Brown, you name it! They’d shut the lights off there and Lionel Hampton would lead us around the floor (in a conga line) playing ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’”

Bill added, “I love to teach young people how to dance. I’ve taught ‘Snow White’ how to dance, and ‘Belle’! I’ve got some great memories here. We’ve met so many people over the years, been to weddings, 50th anniversaries, seen kids coming and having babies. We’re lucky to have this place!”

The last time I was at Carnation Plaza Gardens, I saw smiling faces on people of every age, and couples and families having fun together. It was as if the hands of time were truly turned back, as the sounds of the Big Bands were joyously bringing the young and the young at heart together, the way Walt Disney had originally envisioned.

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