James P. Blade(1907-1974)
- Music Department
Composer ("Valse Petite", "Say It Isn't the Night"), conductor, pianist
and arranger, he began as a church organist at age twelve, then later
played piano with the orchestras of Ace Brigade, Johnny Hamp, Frankie
Masters, Verne Buck and Roger Pryor, and spent nine years with the
Wayne King orchestra. He joined ASCAP in 1956, and had his own NBC
radio program from Chicago for eight years, and since 1952 led the
orchestra at Chicago's Drake Hotel Camellia House.