Vocation : Entertain/Music : Instrumentalist

James Simon (29 September 1880 – 12/14 October 1944) was a German composer, pianist and musicologist.

Edward Kilenyi Jr. (1910 – 2000) was a classical pianist. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 7, 1910. Kilenyi studied in Hungary with the composer/pianist Ernő Dohnányi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, earning a diploma in 1930. He later became a Professor of Music at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida in 1953, four years after Dohnanyi began teaching there. He died on January 6, 2000. A collection of recordings of his concerts is located at the International Piano Archives at the University of Maryland (IPAM).
His father, Edward Kilenyi Sr. (1884 – 1968), also a noted musician, arrived in the United States from Hungary in 1908. Kilenyi Sr. taught music to George Gershwin for five years and wrote music for the Sam Fox Publishing Company and over 40 movies from the 1910s-1940s.

Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960) was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.
Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House, a well-known gay speakeasy in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tail coat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones.

Chuck Cabot (né Carlos Guillermo Cascales; 16 May 1915 Querétaro, Mexico – 27 December 2007) was an American saxophonist and big band leader. The Chuck Cabot Orchestra launched in 1937 while Cabot (Cascales) was a student at the University of Southern California. He later transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles where he became a member of the legendary UCLA 1939 football team along with Jackie Robinson, Kenny Washington, and Woody Strode. In the early 1940 he was athletic coach at El Monte, Jefferson, and Hamilton High Schools.
His orchestra played to capacity crowds in the 1940s and 1950s in ballrooms such as Roseland in New York, the Palladium in Hollywood, and the Catalina Island Casino.
He co-partnered with Arthur Benson in the forming of Hollywood International Talents. He was instrumental in discovering and securing recording contracts for 'Los Nomadas,' the first inter-racial rock and roll band. He recognized the individual talents of the band's lead guitarist Bill Aken. (Adopted son of Cabot's friends Francisco & Lupe Mayorga) Changing Aken's name to 'Zane Ashton,' he was instrumental in launching the young singer/guitarist's solo career. He lived long enough to see his young protege inducted into the Musician's Hall of Fame as a member of 'The Wrecking Crew' in November, 2007.
Beginning in the 1960s until shortly before his death, Cascales booked performances for The Coasters, The Drifters, and The Shirelles. He also organized the Rolling Stones' first West Coast concert tour.Cabot and His Orchestra recorded on the Atomic label in Hollywood in the 1940s.
His brothers, Johnny Richards, Jose Luis Cascales (Joe), and Juan Adolfo Cascales (Jack) were also professional musicians.

Ventura Martínez Alonzo (December 30, 1904 – December 14, 2000) was a Mexican-born American musician. She was known as the "Queen of the Accordion".She was born Ventura Martínez in Matamoros and moved to Brownsville, Texas with her family in 1909. Her father taught her to play the piano. The family lived in Kingsville for several years before moving to Houston in 1917. Alonzo married a man named Gallegos. Together, they had 3 sons. The couple later divorced and she married Frank Alonzo in 1931. The couple formed a group known as Alonzo y Sus Rancheros; she played accordion and piano and was lead vocalist. They recorded for Falcon Records and a number of other record labels. After World War II, the group changed its name to Alonzo y su Orquesta; they performed throughout Texas. In 1956, the couple opened the La Terraza ballroom in Houston, catering to customers of Mexican descent. They retired from performing in 1969.In 2002, she was inducted into the Tejano R.O.O.T.S. Hall of Fame.

Remo Delmo Belli (June 22, 1927 – April 25, 2016) was an American jazz drummer who developed and marketed the first successful synthetic drumheads and founded the Remo company.