Theodore Salvatore Fiorito (December 20, 1900 – July 22, 1971), known professionally as Ted Fio Rito, was an American composer, orchestra leader and keyboardist (on both the piano and the Hammond organ) who was popular on national radio broadcasts in the 1920s and 30s. His name is sometimes given as Ted Fiorito or Ted FioRito.

Biography

He was born Teodorico Salvatore Fiorito in Newark, New Jersey

Newark, New Jersey

Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...

 to an Italian immigrant couple, tailor Louis (Luigi) Fiorito and Eugenia Cantalupo Fiorito, when they were both 21 years old; and he was delivered by a midwife at their 293 15th Avenue residence. Ted Fiorito attended Barringer High School

Barringer High School

Barringer High School, formerly Newark High School, is a four-year comprehensive public high school in Newark, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Newark Public Schools. Some consider it to be the third oldest public high school in the United States...

 in Newark.

He was still in his teens when he landed a job in 1919 as a pianist at Columbia's New York City recording studio, working with the Harry Yerkes bands—the Yerkes Novelty Five, Yerkes' Jazarimba Orchestra and the Happy Six. His earliest compositions were recorded by the Yerkes groups and Art Highman's band. Fio Rito had numerous hit recordings, notably his two number one hits, “My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii” (1934) and “I’ll String Along with You” (1934). He composed more than 100 songs, collaborating with such lyricists as Ernie Erdman, Gus Kahn

Gus Kahn

Gustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...

, Sam Lewis

Sam M. Lewis

Sam M. Lewis was a Jewish-American singer and lyricist, born in New York City, New York as Samuel Levine-Biography:...

, Cecil Mack

Cecil Mack

Cecil Mack was an American composer, lyricist and music publisher....

, Albert Von Tilzer

Albert Von Tilzer

Albert Von Tilzer was an American songwriter, the younger brother of fellow songwriter Harry Von Tilzer. He wrote the music to many hit songs, including, most notably, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game"....

 and Joe Young.

He moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1921 to join Dan Russo's band, and the following year he was the co-leader of Russo and Fio Rito's Oriole Orchestra. When Russo and Fio Rito opened at Detroit, Michigan's Oriole Terrace, their band was renamed the Oriole Terrace Orchestra. Their first recordings (May 1922) included Fio Rito's "Soothing." He did "Sleep" and other tunes for the AMPICO Reproducing Piano.

Radio remotes

The band returned to Chicago for a booking at the Edgewater Beach Hotel

Edgewater Beach Hotel

The Edgewater Beach Hotel was a hotel in the far-north neighborhood community of Edgewater in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1916 and owned by John Tobin Connery and James Patrick Connery, it was located between Sheridan Road and Lake Michigan at Berwyn Avenue. The complex had a private beach and...

, where they did their first radio remote broadcast

Big band remote

A big band remote was a remote broadcast, popular on radio during the 1930s and 1940s, involving a coast-to-coast live transmission of a big band.As early as 1923, listeners could tune in The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra...

 on March 29, 1924. In August 1925, the Russo-Fio Rito orchestra opened Chicago's new Uptown Theatre. They opened the famous Aragon Ballroom in July 1926, doing radio remotes nationally from both the Aragon and the Trianon ballrooms. Dan Russo left the band in 1928, and Fio Rito took over as leader, touring the midwest with engagements in St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati.

In August 1929, the band's first recording without Russo featured Ted Lewis

Ted Lewis (musician)

Theodore Leopold Friedman, better known as Ted Lewis , was an American entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician. He led a band presenting a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaltzy sentimentality that was a hit with the American public. He was known by the moniker "Mr...

 on clarinet and vocal. Billed as Ted Fio Rito and His Edgewater Beach Hotel Orchestra, they headed for San Francisco to fill in for the Anson Weeks

Anson Weeks

Anson Weeks was leader of a popular West Coast dance band in the late 1920s through the 1960s, primarily in San Francisco. His first recording was in Oakland on February 7, 1925, but it was not successful.He formed his first band in 1924 and had key hotel jobs in Oakland and Sacramento...

 orchestra at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.

Radio in the 1930s

Fio Rito reached a national audience through syndicated and network radio programs. In Chicago, the band was heard on the Brunswick Brevities program, and they were the featured orchestra on NBC's Skelly Gasoline Show in New York. They broadcast on many 1930s radio programs, including The Old Gold Hour, Hollywood Hotel, The Al Jolson Show, Frigidaire Frolics and Clara, Lu, and Em

Clara, Lu, and Em

Clara, Lu, and Em was radio's first network daytime soap opera, beginning June 16, 1930 over WGN-AM Chicago, Illinois. It continued through the 1930s and early 1940s on the NBC Blue Network and CBS, finally airing as a syndicated series in 1945...

.

The Fio Rito Orchestra's vocalists included Jimmy Baxter, Candy Candido

Candy Candido

Candy Candido was an American radio performer, bass player, vocalist and animation voice actor, best remembered for his famous line, "I'm feeling mighty low."...

, the Debutantes, Betty Grable

Betty Grable

Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...

, June Haver

June Haver

June Haver , was an American film actress. She is most well known as a popular star of 20th Century-Fox musicals in the late 1940s, most notably The Dolly Sisters with Betty Grable and John Payne and also for playing the 1920s Broadway actress Marilyn Miller in Look for the Silver Lining...

, the Mahoney Sisters, Muzzy Marcellino

Muzzy Marcellino

Maurice "Muzzy" Marcellino was an American singer and musician, known primarily for his clear, melodious style of whistling....

, Joy Lane (1947–1951), Billy Murray (the Denver Nightingale), Maureen O’Connor, Patti Palmer (birth name Esther Calonico), Kay and Ward Swingle

Ward Swingle

Ward Swingle is an American vocalist and jazz musician.Swingle was born in Mobile, Alabama. He studied music, particularly jazz, from a very young age. He was playing in Mobile-area Big Bands before finishing high school. After high school, Swingle graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati...

.

During the 1940s, the band’s popularity diminished, but Fio Rito continued to perform in Chicago and Arizona. He played in Las Vegas during the 1960s. In his last years, he led a small combo at venues throughout California and Nevada until his death in Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...

 from a heart attack. He is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in the Mission Hills community of northern Los Angeles.

Recordings

Fio Rito made his first records for Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 in 1929, then recorded for Victor from late 1929 through 1930. In late 1930, his did a session for Hit of the Week Records

Hit of the Week Records

Hit of the Week Records was a record label based in the United States of America in the early 1930s. Distinctively, "Hit of the Week"s were made not of shellac as was usual for gramophone record of the era, but of a patented blend of paper and resin called Durium...

. He then signed with Brunswick

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

 in late 1932, remaining there until 1935. He signed with Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 in early 1936 and remained through at least 1942. He also did a single session for Bluebird

Bluebird Records

Bluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter the American Record Company in the "3 records for a dollar" market. Along with ARC's Perfect Records, Melotone Records and Romeo Records, and the independent US Decca label, Bluebird became one of the best...

 in 1940.

Most of his recording sessions were in San Francisco and Los Angeles, although his band recorded in Chicago.

Songs and recordings

• "Toot, Toot Tootsie!"
• "Charley, My Boy
  Charley, My Boy
  "Charley, My Boy" is a song written by Gus Kahn and Ted Fiorito in 1924. The sheet music was published for voice and piano. The refrain is four lines, of which the first two are:...
  
  "
• "Alone at Last"
• "No, No Nora"
• "When Lights Are Low"
• "Sometime"
• "I Never Knew"
• "Drifting Apart"
• "Laugh, Clown, Laugh"
• "King for a Day"
• "Then You’ve Never Been Blue"

• "Now That You’re Gone"
• "Three on a Match"
• "Kalua Lullaby"
• "I Want Somebody to Cheer Me Up"
• "I’m Sorry Sally"
• "Nothing on My Mind"
• "When the Moon Hangs High"
• "Roll Along, Prairie Moon"
• "Alone at a Table for Two"
• "Yours Truly"
• "Lily of Laguna"

Listen to

• "Boogie Woogie Lullaby," remote from the Naval Air Station at Banana River, Florida (August 1945)
• "Charley, My Boy": Ted Fio Rito Orchestra with Billy Murray vocal (1924)
• "Night in Manhattan": Ted Fio Rito Orchestra with Muzzy Marcellino vocal
• "Sleep" AMPICO Piano Roll

External links

• Liner notes by Jeff Hopkins (August 2002)