This year the Manny Green Orchestra
celebrates its Fiftieth Anniversary. The Orchestra will be playing for people who danced
to the original band, as well as a growing number of young people. With beautiful music,
good dance floors and enthusiastic dancers, a Manny Green dance is always a success. When
dancers speak of Manny’s band, they always mention his "danceable" beat.
That’s the way the band started and still is to this day - danceable - and
that’s why it still exists.
Manny began singing in 1936, played
bass with other bands, then formed his own band in 1948. He was the house band at the
Marine Room on the Pleasure Pier out over the Gulf of Mexico; broadcasting nightly, until
1961 when the entire pier was destroyed by Hurricane Carla. He was also a regular at the
famed Hollywood Dinner Club in Galveston, as well as the Shamrock and Rice Hotels in
Houston.
The Manny Green Orchestra was the first to play a
telethon in the state of Texas. This "first" featured Mel Torme, Chill Wills,
Bob Crosby, June Christy and others. Manny accompanied many other stars who entertained in
Galveston, such as Jack Imel, of the Lawrence Welk Show, and comedian, Jack Carter. When
the Republican Convention was held in Houston, in 1992, Manny’s Orchestra was
featured as part of the entertainment. In 1996 the band accompanied Myron Floren, also of
the Lawrence Welk Show, in the 1894 Grand Opera House on the Historic Strand District in
Galveston. Also in 1996 he played on the Carnival Cruise ship "Celebration" for
a cruise to the Caribbean. In addition to playing for dancers in the Gulf Coast area,
Manny often travels to San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley. In September, 1997 Manny
held a Big Band Gala, a weekend of dancing in Galveston, the first to be held in Texas.
The Gala was attended by dancers from nine states. The event was such a success that it
will be repeated this year, on September 25th, 26th, and 27th.
With the Manny Green Orchestra it is always "Music The Way It Used To
Be".
