Herbie Kaye

Acting

1904-11-05 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

Herbie Kay, born Herbert Kaumeyer, was an American trumpeter and big band leader. He was married for several years to Dorothy Lamour. Kay's career began while he was a student at Northwestern University, where he played in dance bands in the mid-1920s. He led his own group from the late 1920s, and played extensively in the Chicago area from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, including a longstanding residency at the Blackhawk Restaurant. Kay hired Dorothy Lamour as a vocalist in 1934, and married her in 1935; by 1936, Lamour had moved to Hollywood to pursue a film career, and her marriage to Kay ended in 1939. He recorded for Vocalion and Columbia Records and toured throughout the Western US. For most of his career, he led a band with four saxophones, four brass instruments, and three rhythm instruments. He dissolved the group in the early 1940s and moved to Dallas, where he died in 1944.