Pollack, Ben

Pollack, Ben

(1903–71) musician; born in Chicago. He was a drummer, an ambitious bandleader, and a discoverer of young talent, his distinguished sidemen including Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden, and Harry James. He played with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings from 1922 to 1924, then led his own band in Chicago and New York between 1924 and 1940. He worked thereafter as a music businessman and restaurateur in Hollywood.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.