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Earlier in this exhibition, we referred to Duke Ellington's statement regarding Whiteman's "opening of doors for musicians," and the impact that it would later have. In that same regard, and in addition to his influence on the numerous, other singing, composing, and instrumental careers already mentioned, the huge demands of Whiteman's weekly radio broadcasts, first with CBS and later with NBC, would also lead to his hiring of one of the most important African-American composers and arrangers of the time, William Grant Still.
A former student of Paris-born composer Edgard Varèse, Still's work with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra would become an important catalyst for his numerous, later achievements as the first black American composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra (Afro-American Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, 1930);
to conduct a white broadcast orchestra (Deep River Hour, 1932); to conduct a major symphony orchestra
(Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl, 1936); and to receive a series of commissions from leading
American orchestra companies across the country.
In describing the lifelong relationship that would develop between Whiteman and Still, Still's widow, concert pianist Verna Avery, would later explain "My husband always acknowledged the Paul Whiteman experience as being one of the most satisfying in his life. The two men remained friends long after their professional association had ended."
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Returning to Los Angeles on June 6, 1929, the Whiteman Orchestra reported to Universal Studios to
begin filming for the Carl Leammle production "King of Jazz." Due to the array of complexities
involved in the production, final filming, effects generation, and editing would ultimately take more
than ten months to complete, but would eventually result in numerous, technical innovations, as well
as an Academy Award for Whitman's long-time set-designer Herman Rosse. Shot entirely in a revolutionary new format known as "Technicolor," Whiteman's film debut would not only become the second all-talking, all-color picture to emerge from Hollywood, but it would also include the first color cartoon to be used in a motion picture, as well as later go on to become the first Technicolor feature to take home the Oscar.
During filming, Whiteman himself would also become responsible for a new, cinematic innovation, revolutionizing the music recording process for talking pictures. Through his insistence on the singers and orchestra members "pre-recording" all of the music for their on-camera scenes, and then synchronizing their performances to those recordings, his method would become the first instance of a motion picture soundtrack being made independently of the actual filming process (a now long-accepted standard in modern filmmaking).
During the twelve-week shooting schedule for "King of Jazz," a variety of humorous incidents are also reported to have taken place with Whiteman on the set. In one case, while walking across the Universal back lot, a young assistant director, who surprisingly didn't recognize Whiteman, had supposedly offered him a part in the film "All Quiet on the Western Front," explaining that he was "just the right type for the camp cook."
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More than ten years later, in this 1943 photo of Whiteman conducting a Lewisohn Stadium performance of
the New York
Philharmonic, accompanied by the Whiteman Orchestra, an enthusiastic audience of 18000
was treated to a musical program containing such defining American works as Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo,"
Don Redman's "Chant of the Weed," and John Jacob Loeb's "Jazz Bolero," as well as John Green's
innovative work for three pianos entitled "Night Club." With nearly all of the works
containing provocative sections, Whiteman would continue to affirm his commitment to both the discovery
and advancement of American music.
Some fourteen years earlier, in an interview discussing the launch of his "Old Gold" radio series, Whiteman
would perhaps best describe his lifelong dedication to carrying on the musical "experiment" that he and
George Gershwin had first begun at Aeolian Hall, in the winter of 1924, when stating "what interests me
about my extended broadcast venture is what the public is going to teach me about music. Let's have a
nationwide jury of music critics … when it is all over, I want to know more about what the American
public likes than anyone has ever known before."
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