Frankie Masters papers, 1927-1990

Frankie Masters was born in 1904 in the Chicago area. He dropped out of college in the 1920s to work in a house band and eventaully organized his own dance band, playing in Chicago theaters until he was booked into the College Inn of the Sherman Hotel for four years. He married his top vocalist, Phyllis Miles, to whom he was married until his death in 1990. He became a nationally-known band leader with his record hit, "Scatterbrain". By the early 1940s Masters was one of the most successful dance bands of his generation. He acquired a regular spot on Coca Cola Company's Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands. In 1945 the band moved to the St. Francis Hotel in California. Several years later Masters returned to Chicago to the Conrad Hilton from where he retired as the big bands began to decline in the late 1950s with the advent of rock and roll. In the late 1960s he came out of retirement and played in the Chicago area until the mid-1980s. He appeared on "This Is Your Life" in 1978 in Hollywood.