19 Facts About Archie Bleyer

Archibald Martin Bleyer was an American song arranger, bandleader, and record company executive.

Archie Bleyer was born in the Corona section of the New York City borough of Queens.

Archie Bleyer's father was a well-known trumpet player who had played with the Metropolitan Opera.

The younger Archie Bleyer began playing the piano when he was only seven years old.

Archie Bleyer's orchestra recorded for Vocalion Records in 1934 and in 1935 moved to the ARC group of labels.

In 1945, Archie Bleyer began a collaboration on the CBS radio network as the orchestra conductor for the popular Gordon MacRae Show.

Archie Bleyer became Arthur Godfrey's musical director in 1946, remaining in this role until 1953.

Archie Bleyer had several instrumental hit singles of his own, and signed other artists who had performed on Godfrey's programs, including The Chordettes, one of whose members, Janet Ertel, became his wife in 1954.

That same day, Godfrey fired Archie Bleyer, apparently offended when Archie Bleyer recorded spoken recitations by Chicago radio personality Don McNeill, host of Don McNeill's Breakfast Club.

Godfrey later claimed when he confronted Archie Bleyer and threatened to fire him from at least one of the three shows Godfrey hosted, the conductor shrugged and told him to do what he had to do.

Radio historian John Dunning has suggested, in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, that Archie Bleyer's relationship with Janet Ertel was a factor in Godfrey's decision to fire him; Godfrey tried to enforce a no-dating policy among his cast and fired several who dated each other.

Archie Bleyer never made a public comment about his days with Godfrey.

The public furor that surrounded LaRosa's firing and, to a lesser extent, Archie Bleyer's, began the slow unraveling of Godfrey's seemingly unstoppable dominance of radio and TV, just as Archie Bleyer's career was beginning to blossom.

Archie Bleyer had limits to his tolerance for rock and roll.

In 1957, Archie Bleyer reluctantly agreed to release Wray's no-frills, roaring instrumental "Rumble," in part due to his daughter's fascination with the song.

Wray had a contract with Cadence, but in 1958 after he submitted a newly recorded album of similarly raw material recorded in Nashville, Archie Bleyer was convinced the instrumental music was morally and musically inappropriate.

In 1964, Archie Bleyer, who was unable to accept the changing pop music market at the dawn of the British Invasion, sold the Cadence label and all its recordings.

Archie Bleyer moved with his wife Janet to her hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where he died in 1989 of the effects of Parkinson's disease, less than a year after his wife.

Archie Bleyer was a freemason, and a member of St Cecile Lodge No 568, New York City.