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Walt Roesner

American trumpeter and band leader (born November 2, 1888 in San Francisco, California - died September 1, 1951 in San Mateo, California) Apart from the trumpet, Walt Roesner played the trombone, violin, and cello. After stints as an electrician and theater actor, he joined the Santa Cruz Civic Band, eventually becoming its conductor. By 1919, he played trumpet in [a=Art Hickman's Orchestra], which was then performing at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Roesner was with the band when it played the Biltmore Hotel in New York City in 1919 and plays the trumpet on the [l=Columbia] recordings [a=Art Hickman's Orchestra] made between September 1919 and February 1921. In 1921, Roesner returned to the Bay Area to play with Paul Ash's stage orchestra at the Granada Theater in San Francisco. By 1925, he conducted his own band at the T & D Theater in Oakland, California. By 1926 he had moved on to the Loew's Warfield Theater in San Francisco. After that, Roesner returned to New York City to lead the stage orchestra of the Capitol Theater between 1927 and 1929. In 1928, Walt Roesner And His Capitolians (which included luminaries such as [a=Jimmy Dorsey], [a=Miff Mole], [a=Leo McConville], [a=Jimmy Lytell], [a=Arthur Schutt], and [a=Vic Berton]) were featured in a short movie, "I'm More Than Satisfied." In 1929, Roesner returned to San Francisco to direct the stage orchestra and m.c. the Fanchon & Marco revues at the newly opened Fox Theater on Market Street. He stayed there for several years, at least until 1932. In April 1931, he also began conducting the NBC San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for a daily morning show on the radio called "Shell Happytime." Roesner remained a popular West Coast orchestra leader until at least the late 1940s. In September 1951, he was under treatment at the Belmont Sanatorium in San Mateo, CA, when he unexpectedly died of a heart attack.