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Jazz, Dance, Territory, and Commercial Bands

Ernie Fields Orchestra

Also documented as: The Royal Entertainers · Ernie Fields and His Orchestra

Tulsa and national touring1920s–late 1960sAfrican American territory/dance orchestra
Verified history
Master record249

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Documented overview

Ernest Lawrence Fields, born in 1904 and raised in Taft, graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 1924 and settled in Tulsa. He led the Royal Entertainers in the 1920s and developed a prominent African American territory orchestra that toured from the early 1930s into the postwar period.

Verified history. Core identity and history are supported by durable sources.

History

Identity and chronology

Ernest Lawrence Fields, born in 1904 and raised in Taft, graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 1924 and settled in Tulsa. He led the Royal Entertainers in the 1920s and developed a prominent African American territory orchestra that toured from the early 1930s into the postwar period.

Leadership

Ernie Fields was founder and bandleader. The present packet does not attempt a complete sideman chronology.

Sponsorship and participation

The orchestra was a professional touring and recording organization rooted in Tulsa rather than a city-sponsored band.

Professional adult ensemble.

Activity

The band recorded “T-Town Blues” for Vocalion in 1939, appeared at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom in 1942, performed more than one hundred military-camp shows and twelve overseas broadcasts during World War II, and later scored a 1959 top-ten gold record with “In the Mood.” Fields retired from active bandleading in the late 1960s and entered the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1989.

Why this band matters

Long-lived Black Tulsa territory-band tradition with recording, touring, and wartime service.

Evidence timeline

What the sources establish

  1. Documented evidence

    Ernest Lawrence Fields, born in 1904 and raised in Taft, graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 1924 and settled in Tulsa. He led the Royal Entertainers in the 1920s and developed a prominent African American territory orchestra that toured from the early 1930s into the postwar period.

    Source 1

Current research decision

What the wording does—and does not—claim

The Royal Entertainers, the large territory orchestra, and the later smaller band are phases of Fields’s organization; the packet should name the phase when making specific claims.

What remains unknown

A full personnel and recording-session chronology is optional enrichment.

Evidence

Sources

The Oklahoma Historical Society encyclopedia entry was checked on 2026-09-03.

  1. Oklahoma Historical Society referencehttps://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=FI003

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