Henry Hall

Born as Henry Robert Hall on 2 May 1898 in Peckham, London, England, the musician died on 28 October 1989 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. Three musical scholarships enabled studies in piano, trumpet and harmony at the Trinity School of Music. During his teenage years he served the Salvation Army and composed marches, adapting one of them, ‘The Sunshine March’, into the BBC radio closing theme ‘Here’s To The Next Time’. Following officer service with the Royal Artillery in World War I, he assembled the trio Variety Three. Its 1922 dissolution led to a relief-pianist post at the LMS Railway’s Midland Hotel in Manchester. The following year he advanced to resident band leader there and, for the ensuing decade, acted as musical director for the LMS Group of more than thirty hotels while continuing to front his own trumpet-led ensemble. His first broadcast originated from the Gleneagles hotel in 1924, the same year Columbia Records sessions began. National recognition arrived in 1932 when Lord Reith selected him to succeed Jack Payne at the head of the BBC Dance Orchestra. Initial doubts concerning his understated style, so different from the showmanship common among 1930s dance bands, proved groundless; under his unassuming leadership and solid musicianship the orchestra attained greater popularity than its predecessor. The sole theatrical touch remained the electric-blue uniforms that Reith required even for unseen radio performances. In 1933 Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra supplied the first broadcast from Radio City, New York, and shared top billing with Gracie Fields at the opening of Europe’s largest cinema, the Gaumont State in Kilburn, north London. He also served as guest conductor aboard the Queen Mary on its maiden voyage. Credited by some observers as the first ‘chat’ show, Henry Hall’s Guest Night eventually ran to nearly 1,000 editions.

Contemporary hits formed the core of each programme, which also presented entertainers such as Flanagan and Allen, Elsie And Doris Waters, Noël Coward and Gracie Fields. Delivered with characteristic hesitancy, Hall’s signature introduction—“This is Henry Hall speaking, and tonight is my Guest Night”—launched a series that continued intermittently for roughly twenty years, even after he left the BBC in 1937 to tour Britain with a sixteen-piece orchestra. Touring persisted for another ten years alongside regular broadcasts. Early in 1948 he disbanded the orchestra to devote himself to Henry Hall Enterprises, an agency handling dance bands, compositions, plays and films. Later that year he assumed management of Blackpool’s Grand Theatre, where a new band accompanied artists he had discovered, among them Donald Peers, Norman Wisdom, David Hughes and Reginald Dixon; Vera Lynn was rejected on the grounds that her voice was unsuitable for broadcasting. Recording activity remained limited by broadcast duties and the obligation to supply “something for everybody.” The first discs issued under the BBC Dance Orchestra name were Bing Crosby’s theme song ‘Where The Blue Of The Night (Meets The Gold Of The Day)’ and ‘Songs That Are Old Live Forever’. Further releases included ‘What’s The Name Of That Song’, ‘One, Two, Button Your Shoe’, ‘Butterflies In The Rain’, ‘Eccentric’, ‘Little Man You’ve Had A Busy Day’, ‘The Man On The Flying Trapeze’, ‘Southern Holiday’, ‘East Wind’ and the signature tunes ‘It’s Just The Time For Dancing’ and ‘Here’s To The Next Time’. His vocal version of ‘The Teddy Bear’s Picnic’ has remained a perennial children’s favourite. The sole US chart entry, ‘Play To Me Gypsy’, arrived in 1934. In 1936 jazz musician Benny Carter was engaged to perform and arrange, though union restrictions curtailed his contributions. Hall continued conducting for recordings and radio, delivering his final broadcast as a band leader in 1969 and making occasional television appearances until 1970, notably on the BBC series Face The Music. At the height of his popularity one of radio’s most familiar figures reputedly received 35,000 letters annually while maintaining eight broadcasts a week. The CBE awarded in 1970 recognised fifty years of service to music.