Five … four … three … two … one …
Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne ...
Bandleader Ange Lombardi was as familiar to Akron revelers on New Year’s Eve as noisemakers, popped corks and party hats. The suave maestro was a legend in ballrooms, providing “soft, soul-stirring music” for dancers to enjoy until the wee hours of the morning. And, yes, the name did invite comparisons to Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo.
During the golden age of nightclubs, Lombardi’s orchestra was a class act that never failed to entertain. His remarkable career spanned more than 65 years despite changing tastes in music and dance.
Angelo F. Lombardi was born in Italy in 1908 to Rosa and Vincenzo Lombardi, and immigrated with his family to the United States when he was a child. The family settled in Akron, where his father worked at rubber factories. Lombardi had four brothers, David, Frank, Roxie and Anthony, and three sisters, Antoinetta, Mary and Jennie.
He discovered his musical gift as a boy and made his singing debut in 1922 in a Perkins Elementary pageant. Metropolitan Opera soprano Gina Pinnera happened to be in the crowd, heard the angelic voice and offered the boy singing lessons.
Lombardi studied with her for two years until his voice changed at age 14, dashing all hopes of being the next Enrico Caruso. He turned his full attention to piano, which he had studied since age 10.
At West High School, Lombardi participated in glee club and dramatic club. The 1927 Rodeo senior yearbook listed his hobby as “tickling the ivories,” and predicted “a bright future for Angelo in the musical world.”
By necessity, Lombardi already was an established entertainer. He organized a combo to help pay for his mother’s medical bills.
“The Lombardi family, never in well-to-do circumstances, found itself even harder pressed for money when Ange was a sophomore in high school,” the Akron Times-Press reported in 1934. “Mrs. Lombardi, the boy’s mother, got sick and, for a time, it looked as though Ange was going to have to quit school. But jazz saved the day.
“The youth conceived the idea of forming a boys’ band and playing for any engagements that he could book. The band was successful immediately, in a small-time way, and Ange soon had almost as many engagements as he could fill capably.”
In 1928, Lombardi, a University of Akron freshman, was performing with his group at the White Pond Inn on Copley Road when he got caught in the middle of a turf war. A Detroit mobster gave him $5 to play the George Olsen hit song Who? but an Akron gangster slipped him another $5 not to play the song.
“It ended up in a shootout,” Lombardi recalled.
Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the band went back to playing. The notorious roadhouse, which soon changed its name to the Granada Night Club, was lost in a Thanksgiving fire in 1930.
The Ange Lombardi Orchestra performed at Akron’s East Market Gardens, Springfield Lake’s Starlight Ballroom, Summit Beach’s Wisteria Ballroom and Meyers Lake’s Moonlight Ballroom.
Under the pseudonym Andre Ponselle, Lombardi headlined concerts at New York Catskills resorts and appeared on CBS radio broadcasts. The orchestra performed in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Saratoga and Syracuse before making a triumphant return to Akron.
Lombardi’s orchestra was the attraction at the 1934 opening of Tony Masino’s Merry-Go-Round, 45 S. Main St., an upper-level nightclub with a bar that slowly revolved on a giant carousel. Couples who got up to dance sometimes had trouble finding their seats because the rotation was nearly imperceptible.
The group presented three shows nightly — 9 p.m., midnight and 2 a.m. — and performed live broadcasts on WJW, WADC and WAKR radio.
After that, it was a whirlwind of gigs: Club Savoy (“See Ohio’s Longest Bar”), the Zepp Club (“The Right Place”), the Wagon Wheel (“The Biggest and Finest Floor Show in Akron!”), Ted Boyer’s Backstage Bar (“The Friendly Place to Meet Friendly People”), Ghent Road Inn (“You’re In for a Pleasant Surprise”), the Continental Grove (“Swell Dancing and Show Music”) and briefly even Ange Lombardi’s Pub (“Akron’s Newest Rendezvous”).
New Year’s Eve was the swankiest night with hundreds of well-dressed couples swaying to Lombardi’s sophisticated swing music. Party favors, noisemakers and novelties were included with a $1.50 coverage charge as Akron residents counted down to midnight.
In the late 1940s, Lombardi was the title character on the WAKR game show Beat the Expert with famed disc jockey Alan Freed serving as emcee. Lombardi later played piano for The Hinky Dinks, a child-participation program on WAKR-TV.
A famous story about Lombardi is when he booked his orchestra for a two-week engagement in 1950 at the Chesterfield Inn in Cuyahoga Falls. Playing six nights a week, the band stayed for 10 years and seven months, a big band oasis as rock ’n’ roll swept the nation.
When the gig finally came to an end in 1961, Lombardi quipped: “The Twist got me.”
Asked what he planned to do next, the bandleader told the Beacon Journal: “I’m going to rock — in a chair — for a couple of weeks.” Then he was going to think about “how to make a couple of bucks.”
He opened the Melody House at 682 W. Market St., a piano school that picked up students at their homes and returned them after class.
In 1970, Lombardi fulfilled a dream when he built the 18,000-square-foot Dellwood ballroom on Ohio Route 14 in Edinburg Township. Couples glided across the dance floor as an eight-piece orchestra performed songs from the 1930s and 1940s. Lombardi operated the Dellwood until putting it up for sale in 1978.
He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Akron Radio Hall of Fame in 1980 and continued to play local concerts.
The clock finally struck midnight. Ange Lombardi was 82 when he died Dec. 13, 1990, in his Stow home. Survivors included his wife, Jean, daughters Carol and Linda, son Timothy and three grandchildren.
For big band lovers in Akron, Lombardi was an old acquaintance who won’t be forgotten.
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne. We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
Copy editor Mark J. Price is the author of the book Lost Akron from The History Press. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.