(Drawing and logo courtesy University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf2-05121], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.)
| “Buddy’s Habits” The Midway Dance Orchestra December 5, 1923 (Columbia 51-D mx 81383) |
| “Cotton Pickers’ Ball” The Midway Dance Orchestra October 18, 1923 (Columbia 51-D mx 81313) |
From the Edward Mitchell collection, here are two pre-microphone-era recordings by a short-lived Chicago-area hot jazz band that took its name from Midway Gardens, a large garden resort entertainment complex designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Unfortunately, the entire complex was demolished in 1929, only 15 years after it opened in 1914.
The band, led by pianist and arranger Elmer Schoebel, performed under multiple names.
A total of four recordings were made under the name Midway Dance Orchestra during Columbia field-trip recording sessions in Chicago on October 18 and December 5, 1923. The two recordings not featured in this posting, “Lots O’ Mamma” and “The Black Sheep Blues,” were previously presented in this blog’s April 25, 2025 posting.
One day after the October 18 recording session, the band recorded three sides for Paramount Records under the slightly different name Midway Garden Orchestra: “Sobbin’ Blues,” and remakes of “Lots O’ Mamma” and “The Black Sheep Blues,” which had been recorded for Columbia the previous day.
Earlier in the year, on April 2, the band recorded four sides in Richmond, Indiana, for Gennett Records as the Original Memphis Melody Boys, and on May 30, two sides in Chicago for Columbia as the Chicago Blues Dance Orchestra.
By 1925, the band had broken up, and Schoebel went to work for prominent Chicago bandleader Isham Jones. However, in 1929 Schoebel led a studio band that recorded four sides for Brunswick as Friar’s Society Orchestra, taking its name from a band he worked for in 1922-1923 that soon changed its name to the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.
As mentioned in this blog’s earlier posting, 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.
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.