Henry Jerome
Henry Jerome (November 12, 1917 – March 23, 2011) was an American big band leader, trumpeter, arranger, composer, and record company executive. Jerome formed his first dance band in 1932 in Norwich, Connecticut. His bands flourished throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. He became an A&R director at Decca Records in 1959 and at Coral, a Decca subsidiary, in the late 1960s. Career Jerome attended primary and secondary schools in Norwich, public for the former and Norwich Free Academy for the latter. He attended the Juilliard School of Music, studying trumpet with Max Schlossberg and composition and orchestration with William Vacchiano. Jerome formed his first professional orchestra while in 1931 when he was 14. In high school he received an offer from the American Export Lines for his orchestra to perform on a ship sailing from New York to Europe. Without quitting school, Jerome secured permission from the Norwich Free Academy to accept the job. Henry Jerome and His Orchestra performed at clubs, hotels, ballrooms, and theaters throughout the United States, and began performing on radio and TV in 1940. On February 28, 1948, the band was scheduled to perform at the Green Room of the Hotel Edison in