Frank Quartell was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 6, 1901. He was a trumpet player with the Kentucky Five in St. Louis in 1918. Subsequently, he played with Paul Biese six months in 1919, after which he was an Oriole Orchestra member in 1920 for a year and a half. He played with Arnold Johnson for one year, 1921, and Paul Specht in 1922 at the Alemac Hotel in New Jersey. In 1923 he founded Frankie Quartells's Melody Boys at the Montmarte Cafe. He recorded with Paul Whiteman in 1922 and played with Isham Jones' Orchestra for a year and a half. He then organized Frankie Quartell's Orchestra at the Bouche Villa Venice in Chicago and Miami Beach, as well as Château Madrid in Havana, Cuba, from 1933 to 1936. In 1936 he worked with Nick Lucas Orchestra at the Hollywood Dinner Club in New York. He played at Colosimo's, Chicago's oldest cafe from 1939-1941. In November 20, 1942, he joined the Army in Special Services as a bandleader and was stationed at the Air Force Training Command at the Stevens Hotel, Chicago (now the Hilton Hotel). After the war, he was manager of the Morocco Theatre Cafe at 11 N. Clark St. in Chicago in 1944, and manager of the Stowaway Room at the Stowell Hotel in Los Angeles, California in 1945. In those years he performed at the Indio Cocktail Lounge in Indio, California. He was appointed manager of the Colonnade Hotel Auditorium, Singertsland, Riviera Beach, Florida in 1954. Once retired, he went to live in El Paso, where he passed away at 75 years of age.
