Sammy Watkins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sammy Watkins was the leader of the Sammy Watkins Orchestra, popular during the 1930s and 1940s. The band's longest engagement was at Hotel Hollendon’s Vogue Room in Cleveland, Ohio.
Musicians included drummer Fred Borgerhoff and trumpeter Johnnie "Scat" Davis.
During the early 1940s, a young man going by the name of Dino Martini was the band's male vocalist. At Watkins's urging, Martini dropped the ‘I’ in his stage name and subsequently became a star in the United States under his new stage name, Dean Martin.
