1948 HUNTINGTON BEACH
The poster shows that Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band returned to the Pavalon Ballroom, this time billed as "the Greatest Jazz Band in America", after their concert at the Carnegie Hall on April 30th, 1948.
The building is the "Pav-a-lon", an entertainment venue built by the Works Project Administration in 1938 at the foot of the Huntington Beach Pier. This photo was purportedly taken July 4, 1946. Notice the banner announcing "Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band" at the Pav-a-lon.
This building most recently served as Maxwell's restaurant before being torn down to make way for Duke's.
Hello Ellen
As one of the three editors of the Kid Ory website I was thrilled to read your post about the Kid.
Would you be willing to tell me more about your recollections of seeing and hearing Kid Ory's band live at the entertainment venue Pav-a-lon 1948 in Huntington Beach, and would you agree to let us publish them on our site ?
Best regards,
Louis
When searching the web for information about Kid Ory, Louis Iosub found Ellen Griffith´s homepage and learned that Ellen had listened and talked to Kid Ory and the band at Pavalon:
Louis wrote the following mail to Ellen:
She presented the following nice autographed picture of Kid Ory and a tribute to the trombone pioneer.
Hi Louis
Well, thanks for your interest, but it was 60 years ago, and I wasn't taking notes, so there's not much else I can tell you. We were all record collectors and music historians.
There was no Google, very few reissues, and hardly any research had been done on early jazz records, so we were constantly pestering the band to fill in lacking information on any sessions they had played.
They were very patient with us, but they sometimes went and hid on their breaks, and we understood why. Ory was the least informative, seeming to tell us what he thought we wanted to hear. I do remember that one of the guys, I think it was Ram Hall, gave us his secret crawfishing spot, and we made good use of it.
I've got a lot of Ory photos, all of which I lent to Babette Ory to copy, so I think they are all part of the official Ory archives if any.
My blog is only two month old, and as I continue there will be more music history. I don't know exactly what yet.
Good luck, and I like your website.
Ellen
Ellen gave the following informative and highly interesting reply :
(Ellen has sent us her photos, which are incorporated in the Kid Ory website).
The Huntington Beach Pier.
