[78-L] Mills Blue Rhythm to PAUL PENDARVIS?

[Harold Aherne]

The ever-trusty Ancestry.com reveals (in its Social Security records) a Paul Pendarvis
who lived from 2 December 1907 to January 1987, who could very well be the man
in question. The book "American Big Bands" by William F. Lee (Hal Leonard, 2005) 
gives the date and place of birth as Oklahoma, 1907. There was a Paul Pendarvis
in the 1920 census, age 12, living in Enid, OK with parents Earl and Pleiade (I'm
absolutely not kidding!) and sister Dorothy. 
 
As for the orchestra itself, mentions of it appear the LA Times society columns
by April 1928. The 22 June 1935 edition of that paper noted that the band had 
contracted to spend the summer at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco; they had 
opened there on 5 May and would have additional engagements there in 1936
and 1937, per newspaper accounts of the time. Mentions of him are rare after
1941, but it seems that he was still conducting a band in LA in the mid 50s, 
according to LAT references on 4 Sep 1953 and 16 Dec 1957.
 
-Harold

--- On Tue, 2/3/09, Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com> wrote:

From: Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
Subject: [78-L] Mills Blue Rhythm to PAUL PENDARVIS?
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 12:40 PM


BTW I am always looking for information, photos,  etc. related to the Paul 
Pendarvis Orch.

Taylor  (who also has and likes stuff ranging from Morton and Oliver to 
Miles and Bird)