Ed Kirkeby papers, photographs, music, and audio recordings

Ed Kirkeby, best known for managing jazz icon Fats Waller from 1938 until his death in 1943, was an artist manager, music publisher and record, concert and radio producer in jazz and popular music beginning in the second decade of the twentieth century.

In the mid to late 1930s, Kirkeby operated a sound equipment company when record sales dipped; helped organize two booking agencies, United Radio Artists and Consolidated Radio Artists (an affiliate of NBC); produced shows for the national Blue and Red networks of NBC; briefly managed trumpeter Bunny Berigan; and joined RCA as manager of its popular artists and repertoire department. He was a member of the Songwriters Protective Association, the American Federation of Musicians and the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP). The year 1938 marked a watershed for Ed Kirkeby when he succeeded the ailing Phil Ponce as Fats Waller's manager. Waller's career had slumped: his heavy drinking had led to contract conflicts and missed engagements. Kirkeby got Waller's career back into high gear, including a 1938 tour of Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, where he was greeted by rapturous audiences. Kirkeby was Waller's manager until the artist's death in 1943. For the remainder of his life, Kirkeby devoted himself to keeping Waller's legacy alive. Annual "Fats Waller Memorial Week" observances began in 1946 and continued through the late fifties, formation of international Friends of Fats chapters and his co-authorship of the Waller biography Ain't Misbehavin' in 1966 are three key examples. He also maintained an ongoing correspondence with Waller enthusiasts.

From 1944 Kirkeby managed the career of the Deep River Boys, a singing group specializing in gospel, spirituals, rhythm and blues and some jazz and lasted for over twenty-five years. Kirkeby established the Cultural Concerts Society, a network of some 120 cities across the United States to promote African-American artists, in 1946. In addition, Kirkeby briefly represented a few classical artists along the way, including the Austro-Hungarian singer Marguerite Metzenauer and the noted Toronto violinist Kathleen Parlow, as well as Enric Madriguera, the Spanish classical violinist who appeared as soloist with the Boston and Chicago symphonies, but shifted to Latin American dance music in the mid 1940s. Kirkeby returned the record business in 1955 with RCA, assisting in recordings of Arturo Toscanini.

In the 1960s, Kirkeby accompanied the Deep River Boys on their tours and frequently reminisced about Fats Waller, as evident from clippings of interviews and profiles. Kirkeby's hopes to write and produce a Broadway show in tribute to Waller's life and music eluded him, a frustration that must have been all the more profound when Ain't Misbehavin' opened on May 9, 1978, just over a month before Ed Kirkeby's death at Nassau Hospital in Mineola, New York on June 12 at the age of 87. The show received the Tony Award and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical of the Year.