Entertainment

Banjo-Saxo Orchestra of Harrisburg

Hersheypark has had many jazz orchestras and bands appear at the park throughout the years, especially between the 1910s to 1960s. One regularly scheduled resident performer for the first half of the 1920s was a group called Banjo-Saxo Orchestra of Harrisburg. The name of the band came from two of its prominent instruments, and they …

Banjo-Saxo Orchestra of Harrisburg Read More »

Rudy Vallee at Hershey Park Ball Room, 1930

In 1913, Hershey Park Ball Room opened. Seventeen years later, the ballroom gained national notoriety when Rudy Vallee, one of music’s first teen idols, performed to a sold out crowd. According to the Hershey Community Archives in a Spring 2011 Derry Township newsletter, John Sollenberger was responsible for booking Vallee: Hershey Ballroom typically paid $250-$300 …

Rudy Vallee at Hershey Park Ball Room, 1930 Read More »