Roy Eldridge & The Delta Four—”Swingin’ On That Famous Door” (1935)
On Friday, December 20, 1935, a quartet calling themselves The Delta Four, stepped into the recording studio in New York. The four musicians were Pittsburgh-born David Roy Eldridge (1911-1989) playing the trumpet; Chicagoan Joseph Francis “Joe” Marsala (1907-1978), an American jazz clarinetist and songwriter who had hired Eldridge to replace trumpeter Wingy Manone in the quartet; jazz guitarist Carmen Mastren (Carmine Niccolo Mastandrea from Cohoes, 1913-1981) who was teamed up with Marsala at the time; and New Yorker Sid Weiss (1914-1994), a double-bassist who worked with the prominent big bands. They played “Farewell Blues” and “Swinging On The Famous Door.”
The Famous Door was located at 35 West 52nd street, which was the former address of the Onyx club. The Onyx was the first night club established on 52nd street in Manhattan. Located in the basement of one of the brown-stones there, it was originally an illegal speakeasy operated by bootlegger Joe Helblock, who stated he opened the club in 1927. Helblock was an enthusiastic host to musicians who came over during their lunch breaks from the studios to satisfy their thirst. After finishing their paying jobs at night they would flock to the Onyx again, this time bringing their horns to join the club’s pianist Joe Sullivan, playing together until exhaustion sent them home. After prohibition ended, and the Onyx became a legitimate club that moved to another location on 52nd street, several studio musicians proposed to turn the former Onyx into a musicians nightspot, and it was called The Famous Door.
The New York Daily News of Friday May 10, 1935, described The Famous Door as the “hottest spot in town. The Famous Door takes its name from a door near the bar which is covered with autographs of big shots, little shots, and all-shots . . . It’s a long, narrow room, and at the far end, Louis Prima and his five-piece band give out the hot music that made the place an overnight hit.” After Prima left for Hollywood, Roy Eldridge next became the headliner at The Famous Door.
The composition of “Swinging On The Famous Door” is credited on the Decca label to “Leather Lip,” which was a nickname for Roy Eldridge, who’s other nickname “Little Jazz” became more commonly known. After working since the age of 14 in local groups and territory bands, Eldridge had moved to Harlem in 1930 to play with Cecil Scott’s Bright Boys at the Savoy an the Roseland Ballroom and with Charles Fess Johnson’s band at the Small Paradise club in Harlem. It was at Small’s that saxophonist Otto Hardwick said to Roy “You really are Little Jazz” and the name stuck.
Roy Eldridge was one of the first black jazz musicians to be accepted as a permanent member in an all-white band, playing with Gene Krupa’s group from 1941 to 1943. He played with a series of other jazz legends including Fletcher Henderson and Teddy Wilson, as well as with both Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Roy Eldridge´s distinctive and innovative playing remained at the cutting edge of jazz evolved from Chicago style to swing to be-bop and progressive. “People will tell you he defined swing, but he also defined a feeling of joy and happiness in jazz,” said jazz promoter George Wein, who featured Eldridge prominently in many Newport Jazz Festival lineups. “You never felt sad listening to Roy Eldridge, you felt happy.”
