Christmas 2009   At The Theater

Did you know? - Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a music teacher and older brother of Tommy Dorsey who also became a prominent musician. He played trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage in a Vaudeville act as early as 1913. He switched to alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on clarinet. Jimmy Dorsey played on a clarinet outfitted with the Albert system of fingering, as opposed to the more common Boehm system used by most of his contemporaries including Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.

With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. In 1924 he joined the California Ramblers (who were based in New York City). He did much free lance radio and recording work throughout the 1920s. The brothers also appeared as session musicians on many jazz recordings. He joined Ted Lewis's band in 1930, with whom he toured Europe.

After returning to the United States, he worked briefly with Rudy Vallee and several other bandleaders, in addition to the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra with Tommy. Tommy broke off to form his own band in 1935 after a musical dispute with Jimmy. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra became the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, and included musicians such as Bobby Byrne, Ray McKinley, and Skeets Herfurt along with vocalists Bob Eberly and Kay Weber.

Did you know? - The Rossmoor community was developed from 1955 through 1961 by Ross W. Cortese, who had earlier developed the architecturally-significant Lakewood Rancho Estates in Long Beach (1953) and the Frematic Homes (1954)in Anaheim, just north and west of Disneyland.

Originally created as a nudist colony, this quickly changed when Cortese's original partners in securing the first large parcels of land that would become Rossmoor included California governor Goodwin Knight and Judge Alfred Gittelson, who had also partnered with him in the Lakewood Rancho Estates and the Frematic homes. (It was Gittelson who later agreed to annex his Rossmoor Shopping Center property to Seal Beach in the 1960s.)

After Rossmoor, Cortese would construct the first of his very successful Leisure World gated retirement community in that part of Seal Beach which is immediately south of Rossmoor. The Rossmoor community is easy to recognize because of its red brick "signature wall" that borders the entire unincorporated community. It is a signature of the Rossmoor community that differentiates it from neighboring cities Los Alamitos and Seal Beach.

There are 3,430 single family homes and 1 condominium complex within Rossmoor.