"Jim Rollins is a singer of soft sensibilities... a pianist of light and lively hands...especially sensitive". Chicago Tribune
Jim Rollins began playing piano at the age of two, singing at age nine. While a vocal major at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, he began his professional career in 1972 as a featured vocalist at Six Flags Over Mid America in St. Louis, Missouri. He went on to perform as keyboardist and featured vocalist with "The Galen Show" during the 1970's and early 1980's, appearing in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe, as well as throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
In August of 1986, Jim began a 13-1/2 year run at the world famous Pump Room restaurant located in the Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago's Gold Coast. He received critical acclaim and notoriety. During his engagement there, he performed for such celebrities as Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, John Travolta, Brian Setzer, Cleo Lane, and Samuel Ramey, to name only a few. On seven different occasions, he gave command performances for Frank Sinatra, as he and his entourage partied until the wee hours of the morning! Jim has also been the featured entertainer at private functions for Oprah Winfrey and Robert Conrad. It can truly be said that Jim Rollins is "Chicago's Entertainer to the Stars".
"Photographs on the Walls of the Pump Room", which Rollins produced, is a concept CD honoring the Pump Room. This fully orchestrated and expertly mastered CD beautifully displays Rollins' warm, rich and varied vocal talents. It includes a variety of styles, all of which reflect the many moods of the Pump Room. From swinging big band arrangements to cabaret to adult-contemporary ~~ including 4 original songs ~~ the CD utilizes some of the finest arrangers (e.g. Bill Rogers, one of Frank Sinatra's arrangers; Jim Trompeter, formerly with Gloria Estefan's Miami Sound Machine), musicians, recording facilities and technicians in the United States.
With a little something for almost musical every taste, "Photographs on the Walls of the Pump Room" is, without a doubt, a recording to be enjoyed and appreciated by even the most discriminating audiophile!
A short history of the Pump Room:
The Pump Room is a world famous restaurant located in the Ambassador East Hotel, in Chicago's beautiful and swank Gold Coast area. It was fashioned by its originator, Ernie Byfield, after the famous Pump Room in Bath, England. Opened in October, 1938, it has hosted literally thousands of celebrities - all famous, some infamous. Its dark, wood paneled walls are covered with 8x10 glossies of many celebrity faces that have dined at the landmark restaurant.
In 1938, Gertrude Lawrence, a famous actress in her day, was appearing in a play in Chicago. She came to the Pump Room for dinner one evening and loved it so much, she returned every evening for the entire duration of the play's 90-night run. She even had the same table every night, which ultimately became known as Booth One. She would bring along many of her famous show biz friends as well. Every night became a party. Soon the Pump Room became the place to see and be seen.
Over the years, the Pump Room also became the place to celebrate, be it a birthday, an anniversary, or a wedding. (Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were married in Booth One!) Many a love-sick man proposed to his bride-to-be there, arranging with the staff to hide the engagement ring in the champagne or on the Baked Alaska dessert. Some gentlemen would have the band play the couple's favorite song while he would get down on one knee in the middle of the intimate dance floor and say those magic words to his blushing, soon-to-be fiancée, "Will you marry me?", while the other dancers and diners looked on in breathless anticipation. A resounding, cheering applause throughout the entire restaurant greeted the teary-eyed, affirmative response. (To the best of our knowledge, no young lady ever declined!)
The Pump Room was one of the last bastions to have a no-denim and a jacket-required dress code. Phil Collins' famed 1985 CD, "No Jacket Required", was titled as such because he was denied admittance to the Pump Room for not being appropriately dressed.
In its hay day, however, from 1938 until the turn of this new century, the Pump Room was about dining, dancing and romance. One was always assured of an elegant, memorable evening and the possibility to rubs elbows with the rich and famous; from Hollywood, Broadway and the recording industry's elite, to the local politicians who put the "Windy" in the name, "Windy City", to the "Chairman of the Board" himself, Ol' Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.
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