DESCRIPTION:
Paul Christensen recorded Just Across the Street from Heaven March 26, 1928 in Chicago on the Brunswick label 3897A. Frank Sylvano, a Brunswick studio singer provided vocals for Christensen on this recording. Paul Christensen and his men were known as the Hotel Ft. Des Moines Orchestra and recorded under that name. But fame came to Christensen in 1928 when the orchestra, which had also served as the WHO Orchestra for Radio Station WHO 1040 in Des Moines entered a contest sponsored by Radio Digest to see what fans thought of the WHO Orchestra (aka The WHO Conquorers). WHO was in the central US and broadcast over a clear channel which could be heard over the entire US, Mexico and Canada. The Hotel Ft Des Moines/WHO Orchestra could be heard Sundays from 7 to 8 PM, Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7, and on Mondays and Fridays from 12:30 to 1 AM and became known far and wide. Fans, who were asked to send in ballots, awarded Christensens 19093 votes to 8148 for second place 7 Aces of WBAP in FT. Worth, Texas; 5685 for Krausmiller's Baleonades Ballroom Band of KFRC in San Francisco; 4185 for Irvin Plumm's Band of CNRW in Winnepeg, Canada; 3348 for Maurie Sherman's Band of WLS in Chicago; 2194 for the Vincent Lopez Orchestra of WEAF in New York, and finally, 1094 votes for the Charles Dornberger Orchestra of KTHS (now KAAY) in Little Rock. Interesting to note that future US President Ron Reagan was sportscaster at WHO. Frank Sylvano, vocalist, retired from singing and opened a restaurant in South Chicago. This vid is in response to a Hotel Ft Des Moines upload by 1920s Buff on YT.