Dec. 12, 2025

Make Believe Ballroom - 12/12/25 Edition

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Show Notes
Transcript

On this week's edition of the Make Believe Ballroom hosted by Jeff Bressler, we listen to some music and history from On the Bill Savory Collection. Savory was a radio sound engineer who captured for posterity jazz broadcast radio remotes that networks transmitted live from hotel ballrooms and clubs, a staple of programming in the 30s and 40s. During Savory's era, after most live broadcasts ended, they were rarely saved, primarily due to technical issues, budget constraints, or a lack of understanding of the jazz movement's history. Savory dedicated many years to preserving this musical history.

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It's make Believe Ballroom time.

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Put all your cares away.

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All the bands are here to bring good cheer your way.

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It's make Belief ballom time and free to everyone. It's

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no time to friend your Dalis said Bombas.

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Close your eyes.

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And visual lize in your solitude.

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Your favorite bands are on this dance and mister Miller,

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what you're in the wood. It's make Believe Ballroom time.

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We are a sweet romance.

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As you make Believe Ballroom. Come on to the last

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dance last.

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Hello, world, I'm Jeff Presler, turning on the lights of

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the Make Believe Ballroom and welcoming you into my Crystal

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studio for another program of classic big band jazz from

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the nineteen thirties and forties. Please get ready as I

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play for you some amazing jazz, swing, blues, and boogie

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woogie favorites. Folks, you're listening to the Make Believe Ballroom,

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broadcasting almost continuously since nineteen thirty five. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, folks,

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Thanks for joining me in the Crystal studio today. As

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you know, I usually open each program with the song

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or two, but on this edition of the Ballroom, I

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want to open with the an email from the famed

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Pop Baker. Yes, Pop Baker, a friend of the program,

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a retired musician who listens in California, and the one

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and only Pop writes, Jeff, been a while, and it's

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also been some time since you told the history and

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played some of the music from Bill Savory and his collection.

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I look forward to you reintroducing the collection if you

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see fit and that is signed one Pop Baker and

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Pop I'm gonna do you one better. The entire ballroom

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this week and perhaps part of next week's program will

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be devoted to this unique, would have to say, underrated

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and certainly overlooked a collection. The Savory Collection is housed

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in the National Jazz Museum in Harlem in New York City,

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and between records from this collection, what I'm going to

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do is weave the tail of this amazing group of

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recordings and how they came about. So obviously, the first

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and most important question is who Bill Savory was. Well,

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Bill Savory was a young New York audio engineer in

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the nineteen thirties and he just loved jazz. Now, while

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most engineers radio engineers did what they were paid to do,

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Bill Savory stayed after hours at his job on his

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own time, experimenting with sound and recording techniques. So he

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worked inside a professional transcription lab, which, for the uninitiated

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was a studio where large what were they made lacquer

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discs were cut for radio. And these discs were the

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nineteen thirties equivalent of studio tape or digital recording as

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is the case today. Bill Savory realized that the greatest

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jazz in America was being broadcast live every single night,

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and not one second of it was saved. I'm going

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to talk about this in a little while. So his

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resolution was to save this music himself. Let me give

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you an example. Here's Count Basie one o'clock jump, recorded

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at the Carnival of Swing on Randall's Island in New

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York City, May the twenty ninth, nineteen thirty eight.

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Anything up at the same change, expand and stanch a.

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I'm Jeff Wrestler and you're listening to the Make Believe

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Ballroom as we discuss the Bill Savory collection. So I

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had mentioned the transcription lab. Now let me just talk

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to you about what a transcription disc actually was. And

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if you're new to the term transcription disc, here is

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my well, how do we discribe it my elevator version.

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You know a story that you tell in the amount

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of time it takes an elevator to go a few floors. So,

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before tape recorders existed radio U it was big. They

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were sixteen inch lacquered discs and they were spinning at

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thirty three and a third rpm. At the time, these

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were not released to the public. It was just internal

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for transcription. So they looked like the equivalent of a

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giant record, and they held fifteen minutes of sound, and

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that was more than five times longer than a seventy

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eight RPM record, which was the standard recording for commercial

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use that music lovers picked up in music stores and

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the records we play here on the ballroom all M

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and eight from seventy eight recordings. Now, these discs, the

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sixteen inch lacquer discs, were used to record.

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Well.

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They recorded news speeches, commercials, and the the plethora of

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regular radio programs at the time that needed to be distributed.

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Now Bill Bill Savory used that same equipment, but instead

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of cutting ads and commercials and radio programs, he cut

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jazz history. Another example, the late great Fat Swaller with

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his classic Honeysuckle Rose, recorded at the Cafe Society in

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New York City back in nineteen thirty eight.

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Ain't everye honey peer, mister jealousy when to see you

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hunting mad?

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Don't blame on cut that. No honeys of Rover.

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There when you passing my flocks room side and and

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all the reason why.

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Uh but sweet goodness, no honeys.

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Of roads hot one.

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Don't buy sugar. You just have to tax my my

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cofor you my sugar.

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So sweet standing up when them take no sense from

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your limbs. Honey, family, dressful, confection, goodness, nose, honest rolls.

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S, father, father.

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Following them.

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You know, yeah, man, I did it.

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I'm Jeff Bresler. This is the make believe ballroom. And

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let's move on now while we're on the subject of

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transcription discs, to what a transcription lab was, because I'm

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trying to set the stage for exactly how Bill Savory

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obtained the music that he did. Now, a transcription lab

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was simply a recording studio built for cutting these large

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lacquer discs. Think of it like the like a recording

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booth of early radio. So engineers would bring in ads

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or programs then record them onto discs, duplicate them, and

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send them to stations across the country. Savory worked inside

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one of these labs and after hours that gave him

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access to the best recording equipment in New York City

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to record this wonderful jazz Let's Listen to the Amazing

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Chick Web and his Orchestra with Liza, recorded over the

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CBS Radio network back in nineteen thirty eight. Bill Savory,

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he didn't work for a radio station. He worked for

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a transcription studio that had multiple station clients. The two

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biggest were w R in New York. They used this

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lab and WNY W also used this lab, probably the

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most frequently. WNEW eleven three to zero on the dial,

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of course, was the station that this version of The

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Make Believe Ballroom originally came from. Went on the air

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in February of nineteen thirty five and was hosted by

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Martin block So music played a big role in wnew's operation.

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CBS also used the lab, as well as the NBC

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Blue Network. Now Savory was positioned, because of this, at

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the crossroads of the entire New York radio world, where

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he had access to nearly every major broadcast. I'm going

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to continue in just a moment. But now let me

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take a look at the playlist here. I like this one.

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Why don't we go to Paul Whitman and his orchestra

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on the CBS Radio Network in nineteen thirty eight, with

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beautiful vocal by Mildred Valley, trucking.

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Lifting new rhythm round us.

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Harlem is talking.

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Now you know the.

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Truck buck got you, but you never knew who just hih.

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That's what I want to tell you. I've got it

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figured out now if you walk the low down, yes

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on a team about it. We had to have something

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new I d have to do up hearing all of

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doll Someone started trucking. As soon as the news got round.

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The folks downtown.

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Came up the Harlemay.

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Saw everybody trucking.

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It didn't take long before the high Hand do in

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its park avenue in it all the town. You see

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them stuppling, shuffling, chalking along.

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It spread like a board.

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Blades became crazy and thanks to home now everybody rocking.

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Set of SAP.

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We had to have something new they have to do

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up here in Holland. So someone started trucking. As soon

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as the new Dudlund.

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Folks downtown, came up to Halloween, start everybody trucking.

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It didn't take long before the high half for doing

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this Park Avenue and all over town you see them stuffering, shuffling,

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trucking along, get spread like a forest.

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Ray became crazy.

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I thank the hollow Snow everybody's trucking.

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I'm Jeff Bresler, and you're listening to the Make Believe

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Ballroom to reach me Jeff at Make Believe Ballroom Radio

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dot com. That's Jeff at Make Believe Ballroom Radio dot Com.

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And the next question that comes to mind as I

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think this out is how did Bill Savory capture broadcasts

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at studio quality with the understanding that this wasn't a

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remastered records that had all kinds of scratches and imperfection,

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and many many years later, were remastered using the state

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of the art technology at the time. Some of the records,

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some of the excuse me, the cuts that I'm playing

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on this show aren't exactly what you would call in

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today's world studio quality, but they were much better than

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the way broadcasts were recorded off the radio. Because most

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air checks in the nineteen thirties were simply made by

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sticking a microphone next to a radio speaker, and that

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of course produced noise and low fidelity results. Bill Savory

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didn't do that. He recorded directly from the broadcast lines,

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and these were the same signals the stations used to

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send music to listeners. In other words, he was capturing

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the master feed. And now let's listen to one of

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those master feeds you got here. You know, the great

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pianist Teddy Wilson had his own big band just for

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a couple of years.

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So let me play one of his.

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When we play Coconut Grove, recorded on NBC in nineteen

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thirty eight.

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Litthing.

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So, just to take that a point further as to

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why his recordings sounded so good versus a microphone next

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to a radio speaker, it was because Bill used broadcast

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great equipment. He had at his fingertips professional lathes, high

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quality tubes, he had a quiet studio room environment to

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work in, and as I mentioned, he had direct access

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to the network lines coming into his studio. And that's

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why the Savory collection sounds better than almost any other

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nineteen thirties remote off air recordings that we sometimes play

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on this program. And as a a prime example of that,

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let's go to one of my favorite Bill Savory recordings.

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Here's Louis Armstrong on the radio from the Savory collection

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in nineteen thirty eight.

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I can't.

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Really but the definitely.

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Anything then, Anna.

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Super this Jeff Wrestler.

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You're listening to the weekly edition of the Make Believe

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Ballroom So Bad. Savory sat in his studio recording these

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wonderful live remote broadcasts at network quality. But you might ask,

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if he was such a big jazz fan, why didn't

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he ever go into clubs to work on these recordings.

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Many people think that Bill Savory stood at the back

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of say the Savoy Ballroom or the Famous Door with

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a microphone, And of course, as I'm telling you, he didn't.

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The clubs sent their sound over phone lines to NBC

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or CBS, and Savory caught the signal on the receiving

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end in a studio and he found this much more

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accurate than actually trying to uy for some microphone space

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and a loud club. I want to continue now, why

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don't we stay with Louis Armstrong.

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I love Louie.

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In a jam session on the radio that was captured

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by Bill Savory. We have Louis on the trumpet his

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really good friend Jack T. Garden playing the trombone, Bud

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Freeman Tenor Sachs, Fats Waller on the piano, Bob Spergel

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playing the guitar, Pete Peterson on bass, and the George

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Wettling on the drums. I mean, can you imagine on

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December the thirteenth, nineteen thirty eight, turning on your radio

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in your home and hearing this, I've got rhythm.

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Y didn't say anything. I didn't.

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Finish.

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Oh that was like it.

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This is the weekly edition of the Make Believe Ballroom,

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and we're listening to selections from the Bill Savory collection.

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And I've been mentioning here and there the word radio

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remote votes and again for the uninitiated. Radio remotes were

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live broadcasts from ballrooms, clubs, or outdoor events musical events.

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Engineers at the venue mixed the band live and the

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station then transmitted it. So Bill Savory captured the final

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version exactly as the network sent it out.

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And now as I look at the Savory.

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Rundown, here but a little Ella from the collection, I'm

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saving myself for you. Ella Fitzgerald on the radio with

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the Leith Scott Orchestra, recorded in nineteen thirty eight.

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I have been saven my soul for you. Just do

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no one, but.

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I've speak my heart and your name.

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It's for you to claim some day.

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Then behave in myself for you, just you, no one

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but you, because you'd never forgive O kiss.

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I my give away.

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I'll keep myself to myself and in the long run,

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not Wind, I'll.

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Keep myself to myself because I know, oh, that you

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been save and.

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Your love for MEU, just.

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Me and comeward made until weird together.

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I'm saving my soul for I'll keep myself to myself.

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And in the long Runaldwin, I'll keep myself to myself because.

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You've been saving.

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For me, just me and come me.

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Until we're together, saving myself for you.

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So Bill Savory worked specific after hours, staying in his studio,

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the studio where he worked full time, and during the

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time that he was able to spend after work, he

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basically preserved the real sound of the Savoy Ballroom, the

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Golden Gate Ballroom, Cafe Society, Fiesta, Dance Ateria, the Famous Door,

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and the Onyx Club. These were the most convenient broadcasts

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for him to capture, and these clubs were the heartbeat,

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mostly in New York City of pre war jazz.

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Well here's.

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Well, here's another nice pull from the radio by Bill

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Savory when Buddhist Smiles Bob Crosby and his orchestra on

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the CBS Radio network in nineteen thirty nine. I'm gonna

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go way back to the start of the broadcast where

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I mentioned the Carnival of Swaying. We opened with Account

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Basie number that emanated from that event, and I would

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have to say one of Savory's greatest achievements was capturing

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the nineteen thirty eight Carnival of Swing. The Carnival of

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Swing was the first outdoor jazz festival in history. I

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think over twenty thousand people attended. We discussed this before

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in the ballroom, and I think next week I might

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devote some time to talking to you about the Carnival

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of Swing. So Bassie, Ella Hampton and dozens of other

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bands played on Randalls Island in New York City for

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this first time ever Carnival of Swing. Now, to my knowledge,

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only Bill Savory preserved any music from the Carnival of Swing.

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Let's go back to Count Basie during his set at

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the Carnival, with every tub made the twenty ninth, nineteen

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thirty eight.

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US about the most must the child y.

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I'm Jeff Bresler. This is the Make Believe Ballroom. If

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you'd like to hear past programs in this series, there

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are well over two hundred of them. You could go

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to MakeBelieve Ballroom dot com. That's MakeBelieve Ballroom dot com.

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Or you could also go to your favorite podcast provider,

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whether that be oh Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio. We are certainly

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on all of them. Archive of past programs in the

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Make Believe Ballroom series on your favorite podcast provider or

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make Believe Ballroom dot com.

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Now.

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Bill Savory devoted a good portion of his time to

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capturing these remote broadcasts, and you might say to yourself, well,

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that's kind of feudal stations also save these recordings, And

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the answer is no. I don't think many people at

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the time realized they were living through one of the

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most significant periods in American history, the big band, jazz

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and swing era. So didn't pay much credence to the

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shows they were broadcasting, but equally as important, stations didn't

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keep these broadcasts because the laquer discs we were discussing

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were very expensive and before nineteen forty, there was no tape.

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You know today obviously things are laid down in digital

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or on tape, but that didn't exist back then. So unfortunately,

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when the music was over, it was basically gone forever.

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Bill Savory knew this and quietly intervened. And oh boy,

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oh my god, oh my goodness. Speaking of intervened, I

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just looked at the clock, the big bull of a

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clock here in the Crystal studio, and realize we are

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just about out of time. I thought we'd have more time.

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It just flew by.

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Well.

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I hope you enjoyed this little trip into radio history

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as we trace the great radio engineer, Bill Savory and

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his one man mission, his dedicated mission to record as

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many live radio remote broadcasts as possible in the mid

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to late thirty into the nineteen forties to ensure that

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the music would live on, and live on. Indeed it has,

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because if it wasn't for a Bill Savory, none of

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the music that I played today would have been available

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to play at all. I'm going to now go out

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with Joe Marcella from the Savory collection on the radio

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with Jazz Me Blues. I'll see you all next week.

Make Believe Ballroom - 12/12/25 Edition

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