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Concluding their European performances with an extended stay in the French capital of Paris, the Whiteman Orchestra would continue to thrill Parisian audiences, and would again attract numerous, leading conductors, composers, musicians, and international figures to their shows. In an opening night review of their Champs Élysées performance, an oversees correspondent for the New York Telegram would report "What Paul Whiteman and his band do to a Paris audience should be prohibited by law. It shouldn't be allowed. It isn't good for people to become so excited. They don't merely shout and applaud. They become exhausted."
It would not be until two years after their successful, 1926 tour of Europe that the Whiteman Orchestra would receive a distinguished visit from French composer Maurice Ravel, in New York. Seen in the accompanying photo with Whiteman, Ravel visited a studio rehearsal of the band during his own, four-month travels throughout the United States, on a tour that included conducting, performing, interviews, and an extensive lecture series entitled "Contemporary Music." Ravel's visit would also coincide with the completion of his newest, jazz-influenced, classical work "Sonata for Violin and Piano."
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In a rare photo taken during one of his many engagements in 1920s Los Angeles, Whiteman can be seen here visiting with several of his long-time, Hollywood friends at the United Artists studio lot. Accompanied by business manager Jimmie Gillespie (right) and tour director William Morris, Jr. (second from right), this marvelous document shows Whiteman surrounded by what had been many of his earliest supporters in Los Angeles, including Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Jr., Charlie Chaplin, and comedian Charlie Murray.
Paul Whiteman's numerous, repeat performances throughout Hollywood and Southern California had, by this time, included venues such as the Alexandria Hotel, Ambassador Hotel, Biltmore Hotel, Palomar Ballroom, El Patio Ballroom, Trianon Ballroom, Edgewater Club, Roma Café, Metropolitan Theatre, Maryland Hotel, La Monica Ballroom, Pantages Theatre, and Belvedere Hotel, as well as at countless private events. More importantly, by this period in his now unsurpassed musical career, Whiteman had also assembled a remarkable group of musicians, arrangers, and singers for his growing orchestra.
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On January 4, 1928, the now thirty-four member Paul Whiteman Orchestra would grace the cover of Variety Magazine and begin the new year with an extraordinary roster of talent that included Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Bix Beiderbeck, and many other up-and-coming musical legends of the era. Continuing throughout his lifetime, Whiteman's search for the finest musical performers, composers, and arrangers would also go on to help establish the early career of beloved singer, lyricist, and founder of Capitol Records, Johnny Mercer.
Much like Whiteman's introduction to so many of the other aspiring artists he would meet during his travels, in cities across both the U.S. and Europe, his first introduction to the young, twenty-three-year-old Mercer would take place through one of Whiteman's own, national talent searches. In Mercer's case, his 1932 audition for Whiteman had occurred at NBC's Times Square Theatre, in New York, as part of an open talent call that had brought-out more than three-hundred, hopeful candidates.
Once hearing Mercer sing, Whiteman would not only proclaim him winner of the New York contest but also of the national competition. As a result, on March 25, 1932, the young artist from Savannah, Georgia, was introduced as the "Pontiac Youth of America" contest winner, and performed with the Whiteman Orchestra on a coast-to-coast broadcast from New York's famed Palace Theatre. The following year, with Big Crosby leaving the Whiteman Orchestra to embark on his own Hollywood film career, Johnny Mercer would later officially join the group as Crosby's replacement.
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