Comedian Harmonists

Biography

In 1927 Harry Frommermann, a 21-year-old Berlin born tenor, started what would be known as one of the most original and successful male vocal chorus worldwide : the Comedian Harmonists. On December 1927 he published a newspaper ad calling for singing companions to start an ensemble. Although many applied (the great Depression was on) only bass Robert Biberti was chosen. They found other colleagues amongst their relations and named themselves at first the Melody Makers or German Revelers, changing the following year to Comedian Harmonists. They followed The Revelers, an American quartet which became famous for an easy style mixing jazz and vocal choir, where men created the accompaniment by imitating instrumental sounds, except for a real piano. The Harmonists did it so well that they would soon become famous. Their international style in a band with Jewish members and American jazzistical influences also meant a blow of merriness and fresh air in pre-war Germany. They actually would met the Revelers when these were on an European tour in 1929, at the Berlin Scala. By 1930 the Harmonists had become the main attraction in the shows they worked in and had issued several records. Concert and more recording engagements in Germany and all over Europe were soon followed by film appearances : Three from the Filling Station (1930), Bombs Over Monte Carlo (1931), Early to Bed (1933) and Catherine the Last (1936) to name a few. In most of them they only sang, but in some like Monte Carlo they also had acting parts. They were by this time : Harry Frommermann, Ari Leschnikoff, Robert Biberti, Roman Cycowski, Erich A. Collin and Erwin Bootz. A flock of similar groups started to appear. In 1934 they did an American tour, broadcasting with the Boswell Sisters and Paul Whiteman. Their luck would abruptly end when on March 1934 the Nazi regime banned them and all non-Aryan artists (including much of the repertoire from Jewish composers), allowing one last concert to take place. Frommermann, Cycowski and Collin, the Jewish members, emigrated to Vienna and continued to perform and tour around the world as Comedy Harmonists, until 1941 when America's entry into the war caught them in New York. Frommermann would enter the Army as troops entertainer and would return to Germany after the war. The other three members stayed in Germany and found new associates to follow, as the Meister-Sextett, until 1939; they were also banned in the end. Nevertheless, the Comedian Harmonists have left their melodious performing style on records and pictures for everybody to enjoy and to remember those so many talented artists that flourish everywhere in spite of race, frontiers, wars and politics. In 1997 both a film and a stage play were produced based on their story.