Biography
Don Bestor ranks among those recording artists whose lasting fame rests partly on a commercial jingle he supplied for a single product. The item in question was Jello, and the three-note motif “J-E-L-L-L-O” originated while Bestor worked with the Jack Benny Show. Anyone acquainted with Benny’s broadcasts recognizes the phrase “Play, Don, Play!” as the comedian’s habitual, dyspeptic cue for his bandleader. Bestor himself began studying piano at sixteen and soon entered vaudeville. In the early 1920s he organized his own dance orchestra, an undertaking that proved financially punishing. Relief arrived when he accepted leadership of the established Benson Orchestra, succeeding the popular Roy Bargy whose tenure had elevated the ensemble’s standing. Bestor remained in that post until 1925, directing the group from Chicago’s Marigold Gardens, a venue then notorious as a gathering spot for organized crime. Under his baton the Benson Orchestra cut “Copenhagen” and “In A Covered Wagon With You.”
Thereafter he fronted a succession of ensembles that recorded for Brunswick, among them the modestly titled “Teach Me to Smile” and “I’m Not Forgetting.” His musicians also supplied the accompaniment for Shirley Temple’s performance of “Animal Crackers In My Soup” in the motion picture Curly Top. The year 1933 brought a number-one hit with “Forty-Second Street,” inaugurating the strongest stretch of Bestor’s career. Radio exposure proved decisive: Benny’s network series, launched in 1934, reached millions of listeners, while a shorter run on the Walter O’Keefe Show added further visibility. Yet Bestor’s broadcasting phase proved brief. Once the radio work ended he returned to the ballrooms and theaters of the national vaudeville circuit. By 1943 declining popularity prompted retirement; vocalist Mildred Law remained with the final edition of the orchestra until that time.
Thereafter he fronted a succession of ensembles that recorded for Brunswick, among them the modestly titled “Teach Me to Smile” and “I’m Not Forgetting.” His musicians also supplied the accompaniment for Shirley Temple’s performance of “Animal Crackers In My Soup” in the motion picture Curly Top. The year 1933 brought a number-one hit with “Forty-Second Street,” inaugurating the strongest stretch of Bestor’s career. Radio exposure proved decisive: Benny’s network series, launched in 1934, reached millions of listeners, while a shorter run on the Walter O’Keefe Show added further visibility. Yet Bestor’s broadcasting phase proved brief. Once the radio work ended he returned to the ballrooms and theaters of the national vaudeville circuit. By 1943 declining popularity prompted retirement; vocalist Mildred Law remained with the final edition of the orchestra until that time.