The following post was written by Music and Recorded Sound volunteer, Isaac Maupin. As part of a summer project, Isaac compiled the Otto Hess Photographs (which had been dispersed across Music's Iconography Files) into a single collection, created an inventory, and wrote the historical and descriptive notes for the collection. All photographs featured in this post are from the collection.

In the process of assembling the Otto F. Hess Photographs collection, I came across unique photographs of an historic New York City concert. As I put photos into folders sorted by artists’ names, I noticed pictures of many different groups, all on an outdoor stage decorated with stars and stripes, and featuring a large banner advertising the New York City radio station, WNEW.

I thought these photographs must be from the same concert, so I did some digging. In Hess’s photography notebook (Series VII in the collection), I found a hint: his list of 35mm negatives includes an event titled "Randall’s Island Jazz Festival 1938." Further investigation revealed this one-of-a-kind event was actually billed as the "Carnival of Swing" and is now considered to be one of the first major jazz festivals.

On May 29, 1938, the Carnival of Swing, a benefit concert, was held at Randall’s Island Stadium, erstwhile home of the New York Black Yankees Negro League baseball team. The concert was emceed by Martin Block, a celebrity DJ on WNEW, and its proceeds went to the New York Musicians Hospital Fund.

Sponsored by the local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM),  the concert yielded a turnout of more than 23,000 attendees (as reported by the New York Times) to see their favorite jazz bands play for nearly six hours of swing. A carnival indeed. 

At times, the crowd was unruly, fights broke out, and some overly enthusiastic “gators” (a colloquial term for white swing fans) had to be restrained by the police. The New York Times continues, "Some of the bands were hot and some were sweet, but none committed the sin of playing corny." (According to the article, the audience of swing enthusiasts was not as receptive to the "sweet" acts). A list of the performers—each received ten minutes on stage—includes such big names as Stuff Smith and his Onyx Club, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Vincent Lopez, Kay Kyser, Artie Shaw, and Ella Fitzgerald.

The "Carnival" was brought to an uproarious close in the nick of time by former Benny Goodman drummer, Gene Krupa, and his big band. The audience was shouting for Goodman with growing impatience. Goodman—still riding the popularity high from his landmark performance at Carnegie Hall the preceding January—was booked in Atlantic City and unable to make the Randall’s Island gig. Luckily, Krupa, idiosyncratically chomping gum, was able to tame the masses with his similar, hard-swinging dance music.

A Photographer in the Crowd

One of the many jazz enthusiasts in attendance was Otto F. Hess, a German immigrant. Hess moved to the United States in 1930 and, eight years later, began his career in photography. The burgeoning photographer left his Brooklyn home and crossed the Triborough Bridge with the rest of the sizable Sunday morning crowd. (Fans lined up by 8:00 AM for the 11:00 AM show). Upon arriving, Hess captured photos of the performances of several groups, but also took candid pictures of artists outside of the spotlight, such as alongside their tour buses.

While Hess did not capture every single act—newspapers reported up to as many as 30 bands—his collection of photographs features many of the artists: Count Basie, W.C. Handy, Teddy Bunn, Teddy Hill, Jonah Jones, Gene Krupa, Joe Marsala, Stuff Smith, and Chick Webb. Most notable in the collection are photos taken of Duke Ellington, an audience favorite. Among other tunes, Ellington’s band performed its arrangement of "St. Louis Blues," featuring  vocalist Ivie Anderson.

Following the performance, W.C. Handy, the composer of "St. Louis Blues," appeared on stage and told the audience, "I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did." Astutely, Hess captured two photos of Duke Ellington and W.C. Handy together at the concert.

Hess did not exclusively photograph celebrities; he had a knack for capturing both sides of the musical event. Included in the collection are photos of fans approaching the stadium, and the massive crowd packed into the stadium’s grandstands. (I have included one of these outstanding pictures here.) 

In addition to Hess’s photos, some video footage of the Basie Band’s performance was broadcast on the news (though it lacks audio), and the concert was, in part, broadcast on WNEW.

If you have further interest in swing-era jazz or New York City history, I highly recommend you peruse the Otto F. Hess Photographs available in the Special Collections Reading Room ​at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, call number JPB 17-12.