I’m watching an episode on Jazz on the education channel, this episode on Swing, they commented that some of the Swing band leaders were making $15000 per week. This was the early 30’s ....during the depression. WOW.
Hah, PBS! Not outright lie, but poor, politically biased research? Yes.
Case in point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8tfzbTrpOg
I'm pretty sure that there's a missing decimal in that estimate....
That said.. Big paydays happen on occasion, but only seasonally, like at Saratoga during horse-race season. I can pay my mortgage for the year just by renting out the house for a month to down-state-pony-peepers.
Tried to do some fact checking, and the best I could come up with.....
In 1938, Glenn Miller and his band were salaried at $20K / week.
That's 20K for the entirety of the band. I can't pretend to know how he split it up. I do know that he was regarded as the highest paid of the era as he had a bunch of pop hits, movies, TV, etc.
I'm thinking that the 15K quote from PBS is accurate, but lacks the context that it was for the entire band and expenses, not just the band leader.
Maybe its gross before expenses? Sounds very high for back then.