Biography for
Harry James (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

15 March 1916, Albany, Georgia, USA

Date of Death

5 July 1983, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (lymphatic cancer)

Birth Name

Harry Haag James

Mini Biography

Harry James was born in a rundown hotel next door to the city jail in Albany, Georgia. His mother and father were members of a circus, she as a trapeze artist and he a bandleader with the Mighty Haag Circus. At seven Harry played drums and his family moved to Beaumont, Texas. At 12 he played trumpet in the Christy Brothers circus band. In 1936 James joined Ben Pollack's band and left to lead the brass section in Benny Goodman's band. After three years with Goodman, he wanted to leave, and with Goodman's backing he formed the Music Makers. In 1943 he married pinup queen Betty Grable, his second of four wives. He was also married to Louise Tobin, a singer. Grable kept appearing in movies and Harry kept playing while they raised horses. He made his debut in Philadelphia at the Ben Franklin Hotel and soon was a nationwide favorite of dance lovers and jazz addicts alike while rocking the rafters at the Hollywood Paladium, Chicago's famous College Inn at the Hotel Sherman, Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook in Cedar Cove, NJ, and then onto New York City. It was the Lincoln Hotel that the Music Makers called home in New York City, but James also starred at the Paramount Theater in the spring of 1943 when thousands of teenagers flocked to see him. His version of "You Made Me Love You" was a big hit and a favorite of many through the war years (he once applied to Lawrence Welk's band but was turned down because they said he played too loud and it was not Welk's style). James was a great discoverer of talent, finding Frank Sinatra working as a waiter in a New Jersey restaurant and giving him a job singing in his band. Dick Haymes, Kitty Kallen, Connie Haines and Helen Forrest can all thank James for giving them their first real break. In 1963 his band was featured at Disneyland and they were still known as the Music Makers. He played his last gig at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on June 26, 1983, just a few days before dying of lymphatic cancer.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Mike McKinley

Spouse

Betty Grable	(5 July 1943 - 10 September 1965) (divorced) Children: Victoria Elizabeth,Jessica.
Louise Tobin	(4 May 1935 - ?) Children:Harry Jefferey,Timothy Ray.

Trivia

Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1983.

His son, Tim James, was an attorney working with the then Attorey General of Texas and became responsible for enticing TV personality Marvin Zindler of Houston to investigate the famous Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, Texas - eventually closing it down. The story became the basis of the Broadway and movie musical, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982).

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 421-422. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

When traveling with his circus parents he was billed as "The Youngest Contortionist in the World".

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6683 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Entombed in Eden Vale Mausoleum, Las Vegas, Nevada.

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