Popular entertainer Milt Herth was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on November 3, 1902. As a child, Herth learned to play the drums and the piano, and by the age of sixteen he was leading a three-piece band at a Kenosha ice cream parlor. Then, in reaction to his parents' wishes that he study law, Herth ran away from home and played the piano with a traveling medicine show. Tiring of this life, he returned home and formed a dance band that played in the Kenosha area. Herth gave up music briefly following his marriage to Myrtle Wells in order to find more permanent employment. It was at this time that Herth discovered the organ and began playing in movie theaters. Later he studied under Frank Wilson Van Dusen, director of the organ department at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.
In 1935 Herth became musical director for Radio Station WIND in Gary, Indiana, where his use of the electric Hammond organ to play swing music became very popular. The same year he began recording for Decca Records, the first musician to record on the Hammond organ. In 1937 he made his national radio debut on Fibber McGee and Molly, following this with repeat appearances on the Al Peace Show, and Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall. Eventually, Herth added drums and a piano to his performances, thus forming the Milt Herth Trio. The popular group toured the most famous hotels and night clubs in the United States including the Copacabana, Boston's Copley Plaza, and Chicago's Congress Hotel, and they appeared together in the full-length motion picture Juke Box Jenny in 1941.
Herth continued to record with Decca until changing to Coral Records in 1949. He also appeared on television and played in night clubs in Florida and Las Vegas. At the same time Herth endorsed and promoted the Hammond electric organ in music stores across the country. In 1955 Herth traveled to Las Vegas for a brief engagement at the Desert Inn. He liked it so well that in 1957 he sold his homes in New York City and New Jersey and settled in Nevada permanently. Following the move, Herth became involved with charitable work for local organizations, but still continued to devote much of his time to national promotion of the Hammond organ. He died from a heart attack on June 17, 1969.
