THE CENTER FOR POPULAR MUSIC, MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY, MURFREESBORO, TN

ROBERT E. "MIKE" DOTY COLLECTION 96-049

Creator:

Doty, Mike

Type of Material:

Sound Recordings, Manuscript Materials, Scrapbooks, Manuscript Sheet Music, Photographs

Physical Description:

3.5 linear feet, including manuscript materials and audio tapes

1.1 linear feet of manuscripts

34 audio tape cassettes

43 78 rpm and 33 lp audio discs

Dates:

1906-1997

Abstract (Descriptive Summary):

The collection consists of manuscript scrapbooks, holographic music, and audio cassettes that include both personal and professional materials related to the life and career of orchestra musician Mike Doty.

Access/Restrictions:

Audio tapes may not be copied.

Provenance and Acquisition Information:

Materials had been created, collected, and/or acquired by Mike Doty over the course of his career as a musician.

The holographic music manuscripts were used on the stands of the various groups he played with. Some of these were written out by the arranger, but many of them were written by Doty for his saxophone sections or for the chamber groups he performed with. The "Hoboe Symfony" is his own composition, almost all copies of which are in his hand. Some of the music books and published sheet music were acquired overseas during travels. Most of the sound recordings included Doty in the personnel and were acquired presumably as he recorded them. The majority of cassette tapes were compilations sent by a friend, but there are some that Doty may himself have recorded live; two of the cassettes were made of a radio program that included music interview material with Doty, and three tapes of interviews with the donor (son Michael Doty). The materials in the scrapbooks are from various sources.

Donated by Michael Doty of Waynesville, North Carolina, on February 7, 1997.

Subject/Index Terms:

Doty, Mike

Orchestra

Roxy Theatre (New York, N.Y). Orchestra

Radio City Music Hall (New York, N.Y.)

Agency History/Biographical Sketch:

Robert E. "Mike" Doty was born in Zumbro Falls, Minnesota, on February 21, 1906. By the time he was 18 years old, he was already organizing and managing his own jazz and dance bands near Rochester. His band traveled to Fargo, South Dakota, where in 1930 he joined Phil Baxter's band. Baxter's band went west to Tacoma, Washington, where Doty eventually took over leadership of the band for two years.

In 1931 Doty joined the Joe Haymes Orchestra in Springfield, Missouri, played in the sax section, did some arrangements for the band, some vocals, and even some recording dates of the Haymes Orchestra under his own name. He stayed with the group after it had been taken over by Buddy Rogers in late 1934, but by the beginning of 1935, Doty left for New York and eventually joined Phil Harris' orchestra and toured briefly with them.

Doty joined Ray Noble's orchestra later in 1935 and stayed with him until he joined Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra in March of 1937. After a few brief months with Dorsey (but numerous recordings), Doty joined with Bunny Berigan's band through the remainder of 1937, also recording quite a few sides with Berigan. In 1938 Doty joined Larry Clinton and stayed until March 1939, finishing the year with a tour for Bob Zurke.

In the early 1940s Doty did Broadway musicals ("Louisiana Purchase" and "Priorities of 1942") and some substitute dates (including Paul Whiteman), finally settling down into his longest tenure thus far by joining Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians from 1942 until 1956. The next five years he played at the Roxy Theatre in the house orchestra (intermittently substituting at Radio City Music Hall) until he joined Radio City Music Hall full time in the beginning of 1961. He retired from Radio City and full time music in April of 1979.

Sometime in the late 1940s Doty began playing the oboe and continued playing double reeds (and all the woodwinds) through the remainder of his career. His tenure with the Roxy Theatre and the Radio City Music Hall exposed him to a much more classical repertoire, and he studied accordingly. At the same time, he took to some composing and wrote a piece for woodwinds, featuring the oboe, called the "Hoboe Simfony," which was performed publicly twice. The composition reflects some links and crossovers between jazz and impressionistic classical music. Sometime also in the late 1940s Doty began taking on students and continued to teach and attend student concerts late into his life.

Mike Doty died on May 31, 1988 at his home in Rochester, Minnesota.

Scope and Content:

The collection consists of manuscript scrapbooks, holographic music, and audio cassettes. The scrapbooks were assembled by Doty and his wife and include both personal and professional memorabilia from the period 1918 to 1982. The manuscript music consists of holographic arrangements of two general types, jazz and popular music and classical music from the period 1937 to 1986. Cassette audio tapes include unique recordings of Doty, both in practice and performance.

Series Description:

Series I: Life Scrapbook

1906-1984

.7 linear feet (Boxes 1 and 2)

"Scrap Book of the Career of Robert Mike Doty in Three Books" (full inventory follows collection guide). Announcements (posters, broadsides, invitations); bank check; cards (membership, business, and admission tickets); correspondence (recommendation, resume); cue card; menus (clubs, airline flight); music (holograph, published sheet music cover); musician blue books; newspaper and magazine features (full articles, complete issues, clippings, polls, surveys, rosters, ads, obituaries); photographs (portraits, poses, performance, and postcards); programs (performances, playbills, class commencements, pictorial souvenir booklets, city entertainment guides); purchase receipts; schedules and itineraries (tours, shows, broadcasts). Roughly arranged chronologically.

Series II: Manuscripts

1937-1986

.7 linear feet (Boxes 3 and 4)

Scores (for arranged saxophone section soli), alto saxophone lead sheets, and individual parts (for each saxophone) from the repertoires of various groups Doty played with; arranged scores and individual instrumental parts for various versions of the "Hoboe Symfony;" arranged scores and individual instrumental parts for an unfinished composition; individual parts only for a complete composition not composed by Doty; published arrangements of classical pieces by Tchaikovsky and Mozart, with Doty's written adaptations for clarinet parts; standard oboe parts of classical pieces from repertoire of Radio City Music Hall (Bach, Barber, Debussy, Dukas, Gershwin, Holst, Prokofiev, Saint-Saens) with Doty's markings.

Series III: Audio Cassette Recordings

34 audio cassette tapes (see Inventory of Cassette Tapes for specifics)

(Box 5)

Cassette audio tapes consist of unique recordings of Doty at practice and in performance, as well as a radio interview. There are also three cassettes containing interviews of Doty’s son by CPM archivist David Jellema. For details of Doty recordings see CPM accession file.

Collection Contents (Folder/Box List):

Box # Folder # Description

Box 1 Personal Scrapbooks, No.1 & No. 2

No. 1, 1906-1935

No. 2, 1937-1940

Box 2 Personal Scrapbooks, No. 3

No. 3, 1942-1979

Box 3 Manuscripts: Musical Scores and Parts

Folder 1 Alto Saxophone Lead Sheet, “Not for Sale,” undated

Folder 2 Saxophone Section Soli, score only, “Stair Dows,” [Star Dust], undated

Folder 3 Saxophone Section Soli, score and parts, “Trees,” undated

Folder 4 Saxophone Section Soli, scores only, thirteen selections, undated

Folder 5 Saxophone Section Soli, incomplete scores and parts, “Tea for Two,” unidentified tune, undated

Folder 6 Saxophone Section Soli, sheet music, score, and parts, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” undated

Folder 7 Saxophone Section Soli, parts only, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” undated

Folder 8 Alto Saxophone, parts only, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” “Little Girl Blue,” undated

Folder 9 Alto Saxophone, parts, “Little Girl Blue,” undated

Folder 10 Miscellaneous Fragments, undated

Folder 11 Mississippi Rag article on “The Merry Macs,” May and June 1983 (photocopies)

Folder 12 Correspondence, Memorabilia, Discographies, June-October 1982

Folder 13 Correspondence, Discographies, January 1986

Folder 14 Photograph, Mike Doty, circa 1980

Folder 15 Photocopies: Album covers, Samples of handwriting and packaging

Folder 16 Recording notes and j-cards of deaccessioned tapes, September 1981-June 1982

Box 4 Manuscripts: Musical Scores and Parts

Folder 1 “Hoboe Symphony,” May 1951, for the Fred Waring Television Appearance: one full set, score (untransposed) and parts; one full set, score (transposed) and parts

Folder 2 “Hobo Symfunny” [sic], all wind quintet parts, 1951

Folder 3 “Hoboe Symfonie” [sic], Roxy Theatre version, score and parts, 1958

Folder 4 “Hoboe Simfonie” [sic], wind quintet score and all parts, 1960

Folder 5 Hoboe Symphony: unfinished score for piano, oboe, and symphony, undated; fragment, undated

Folder 6 Wind quintet fragment, undated; piano fragment, undated

Folder 7 “Suite Pour Trio D’Anches,” Alexandre Tansman, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon parts, undated

Folder 8 “Danse des Mirlitons,” Quinto E. Maganini, arranger, published parts for three clarinets and piano; manuscript bass clarinet part

Folder 9 “Quartet,” W.A. Mozart for oboe, violin, viola, violincello, published sheet music; manuscript transcriptions for clarinet and two bass clarinets, undated

Folder 10 Radio City Music Hall, oboe parts, “F”

Box 5 Audio Cassette Recordings

Materials Cataloged Separately:

Commercial sheet music and sound recordings, songbooks, and miscellaneous vertical file materials have been integrated into the general Center collections.

Arrangement:

Scrapbook roughly arranged chronologically and original arrangement maintained during processing.

Unless otherwise noted, the arrangement scheme for the collection was imposed during processing in the absence of a usable original order.

Location:

Scrapbooks are filed in the manuscript oversize collections. All other materials are filed in manuscript collections by the accession number.

Processed by David Jellema, February 1997

Revised by Lucinda P. Cockrell, October 2001

Revised by Rachel K. Morris, July 2011