Isham Jones born 31 January 1894

Isham Edgar Jones (January 31, 1894 – October 19, 1956) was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.

While his name may have begun to slip from public consciousness, many of the songs written by Isham (pronounced "Eye-sham") Jones continue to live on. He put out more than a hundred, many of them musical standards, like "It Had To Be You", "Swinging Down the Lane", "How Many Tears Must Fall", "I'll See You in My Dreams", "On the Alamo", "Thanks for Everything" , "Spain" and "More Than Ever". 

Besides that, Jones was an accomplished musician (he played piano, violin, tenor saxophone and string bass), who also happened to lead one of the most commercially successful dance orchestras of the 1920's and early 30's, renowned for having the best ensemble sound in the business. 

Jones was born in Ohio, but raised in Saginaw, Michigan. His father taught him to play the fiddle and, before long, he had assembled his first band, performing at the local church. In 1915, he moved to Chicago to further his musical studies. At night, he led his own trio at 'Mahoney's Club'. By 1919, he fronted an orchestra which toured hotels and dance palaces in Michigan and Pennsylvania, including the Rainbow Gardens in Chicago, at which time he recorded some early discs under the name 'Isham Jones Rainbo Orchestra' (including "Alice Blue Gown" and "Happy", 1920). 

 He later established a six year residency at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago, later to become famous as the College Inn and was to become in later years a favourite haunt for jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and others. Bix in fact would frequently listen to the Jones Orchestra, and even sat in a few times while he was still a student at the nearby Lake Forest Academy. 
 

In 1924, he appeared briefly in New York before sailing to London, England. By the time he returned to the U.S., he was well on the way to establishing himself and his orchestra as a national hit. Having signed on with the Music Corporation of America (and becoming a member of ASCAP in 1924), Jones was encouraged to expand his profile by going on national and overseas tours. 

As a result, the 'Isham Jones Juniors' evolved into one of the most popular dance bands in America, thanks largely to excellent organisation, good musicians (personnel included at various times Woody Herman, Pee Wee Erwin, Jack Jenney, Clarence Willard and George Thow) and superior arrangements by Jones himself, Gordon Jenkins and future Hollywood composer/conductor Victor Young (a prolific songwriter in his own right). One of the first big hits for the band was a 1930 recording of Hoagy Carmichael's "Star Dust", before lyrics to the song had even been written.

 

 

                           
 

It came as a surprise to many, when Jones - at the height of his popularity - suddenly decided to go into semi-retirement. In 1936, he turned leadership of the 'Juniors' over to Woody Herman, ostensibly, to devote more time to composing and arranging. In the end, Jones resurfaced to lead a few more temporary bands, none of which were particularly successful. By the 1940's, he had left the music scene altogether, operating a general store in Colorado. In 1955, he moved to Florida and died from cancer a year later in Hollywood, California. 

Jones was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1989 and into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

(Info compiled and edited from various sources, mainly IMDB) 

Claudine Longet born 29 January 1942

Claudine Georgette Longet (born 29 January 1942) is a French singer, actress, dancer and recording artist who was popular during the 1960s and 1970s.

Born in Paris, France, her father was an industrialist whose expertise was x-ray technology.  Her mother was a doctor.  There was a younger sibling too, a sister named Danielle Longet..  As a teenager, Claudine became a show dancer.  At the age of 18, she went to the United States to seek fame, fortune and the elusive American Dream.  She was hired by famed nightclub impresario Lou Walters (father of Barbara), who had noticed her on French television.  

Claudine began her career as a Las Vegas show girl, the lead dancer of the Folies Bergère revue at the Tropicana Resort and Casino.  In 1960, she met crooner Andy Williams in Sin City while they were both performing there.  Andy and Claudine married on December 15, 1961 in Los Angeles California when Claudine was 19 years old Williams was 34. They had three children: daughter Noëlle and sons Christian and Robert. 

During the 1960s, Claudine Longet appeared in a number of popular TV shows.  Her first acting roles on television were in two 1963 episodes of the sitcom McHales's Navy.  She also appeared on Dr. Kildare (1963), McHale's Navy (1964), Mr. Novak (1965), 12 O'Clock High (1965) (1966), Hogan's Heroes (1966), The Rat Patrol (1966) (1967), Combat! (1964) (1967) and The F.B.I. (1969). 

In 1966, Claudine appeared as a guest star on the NBC television adventure series Run for Your Life, starring Ben Gazzara. In the episode, she sang a bilingual version of the bossa nova song "Meditation" (English and French) and was subsequently signed to a contract by Herb Alpert's A&M Records.  She recorded five albums under that label between 1966 and 1970.

 

 

                            
 

She also has had hit singles in America on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Her charting singles include her cover version of "Here, There and Everywhere"  "Hello, Hello"  "Good Day Sunshine" "Small Talk" and "Love is Blue", a 1967 Eurovision Song Contest entry that gained fourth place  Another song, "Wanderlove" (music and lyrics by Mason Williams), went to #7 on the singles charts in Singapore and still occasionally gets airplay on Asian radio. She remains popular in Japan, where all of her original albums were reissued on compact disc. 

In 1971, Claudine signed a contract with Barnaby Records, Andy Williams' label.  She released some singles and two albums (We've Only Just Begun and Let's Spend the Night Together) for the company. 

Claudine had the lead female role in director Blake Edwards' classic 1968 comedy The Party.  She portrayed Hollywood starlet Michele Monet in the film, opposite co-star Peter Sellers.  Sellers played a bumbling Indian actor who, due to a clerical error, is mistakenly invited to an exclusive Hollywood party, instead of being fired.

In 1970, Claudine’s perfect TV-captured marriage unravelled, but her network of influential and famous friends remained. It was through Liza Minelli and Clint Eastwood that she met then “professional skiing’s richest racer” Vladimir “Spider” Sabich. The two hit it off instantly and Longet and her children moved into his Aspen, Colorado home, though the relationship between the two was gradually rumoured to have grown tempestuous.  

On March 21, 1976, Sabich was found dead on his bathroom floor, with Longet admittedly holding the pistol that shot him. She later stated the shooting was an accident that occurred as Sabich was showing her how to handle the firearm. The singer/actress would eventually be charged with reckless manslaughter.  

Longet's ex-husband Wlliams supported her throughout the trial, with the case becoming a media spectacle and inciting strong reactions from many Aspen residents. The jury acquitted Longet of felony manslaughter and convicted her instead of criminally negligent homicide. Longet was sentenced to 30 days in jail. 

Sabich's family initiated a $780,000 civil suit against Longet. It was settled out of court on the condition that she never tell or write about her time with Sabich. After the trial, Longet began a relationship with her married defence co-attorney Ron Austin, whom she later wed. They reside in Aspen, and Longet has opted to remain out of the spotlight and has maintained a private profile since 1977.

 

(Compiled and edited from various sources, mainly from an article by Joanne Madden)

Harlow Wilcox born 28 January 1943

Harlow Wilcox (January 28, 1943 – August 26, 2002) was an American session musician from Norman, Oklahoma.
 

Harlow Wilcox recorded “Groovy Grubworm” in 1969 for the tiny Impel label. Somehow the song came to the attention of Shelby Singleton, the owner of the previously dormant Sun label (which he used for reissues) and the Plantation label. Singleton purchased the master and re-released it as Plantation 28 in the fall of 1969 (as Harlow Wilcox & the Oakies), which hit No. 30 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart late that year. It also reached number 1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. The Okies consisted of the best musicians around Norman, Oklahoma at the time. 

"Groovy Grubworm" has sold over a million copies and was nominated for a Grammy in 1969. You’d think by groovy tree-hugging grubworm on the cover that this album is far out. Instead, Harlow Wilcox & The Oakies are strikingly conservative in re-imagining such classics as The Surfaris’ Wipe Out, Johnny Smith’s Walk, Don’t Run, as well as dropping in four original compositions of their own that match seamlessly with the rest of these compelling classics. Their next album issued was “Cripple Cricket and Other Country Critters” released in 1971.  

 

 

                            
 

Harlow Wilcox would never chart again on Billboard’s Pop charts, and would have only one more minor country chart hit: “Cripple Cricket” which topped out at #54 in 1970. Both of Wilcox's Plantation albums are available as downloads but not on CD. Used vinyl copies turn up fairly often. 

And that music lovers, is all the information I can find on the internet. Unless of course you know better, then please drop me a line! My last bit of news, sadly to say is that on August 26, 2002 Wilcox died from a heart attack at his home in Oklahoma City, aged 59. (Info from various blogs mainly Wikipedia)
 

David Seville born 27 January 1919

Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972), otherwise known by his stage name David Seville, was an American pianist, musician, actor, voice actor, and record producer of Armenian descent. He created Alvin and the Chipmunks and was the founder of Bagdasarian Productions (formerly Bagdasarian Film Corporation).

He was born in Fresno, California, the youngest child of Dick and Virginia (nėe Saroyan) Bagdasarian, Armenian immigrants from the Ottoman Empire. He enlisted in the United States Army one month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, and served until the end of World War II.  

Ross worked as an actor and spent two years acting in Saroyan's The Time Of Your Life. The two of them wrote a song they called Come On-A My House while they were driving across New Mexico in 1939. The song was used in an off-Broadway play called The Son in 1950 before it was recorded by Kay Armen. In 1951 a recording by Rosemary Clooney of Come On-A My House became a huge hit. Ross continued with his acting career and appeared in some films, including Stalag 17, Viva Zapata and most notably, Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 masterpiece Rear Window. 

He decided to use the name David Seville for his work in recording studios, which was becoming more frequent and more interesting to him. He took the professional name Seville because he'd been stationed in Seville, Spain, during World War II and liked the area. He continued with his songwriting, and composed and recorded an instrumental titled Armen's Theme in 1956. He had a moderate hit in 1956 under the name Alfi and Harry with the novelty record "The Trouble With Harry," a song with the same title as the then-recent Alfred Hitchcock comedy-thriller movie.  

 

 

                               

He had been writing songs and recording at Liberty Records. On April 14, 1958 what proved to be his first big hit entered the charts: Witch Doctor. Seville had read a book titled Duel With The Witch Doctor. He spent $190 on a tape recorder that would allow him to change tape speeds. He experimented with recording at half speed and then playing his tapes back at full speed. The result was Witch Doctor, and the public liked it. It shot up the charts until it could go no higher, resting in the #1 position for three weeks of its eighteen week run. 

That success led to him to record "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" with The Chipmunks, for which he won two Grammy Awards in 1959: Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children. Ross named the three Chipmunk characters after record executives: Simon Waronker, Ted Keep (Theodore), and Alvin Bennett. 

After the success of "The Chipmunk Song", a series of follow-up hit singles were quickly released, also on Liberty Records. "Alvin's Harmonica" was the second, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" the third and "Alvin's Orchestra" the fourth, with instrumental B-sides (like "Mediocre" and "Almost Good") sometimes featuring non-chipmunk semi-comedic concepts. Albums continued this trend, the first album being released on red vinyl, successfully continuing well into the 60s with an album of the Chipmunks singing various early hits of the Beatles in 1964. The enormous popularity of the Chipmunks wound down but their place in the entertainment world endured. By 1970 they had sold over thirty million records. 

Following his hit records, Ross provided the voice for David Seville and Alvin in the Chipmunks' short-lived 1961–62 animated television series The Alvin Show. The Chipmunks' recordings had the performers often labelled as "David Seville and the Chipmunks" and the composer typically listed as "Bagdasarian". Bagdasarian's last album was The Chipmunks Go to the Movies, released in 1969, almost three years before his death. 

Bagdasarian, not yet 53, died of a heart attack suddenly on January 16, 1972, and was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California. His ashes were removed many years ago by his son. All Chipmunk activity ceased until 1980, when his son began to release Chipmunks recordings. Ross Jr. also assumed the voice for David Seville and the Chipmunk characters, except for those performed by Ross Jr.'s wife, Janice Karman, such as Theodore and all of The Chipettes. 

The 2007 film Alvin and the Chipmunks was dedicated to his memory. A title card shown in the middle of the end credits reads "This film is dedicated to Ross Bagdasarian Sr., who was crazy enough to invent three singing chipmunks nearly fifty years ago. (Edited from Wikipedia & an article by Tom Simon)
 

Avery Parish born 24 January 1917

James Avery Parrish (January 24, 1917 – December 10, 1959) was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger. He wrote and recorded "After Hours". Injuries from a bar fight in 1943 ended his career as a pianist. 

Parrish was born in Birmingham, Alabama. His parents were Curley and Fannie G Parrish. Avery had at least one brother, who became an educator. Parrish graduated from Parker High School in Birmingham. According to a gossip columnist in 1935, Parrish was at that time married to singer Velma Middleton. 

Parrish studied at the Alabama State Teachers College, where he became a member of the 'Bama Street Collegians in 1934, which in time became the Erskine Hawkins Big Band.

 

Avery is 4th from left back row

Parrish was with Hawkins through the glory years, staying until 1941 and appearing on all of the band's early recordings. Parrish wrote the music to "After Hours", and a 1940 recording of the tune with Hawkins's orchestra resulted in its becoming a jazz standard. He also wrote arrangements for Hawkins.  

                          

In August 1942 Parrish was injured in a car crash that killed
Marcellus Green, one of Hawkins's trumpeters. They were in a group of five in the vehicle, driving between Pittsburgh and Chattanooga to gigs when it overturned. Parrish left Hawkins later that year and moved to California. He was a commercially successful solo pianist there. He was involved in a bar fight in 1943 – he was hit in the head by a bar stool – which put him in hospital for a few months. This left him partly paralyzed; he was unable to play music for the rest of his life. 

 Parrish died of unknown causes on December 10, 1959. A
contemporary report stated that he "had been found lying in Harlem streets five days before he died at the Harlem Hospital. There were no marks of violence on his body. Author and music executive Arnold Shaw stated that Parrish suffered "a fall down a flight of stairs". At the time, Parrish was living with his mother on Saint Nicholas Avenue and "working as a porter for a local bottling company." He was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, New York. 

In 1979, Parrish was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

(Info edited from Wikipedia)

Marty Paich born 23 January 1925

Martin Louis "Marty" Paich (January 23, 1925, Oakland, California – August 12, 1995, Santa Ynez, California) was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor. 

 

His earliest music lessons were on the accordion, and thereafter onthe piano. By age 10 he had formed the first of numerous bands, and by age 12 was regularly playing at weddings and similar affairs. Marty first attended Cole Elementary School in Oakland. After graduating from McClymonds High School he attended a series of professional schools in music, including Chapman College, San Francisco State University, the University of Southern California, and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music where he graduated (1951) magna cum laude with a Master's degree in composition.  

 His private teachers included Mario Castelnuevo-Tedesco (studying in his home at 269 South Clark, in Beverly Hills) and Arnold Schoenberg. The Gary Nottingham Orchestra provided his earliest paying work as arranger; together with Pete Rugulo he wrote some of that band's best-known charts. Paich served in the US Air Corps during World War II, there leading various bands and orchestras and helping build troop morale. 

 From the beginning of his professional career, he also learned music in the time-honoured ways: he transcribed countless tunes and charts from recordings, he attended innumerable concerts, and he sat-in on a thousand jams. And from the beginning Paich had an extraordinary ear for style, and tremendously eclectic taste. These gifts would serve him well in his career and provide the opportunity to work in an amazingly large circle of musicians. 

 After finishing his formal studies, Paich took a series of jobs in theLos Angeles music and recording industry. These included arranging (and playing) the score for the Disney Studio's full length cartoon film The Lady and The Tramp, working as accompanist for vocalist Peggy Lee, playing piano for the Shorty Rogers' Giants, touring with Dorothy Dandridge, and providing arrangements for many local bands in Los Angeles. 

 During the 1950's, Paich was active in West Coast Jazz performance while also working intensively in the studios. He not only played on, but arranged and produced, numerous West Coast jazz recordings, including albums by Ray Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Terry Gibbs, Stan Kenton, Shelley Manne, Anita O'Day, Dave Pell, Art Pepper, Buddy Rich, Shorty Rogers, and Mel Tormé. His professional and personal association with Tormé, though occasionally a difficult one, would last decades. Many jazz critics feel their work with the Marty Paich Dektette to be the high point of their respective careers.

 

 

       Here's "It Don't Mean A Thing " from above 1959 album.

 

                            
 

 In the 1960s, he became more active in commercial music, and extended his talents to include work for such pop musicians as Andy Williams, Al Hirt, Dinah Shore, Jack Jones, and others of that style. From the late 1960s into the mid-1970s, Paich was the studio orchestra leader for such television variety shows as The Glen Campbell Good-Time Hour, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (where he replaced Nelson Riddle), and The Sonny and Cher Show. He also scored such television programs as Ironside, for which he won an Emmy Award. At this time he began serving as teacher and life-long mentor to his son David, soon to make his own reputation with the band Toto, and to become a distinguished musician in his own right.

 

 Marty Paich's work in the 1980s to 1990s built on his long-standing reputation as an artist of wide stylistic gifts, particularly in scoring for strings (he was often hired to 'sweeten' the work of other arrangers), and he received calls to work for musicians ranging from Barbra Streisand to Michael Jackson. During the same period he became active in film, often working as conductor (and on-site arranger) in a number of well-received studio projects. These films, usually scored by his student James Newton Howard, included Flatliners, For The Boys, Grand Canyon, The Package, Pretty Woman, and Prince of Tides.  

 

 In 1991 he was honoured at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion by Singers' Salute to the Songwriter, Inc., and there received the title 'Songwriter of the Year'. He also led the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in what would be one of Sarah Vaughan's last public appearances. In this latter period he announced a semi-retirement to his beloved ranch on Baseline Road in Santa Ynez. From this domain he worked on occasional projects, the last of which was with Aretha Franklin. He died of colon cancer on 12 August 1995, at home, surrounded by his family. (Info mainly from martypaich.com)

Richie Havens born 21 January 1941

Richard Pierce "Richie" Havens (January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music encompassed elements of folk, soul, and rhythm and blues. He is best known for his intense and rhythmic guitar style (often in open tunings), soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. 

Born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of nine children, Havens formed street corner doo-wop groups with his friends, and sang with the McCrea Gospel Singers at the age of 16. Although he had already visited the artistic hotbed Greenwich Village, to read poetry, he was 20 before he moved there to live, soon learning to play the guitar and performing in the Village's folk venues, where this 6ft 6in tall African American stood out in the largely white clubs.

 

His distinctive guitar playing and soulful, gruff singing style quickly marked him out as a performer to watch, and after a couple of albums on the Douglas label, Havens was signed up by Bob Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, who secured a record deal with Verve Records.

For Havens, there were no boundaries: his albums could equally be filed under folk, soul, blues, pop, jazz and rock, and he was an early adopter of Indianinstruments in raga-rock experiments such as the title-track of his 1968 Something Else Again album. By the following year's double-album Richard P. Havens, 1983, the instrumentation included sitar, tamboura, celeste, harp, flute, steel guitar, clavinet and ondioline.

Havens is best known for his opening performance at the historic 1969 Woodstock festival. He had been scheduled to go on fifth, but major traffic snarl-ups delayed many of the performers, so he was put on first and told to perform a lengthy set. He entranced the audience for three hours, being called back time and again for encores. With his repertoire exhausted, he improvised a song based on the spiritual Motherless Child. This became Freedom, his best known song and an anthem for a generation. His inclusion on the subsequent film of the festival – where he can be seen strutting around the stage, pouring every ounce of emotion into the song – further enhanced his reputation. 

His Woodstock success encouraged Havens to found his own record label, Stormy Forest, and although the first album, Stonehenge (1970), was more subdued than his Woodstock audience expected, his next record, Alarm Clock (1971), indeed became a wake-up call: it was his highest charting album, and a single of George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun made the US top 20. 

 

                            
 

Havens went on to release several more albums through the mid-1970s, although it was his live performances that earned the greatest praise. In the same year as Woodstock, he appeared at the Isle of Wight festival, and the studio audience for his appearance on The Johnny Carson Show in the US was so enthusiastic that Carson invited him back the following evening – only the second time this had ever happened. 

During the 1970s, Havens diversified into acting. He starred in the original stage performance of the Who's Tommy in 1972 and took the lead role in Catch My Soul, the 1974 film based on Othello. He co-starred with Richard Pryor in the 1977 film Greased Lightning. Into the 1980s, Havens continued to tour and record, although he never improved on his previous chart success.  

His 1993 retrospective album, Resume: The Best of Richie Havens, did much to remind a new audience of his back catalogue. In the year it was released, he appeared alongside Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie at the Troubadours of Folk festival in Los Angeles. A capacity audience would not let him leave the stage at the end of his concert. He later described it as a "Greenwich Village class reunion". 

Havens sang at Bill Clinton's 1993 presidential inauguration and also performed several times for the Dalai Lama. He appeared at the 30th and 40th Woodstock anniversary celebrations and at Dylan's 30th anniversary concert in 1992, where he sang Just Like a Woman. His autobiography, They Can't Hide Us Anymore, was published in 1999; the title refers to his thoughts during his helicopter ride over the Woodstock crowds in 1969. His last album was Nobody Left to Crown (2008). 

In 2010, Havens had kidney surgery but did not recover fully enough to perform as he had before. On March 20, 2012, he announced on his Facebook page that he would stop touring after 45 years due to health concerns. On April 22, 2013, Havens died of a heart attack at home in Jersey City, New Jersey at the age of 72 
 

Pursuant to Havens's request, his remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered from the air over the original site of the Woodstock Festival, in a ceremony held on August 18, 2013, the 44th anniversary of the last day of the festival.  (Compiled and edited from Wikipedia and mainly from an article by Derek Schofield  for The Guardian)

Ray Anthony born 20 January 1922

Ray Anthony (born Raymond Antonini, January 20, 1922, in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania) is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.

A popular swing-era trumpeter, Ray Anthony built upon his success with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the '40s, transitioning into his role as a bandleader and actor in Hollywood during the '50s. Blessed with a big, warm tone and supple, swinging style, Anthony drew favourable comparisons to trumpet icon Harry James and enjoyed decades of success on tour and in the studio. Many of Anthony's post-Miller albums were of the commercial variety and spawned a bevy of hits for the trumpeter. 
 

Anthony grew up in a large musical family in Cleveland, Ohio. Introduced to the trumpet by his bandleader father at age five, he progressed quickly and soon joined his family's Antonini Orchestra. By his teens, he was leading his own group and making his professional debut playing with the Al Donahue Orchestra. It was during this period that he caught the attention of trombonist and bandleader Glenn Miller, who hired him as his first-chair trumpeter.  

From 1940 to 1941, Anthony toured and recorded with Miller, during which time he appeared as a member of the band in the musical film Sun Valley Serenade. He also spent several months with Jimmy Dorsey's big band before enlisting in the Navy during World War II. Stationed in the Pacific, he was assigned to a service band that he led for the duration. 

After his discharge in 1946, he formed his own Ray Anthony Orchestra and toured across the United States. In the early '50s, he signed with Capitol Records and achieved almost immediate success with recordings like "The Hokey Pokey" and his most famous song, "The Bunny Hop," which kicked off a dance craze. More hits followed, including a 1952 take on Glenn Miller's "At Last" (from I Remember Glenn Miller) and his hugely popular 1953 version of the Dragnet TV show theme song. 

 

 

                              

 

Throughout the '50s, Anthony toured often and issued a slew of well-received albums for Capitol. With his popularity came other film and television work, including accepting the musical director position for the TV show Top Tunes and hosting his own short-lived variety show. He also began acting, showing up first as himself in several films, and then taking on character roles such as playing Jimmy Dorsey in The Five Pennies and appearing with his then-wife, actress and legendary sex symbol Mamie Van Doren, in 1958's High School Confidential and 1959's Girls Town. 

Anthony and Van Doren divorced in 1961, and Anthony's brief film career ended at about the same time. as the market for big bands dropped off. He still remained a popular trumpeter, working regularly on the Las Vegas circuit and releasing a steady stream of mood music albums like Dream Dancing Medley. He also formed the pop-oriented Ray Anthony & His Bookend Revue, which featured the trumpeter flanked by two female singers. During this period he released a handful of pop and rock covers albums, including The Twist, Swim, Swim, C'mon Let's Swim, and the country & western Worried Mind. He kept active throughout the '70s, playing live and releasing yet more albums like Direction '71: My Sweet Lord, which featured an instrumental cover of the George Harrison song. 

Ray with The Bookends (Diane Hall & Anita Ray)

Anthony toured the lounge circuit with a sextet and a female vocal duo called the Bookends. His popularity continued and he was eventually able to add to his group, ending up with ten musicians and six female singers.  

In the '80s, Anthony was a major proponent of the big-band resurgence, touring alongside other swing icons like Buddy Rich, Les Brown, and Harry James. He also formed an organization that supplied big-band charts to school band programs. Since then, he has remained active, continuing to make live appearances and release albums on his own Aero Space Records label, including 2004's Dream Dancing, Vol. 6: The Sinatra Songbook and 2005's Dream Dancing, Vol. 7: The Harry James Songbook. A longtime friend of the late Hugh Hefner, he regularly performed on New Year's Eve at the Playboy Mansion, and appeared on the E! reality series The Girls Next Door. 

 

Anthony, who has been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, continues to be active as a bandleader and musician. (info edited mainly from Matt Collar @ All Music)