Music in the Movies: Charlie Spivak

Portrait of Charlie Spivak released by MCA, circa 1940s. Source: Pinterest

Charlie Spivak led one of the most unique big band orchestras. While Spivak’s family hoped he’d enter the medical field, his interest in the trumpet began in elementary school. In high school, he took lessons with a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, according to an article in the Oxford Leader on July 30, 1948. The paper described Spivak’s personality as “mild-mannered and quiet spoken” and that he “[could] still blush at a compliment.” He first performed with Paul Specht’s Orchestra in the late 1920s, then others including Ben Pollack, Bob Crosby’s Bobcats and the Dorsey Brothers. There he met Glenn Miller, who became a close friend. Oxford Leader noted one of Spivak’s sons was middle named Glenn.

Spivak freelanced in the mid 1930s for radio orchestras. Case Tech on January 28, 1943 wrote this resulted in him becoming the “highest paid trumpet player in radio”. Soon Glenn Miller encouraged Spivak to lead his own band. In 1940 audiences admired Spivak’s new orchestra as it formed a distinct haunting sound from horn and piano solos, combined with harmonizing vocals. Many of the songs referenced dreams and stars for romantic and festive themes. The Lincolnian on March 25 1941, called the orchestra “one of the nation’s leading bands for sweet music as well as for swing.” During their peak in the 1940s, the orchestra also performed at universities, nightclubs and movie palaces. They appeared in 2 Fox Technicolor musicals, Pin Up Girl (1944) and Follow the Boys (1944). That same year, Jewish Post on July 7 reported the Merchant Marine had awarded Charlie Spivak a ribbon for performing at hospitals.

Charlie Spivak looking over his suits in his dressing room, photographed for Down Beat magazine, v. 13, no. 22 (Oct. 21, 1946), p. 12. Source: Gottlieb, William P. Portrait of Charlie Spivak, New York, N.Y.?, ca. Oct. , Monographic. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/gottlieb.15161/>

By the end of the big band era, Spivak shifted to playing soft dance music. He continued to perform in small groups successfully into the 1960s. He died at the age of 75 in 1982. To the Daily Kent Stater on November 8, 1957, Spivak summed up his approach, “It’s my contention that seventy-five percent of audience reaction comes from sweetly played music and we’re intent on pleasing that majority and doing it with our own individualistic style.”

Star Dreams (Theme Song)

Daisy Chain

Oh, What Seemed to Be

There Goes That Song Again

Blue Champagne

This is No Laughing Matter

Let’s Go Home

It’s Been a Long, Long Time

Autumn Nocturne

Old Devil Moon

The above playlist is just a few of my favorites by Charlie Spivak. What do you think of his music? Who is your favorite big band orchestra?