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Courtney still Del Courtney wasn't happy when he learned he'd been booked to play an engagement in Honolulu at the Alexander Young Hotel. Who was ever going to hear of a band playing in a territorial backwater in the middle of the Pacific in 1936?
swinging at 90
Big-band leader credits
'the man upstairs' with his
longevity, successBy John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin"We were playing at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle and I fought with all my might against coming to Hawaii. (My agent) MCA told me the contract had been signed so we were out here playing the Alexander Young Roof Garden every afternoon from 4 to 6, (taking) a two-hour break, and then playing for dinner from 8 to midnight.
"The tourist bureau decided to short-wave a radio program to the mainland and around the world to let people know that they had big-name bands playing here. Harry Owens was at the Royal Hawaiian and I thought he should do the first week but they had me do the first week."
Owens was so mad, Courtney said, that although the two were friends, "He didn't talk to me for three months."
ON STAGE
What: "Tea Dance Memories," Del Courtney's 90th birthday celebration
Nevertheless, the gig introduced Hawaii and big-band music to the world, so, "Instead of being isolated on a rock when we were trying to get started, it turned out that we did very well," Courtney said.
By the time Courtney returned to the mainland, he had become the subject of a now-classic hapa-haole number written about him by R. Alex Anderson.
"I was a sun worshiper and I stayed out three hours one day and that night Alex was there for dinner and he noticed that I could hardly move. He asked me about it and I told him and two nights later he came back and said, "Del, I wrote a song for you." The song was 'My Little Red Opu.' "
The second time Courtney made musical history here was in 1978 when he intended to retire. The "touch dancing" of the disco era was revitalizing interest in big-band music and he ended up reintroducing the tradition
of big band "tea dances" instead. For the next 15 years, Courtney made the Monarch Room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel the ultimate spot for live big-band music.
Courtney presided over a Monarch Room "tea dance" for the last time on March 21, 1993. The hotel quickly found there was no one who could replace him. Big-band events have been strictly hit and miss ever since.
That makes this Sunday a date to circle for every ballroom dancer, swing dancer and big-band fan in Hawaii. Courtney will be back on stage to conduct at least a few numbers as he celebrates his 90th birthday. Jimmy Borges and Gabe Baltazar will be leading the big band behind him.
"I never thought I'd make 90, I really didn't, but it's here (and) I won't have another 90th birthday for a while," Courtney says, crediting "the man upstairs" for his success thus far.
It's been quite a life thus far for a guy who discovered he loved music when he took his first piano lessons at 9, but who graduated from Berkeley and continued on to earn an M.A. and a teaching degree because his father wanted him to have a professional career.
Courtney got his degrees, then told his father he wanted to take one shot at a musical career by taking a band out on the road. "I told him that if the band flopped I could fall back on my teacher's degree."
It was the start of a 50-plus year career in music that also included work in radio and television, recordings for several national record labels (Capitol, CBS, Mercury), film work (often playing a band leader), and 19 years as the musical director of the original Oakland Raiders. Courtney counts organizing the Raiderettes cheerleader squad among his contributions to Raiders history and still wears with pride a Super Bowl ring he earned for his support of the team.
"We were in four Super Bowls and we won three. ... Those were great teams and great years."
Courtney retired as an active member of the Raider organization and moved back to Hawaii in 1978. He represented a link to the big-band era that flourished in America before rock 'n' roll.
These days, he views the recent "swing" scene with bemusement.
"They're bringing back big-band music but they're calling it 'swing' like they invented it. It's been around for a long time. I think I made my first (big band) recording just after they invented the wheel."
No account of Courtney's life would be complete without mention of the time he was written off as being an hour away from death.
"I had a rare disease called Guillan-Barre. I lay there in the hospital for six months and one time the doctors called my mother and father and told them, 'If you want to talk to Del you got about one hour left.'
"Everything was paralyzed except my ears. They didn't know I could hear, and one morning I heard the doctor say, 'There's no way he's going to make it through tonight.' When I heard that I decided I was going to try to make it and I fought and I prayed, but it's scary to hear a doctor tell someone you only have an hour left."
Even after his condition began to improve, Courtney was told that although he might eventually leave the hospital, he would never walk out of it.
"I decided I was just going to have to fight harder and pray harder," he recalls. Courtney proved his doctors wrong and resumed his career. That was almost 30 years ago.
"I've just been very lucky. The man upstairs has been very good to me and I am most thankful to him."
Asked if he has any career regrets Courtney, mentions the inclement weather that denied him the opportunity of being the first to do a broadcast from the air over the Pacific.
"We had an OK from Pan Am and an OK from NBC that we'd fly back on the Clipper and halfway across the ocean we'd do a broadcast from the air. My idea was that this was what the future was going to be, but we got one of those 10-day rainy spells and eventually we had to take a ship.
"About two years later a band did a broadcast from the air but they did it over Lake Michigan. We would have done it over the ocean. It would have been a tremendous event."
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