The Venues
In the prime of their popularity, the Warren Durrett Orchestra was in high demand for concerts and parties all around the Kansas City area. They were always getting work at major hotels and dance venues.
"He was at all the hotels in town, the bigger ones. He was at private parties around the city. He was at conventions that would come to town." - Jan Durrett
"He always said that one of his favorite venues was the Pla-Mor. It was an old establishment that the big bands who came in town would play there for years. Warren had Sunday nights, I think they gave his band Sunday nights and he loved it." - Jan Durrett
The Pla-Mor Ballroom was an entertainment complex, at which the Durrett Band had a weekly standing gig. It was opened from 1927-1957, during which it featured legendary performers and a lively dance crowd.
A 1945 letter from Durrett's favorite venue offers an entertaining glimpse into the early band's fun times at the Pla-Mor Ballroom. The letter politely requests that Durrett ask his boys to stop drinking "beer cokes" on the band stand, as it is contrary to their policies.
Despite the boys' rule-breaking, on-stage, beer coke drinking, the Warren Durrett Band continued to enjoy their standing gig at the Pla-Mor for years, as evidenced by the continuing financial logbooks, which show an increase in the band's size and pay over time.
