Burtnett (1899-1936) led a band discovered and promoted by Florenz Ziegfeld. In 1918, he joined the Art Hickman band. In 1930, when Hickman died, Burtnett was able to find the financial backing to start his own band. In the early 1930s, Earl led the featured band at the Biltmore Hotel in San Francisco (not to be confused with the homonymous hotel, orchestra and vocal trio in New York). In both photographs,of the LA Biltmore Trio Ned Hewitt is at left, Les Houck center, and Don Dorsey at the right. Burtnett's band appeared in two films, 1929's 'The Flying Fool', and 1930's 'The Party Girl'. In both films, the band was billed as 'Earl Burtnett and his Hotel Biltmore Orchestra and Trio'. Starting in 1933 the band played 18 months at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX, before moving up to Chicago. It was a popular band in Chicago. Burtnett also composed some songs including "Down Honolulu Way", "Sleep", and "Leave Me With A Smile". In November of 1935, while traveling with his orchestra, Earl suffered a broken leg due to a car accident which he fully recovered from, but as Burtnett erroneously believed his appendix had been removed two decades earlier, an appendicitis was treated too late and he passed away on December 24th. This wonderful record was made in late 1929 or early 1930.
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