[Author's note: This is one of those times where I had some interview information that wasn't enough for a magazine article. However, information shouldn't be lost, so I prepared this short piece.]
The "Harlem Highlanders" was a group that had a minimal recording career (assuming you can glorify a single song as a "career").
The story starts with Napoleon "Snaggs" Allen, who was part of the Box Brothers, a vaudeville band, back in 1934. (The word "box" was a slang term for any stringed instrument.) Snaggs played the guitar and the other Brothers (Warren Banks, Cecil Austin, and James Simmons) played the tipple (a 10-stringed instrument that was somewhat like a large, high-pitched ukulele). In addition to playing their boxes, Allen, Banks, and Austin were vocalists, and Simmons was a dancer.
Once they became well-known, Joe Louis would sometimes throw his box into the ring and join them as a violinist (which is what he'd planned to be prior to his boxing days)!
In 1938, the Box Brothers made a cross-country tour with Major Bowes. Edward "Major" Bowes was the host of the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, an extremely popular radio talent show. Every once in a while, he would accumulate the program's winners and send them out on the vaudeville circuit. [Unfortunately, I didn't ask Snaggs why the Box Brothers were part of this revue; he never mentioned that they'd been contestants.] After this tour, singer, bassist, and arranger Pete Glover joined as a fifth member.
When the New York World's Fair opened in April 1939, they got a job as strolling musicians. However, the group only stayed together a couple of months after that.
Another group around at the time was the 3 Gobs. They were originally drummer Willie Jones and dancers Eddie Johnson and Sonny Austin. By 1939, they had added a fourth member, dancer Laurence "Baby Laurence" Jackson. When the Box Brothers broke up, Napoleon Allen and Pete Glover joined up with the 3 Gobs, who then changed their name to the "Six Merry Scotchmen" (wearing kilts to perform), and then to the "Harlem Highlanders." However, the accompanying photo shows that at some point they had slimmed down to a quartet. You can't really make out any faces, but my guess is that they're (left to right): Eddie Johnson or Sonny Austin, Baby Laurence, Snaggs Allen, and Pete Glover.
The Highlanders would sing several Scottish numbers, such as "Roamin' In The Gloamin'," and follow that up with dancing. They were fixtures at Kelly's Stable (141 West 51 Street in Manhattan) for a while. When they played there in December 1939, both Billie Holiday and the Savoy Sultans were also on the bill.
While they were primarily a stage act (mostly theaters and nightclubs), they made a single known recording, with the Oran "Hot Lips" Page Orchestra: "I Ain't Got Nobody" (recorded for Decca on January 23, 1940 and released later that year). In December 1942, it was announced that they'd signed with the Louise Crane Artists Management agency.
The Harlem Highlanders appeared all over the Northeast and Midwest. Some of the venues they played were Club 181 (New York), the Alpine Musical Bar (Philadelphia; drinks from 25 cents), the Jai Alai Café (Columbus - but it didn't bother to say what state), Lindsay's Skybar (Cleveland), the Apollo Theater, Palumbo's (Philadelphia), the Garrick Bar (Chicago), the Hotel Majestic Music Bar (Philadelphia), the New York Stage Door Canteen (entertaining troops in 1943), the Aquarium (New York), Fay's Theater (Philadelphia), the Little Rathskeller (Philadelphia), Lou's Germantown Bar (Philadelphia), Lou's Chancellor Bar (Philadelphia), the Colonial Inn (Paterson, New Jersey), and Fred Sindel's Irish Stable (Coney Island; the entire summer of 1946). Since the Irish Stable is the last appearance I could find for them, presumably the Harlem Highlanders broke up sometime in 1946.
After that, Snaggs Allen was used as a utility replacement for any member of the Cats And The Fiddle who was unable to make an engagement. Allen never recorded with the group, however. The opposite is true of Baby Laurence, who recorded occasionally with the group, although he was never a member. In 1951, Napoleon "Snaggs" Allen would join the Blenders.
(Note that around 1950, guitarist Tiny Grimes formed the Rockin' Highlanders, who also appeared in kilts. One of their vocalists was Screamin' Jay Hawkins.)
We can't really say that the Harlem Highlanders made any kind of dent in the recording scene, but they were known as a dynamic stage act and must have been fun to see in their Scottish regalia.