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From RedhotJazz Site

Ted was called the "High Hat Tragedian of Song". He was a true Vaudevillian. He had no voice, but could "put over" a song. He played what he himself called a "gashouse" clarinet, yet he had one of the best of the commercial Dixieland bands, with a real feel for the Blues (billing himself as "The Medicine Man of the Blues"). Perhaps his best hits were "When My Baby Smiles at Me" and "Me and My Shadow". He really didn't 'sing' these songs, he spoke them. (Diseuse - Sprechgesang). Even today's listeners still tap their feet and smile while listening to his music.

Ted Lewis
Real Name:
Theodore Leopold Friedman
Profile:
American jazz bandleader, entertainer, singer and clarinetist.

Lewis started his recording career in 1917, playing clarinet in Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band. That band tried to copy the style of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band after the ODJB had had a tremendous success with its jazzy "Livery Stable Blues" earlier that year.

In 1919, Lewis founded his own band. Playing a combination of jazz and dance music, the band became very popular, not least because it included well-known jazz musicians such as Muggsy Spanier on trumpet and George Brunies on trombone. Other distinguished musicians that recorded with Lewis' band, but more briefly, include Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, and Don Murray (2) on clarinet. Lewis' catchphrase was "Is Everybody Happy?" which itself became the title of a 1929 movie featuring his band.

For many years, Ted Lewis recorded exclusively for Columbia, which honored him with his own picture label (1929-1933), a special distinction he shared only with Paul Whiteman. In 1934, however, Lewis switched to a new start-up label, Decca, for which he re-recorded many of his earlier hits, such as "When My Baby Smiles at Me," "Wear A Hat With A Silver Lining" or "The Sweetheart Of Sigma Chi."

Born: June 06, 1890 in Circleville, Ohio.
Died: August 25, 1971 in New York City, New York.

Ted Lewis and his Band was one of the best selling Jazz bands of the 1920s and Lewis was Columbia Records best selling artist. Lewis got his start with Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band in 1917, but his clarinet antics soon made him the star of the group and he went solo in 1919, taking most of the musicians from Fuller's band with him. In 1924 Lewis hired George Brunies of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and in 1928 he hired Muggsy Spainer. Over the years many up-and-coming Jazz greats like Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden and Jimmy Dorsey passed through the band early in their careers. With all of this talent passing through the band they were really starting to swing by the early 1930s as evidenced in tunes like Jazznocracy, White Heat and Rhythm, but as the Depression worn on Lewis had become more of a Pop vocalist and Jazz was not figuring as prominently in the mix. Most modern Jazz histories overlook or downplay  Ted Lewis' role in the development of Jazz. When he is mentioned he is often dismissed as being commercial and corny, but Lewis was a true Jazz pioneer and on his best songs like Dip Your Brush In Sunshine it is easy to understand why he was so popular.