January 18, 1944: Jazz at the Metropolitan Opera

January 18, 1944: The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts its 1st jazz concert, to raise money for the American effort in World War II.

This was "The Old Met," built in 1883 with 3,625 seats at 1411 Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets, just south of Times Square, when the stretch of Broadway between Herald Square at 34th and Times Square at 42nd was considered New York's Theater District.

The idea for the concert came from Esquire magazine, which was extremely popular with American servicemen during the war, largely due to its pictures of beautiful women. Looking to strengthen its connection with GIs and music fans alike, the magazine ran a reader’s, poll asking subscribers to vote for their favorite jazz musicians. Readers selected top performers by instrument, as well as singers and big band leaders.

The results were published in Esquire’s December 1943 issue. Many of the winners were already famous stars, which led to some controversy. Critics argued that the poll favored well-known names, and overlooked talented younger musicians who were still building their careers.

Instead of hurting interest, the debate drew even more attention to the poll, and helped spark a bold idea: Bringing all the winners together for a live performance. The event was planned to raise money for the Navy League, encourage the purchase of war bonds, and promote Armed Forces Radio, which broadcast entertainment to troops overseas.

The performers included Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge, Jack Teagarden, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson and Coleman Hawkins. Benny Goodman, who had led the 1st jazz concert at classical music palace Carnegie Hall, was invited, but was already booked for a performance in Los Angeles for the night of the event. So a hookup was made, and he played a song that was broadcast to the Met audience in New York.

The performance was broadcast domestically on the NBC Blue radio network, the forerunner of ABC; and internationally on Armed Forces Radio. The show raised $650,000 for war bonds -- about $10.5 million in 2022 money, and this was before D-Day and most of the major gains in the Pacific Theater of Operations, so this was a very significant sum of money. There appears to be no film of the event, but there is a sound recording. The concerts were revived in 1945 and 1946, but, with peace in effect, the desire of white people to see black performers went back to prewar levels.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera Company moved to "The New Met" at Lincoln Center, 24 blocks up Broadway. The following year, the Old Met was torn down, and an office building with a typically boring design for the time went up in 1970. That year, The Who gave the 1st rock concert at The Met.

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January 18, 1944 was a Tuesday. Paul Keating, who served as Prime Minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There was 1 game in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 7-2 at the Boston Garden. Lorne Carr scored a hat trick.