An obituary reported about Ennis and his orchestra, "His band had performed in every major dance palace in the nation."[6]
Ennis joined Kemp's orchestra as a drummer and vocalist in the late 1920s, playing with him through 1938,[3] including one tour of Europe in 1930.
In 1938, Ennis put together his own band,[7] which became a popular ensemble in Hollywood films. "Got a Date With an Angel" was his theme song.[3] During this time Gil Evans was one of his arrangers.[3]
Toward the end of the 1950s Ennis's career had faded, and he worked mostly in hotels in the Los Angeles area.[3]
Film
Ennis and his orchestra starred in the short 1941 film Once Upon a Summertime and the film College Swing.[8] as well as in Blondie Meets The Boss in 1939.[9] His first film appearance was in the short film, Eddie Peabody and his College Chums (1929).
Radio
Ennis began performing comedy routines, and in 1938 he landed a job as bandleader on Bob Hope's radio program, appearing as a regular until he entered the Army.[3]
He returned to Hollywood bandleading at the war's end and joined the Abbott and Costello radio program during the 1946–47 season.[3]
Ennis was married to the former singer Carmene Calhoun for 20 years, and they had one son. The couple divorced in 1959.[11]
Ennis, whose nickname originally was "Skinny," changed it to "Skinnay", after it was misspelled that way on the label of a record early in his career.[6]
Death
Ennis choked to death on a bone while eating dinner at a restaurant in Beverly Hills in 1963.[12]
References
^"Skinnay Ennis". Secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
^"Skinnay Ennis Dies". The Decatur Daily Review. Illinois, Decatur. The Decatur Daily Review. June 3, 1963. p. 1. Retrieved January 23, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN978-0-7864-2834-2. P. 90.
