Carroll Gibbons

Carroll Richard Gibbons (born Charles Richard Gibbons; January 4, 1903 – May 10, 1954) was an American-born pianist, bandleader and popular composer who made his career primarily in England during the British dance band era.

Early life and career Charles Richard Gibbons was born and raised in Clinton, Massachusetts, United States, one of three children of Peter and Mary Gibbons. In his late teens he travelled to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1924, he returned to London as a relief pianist with the Boston Orchestra for an engagement at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand.

He liked Britain so much that he settled there, and after becoming pianist with the Sylvians, featuring members of the Savoy Orpheans, he later became the co-leader (with Howie Jacobs) of the Orpheans, the resident band at the Savoy Hotel until their contract ended in 1927, when they embarked on a tour of Germany.

Marriage and death

Gibbons continued as bandleader at the Savoy until 1950 when he became the hotel's Director of Entertainments. Ian Stewart then took over as the Savoy's bandleader and music director. He married Joan Muriel (née Lidstone) in 1951. He died at the London Clinic in May 1954 at the age of 51, of a coronary thrombosis. He is one of several famous musicians buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England.

Legacy Specialist dance band radio stations, such as Swing Street Radio and Radio Dismuke, continue to play his records. Gibbons also features regularly on the bi-weekly Manx Radio programme Sweet & Swing, presented by Howard Caine. The UK 1940s Radio Station, a dedicated Internet radio station, also regularly plays Gibbons's records.

Selected filmography Looking on the Bright Side (1932) Call Me Mame (1933) Romance in Rhythm (1934) Falling in Love (1935) Hello, Sweetheart (1935) Calling All Stars (1937) The Common Touch (1941) - accompanies Greta Gynt on piano and vocals I Live in Grosvenor Square (1945)