A Date with the Duke: Ellington on Radio

Abstract

So far as we were concerned, the engagement at the Cotton Club was of the utmost significance, because as a result of its radio wire we were heard nationally and internationally. The mere fact that Ellington was being heard nationwide made him important to listeners. … As a consequence of this celebrity, he was seen by many as a spokesman both for jazz and for his race. He was interviewed frequently by newspapers and magazines; there was a story in Time as early as 1933. A good many Ellington fans on the “solid” side may be somewhat surprised to learn that the Duke's taste runs the musical gamut. For example, he definitely goes for the sweet dance rhythm of Guy Lombardo and Vaughn Monroe, both of whom get top-ratings with him. From 1926 until his death in 1974, Duke Ellington was an enduring presence on American airwaves, first as a curiosity on local radio, then as an exotic attraction on network radio, and finally as a senior statesman as part of the sputtering endgame of jazz on American television. Ellington's rapid rise from an unknown, scuffling Washington transplant to major celebrity has been attributed to his fortuitous radio exposure during his Cotton Club residency. Ellington himself has said as much. But surprisingly little has been written about Ellington and radio. That is to say, much has been written affirming that Ellington appeared on the radio, appearing in fact often for a black bandleader, but little has been written about Ellington's radio career itself and the relationships that made it happen. Ellington and his manager, Irving Mills, had a bold strategy for “marketing” Ellington—although I doubt they would have used that exact term—that succeeded in positioning the bandleader as more than just that, but as a composer, artist, and celebrity as well. Radio was to play an important part of that strategy.