How to Lead a Name Band

As an investment, a band is like a Broadway show. If it pays, it pays off handsomely. Exactly one year ago a prosperous Manhattan song publisher invested in a 4-F music-arranger.

Last week slim, dark-haired George Paxton, 30, joined the glossy fraternity of "name-band" ' leaders. Simultaneously, Paxton's financial backer began to look forward to dividends on a $35,000 investment. All in a breathless few days the young man who was unknown as a bandleader a year ago: 1) got the Glenn Miller trophy for the best new band of the year; 2) signed with Columbia Pictures; 3) added the Los Angeles Palladium Ballroom to bookings at Manhattan's coveted Paramount Theater and Pennsylvania Hotel.

What happened to George Paxton has become the accepted formula for success as a name-band leader. First, there must be an "angel" who can be persuaded that the leader will click. Then there are hard months of rehearsing and harder months of trying out around the country. The immediate goal is a Manhattan booking with a big radio network hookup.

All told, the buildup seldom costs less than $40,000 (Glenn Miller needed $60,000; Artie Shaw $65,000). During the costly prestige-building months, the weekly take is small. But once the film, radio and record contracts start rolling in, the reckoning is in five figures.

From the start, serious, levelheaded Paxton was a sound investment. The son of two lieutenant colonels in the Salvation Army, he learned early to blow a variety of horns in soul-saving bands. He spent ten years as a name-band arranger. During the past year, he has worked some 17 hours a day rehearsing, scurrying after contracts, exploring songs. He is not wide-eyed about success: "It's harder to stay there than to get there."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.