Biography
A virtuoso pianist whose influence stretched back to the dawn of the recording industry, Victor Arden launched his New York career by producing both piano rolls and piano transcriptions. Born John Fuiks, he obtained a music degree from the University of Chicago before continuing his studies at the American Conservatory of Music. He settled in the city in 1903, a period when most households relied on a resident pianist and the latest sheet music or piano rolls for entertainment. His extensive catalog of rolls earned him the title “King of the Piano Roll.” The piano’s central role in home entertainment began to shift with the rise of commercial recordings, a field Arden entered alongside pianist Phil Ohman. Together they formed the Arden-Ohman Orchestra, which scored several hits during the 1930s, among them “I Love a Parade” and “Fine and Dandy.” Beginning in 1925 and continuing for ten years, different incarnations of the ensemble performed in the orchestra pits of numerous long-running Broadway productions while committing primarily show tunes to disc. Arden and Ohman routinely maintained one ensemble for stage work and another for studio dates, where fresh sides were cut at a rapid pace. Much of Arden’s inventive arranging and keyboard work appeared on inexpensive “dimestore dance” records priced at ten cents in outlets such as Woolworths. The pair had first collaborated as a piano duo, appearing regularly in 52nd Street nightclubs. Their initial recording session captured “Dance of the Demon,” “Raga Muffin,” and “Canadian Capers.” In 1924 they joined the pit band for the Broadway musical Lady Be Good, the first of many such engagements that included Tip Toes in 1926 and Spring Is Here in 1929. National recognition arrived through radio broadcasts that initially supplied background music for commercials and news reports and later evolved into the Arden-Ohman radio show by the late 1920s. After a short period in which each musician directed his own dance band, the two reunited to record for Brunswick in 1935. Between 1934 and 1937 Arden conducted NBC studio orchestras for the programs Kings of Melody, Broadway Varieties, and Sweetest Love Songs Ever. During the mid-1940s he appeared on Manhattan Merry-Go-Round, and later in the decade he performed on American Melody Hour. In the 1950s he led an orchestra supporting matinee idol Dick Powell, yielding several hits that included “Lonely Gondola.” One of his last undertakings was directing the All Stars Trio, the same group he had played with during the piano-roll era.
Albums
