George Olsen

George Edward Olsen Sr. (March 18, 1893 – March 18, 1971) was an American musician, bandleader, and Broadway performer born in Portland, Oregon. His orchestra's first hotel engagement took place at the Multnomah Hotel in Portland before he transitioned to a national career.

Olsen made his Broadway debut in Kid Boots in 1923, followed by appearances in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1924 and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925. He returned to Broadway with Good News in 1927, and in 1928 George Olsen and his orchestra performed in Eddie Cantor's hit production Whoopee!, a role the orchestra reprised in the 1930 film adaptation. His Broadway activity spanned the years 1923 to 1925 in the verified record, with the external sources extending his stage work through the late 1920s.

It was during his time with the Follies that Olsen met singer and dancer Ethel Shutta, who also appeared memorably in Whoopee!. The two married and performed together in nightclubs and on radio, including on the Oldsmobile Program on CBS in 1933. Olsen also served as orchestra leader for The Jack Benny Program on radio. He and Shutta had two children, George Jr. and Charles. Following their divorce, Olsen married Claralee Pilcer.

Olsen signed with Victor Records in 1924 and remained one of the label's most popular bandleaders until 1933, when he signed with Columbia and recorded through January 1934. He recorded a single session for Decca in 1938 and one final date for the Varsity label in 1940. His partial discography includes recordings made primarily in 1924, among them "Beale Street Blues," "My Best Girl," "Nancy," and "Sax-o-phun," as well as "Horses" in 1926 and "Lullaby of the Leaves" in 1932.

Among the musicians who passed through Olsen's bands, singer-saxophonist Fred MacMurray performed with the group in 1930, recording a vocal on "I'm in the Market for You" before pursuing a film career. Alto saxophonist and singer Fran Frey, known for his bass-baritone voice, was a long-time member of the orchestra until he departed in 1933 to work as a music director in radio.

In 1936, following the death of bandleader Orville Knapp in a plane crash, Knapp's widow selected Olsen to take over leadership of the band. Morale difficulties beset the group, and it disbanded in 1938 after numerous musicians had already departed.

In his later years, Olsen operated a restaurant called George Olsen's on Paramus Road in Paramus, New Jersey. A 1968 New York Times review by John S. Wilson of the RCA-Victor retrospective album "George Olsen and His Music" noted that Olsen was present at the restaurant daily to greet guests at lunch and dinner, with his original recordings from the 1920s playing in the background. Olsen died in Paramus on March 18, 1971, his seventy-eighth birthday.