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Pee Wee Hunt

Walter Gerhardt "Pee Wee" Hunt (May 10, 1907 – June 22, 1979) was an American jazz trombonist, vocalist, and bandleader. Hunt was born in Mount Healthy, Ohio. He developed a musical interest at an early age, as his mother, Sadie, played the banjo and his father, Edgar C., played violin. He had a younger sister, Marian, and younger brother, Raymond. The teenage Hunt was a banjoist with a local band while he was attending college at Ohio State University, where he majored in Electrical Engineering, and during his college years he switched from banjo to trombone. He graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He joined Jean Goldkette's Orchestra in 1928.

Hunt was the co-founder and featured trombonist with the Casa Loma Orchestra, but he left the group in 1943 to work as a Hollywood radio disc jockey, before joining the Merchant Marine near the end of World War II. He returned to the West Coast music scene in 1946. His "Twelfth Street Rag" was a three million-selling, number one hit in September 1948. He was satirized as Pee Wee Runt and his All-Flea Dixieland Band in Tex Avery's animated MGM cartoon Dixieland Droopy (1954). His second major hit was "Oh!" (1953), his second million-selling disc, which reached number three in the Billboard chart.

At age 72, Hunt died after a long illness in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Hunt and his wife, Ruth, had a daughter, Holly, and a son, Lawrence.

Birth and Death Data: Born May 10, 1907 (Mount Healthy), Died June 22, 1979 (Plymouth)

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1930 - 1943

Roles Represented in DAHR: trombone, vocalist

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings (Results 276-282 of 282 records)

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Decca DLA 2404 10-in. 5/24/1941 As if you didn't know Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca DLA 2405 10-in. 5/24/1941 Hep and happy Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca DLA 2406 10-in. 5/24/1941 Buck fever Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca DLA 2417 10-in. 5/27/1941 Woodland symphony Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca DLA 2418 10-in. 5/27/1941 Swing tonic Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca DLA 2419 10-in. 5/27/1941 Purple moonlight Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
Decca DLA 2420 10-in. 5/26/1941 Off and on Glen Gray Orchestra instrumentalist, trombone  
(Results 276-282 of 282 records)

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Hunt, Pee Wee," accessed March 29, 2024, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106359.

Hunt, Pee Wee. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106359.

"Hunt, Pee Wee." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 29 March 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106359

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