The Hall Macklin Orchestra, a dance orchestra, was organized by University of Illinois student Hall Macklin in the late 1920s under the name Illini Singing Band. Band members included, at various points, Ray Dvorak, Russell S. Howland, Leif Juhl, John Heiden, Frederick M. Armstrong, Jack Fedderson, Louis W. Clift, Jack Courtright, Raymond Shoultis, and Walter H. Bailey. The orchestra performed locally and did periodic tours across the Midwest. In 1932 the Hall Macklin Orchestra performed regularly on the Illini Union Campus Hour, broadcast by WILL Radio.

After Macklin and many other members of the Orchestra graduated from the University of Illinois in 1932 the Orchestra came under the leadership of Chicago-based singer Glenn Lee.  The Glenn Lee Orchestra toured regularly throughout the 1930s, including a homecoming tour to the University of Illinois in 1935.

Hall Macklin (March 6, 1908 — November 7, 1991) grew up in Whiteside, Illinois. Upon entering the University of Illinois he organized a group of musicians originally known as the Illini Singing Band, but  later renamed the Hall Macklin Orchestra.  Macklin graduated from the University of Illinois in 1932 and in 1938 he earned a Master’s of Music from the University of Idaho.  He later became a professor of Music at the University of Idaho until he retired in 1975.  In 1970 Hall Macklin participated in a reunion of the Hall Macklin and Glenn Lee Orchestras held in Elkhart, Indiana.