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Spanning the years 1958 to 1974, and documenting
an unmatched career in the Hollywood studio system,
the accompanying photos have been drawn from the
personal collection of Los Angeles musician and
composer William Marcel "Buddy" Collette, and each
provides a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into
American television history.
Beginning with his involvement in the Groucho Marx radio show orchestra, in 1949, and continuing through that program's rapid transition to simultaneous radio and television broadcast (simulcast), Buddy Collette's musical talent in the fields of both classical and jazz performance would enable him to not only become the first-ever, African-American musician hired to a Hollywood studio orchestra, but would also lead him to a long and distinguished career at the heart of television's continued transformation of American popular culture.
In this exhibition, from never-before-published, studio photos to rare, personal snapshots capturing candid viewpoints typically afforded only to professional, television orchestra members, each of the assembled images help to chronicle an extraordinary journey through the American social experience, and will forever serve to provide the viewer with a unique sense of shared memory.
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When once describing his first performance with the Groucho Marx Show orchestra, Collette stated "The first time I played the show, I wasn't nervous. It was something I had been working for and looking forward to, not just musically, but even meeting the guys and sitting with them." In the first five images chosen for this exhibition, represented by various, publicity-style photos taken during his own band's featured performances on the 1958 series "Stars of Jazz" (ABC), Buddy Collette can be seen both showcasing his extraordinary gift as multi-instrumentalist performer (pictured with clarinet, flute, and saxophone) and in his continued, on-camera role at the forefront of inter-racial television broadcast.
Pictured here, in a studio photo with the program's producers
Jimmie Baker (left), Peter Robinson (center), and host Bobby Troup (right), Collette can be seen sharing
a genuinely heartfelt moment with the show's production
team, in his role as that evening's featured guest. During
the show's two-year broadcast run (1957-58), Buddy Collette
would go on to become a regular member of the distinguished,
Stars of Jazz roster of musical artists, including such
legendary figures as Billie Holliday, Stan Kenton, Mel
Torme, Woody Herman, Julie London, Benny Carter, Oscar
Peterson, and others.
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Throughout his career, unlike the more widely-recognize
artists listed above, whose presence at television
studios and sound-stages would be confined primarily
to their occasional, featured appearances on musical
variety shows, Collette would become a continuing
part of the Hollywood broadcast community, performing
regularly with the studio orchestras of such weekly,
televised programs as The Groucho Marx Show ("You
Bet Your Life"), The Danny Kaye Show, The Carol
Burnett Show, The Sammy Davis Show, The Tonight
Show, The Jonathan Winters Show, and countless other
televised specials.
In the accompanying photo with ABC producer Jimmie
Baker, the creator of the Stars of Jazz series,
Collette can also be seen reviewing a shooting script
for that evening's program, while providing the
studio with an endearing, publicity image. Enjoying
a long background in the worlds of both jazz performance
and television broadcast, show producer Jimmie Baker's
musical career had first begun during his earlier,
World War II military service, as leader of the
"Corporal Jimmie Baker and the Men of the Air" swing
orchestra. Following the war, and upon his return
to civilian life, Baker entered the broadcast industry
as part of ABC's radio production unit, in Los Angeles,
where he would later transition to a respected and
award-winning career in musically-themed, television
production.
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