Music / Business & brands
Jean Goldkette
1893–1962 · bandleader, pianist, booking agent, ballroom operator
Detroit-based bandleader and impresario whose 1920s Victor orchestra, with Bix Beiderbecke, played his Graystone Ballroom and who launched McKinney's Cotton Pickers.
- Born
Valenciennes, France (disputed; possibly Patras, Greece)- Died
Santa Barbara, California
aged 69- Birth name
- John Jean Goldkette
- Detroit years
- 1920s–1961
- Field
- Music, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Goldkette grew up in Greece and Russia, trained as a child prodigy at the Moscow Conservatory and came to the United States in 1911, playing in Chicago before he moved to Detroit. There he leased a ballroom, formed a dance band and built a business empire: an agency booking some twenty orchestras, a string of dance halls, and offices at the Book-Cadillac Hotel. With Charles Horvath he co-owned the Graystone Ballroom on Woodward Avenue, billed as Detroit's million-dollar ballroom. His Victor Recording Orchestra of 1924–1929, arranged by Bill Challis, featured Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, and famously outplayed Fletcher Henderson's band in a New York battle of bands. He also brought McKinney's Cotton Pickers to the Graystone and helped create the future Casa Loma Orchestra. Paul Whiteman hired away his stars in 1927 and he went bankrupt in 1936, but he stayed on as the Detroit Athletic Club's music director for more than twenty years before moving to California in 1961.
Highlights
- Leader of the Jean Goldkette Victor Recording Orchestra, 1924–1929
- Co-owner of Detroit's Graystone Ballroom
- Organized McKinney's Cotton Pickers and the Orange Blossoms (Casa Loma Orchestra)
- Music director of the Detroit Athletic Club for over 20 years
- Founded the American Symphony Orchestra, which debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1939
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1920s–1930s
Graystone Ballroom
Demolished · 1922–1972
The Woodward Avenue ballroom Goldkette co-owned and ran as home of his orchestras; Black patrons were admitted only on Monday nights. Closed 1972, demolished 1980.
Worked here · 1920s–1930s
Book-Cadillac Hotel (now Westin Book Cadillac)
Downtown hotel that housed the offices of Jean Goldkette's Orchestras and Attractions; restored and reopened in 2008.
Worked here · 1920s–1950s
Detroit Athletic Club
Private club in an Albert Kahn building where Goldkette served as music director for over twenty years.