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Pee Wee Hunt

Walter Gerhardt "Pee Wee" Hunt (May 10, 1907 – June 22, 1979) was an American jazz trombonist, vocalist, and bandleader. Hunt was born in Mount Healthy, Ohio. He developed a musical interest at an early age, as his mother, Sadie, played the banjo and his father, Edgar C., played violin. He had a younger sister, Marian, and younger brother, Raymond. The teenage Hunt was a banjoist with a local band while he was attending college at Ohio State University, where he majored in Electrical Engineering, and during his college years he switched from banjo to trombone. He graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He joined Jean Goldkette's Orchestra in 1928.

Hunt was the co-founder and featured trombonist with the Casa Loma Orchestra, but he left the group in 1943 to work as a Hollywood radio disc jockey, before joining the Merchant Marine near the end of World War II. He returned to the West Coast music scene in 1946. His "Twelfth Street Rag" was a three million-selling, number one hit in September 1948. He was satirized as Pee Wee Runt and his All-Flea Dixieland Band in Tex Avery's animated MGM cartoon Dixieland Droopy (1954). His second major hit was "Oh!" (1953), his second million-selling disc, which reached number three in the Billboard chart.

At age 72, Hunt died after a long illness in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Hunt and his wife, Ruth, had a daughter, Holly, and a son, Lawrence.

Birth and Death Data: Born May 10, 1907 (Mount Healthy), Died June 22, 1979 (Plymouth)

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1930 - 1943

Roles Represented in DAHR: trombone, vocalist

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings (Results 76-100 of 282 records)

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Decca 61578 10-in. 2/4/1937 Whoa, babe! Glen Gray Orchestra vocalist, instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 61579 10-in. 2/4/1937 The Goblin band Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 61580 12-in. 2/4/1937 Paramour Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 61952 10-in. 2/16/1937 Too marvelous for words Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 61953 10-in. 2/16/1937 Zig-zag Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 61954 10-in. 2/16/1937 Sentimental and melancholy Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 61955 10-in. 2/16/1937 Drifting apart Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62031 10-in. 3/5/1937 I'd be a fool again Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62032 10-in. 3/5/1937 You're here, you're there Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62033 10-in. 3/5/1937 Was it rain? Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62034 10-in. 3/5/1937 Love is good for anything that ails you Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62035 10-in. 3/5/1937 One, two, three little hours Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62082 10-in. 3/30/1937 There's a lull in my life Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62083 10-in. 3/30/1937 Would you like to build a dream? Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62084 10-in. 3/30/1937 Never in a million years Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62085 10-in. 3/30/1937 I remember Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62745 10-in. 11/3/1937 I've got my heart set on you Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62746 10-in. 11/3/1937 Have you met Miss Jones? Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62747 10-in. 11/3/1937 In the mission by the sea Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62748 10-in. 11/3/1937 Farewell, my love Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62749 10-in. 11/3/1937 I'd rather be right Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62796 10-in. 11/19/1937 You took the words right out of my heart Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62797 10-in. 11/19/1937 The waltz lives on Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62798 10-in. 11/19/1937 Thanks for the memory Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca 62799 10-in. 11/19/1937 Mama, that moon is here again Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
(Results 76-100 of 282 records)

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Hunt, Pee Wee," accessed November 22, 2024, https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/106359.

Hunt, Pee Wee. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved November 22, 2024, from https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/106359.

"Hunt, Pee Wee." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 22 November 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adpprod2.library.ucsb.edu/names/106359

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