Before Jimmy Durante (February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) became one of the most famous and lovable entertainers of the Twentieth Century, he was a hot piano player and bandleader. Durante was greatly influenced by Scott Joplin and had his first success in show business as a Ragtime piano player starting around 1911. He was billed as “Ragtime Jimmy” and played in New York City and Coney Island. Durante was part of the same wild crowd of early White jazz musicians as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and Johnny Stein. When the New Orleans Jazz style swept New York by storm in 1917 with the arrival of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band Durante was part of the audience at Reisenweber’s on Columbus Circle. Durante was very impressed with the band and invited them to play at a club called the Alamo in Harlem where Jimmy played piano.

The band was soon the hottest thing in show business and Durante had his friend Johnny Stein assemble a group of like-minded New Orleans musicians to accompany his act at the Alamo. They billed themselves as “Durante’s Jazz and Novelty Band”. In late 1918 they recorded two sides for Okeh under the name of the New Orleans Jazz Band, they re-did the same two numbers a couple of months later for Gennett under the name of Original New Orleans Jazz Band, and in 1920 the same group recorded again for Gennett as Jimmy Durante’s Jazz Band.

In 1921, Durante collaborated with an African-American songwriter by the name of Chris Smith on the songs “Let’s Agree To Disagree” and “Daddy, Your Mama Is Lonesome For You” which were recorded by Mamie Smith. Durante went on to record with several White Jazz bands in the early 1920s including The Original Memphis Five, Ladd’s Black Aces, Bailey’s Lucky Seven and Lanin’s Southern Serenaders.

Jimmy was a solid Ragtime and Jazz piano player, but soon gravitated towards vaudeville as the 1920s wore on. He became part of a comedy music team called “Clayton, Jackson and Durante”. By the end of the decade the team was very popular on Broadway and Durante got a role in a play called “Jumbo” which made him a star. In the early 1930s he started to get roles in movies, and became popular on radio and eventually became one of the most popular entertainers in America. On his radio show he joked that he was working on a symphony, but he wouldn’t call it “Rhapsody In Blue” or anything like that. He would call it “Inka Dinka Do“. In 1934 he recorded a novelty song with this title and it became his signature tune. Jimmy’s popularity never really faded and he became one of the first stars of television. In his later years he was often cast as a lovable relic of the Roaring 20s, but few remembered him as one of the first Jazz recording artists.

New Orleans Jazz Band	Jimmy Durante’s Jazz Band
Original New Orleans Jazz Band	Whiteway Jazz Band
Clayton, Jackson, and Durante	The Syncopating Skeeters

Title	Recording Date	Recording Location	Company
Inka Dinka Do (Ben Ryan / Jimmy Durante)	2-13-1934	New York, New York	Brunswick 6774
Hot Patatta (Jimmy Durante)	2-13-1934	New York, New York	Brunswick 6774

Title	Director	Year
Roadhouse Nights	Hobart Henley	1930
The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford	Sam Wood	1931
Cuban Love Song	W.S. Van Dyke	1931
The Christmas Party	Charles Reisner	1931
Wet Parade	Vicctor Fleming	1932
Speak Easily	Edward Sedgwick	1932
Le Plombier amoureux	Claude Autant-Lara and Edward Sedgwick	1932
The Phantom President	Norman Taurog	1932
The Passionate Plumber	Edward Sedgwick	1932
Blondie of the Follies	Edmund Goulding	1932
What! No Beer?	Edward Sedgwick	1933
Meet the Baron	Walter Lang	1933
Hell Below	Jack Conway	1933
Broadway to Hollywood	Willard Mack	1933
Student Tour	Charles Reisner	1934
Strictly Dynamite	Elliott Nugent	1934
Palooka	Benjamin Stoloff	1934
George White’s Scandals		1934
Hollywood Party		1934
Carnival	Walter Lang	1935
Land Without Music	Walter Forde	1936
Little Miss Broadway	Irving Cummings	1938
Start Cheering	Albert S. Rogell	1938
Sally, Irene and Mary	William A. Seiter	1938
Melody Ranch	Joseph Santley	1940
You’re in the Army Now	Lewis Seiler	1941
The Man Who Came to Dinner	William Keighley	1941
Two Girls and a Sailor	Richard Thorpe	1944
Music for Millions	Henry Koster	1944
Two Sisters from Boston	Henry Koster	1946
It Happened in Brooklyn	Richard Whorf	1947
This Time for Keeps	Richard Thorpe	1947
On an Island with You	Richard Thorpe	1948
The Milkman	Charles Barton	1950
The Great Rupert	Irving Pichel	1950
Beau James	Melville Shavelson	1957
Pepe	George Sidney	1960
Il Giudizio universale	Vittorio De Sica	1962
Billy Rose’s Jumbo	Charles Walters	1962
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World	Stanley Kramer	1963

Jimmy Durante; His Show Business Career by David Bakish, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1995

Schnozzola; The Story of Jimmy Durante by Gene Fowler, The Viking Press, 1951