Lloyd Thaxton
Encyclopedia
Lloyd Thaxton was an American writer
, television producer
, director
, and television host best known for his syndicated pop music
television program of the 1960s, The Lloyd Thaxton Show, which began as a local show on KCOP Los Angeles
in 1961.
. On graduating from high school, Thaxton enlisted in the Navy, "barely hours" before he would have been drafted.
Thaxton came to Los Angeles from Toledo, Ohio
, in 1957, becoming, in his words, a "freelance announcer" and host of the highly-rated Leave It To Lloyd talk show
on KHJ-TV
. He casually coined the term "freelance announcer" since his work in commercials
was most active toward the end of the era of live television; Thaxton would go from venue to venue performing the commercials live, since videotape
was not in wide use then. Many of his commercials for KHJ
and KNXT
were for the now-defunct Southern California
discount chain, White Front
. His career at KCOP began in 1958 both as a commercial announcer and as announcer for The June Levant Show, an afternoon talk show
starring the wife of celebrated pianist Oscar Levant
. This led to his own afternoon show, Lloyd Thaxton’s Record Shop, in 1959. The program attracted quite a number of big-name guests, some of whom stopped by to promote their latest record
and many of whom simply stopped by for the chance to chat with Thaxton. Among those early guests were Fred Astaire
, Jerry Lewis
, Johnny Green
, and Dimitri Tiomkin
.
In 1961, The Lloyd Thaxton Show debuted on KCOP as an hour-long presentation from 5 to 6 p.m. The format, much along the lines of American Bandstand
, featured local high school
student
s dancing
on the soundstage to the latest records. The show was almost totally unscripted and spontaneous. Thaxton's description of the idea: “No one told me what I had to do. I was producing it myself. I was writing it myself.” Thaxton frequently clowned around on stage to the music, lip-synching
the vocals and accompanying the records on guitar
or piano
. One favorite recurring skit
had the costumed Thaxton on his knees, impersonating painter Toulouse-Lautrec, while lip-synching a current song. He also occasionally "performed" on an odd contraption made from a tennis racket and a bow and arrow that roughly looked like a guitar and "play-synked" popular early-60s instrumental tunes like "Scratchy" by Travis Wammack, and various Ventures and Link Wray guitar songs. The Lloyd Thaxton Show, with its mix of new music and comedy
skits, immediately shot to Number One in the time period, with a viewership of at least 350,000 homes, including those on the East Coast
. Many leading rock 'n' roll
acts of the time, like The Byrds
, Sonny & Cher
, The Kinks
, The Bobby Fuller Four, The Challengers
and others appeared on the program.
Although some cities carried his show almost from the show's inception, like KPTV
in Portland, Oregon
, The Lloyd Thaxton Show went into national syndication in late 1964, quickly becoming the highest rated musical entertainment program in the United States for the next three years. Lloyd Thaxton is today known as the father of music videos.
Thaxton's ventures into other television programs and facets of the entertainment industry earned him five Emmy Award
s and fifteen Emmy nominations.
Thaxton's face appeared at the top of the newly launched Tiger Beat
magazine (then known as "Lloyd Thaxton's Tiger Beat") for which he did a column. According to IMDB, Thaxton was a co-founder of Tiger Beat
magazine.
During the late 1960s, Thaxton hosted two short-lived game shows for ABC
: Everybody's Talking
(1967) and Funny You Should Ask (1968-69).
Thaxton also was a radio talk show host on KABC-790
in Los Angeles from 1972-1974. His Sunday show received positive reviews from the critics.
Moving behind the scenes, in 1977, he created the syndicated game show, Pro-Fan, which he also announced. Charlie Jones
hosted the series. He also served as producer and director of Fight Back! With David Horowitz from 1976 through 1992, as well as producer for NBC's The Today Show.
In 2003 he co-wrote the best seller "Stuff Happens (and then you fix it)", published by Wiley & Sons.
Thaxton married his second wife, Barbara Snyder Whitman, whom he had met on a television set, on August 11, 1969. They had no children and remained married until his death from multiple myeloma
in October 2008, which had been diagnosed in May of that year. He lived in Studio City, California, and was the head of his own entertainment firm, LT Productions, which is still active.
song "Beatnik Beach," which appeared on the 1982 album Vacation: "We'll lipsync a go-go / Like on the Lloyd Thaxton show, yeah ..."
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
, director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, and television host best known for his syndicated pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
television program of the 1960s, The Lloyd Thaxton Show, which began as a local show on KCOP Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1961.
Life and career
The son of a newspaperman, Thaxton was born in Memphis, TennesseeMemphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. On graduating from high school, Thaxton enlisted in the Navy, "barely hours" before he would have been drafted.
Thaxton came to Los Angeles from Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, in 1957, becoming, in his words, a "freelance announcer" and host of the highly-rated Leave It To Lloyd talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
on KHJ-TV
KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV, channel 9, is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, USA, owned by the CBS Corporation. KCAL-TV shares its studio facilities with KCBS-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.-Digital...
. He casually coined the term "freelance announcer" since his work in commercials
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
was most active toward the end of the era of live television; Thaxton would go from venue to venue performing the commercials live, since videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
was not in wide use then. Many of his commercials for KHJ
KHJ (AM)
KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasts Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. It was also one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s as 93 KHJ before changing its format in 1980....
and KNXT
KNXT
KNXT is a television station owned and operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, broadcasting on digital channel 50. The station is licensed in Visalia, California, about 45 miles southeast of Fresno...
were for the now-defunct Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
discount chain, White Front
White Front
White Front was a chain of discount stores in Southern California and the western United States from 1959 through the mid-1970s. They were noted for the architecture of their store fronts which was an enormous, sweeping archway with the store name spelled out in individual letters fanned across the...
. His career at KCOP began in 1958 both as a commercial announcer and as announcer for The June Levant Show, an afternoon talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
starring the wife of celebrated pianist Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
. This led to his own afternoon show, Lloyd Thaxton’s Record Shop, in 1959. The program attracted quite a number of big-name guests, some of whom stopped by to promote their latest record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
and many of whom simply stopped by for the chance to chat with Thaxton. Among those early guests were Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
, Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, Johnny Green
Johnny Green
Johnny Green was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, and conductor. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earliest, "Body and Soul"...
, and Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." Tiomkin...
.
In 1961, The Lloyd Thaxton Show debuted on KCOP as an hour-long presentation from 5 to 6 p.m. The format, much along the lines of American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
, featured local high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s dancing
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
on the soundstage to the latest records. The show was almost totally unscripted and spontaneous. Thaxton's description of the idea: “No one told me what I had to do. I was producing it myself. I was writing it myself.” Thaxton frequently clowned around on stage to the music, lip-synching
Lip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...
the vocals and accompanying the records on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
or piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. One favorite recurring skit
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
had the costumed Thaxton on his knees, impersonating painter Toulouse-Lautrec, while lip-synching a current song. He also occasionally "performed" on an odd contraption made from a tennis racket and a bow and arrow that roughly looked like a guitar and "play-synked" popular early-60s instrumental tunes like "Scratchy" by Travis Wammack, and various Ventures and Link Wray guitar songs. The Lloyd Thaxton Show, with its mix of new music and comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
skits, immediately shot to Number One in the time period, with a viewership of at least 350,000 homes, including those on the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
. Many leading rock 'n' roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
acts of the time, like The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher were an American pop music duo, actors, singers and entertainers made up of husband-and-wife team Sonny and Cher Bono in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector....
, The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, The Bobby Fuller Four, The Challengers
The Challengers (band)
The Challengers were an instrumental surf music band started in late 1962. They were located in Los Angeles. They represented a growing love for surf music and helped make the genre popular...
and others appeared on the program.
Although some cities carried his show almost from the show's inception, like KPTV
KPTV
KPTV is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Portland, Oregon market, which includes most of the state of Oregon and portions of Southwest Washington. KPTV is owned by the Meredith Corporation in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX , with its studios located in Beaverton and...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, The Lloyd Thaxton Show went into national syndication in late 1964, quickly becoming the highest rated musical entertainment program in the United States for the next three years. Lloyd Thaxton is today known as the father of music videos.
Thaxton's ventures into other television programs and facets of the entertainment industry earned him five Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s and fifteen Emmy nominations.
Thaxton's face appeared at the top of the newly launched Tiger Beat
Tiger Beat
Tiger Beat is an American fan magazine marketed primarily to adolescent girls. It is currently published by Laufer Media, Inc. of Los Angeles, California, which also produces its sister publication, Bop....
magazine (then known as "Lloyd Thaxton's Tiger Beat") for which he did a column. According to IMDB, Thaxton was a co-founder of Tiger Beat
Tiger Beat
Tiger Beat is an American fan magazine marketed primarily to adolescent girls. It is currently published by Laufer Media, Inc. of Los Angeles, California, which also produces its sister publication, Bop....
magazine.
During the late 1960s, Thaxton hosted two short-lived game shows for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
: Everybody's Talking
Everybody's Talking
Everybody's Talking was a game show which aired on ABC from February 6 to December 29, 1967. Former dance-party host Lloyd Thaxton was the host; Wink Martindale and Charlie O'Donnell were the announcers...
(1967) and Funny You Should Ask (1968-69).
Thaxton also was a radio talk show host on KABC-790
KABC (AM)
KABC is a Los Angeles radio station, and a West Coast flagship station for the Cumulus Media company. A pioneer of the talk radio format, the station went "all-talk" in 1960 and was one of the first stations to do so...
in Los Angeles from 1972-1974. His Sunday show received positive reviews from the critics.
Moving behind the scenes, in 1977, he created the syndicated game show, Pro-Fan, which he also announced. Charlie Jones
Charlie Jones (sportscaster)
Charlie Jones was an American Emmy Award-winning sportscaster for NBC and ABC.-Education:Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Jones earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California and a law degree at the University of Arkansas.-American Football League/National Football...
hosted the series. He also served as producer and director of Fight Back! With David Horowitz from 1976 through 1992, as well as producer for NBC's The Today Show.
In 2003 he co-wrote the best seller "Stuff Happens (and then you fix it)", published by Wiley & Sons.
Thaxton married his second wife, Barbara Snyder Whitman, whom he had met on a television set, on August 11, 1969. They had no children and remained married until his death from multiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma , also known as plasma cell myeloma or Kahler's disease , is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell normally responsible for the production of antibodies...
in October 2008, which had been diagnosed in May of that year. He lived in Studio City, California, and was the head of his own entertainment firm, LT Productions, which is still active.
Tributes
His show was recalled in the lyrics of The Go-Go'sThe Go-Go's
The Go-Go’s are an all-female American rock band formed in 1978. They made history as the first all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the Billboard album charts....
song "Beatnik Beach," which appeared on the 1982 album Vacation: "We'll lipsync a go-go / Like on the Lloyd Thaxton show, yeah ..."