Bernie Cummins

Who was Bernie Cummins?

Bernard Joseph "Bernie" Cummins was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.

Cummins was born in Akron, Ohio. Cummins was in his youth a boxer, besides playing drums in local bands in Ohio. In 1919 he created a small ensemble of his own, which debuted in Indiana and which grew gradually into a larger dance band. Singers in the band included Dorothy Crane,Jerry Lang, Bernie's brother Walter Cummins and Scottee Marsh, which sang later with Tommy Dorsey. A female singing trio known as the Sophisticates was hired by Bernie in the mid-1930s out of Minneapolis Marshall HS about the time the Andrew Sisters from Minneapolis North HS became popular and in demand. Charlie Callas and Randy Brooks also played with the band, as did Tommy Dorsey for a time. The orchestra's theme song was "Dark Eyes". Besides his activities as bandleader, Cummins was briefly also the manager of The Wolverines.

The Bernie Cummins Orchestra recorded frequently for such labels as Brunswick, Columbia, Victor, Decca, Gennett, Vocalion and Bluebird. The band had many appearances in the Mid-West and was well known for its live performances; its smooth style was much loved in larger hotels and ballrooms. They played many times at the Biltmore Hotel and the Hotel New Yorker in New York City, the Trianon, Aragon, Blackstone and the Edgewater Beach Hotel and Palmer House in Chicago, as well as further appearances in Dallas, Kansas City, New Orleans, Denver, San Francisco and Saint Paul. Cummins' band also played on radio shows including the Spotlight Dance Program sponsored by Coca Cola, and the Fitch Bandwagon.