GARDEN GROVE : 1940s Dance Party Will Aid Charities

The 16-piece Society for Preservation of Big Bands, formed more than 30 years ago by part-time musicians, will perform Friday night for local charities.

The Garden Grove Rotary Club is sponsoring the dance party featuring the music of the 1940s at the Garden Grove Community Center, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Bruce Rhinehard, 70, a retired Garden Grove optometrist and one of the founders, said the band was formed to preserve the big band sounds of the Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Harry James orchestras that began disappearing in the late 1950s.

“We wanted to keep alive the music that was played in our younger days,” said Rhinehard, a saxophone player who had previously played in high school and college bands.

The Society for Preservation of Big Bands played its first dance for the Garden Grove Rotarians on Valentine’s Day, 1961, at the Jolly Roger restaurant in Anaheim, he said.

Since then, the band has performed more than 1,200 engagements at nearly every major hotel, country club and convention center in Southern California, Rhinehard said.

Over the years, engagements have included playing at the Century Plaza Hotel at the 70th birthday party of musician Count Basie and the 75th birthday of composer Aaron Copland, Rhinehard said. The band also played at a tribute to Jack Lemmon at the Hollywood Palladium and at a fund-raiser for a Debbie Reynolds charitable event.

The number of performances has tapered off in recent years.

“We haven’t been playing nearly as much as before,” Rhinehard said. “The people we have been playing for are not getting out and spending money and dancing.”

Band members, who mostly are now retired, include a certified public accountant, a banker, a music store owner, a music teacher, a cement contractor and a restaurant manager, Rhinehard said.

Tickets costing $8 for single admission or $15 per couple may be purchased at the door of the Community Center, 11300 Stanford Ave.