Herb Wiedoeft

Trumpet player, band leader and songwriter (born November 22, 1886 in Neuenburg (Weichsel), Westpreußen, Germany – died May 12, 1928 Medford, OR) Brother of Gay Wiedoeft, Ad Wiedoeft, and Rudy Wiedoeft. Wiedoeft's Los Angeles-based band, in which his brother Gerhard "Gay" played tuba and bass, Adolph "Ad" the drums, was one of the premier West Coast dance bands of the 1920s. After making its first recordings with the Nordskog label in 1922 under the name Herb Wiedoeft's Famous Orchestra, the band was hired to play the Cinderella Roof Ballroom at Los Angeles' famed Biltmore Hotel, henceforth calling itself Herb Wiedoeft's Cinderella Roof Orchestra and recording for Brunswick (1923-1925). The band's theme song, "Cinderella Blues" (1924, composed by Wiedhoeft with Norman Spencer (2)), became a hit. After the Biltmore engagement ended, Wiedoeft played the Roseland Ballroom in New York in September 1925 as Herb Wiedoeft And His California Orchestra and continued to record with Brunswick as Herb Wiedoeft And His Orchestra. In May 1929, as he was driving back from Seattle to Los Angeles, Wiedoeft died in a car crash near Medford, Oregon. Wiedoeft wrote a number of songs, including the 1924 hits "Oh, Peter!" and "Hot Stuff" (both with fellow band members Jesse Stafford (2) and Gene Rose). Other songs credited to him include "From Day To Day" (1924) and "I Wouldn't Be Crying Now" (1925) (both with Gene Rose), also "Why Was It You?" and "Roamin' Around" (both with Sonny Clay and Jesse Stafford (2), 1925).