Jeff Bressler

Make Believe Ballroom

Music EN ↓ 247 episodes

Hosted by Jeff Bressler ,  The Make Believe Ballroom, each week, brings you Classic Big Band Hits from the 30s and 40s. The program has been broadcast almost continuously since 1935. Each program mixes beloved 78 rpm records, stories, listener requests, and special guest features, all geared to bring you the music and history of the big band era.  

Author

Jeff Bressler

Category

Music

Latest episode

Jul 10, 2026

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Episodes

Make Believe Ball Room - 6/7/21 Edition 07.06.2021

This edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM takes a look at Big Band theme songs.

Make Believe Ball Room - 5/24/21 Edition 24.05.2021

On this edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM, we look at some bandleaders of the era who were popular but somewhat forgotten today.

Make Believe Ball Room - 5/17/21 Edition 17.05.2021

This week the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM looks at Coca Cola's Victory Parade on Spotlight Bands. The show was a musical morale booster during WWII.

Make Believe Ball Room - 5/10/21 Edition 10.05.2021

This week's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM looks at some possible reasons for the passing of the big band and swing era.

Make Believe Ball Room - 5/3/21 Edition 01.05.2021

On today's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM we look at the origins of Gold Records, the Your Hit Parade, and Billboard weekly song charts plus a trivia contest you can enter.

Make Believe Ball Room - 4/26/21 Edition 27.04.2021

This week's Make Believe Ballroom does a spring cleaning and finds first-time recordings of popular records and big band era musicians who could neither read nor write music.

Make Believe Ball Room - 4/19/21 Edition 19.04.2021

This week's Ballroom focuses in on a historic big band event that took place May 29, 1938, but is little remembered today.

Make Believe Ball Room - 4/12/21 Edition 13.04.2021

By popular demand, we present VDISC 2 a follow-up to our program on the recordings distributed to the troops during WWII.

Make Believe Ball Room - 4/5/21 Edition 05.04.2021

This week's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM features a special program about SOUNDIES. MTV did not invent the concepts of music videos. They were wildly popular in the 1940s and played on a coin machine in restaurants, bars. clubs and a host of other venues.

Make Believe Ball Room - 3/29/21 Edition 29.03.2021

This week's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM looks at the history of vocal ensembles in the big band era.

Make Believe Ball Room - 3/22/21 Edition 22.03.2021

An hour of some great favorites of the 30s and 40s with some wonderful stories about the records we play.

Make Believe Ball Room - 3/15/21 Edition 15.03.2021

An hour of some great favorites of the 30s and 40s with some wonderful stories about the records we play.

Make Believe Ball Room - 3/8/21 Edition 08.03.2021

An hour of some great favorites of the 30s and 40s with a look at one of the early founders of the Make Believe Ballroom.

Make Believe Ball Room - 3/1/21 Edition 02.03.2021

An hour of some great favorites of the 30s and 40s with a look at Benny Goodman's clarinet teacher and some of his star pupils.

Make Believe Ball Room - 2/22/21 Edition 22.02.2021

After several episodes of specials and tribute shows this week's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM is back with our usual potpourri of grand music and stories from the 30s and 40s.

Make Believe Ball Room - 2/15/21 Edition 13.02.2021

This week's show pays tribute to Jimmy Durante who would have celebrated his 127th birthday in February of 2021.

Make Believe Ball Room - 2/8/21 Edition 08.02.2021

Join Jeff Bressler for this week's MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM as he pays tribute to RCA Victor's budget label, Bluebird records.

Make Believe Ball Room -2/1/21 Edition 01.02.2021

This week a very special 86th Anniversary Edition of the Make Believe Ballroom. Join Jeff Bressler as he takes us back to present the history of the show which began its broadcast odyssey on February 3, 1935.

Make Believe Ball Room - 1/25/21 Edition 25.01.2021

This week the program features records that highlight some of the great crooners, vocalists, and vocal groups of the 1930s and 1940s.

Make Believe Ball Room - 1/18/21 Edition 18.01.2021

A couple of Kings, music novelty, and many artists you might never have heard. The best of Big Band, Jazz, and Swing on this week's edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM.

Make Believe Ball Room - 1/11/21 Edition 11.01.2021

Many of our most beloved remakes of songs came originally from the music of the 1930s and 1940s. This edition of the Make Believe Ballroom plays original first-time recordings of some of our favorite music.

Make Believe Ball Room - 1/4/21 Edition 02.01.2021

Listen to a special edition of the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM where Jeff Bressler plays only Grammy Hall of Fame inducted records from the 1930s and 1940s. The Grammy Hall Of Fame was established by the Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973. The Hall of Fame honors recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old. Inductees into the Hall are selected a...

Make Believe Ball Room - 12/28/20 Edition 28.12.2020

On this week’s MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM – A Philadelphia Cowboy, the Canadian Bing Crosby, Swinging Polka, In the Mood pre Glenn Miller, some 1800’s tunes that went Big Band, a salute to FDR plus more music and great stories from the big band era.

Make Believe Ball Room - 12/21/20 Edition 21.12.2020

On this weeks MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM – A song that is child’s play, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, two brothers from Akron, plus Alice Faye, Dorothy Lamour, Herbie Kay, Billie Holliday and much more of your big band era favorites.

Make Believe Ball Room - Holiday Show 1 - 2020 13.12.2020

A salute to the Holiday Season and the impact the music of the 1930s and 1940s has had in creating the beloved Christmas canon.

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