Background information about the recordings can be found below the audio selections.
“Lots O’ Mamma”
The Midway Dance Orchestra
(Columbia 33-D mx 81311) October 18, 1923|
“The Black Sheep Blues”
The Midway Dance Orchestra
(Columbia 33-D mx 81312) October 18, 1923
From the Edward Mitchell Collection, here are two 1923 sides by an early Chicago hot jazz band named after a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed indoor/outdoor entertainment complex that was demolished only 15 years after it opened.
The short-lived band, led by Elmer Schoebel, took its name from Midway Gardens, a large entertainment complex designed by Frank Lloyd Wright where the band performed. Earlier in 1923, the band had made recordings for Gennett as the Original Memphis Melody Boys and for Columbia as the Chicago Blues Dance Orchestra.
Elmer Schoebel was a pianist and composer who also worked as an arranger for Isham Jones and music publishing houses, including Warner Brothers. He is best remembered as the composer of jazz standards such as “Bugle Call Rag, ” “Stomp Off! Let’s Go!” “Farewell Blues” and “Prince of Wails.”
Both of these recordings were made during a Columbia field trip to Chicago. Schoebel was also the composer of “Lots O’ Mamma.” “The Black Sheep Blues” was composed by Phil Baker.
Built in 1914, the massive and utterly unique Midway Gardens complex featured both indoor and outdoor dining and entertainment venues. As he did with other projects, Wright designed not only the interior and exterior but also associated items such as furniture, vases, linens, and china. But the endeavor struggled financially, and the arrival of prohibition impacted attendance and cut off a much-needed source of revenue. Sadly, the entire complex was demolished in 1929, just 15 years after it was built.
You can read more about Midway Gardens on this website, which also features interesting galleries of photos from the year it opened, as well as photos taken after an expansion and alterations that took place the same month the recordings here were made, along with some additional photos.
(Image courtesy University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf2-05121], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.)