Make Believe Ballroom - podcast cover

Make Believe Ballroom

Jeff Bressler•www.makebelieveballroompodcast.com
Music
Music History
Music Commentary


Hosted by Jeff Bressler, The Make Believe Ballroom, each week, brings you Classic Big Band Hits from the 30s and 40s.

The program has been broadcast almost continuously since 1935. Each program mixes beloved 78 rpm records, stories, listener requests, and special guest features, all geared to bring you the music and history of the big band era.
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Episodes

Make Believe Ball Room - 5/17/21 Edition

This week the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM looks at Coca Cola's Victory Parade on Spotlight Bands. The show was a musical morale booster during WWII.

May 17, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 5/3/21 Edition

On today's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM we look at the origins of Gold Records, the Your Hit Parade, and Billboard weekly song charts plus a trivia contest you can enter.

May 01, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 4/26/21 Edition

This week's Make Believe Ballroom does a spring cleaning and finds first-time recordings of popular records and big band era musicians who could neither read nor write music.

Apr 27, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 4/5/21 Edition

This week's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM features a special program about SOUNDIES. MTV did not invent the concepts of music videos. They were wildly popular in the 1940s and played on a coin machine in restaurants, bars. clubs and a host of other venues.

Apr 05, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 2/22/21 Edition

After several episodes of specials and tribute shows this week's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM is back with our usual potpourri of grand music and stories from the 30s and 40s.

Feb 22, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room -2/1/21 Edition

This week a very special 86th Anniversary Edition of the Make Believe Ballroom. Join Jeff Bressler as he takes us back to present the history of the show which began its broadcast odyssey on February 3, 1935.

Feb 01, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 1/18/21 Edition

A couple of Kings, music novelty, and many artists you might never have heard. The best of Big Band, Jazz, and Swing on this week's edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM.

Jan 18, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 1/11/21 Edition

Many of our most beloved remakes of songs came originally from the music of the 1930s and 1940s. This edition of the Make Believe Ballroom plays original first-time recordings of some of our favorite music.

Jan 11, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 1/4/21 Edition

Listen to a special edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM where Jeff Bressler plays only Grammy Hall of Fame inducted records from the 1930s and 1940s. The Grammy Hall Of Fame was established by the Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973. The Hall of Fame honors recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old. Inductees into the Hall are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches o...

Jan 02, 2021•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 12/28/20 Edition

On this week’s MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM – A Philadelphia Cowboy, the Canadian Bing Crosby, Swinging Polka, In the Mood pre Glenn Miller, some 1800’s tunes that went Big Band, a salute to FDR plus more music and great stories from the big band era.

Dec 28, 2020•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 12/21/20 Edition

On this weeks MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM – A song that is child’s play, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, two brothers from Akron, plus Alice Faye, Dorothy Lamour, Herbie Kay, Billie Holliday and much more of your big band era favorites.

Dec 21, 2020•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 12/7/20 Edition

On this edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM – A special birthday song, a records heartache, first time ever recording, from the top to the bottom, a song Fred Astaire refused to sing, a mystery singer, plus many more records and stories of the wonderful music of the 30s and 40s.

Dec 07, 2020•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 11/30/20 Edition

On this week’s MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM: Rhumba, a bandleader's mark as a composer, battle of the jazz violinists, from goat to Goodman hero, a grave song, the unheralded Robert Johnson and much more music, trivia, and historic stories.

Nov 30, 2020•59 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 11/23/20 Edition

On this weeks edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM – a visit from the past, some clues to a famous female vocalist, one bandleader's loss is another’s big gain, some British nobility, some recorded rarities, and a whole lot more music and stories of the big band, swing, and early jazz era.

Nov 22, 2020•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 11/16/20 Edition

On this edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM a great Helen O’Connell quote, jazz, swing and hillbilly all rolled into one, Tiny, Shorty and Big, the history behind the Make Believe Ballroom, and along the way Ella and Louie, Vaughn Monroe and much more music and history of the era.

Nov 16, 2020•58 min

Make Believe Ball Room - 11/9/20 Edition

On this week’s show – Name a big band era hit that became a famous celebrity’s theme song, Dolly Dawn and Her Dawn Patrol, well-known bandleaders who didn’t play an instrument, the “fastest girl drummer in the world,” a West Indian big band leader and so much more!

Nov 10, 2020•58 min
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