Winter 2010

Meet some old friends from Hulett's of Yesterday
Yowsah! Yowsah! Yowsah!
It's the "Old Maestro" Ben Bernie & His Orchestra

When the Twenties roared Yowash! Yowash! Yowash! is what the world heard! This iconic American phrase was coined by legendary 20's and 30's band leader the "Old Maestro", Ben Bernie. Yowsah!  Yowsah!  Yowsah!  During the winter "Ben Bernie and his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra" would play at the beautiful and elegant Roosevelt Hotel, in New York City. But during the hot summer months "Ben Bernie and All the Lads" would flee the the big city and head for the cool waters and hot nights of beautiful Hulett's... Sound Familiar? 

Some things never change! 

Click on one of the YouTube videos below to listen to  "Ben Bernie and all the Lads" play one of their hot jazz numbers, as you read the driving directions for the intrepid motorist of the 20s as provided by the old Hotel. Or read a few words about an almost forgotten legend of American Music. But at least listen to Sweet George Brown! The videos below were made 1924. That predates Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" (1927) by several years.

The Image below is a detail of an advertisement that was included in printed driving directions to the Hulett's Hotel. c19XX.  Pioneering motorists in their "Tin Lizzies" were given such advice as "follow the river north" and warned of another early pioneer of the American road.... the SPEED TRAP!

 
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Ben Bernie was a headliner at the Hulett's Hotel during hot summer's of the 

1920's.  Who knows maybe "Sweet Georgia Brown" arranged and 

co-written by Ben Bernie was played for the first time here at Hulett's. 

Or maybe Yowsah! Yowsah! Yowsah!  was called out for the very first 

time in the Hulett's Hotel! Or maybe people just had a great time with 

their friends and family and got to hear some hot jazz at the same time. 

Actor, bandleader, author, violinist. Ben Bernie he began his career in vaudeville. In the twenties he was a national celebrity with his top ten hit "Sweet Georgia Brown".  In the thirties Ben Bernie left the Hotel Roosevelt and the East Coast to pursue an acting in the new "talkies" and a successful radio career where he was sponsored by Blue Ribbon, Later Pabst Blue Ribbon.  And who took Ben's place at the Hotel Roosevelt? Why none other then "Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians".   Where for decades they rang in the New Year for the Nation. Who else may have played at the Hotel? What other forgotten names once rang out in the ball room, on the beach, the golf course? 

Please welcome back to Hulett's, for the first time in long long time,  the "Old Maestro" himself... Ben Bernie and his Orchestra.