Joe Gillis
2004-06-19 02:02:50 UTC
(An article on the host of a fondly remembered music show -- a few pics at the
web site)
http://www.metnews.com/articles/reminiscing031303.htm
Thursday, March 13, 2003
REMINISCING
Lloyd Thaxton: Local Personality
By ROGER M. GRACE
A few months ago, I was writing a column on Oscar Levant and wanted to get
ahold of a particular person who had appeared on the late wit’s local TV talk
show, delivering commercials. I tracked him down to “LT Productions,” and
telephoned “information” for the phone number.
There was no listing. The operator queried, “Do you know what ‘L.T.’
stands for?”
“Lloyd Thaxton,” I responded.
“Oh, I know HIM!” came the enthused reaction of an obvious fan.
Thaxton had a lot of them.
He was youthful, personable and good-looking in those days, 45 years back, when
he delivered spiels on KCOP, and co-hosted a show on that station with the
pianist’s wife, June Levant, after Oscar Levant had a blowup with management
and moved to KHJ-TV. Thaxton soon starred in a local afternoon show resembling
Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” and emceed network television shows in
the 1970s.
White-haired now, Thaxton remains youthful, personable and good-looking.
Thaxton came to Los Angeles in 1957 from Toledo, Ohio, where he had hosted the
top-rated local show, “Leave It to Lloyd.” He became a “freelance
announcer” here.
I hadn’t heard that term before talking with Thaxton. A freelance announcer,
he explained, would go from station to station to deliver commercials. That
was, of course, at the tail end of the live television era. Videotape had been
developed, but was not yet widely used.
“I would do the same commercial over and over again,” Thaxton said.
He’d deliver a White Front (discount store) commercial on Channel 9 at 11
a.m., get in his car and go to Channel 2, and repeat the same spiel, he
recalled. And he would keep running into the same “freelance television
guys,” such as Lloyd Simon, in station parking lots, Thaxton noted.
At KCOP, he would deliver spiels on the talk shows of the erratic Oscar Levant
and the controversial gabber, Tom Duggan. Thaxton told me that after Oscar
Levant had bolted from KCOP, station manager Al Flanagan asked him to a do show
with June Levant, promising that if he did, “I will also give you a show of
your own.”
June Levant was possessed of charm and self-confidence. She was a former
actress. But I remember her first day on her afternoon show, with Thaxton as
her announcer/sidekick. She seemed uneasy.
“She was scared to death,” Thaxton confirmed.
On her husband’s show, he recounted, “she would read the mail” and “she
didn’t really have to come up with any new, fresh ideas.” But this was now
“The June Levant Show,” and “she was very nervous,” Thaxton said. His
own role on the show, as he described it, was that of “kind of leading her
on, and asking her questions—like interviewing her.”
Aired for an hour each weekday afternoon, “45 minutes of the hour was made up
of films,” the announcer recalled. A movie would be continued from day to
day.
Eventually, however, June Levant became at ease, the movie was eliminated, and
the program became a “true talk show,” Thaxton said. June Levant would chat
with someone like Pamela Mason (wife of actor James Mason, and a local TV
personality), he brought to mind, remarking: “I more or less sat there and
introduced the commercial breaks.”
The show, which started in 1958, lasted about a year.
Flanagan made good on his promise to give Thaxton a show of his own. “Lloyd
Thaxton’s Record Shop” went on the air in 1959, while he was still
announcer on June Levant’s show. It was broadcast weekdays. He sat behind a
counter on a set “made to look like a record shop,” Thaxton explained.
“It had a lot of live commercials, and I did them all,” he mentioned.
It was not quite a one-man show. He had guests, who dropped by to plug their
records, or just to chat. They included dancer Fred Astaire, comic Jerry Lewis,
musical director/composer Johnny Green, and composer Dmitri Tiomkin. Back then,
“it was much easier than it is today to get big name guests,” Thaxton
remarked.
In 1961, “The Lloyd Thaxton Show” was launched on KCOP. It featured
teenagers, brought in from local high schools, dancing to records. Thaxton
said:
“No one told me what I had to do. I was producing it myself. I was writing it
myself.”
He lip-synched vocals and played the guitar and piano.
Seen from 5 to 6 p.m., the show started with a viewership “of three homes,”
he said facetiously. Thaxton said the show went from “total obscurity to
number one” show in the time period, reaching 350,000 homes.
And then, it went into national syndication.
Just as those of the graying hair set tend to associate Sheriff John [Rovick]
and Engineer Bill [Stulla] with their childhoods, many think of Dick Clark and
Lloyd Thaxton in connection with their teen years.
Clark on Aug. 5, 1957 brought his local Philadelphia show, “Bandstand,” to
the ABC-TV network as “American Bandstand,” where it endured for 30 years.
Thaxton may be thought of by Los Angeles viewers as a local boy who made good.
He took his KCOP dance show, aptly titled “The Lloyd Thaxton Show,” into
national syndication in September, 1964, via videotape—and MCA sold it in 127
markets.
A few stations called upon Thaxton to make the show more sophisticated. It
including lip synching and goofing off.
“I never changed what I did,” he told me in an interview.
At first on the syndicated show, he would identify the particular high school
from which the teenagers had come, just as he had done when the show was
broadcast only in Los Angeles. Thaxton remembered that it was an executive at
the New York station that carried the show who admonished him:
“I want this to be my show. So I don’t want you to mention Hollywood or the
high schools.”
He complied. As a result, he related, people will come up to him and remark,
for example: “I watched you when you were on in Cleveland,” thinking that
what they saw had been a local show.
Top recording artists of the day, such as Jan and Dean, The Statler Brothers,
The Turtles and the Monkees, made guest appearances.
A colleague of mine saw last week’s column on Thaxton and advised that he had
first heard of the TV show host in a 1983 song by the Go-Gos, “Beatnik
Beach.” One stanza is:
“The gang they’ll all be there.
“Join the fun and don’t be a square.
“We’ll lipsync a go-go
“Just like the Lloyd Thaxton show. Yeah.”
Thaxton had a role in the 1964 Jerry Lewis movie, “The Patsy,” playing a
disc jockey. Other local personalities were also in the film: Bill Leyden (who
had hosted movies on KTTV), Del Moore (who had done the same, and had earlier
played Alvin, the husband, on KCOP’s “Life With Elizabeth” starring Betty
White) and Dave Willock, who had been teamed with Cliff Arquette (“Charlie
Weaver”) on an early 1950s comedy show on KNBH (now KNBC).
The next stop in Thaxton’s career was ABC. From Feb. 6, 1967 to Dec. 29 of
that year, he was emcee of network’s daytime show, “Everybody’s
Talking.” Clips were shown of person-on-the-street interviews, and celebrity
contestants tried to guess what they were describing.
Ironically, a personality who had tried out as emcee but got a consolation
prize as announcer was Wink Martindale, who had been a rival of Thaxton in the
L.A. market for viewership of teenage rock ’n’ roll aficionados. He hosted
“Teenage Dance Party” on KHJ-TV, Channel 9, later on KCOP. (Martindale went
on to become quizmaster on other network game shows, including “Gambit” and
“Tic Tac Dough.”)
Thaxton hosted another ABC game show, “Funny You Should Ask,” from Oct. 28,
1968 to Sept. 5, 1969. Contestants tried to match the answers that were given
before the show with the celebrities who had uttered them.
In 1978-79, he was the producer of “Pro-Fan” a syndicated show he created
which featured amateur and athlete contestants answering questions and doing
stunts. Thaxton also served as announcer.
He became producer-writer-director of “Fight Back! With David Horowitz,”
both in its syndicated form, beginning in 1980, and as installments of the
“Today” show on NBC. In 1989, Thaxton received a local Emmy in connection
with his direction of that consumer rights show—one of five Emmys he’s
garnered.
He was co-author with John Alston of a motivational book, “Stuff Happens (And
Then You Fix It!),” released in January.
His daughter is Jennifer Weatherly, a country western singer who has
established herself both in the United States and Europe.
=================================================
"I don't mind lying, but I HATE inaccuracy." -- Samuel Butler
web site)
http://www.metnews.com/articles/reminiscing031303.htm
Thursday, March 13, 2003
REMINISCING
Lloyd Thaxton: Local Personality
By ROGER M. GRACE
A few months ago, I was writing a column on Oscar Levant and wanted to get
ahold of a particular person who had appeared on the late wit’s local TV talk
show, delivering commercials. I tracked him down to “LT Productions,” and
telephoned “information” for the phone number.
There was no listing. The operator queried, “Do you know what ‘L.T.’
stands for?”
“Lloyd Thaxton,” I responded.
“Oh, I know HIM!” came the enthused reaction of an obvious fan.
Thaxton had a lot of them.
He was youthful, personable and good-looking in those days, 45 years back, when
he delivered spiels on KCOP, and co-hosted a show on that station with the
pianist’s wife, June Levant, after Oscar Levant had a blowup with management
and moved to KHJ-TV. Thaxton soon starred in a local afternoon show resembling
Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” and emceed network television shows in
the 1970s.
White-haired now, Thaxton remains youthful, personable and good-looking.
Thaxton came to Los Angeles in 1957 from Toledo, Ohio, where he had hosted the
top-rated local show, “Leave It to Lloyd.” He became a “freelance
announcer” here.
I hadn’t heard that term before talking with Thaxton. A freelance announcer,
he explained, would go from station to station to deliver commercials. That
was, of course, at the tail end of the live television era. Videotape had been
developed, but was not yet widely used.
“I would do the same commercial over and over again,” Thaxton said.
He’d deliver a White Front (discount store) commercial on Channel 9 at 11
a.m., get in his car and go to Channel 2, and repeat the same spiel, he
recalled. And he would keep running into the same “freelance television
guys,” such as Lloyd Simon, in station parking lots, Thaxton noted.
At KCOP, he would deliver spiels on the talk shows of the erratic Oscar Levant
and the controversial gabber, Tom Duggan. Thaxton told me that after Oscar
Levant had bolted from KCOP, station manager Al Flanagan asked him to a do show
with June Levant, promising that if he did, “I will also give you a show of
your own.”
June Levant was possessed of charm and self-confidence. She was a former
actress. But I remember her first day on her afternoon show, with Thaxton as
her announcer/sidekick. She seemed uneasy.
“She was scared to death,” Thaxton confirmed.
On her husband’s show, he recounted, “she would read the mail” and “she
didn’t really have to come up with any new, fresh ideas.” But this was now
“The June Levant Show,” and “she was very nervous,” Thaxton said. His
own role on the show, as he described it, was that of “kind of leading her
on, and asking her questions—like interviewing her.”
Aired for an hour each weekday afternoon, “45 minutes of the hour was made up
of films,” the announcer recalled. A movie would be continued from day to
day.
Eventually, however, June Levant became at ease, the movie was eliminated, and
the program became a “true talk show,” Thaxton said. June Levant would chat
with someone like Pamela Mason (wife of actor James Mason, and a local TV
personality), he brought to mind, remarking: “I more or less sat there and
introduced the commercial breaks.”
The show, which started in 1958, lasted about a year.
Flanagan made good on his promise to give Thaxton a show of his own. “Lloyd
Thaxton’s Record Shop” went on the air in 1959, while he was still
announcer on June Levant’s show. It was broadcast weekdays. He sat behind a
counter on a set “made to look like a record shop,” Thaxton explained.
“It had a lot of live commercials, and I did them all,” he mentioned.
It was not quite a one-man show. He had guests, who dropped by to plug their
records, or just to chat. They included dancer Fred Astaire, comic Jerry Lewis,
musical director/composer Johnny Green, and composer Dmitri Tiomkin. Back then,
“it was much easier than it is today to get big name guests,” Thaxton
remarked.
In 1961, “The Lloyd Thaxton Show” was launched on KCOP. It featured
teenagers, brought in from local high schools, dancing to records. Thaxton
said:
“No one told me what I had to do. I was producing it myself. I was writing it
myself.”
He lip-synched vocals and played the guitar and piano.
Seen from 5 to 6 p.m., the show started with a viewership “of three homes,”
he said facetiously. Thaxton said the show went from “total obscurity to
number one” show in the time period, reaching 350,000 homes.
And then, it went into national syndication.
Just as those of the graying hair set tend to associate Sheriff John [Rovick]
and Engineer Bill [Stulla] with their childhoods, many think of Dick Clark and
Lloyd Thaxton in connection with their teen years.
Clark on Aug. 5, 1957 brought his local Philadelphia show, “Bandstand,” to
the ABC-TV network as “American Bandstand,” where it endured for 30 years.
Thaxton may be thought of by Los Angeles viewers as a local boy who made good.
He took his KCOP dance show, aptly titled “The Lloyd Thaxton Show,” into
national syndication in September, 1964, via videotape—and MCA sold it in 127
markets.
A few stations called upon Thaxton to make the show more sophisticated. It
including lip synching and goofing off.
“I never changed what I did,” he told me in an interview.
At first on the syndicated show, he would identify the particular high school
from which the teenagers had come, just as he had done when the show was
broadcast only in Los Angeles. Thaxton remembered that it was an executive at
the New York station that carried the show who admonished him:
“I want this to be my show. So I don’t want you to mention Hollywood or the
high schools.”
He complied. As a result, he related, people will come up to him and remark,
for example: “I watched you when you were on in Cleveland,” thinking that
what they saw had been a local show.
Top recording artists of the day, such as Jan and Dean, The Statler Brothers,
The Turtles and the Monkees, made guest appearances.
A colleague of mine saw last week’s column on Thaxton and advised that he had
first heard of the TV show host in a 1983 song by the Go-Gos, “Beatnik
Beach.” One stanza is:
“The gang they’ll all be there.
“Join the fun and don’t be a square.
“We’ll lipsync a go-go
“Just like the Lloyd Thaxton show. Yeah.”
Thaxton had a role in the 1964 Jerry Lewis movie, “The Patsy,” playing a
disc jockey. Other local personalities were also in the film: Bill Leyden (who
had hosted movies on KTTV), Del Moore (who had done the same, and had earlier
played Alvin, the husband, on KCOP’s “Life With Elizabeth” starring Betty
White) and Dave Willock, who had been teamed with Cliff Arquette (“Charlie
Weaver”) on an early 1950s comedy show on KNBH (now KNBC).
The next stop in Thaxton’s career was ABC. From Feb. 6, 1967 to Dec. 29 of
that year, he was emcee of network’s daytime show, “Everybody’s
Talking.” Clips were shown of person-on-the-street interviews, and celebrity
contestants tried to guess what they were describing.
Ironically, a personality who had tried out as emcee but got a consolation
prize as announcer was Wink Martindale, who had been a rival of Thaxton in the
L.A. market for viewership of teenage rock ’n’ roll aficionados. He hosted
“Teenage Dance Party” on KHJ-TV, Channel 9, later on KCOP. (Martindale went
on to become quizmaster on other network game shows, including “Gambit” and
“Tic Tac Dough.”)
Thaxton hosted another ABC game show, “Funny You Should Ask,” from Oct. 28,
1968 to Sept. 5, 1969. Contestants tried to match the answers that were given
before the show with the celebrities who had uttered them.
In 1978-79, he was the producer of “Pro-Fan” a syndicated show he created
which featured amateur and athlete contestants answering questions and doing
stunts. Thaxton also served as announcer.
He became producer-writer-director of “Fight Back! With David Horowitz,”
both in its syndicated form, beginning in 1980, and as installments of the
“Today” show on NBC. In 1989, Thaxton received a local Emmy in connection
with his direction of that consumer rights show—one of five Emmys he’s
garnered.
He was co-author with John Alston of a motivational book, “Stuff Happens (And
Then You Fix It!),” released in January.
His daughter is Jennifer Weatherly, a country western singer who has
established herself both in the United States and Europe.
=================================================
"I don't mind lying, but I HATE inaccuracy." -- Samuel Butler