Big band legacy of Guy Lombardo may have found a home

A home for the legacy of the late, great bandleader Guy Lombardo may finally be on the horizon.

Gina Lombardo, niece of Guy Lombardo, said the family is talking with a big band organization from Lamar, Colo., to house a huge cache of music, films and memorabilia that has been lying in two Fort Myers storage units for more than 40 years.

Meanwhile, the University of Colorado Glenn Miller Archive and American Music Research Center also is interested in the items, which include at least 100 Manila envelopes stuffed with original, hand-written band orchestrations; at least 40 boxes of reels of 35 millimeter tapes, plus many loose, large reels of 16mm tapes of the band's 1950s TV show.

The News-Press two years ago began following the Lombardo descendants' search for a home where the items can be preserved, archived, displayed, and made available for loan and research.

Older baby boomers may remember their parents or grandparents dancing to Lombardo's smooth music and crooning lyrics, while younger boomers recall sitting in their parents' living rooms watching the band bring in the New Year on TV. Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians were synonymous with New Year's Eve, and continued the tradition for nearly 50 years, nationally and internationally. As the ball dropped in New York City's Times Square, revelers celebrated, lovers kissed, and the band played "Auld Lang Syne" to remember times gone by.

Guy was born in 1902, oldest of seven siblings born to Italian immigrant parents in London, Ontario. He assembled the band with his brothers and neighborhood friends. After Guy's death in 1977, the legacy and rights to the orchestra passed from brother to brother.

Lebert, the last remaining brother, died on Sanibel in 1993. All music, memorabilia and rights to the orchestra passed to Lebert's children, Gina and Elizabeth Lombardo of Fort Myers; and Carmen Lombardo of Sanibel. None of the siblings are in the music business.

The Lombardos had earlier offered the items to three colleges, but no agreement could be reached. Several other nibbles failed to pan out. Issues to resolve include where the items would be housed, whether facilities were big enough and able to care for them properly, and the source of the money to make it happen.

Now Gina, who coordinates the effort, said she has been talking with Trevor La Cost, chairman and librarian of the Arkansas Valley Wind & Percussion Ensemble Inc. of Lamar.

"He's the only person I've kind of gone further with," she said. "He is quite persistent, which is nice. He's really interested, I think."

La Cost is chairman and librarian of the full concert band and 17-piece big band. "We have a large library that actually lends music out all over the nation. A lot of it is permanently out of print," he said. The group is starting to renovate the second floor of their building and plans to open a Big Band museum. The Lombardo collection would be the anchor. La Cost is seeking a grant to help pay for the work, housing and care of the Lombardo items.

"We're still negotiating. I think things are going really well," La Cost said. "Gina and I met, down in Florida specifically." He's seen the collection. The family would maintain the copyright. He would expose the collection to a new audience.

"It would be huge opportunity for our community," La Cost said. Lamar has only about 8,500 residents, and needs a cultural draw to bring in the community and visitors, he said. The library has nearly 12,000 band and choral arrangements.

COLORADO CALLING

Dennis Spragg, senior consultant and acting director for University of Colorado Glenn Miller Archive and American Music Research Center, believes his facility is the logical place to house the Lombardo legacy permanently.

He has just been in contact with Gina Lombardo and the two plan to talk.

The center is the designated repository for 48 collections donated by families and heirs, and also has large radio station and network recording libraries, he said. Artists whose legacies and property they house, preserve, make available for academic research and public access include bandleaders Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, and singer Perry Como.

"All of these the artist actually had and owned and touched," Spragg said of the collections. "I go through the archive, look at a letter or award. Tommy Dorsey's personal record collection." He thinks "Wow! I'm looking at stuff these guys were working on," Spragg said.

The center also hosts a weekly radio program streamed around the world through a Denver radio station, and is the highest-rated big band program on the air, he said.

Spragg just finished writing a book about Glenn Miller and said there are connections between Miller and Lombardo.

"They were obviously very popular band leaders at precisely the same time," he said. They played the same ballrooms in New York, and they were in the musicians' union. In 1943-44, Miller's Air Force band would play Saturday night and Lombardo's on Sunday night at the same place, now known as the Ed Sullivan Theater. The band leaders and their wives socialized, Spragg said. "They got together a lot for dinner."

Lombardo and his band sold more than 300 million records. They played at presidential inaugural balls from Franklin Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter. They played Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade every year. Lombardo had three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"Among big band leaders of the era, Guy Lombardo was known as one of the good guys," Spragg said.