Legendary LA DJ Art Laboe passed away on October 7th of pneumonia. He was 97 years old.
Harvey Kubernik sent us this memorial …
Art Laboe RIP Art interview with Harvey Kubernik from his book "Turn Up The Radio! Pop, Rock and Roll in Los Angeles 1956-1972"
No one in the history of L.A. radio has done more to promote the music throughout Southern California — and indeed, the world — than Art Laboe.
He was the very first DJ to spin West Coast rock ’n’ roll, to merge race music under one broadcast. When Elvis Presley came to town in 1956 with manager Colonel Parker, their only interview granted was to Laboe. Art had been the first person to play the Sun Records of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. He introduced Ricky Nelson to the radio airwaves. Laboe hosted dances at the El Monte Legion Stadium; in 1960, he teamed with Dick Clark to stage an unprecedented rock ’n’ roll show at the Hollywood Bowl that sold 18,000 tickets.
Born Arthur Egnoian in 1925, Laboe graduated from George Washington High School in Los Angeles in the thirties. He began locally at radio station KXLA in 1950, which later became KRLA in Pasadena. He soon moved on to KPOP, hosting a shift at Scrivener’s Drive-In that started at midnight and went to 4:00 am. From there, it was on to co-hosting duties with KFWB’s DJ Larry Finley at Ciro’s nightclub on Sunset Boulevard. Laboe interviewed band leaders like Lawrence Welk, and such Hollywood stars as Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Sammy Davis Jr., Susan Hayward, Janet Leigh, and Tony Curtis on his program Show People.
Art Laboe: In 1955, I resigned from KFWB. I remember on my earlier radio show that there was a lot of rhythm and blues. The kids liked it, but I wasn’t allowed to play anything like that on KFWB, who wanted me to play more of the new music than interviewing movie stars.
They thought I was nuts, going back to Scrivener’s. I had to package the show with Paul Scrivener, who paid KPOP for the airtime.
My show followed Hunter Hancock. He was a friend of mine and played only black artists. Then this thing got hot and I knew all the artists to play — Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner. The other stations had no idea of what the hell was going on.
Laboe was on the air from 3:00 am until sunrise. After his stint at KPOP from 1955 to ’59, he moved to KDAY for 1960 through ’61.
Art Laboe: Hite Morgan, who ran a label and Studio Masters — which did the first Beach Boys recordings — brought me over “Confidential” by Sonny Knight. I put it on the air, and off it went. He told me I had a great ear, and said I should get into the music business.
I started Original Sound in 1957 and put out Preston Epps’s “Bongo Rock.” The song got on the charts, and here I was making a hundred dollars a week. ABC Paramount [Records] calls me and offers $20,000 in advance and royalties for this master of “Bongo Rock.” Sam Clark, the president of ABC. He was cool. Sam said, “We could cover your record, plaster the country, and your record would die.” The actress Jayne Mansfield also was on my label.
At the time, I was making money with Hal Zeiger, who was my partner. He had this place called World Wide Attractions. He came out to Hollywood one afternoon and told me that he did all these dances with Huggy Boy and Johnny Otis. Hal asked if I wanted to be involved. Johnny “Guitar” Watson was on my shows quite often. But the Latinos were heavy at that time at El Monte Legion Stadium — that’s where they all lived, that’s where the Latino thing came in with Art Laboe and that connection. I would play “A Casual Look” from Trudy Williams and the Sixteens, “Earth Angel” by the Penguins (which Dootsie Williams gave me), and Rosie and the Originals’ “Angel Baby.” Original Sound would later release the Penguins’ “Memories of El Monte.” I never took any money when I was on the radio, ’cause I was making a couple of thousand dollars a week at my dances.
We started doing shows at the Legion Stadium. We did them there because there was a city ordinance in L.A. that if you were under the age of eighteen, you could not attend a public dance unless it was sanctioned by the school board. There were dress codes at some places. The phrase on the radio ads was, “No Levi’s, jeans, or capris, please.” In El Monte, because it was an incorporated city, we played there.
Rock ’n’ roll was regularly scheduled at the El Monte Legion Stadium. The room had been the site of Cliffie Stone’s Hometown Jamboree radio broadcasts over KLAC (with Merle Travis, Joe Maphis, and others) in 1949. Hal Zeiger presented the inaugural show with Johnny Otis in the spring of 1955.
Pianist, composer, and producer Barry White was a symphony of vibrant contrasts: a great ebony hulk who moved with a sumo’s grace; a basso profundo who uttered sweet nothings; a hugely popular and critical success who has been, if not lost, certainly misplaced over the years in the hearts and minds of his countrymen. With apologies to Clarence Clemons, Barry White was the original “big man.”
He was born Barry Eugene Carter in Galveston, Texas on September 12, 1944. His family relocated to the Watts area of Los Angeles when he was six months old. He displayed an aptitude for music at an early age, picking melodies at the piano while listening to his mother’s favorite classical composers. Hunter Hancock’s Harlematinee show on radio stations KFVD and KPOP were part of his ear training. In 1956, the eleven-year-old White reportedly attended and played piano on the Jesse Belvin recording session that yielded the hit “Goodnight My Love.”
White’s teenage years were cast in iron; he ran with street gangs like the Slausens and the Businessmen, culminating with six months of jail time for car theft in 1960. The experience only hardened his resolve to find salvation through his love of songwriting. At sixteen, he made his first record, “Little Girl,” singing harmony with the Upfronts for Lummtone Records. He was a member of two groups simultaneously, the Atlantics and the Majestics.
White played piano on Bob and Earl’s 1963 hit single, “Harlem Shuffle,” which he also co-arranged with Gene Page. In 1965, he went on the road as the drummer for Jackie “The Duck” Lee. White made his own recording debut in ’65 with “I Don’t Need It” for the local Los Angeles Downey label. Two years later, he was cutting sides for the Del-Fi, Bronco, and Mustang labels.
In the summer of 1966, Del-Fi owner Bob Keane hired White as an A&R man. White helped Keane produce the Bobby Fuller Four’s “The Magic Touch” and “I’m a Lucky Guy” at their Hollywood studio. White also worked on a single with the Versatiles, who later became the 5th Dimension. He then produced “Lost Without the Love of My Guy” for Viola Willis White. Bob Keane and Gene Page then produced a soul album for Danny Wagner on the Imperial label. White recorded his own version of the Mac Davis-written Elvis Presley standard, “In the Ghetto,” under the name Gene West on Art Laboe’s Original Sound. White also was a recording artist on Eddie Davis’s Faro label, receiving local airplay with “Tracy.”
HK
Laboe is credited with coining the term “Oldies But Goodies,” long associated with stations playing hits from the past. (Ironically, Little Caesar and the Romans recorded a Top Ten Hit in 1961 called “Those Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me Of You).” In 1961, there weren’t a whole lot of oldies but goodies yet to choose from!!! Rock and Roll was still fairly new … but Top 40 Radio was dedicated to playing the current hits of the day in heavy rotation … so even dipping back a year or two to feature a “forgotten gem” made for a nice break in the action. (I was surprised, while listening to the WLS / WCFL Rewound Radio special over Labor Day Weekend just how many “oldies but goodies” both stations were playing at the time. I just don’t remember it as being such a regular feature when I was listening back then … but obviously I was wrong. Nearly every one hour segment features at least one “Solid Gold” moment!)
Laboe’s series of Oldies But Goodies albums first launched in 1959 … and EVERYBODY bought these! (It was a GREAT way to fill in your record collection … original hits by the original artists … and for about five bucks you’d get at least a dozen bona fide hits!)
Reviewing Art's credentials and contributions thru a series of tribute links this week, one has to wonder how it's possible that HE isn't in The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in the Non-Performer category. He certainly seems worthy to me. (kk)
More from Harvey …
“My favorite place to be is behind that microphone,” Art Laboe said at the time of the 79-year anniversary in September. “I have one of the best jobs in the world, playing the music, interacting with our listeners, doing their dedications and connecting them with their loved ones! Thank you to our dedicated fans that have listened through the decades and made ‘The Art Laboe Connection’ a family tradition,” he said.
Laboe was an inductee into the National Radio Hall of Fame. He has a collection on permanent exhibit at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He was famous for taking calls from listeners who sought to send out dedications to loved ones, and in later decades forged a sentimental connection not just with nostalgia enthusiasts but a Latino fan base in particular.
Born Arthur Egnoian in Salt Lake City, he started tinkering with radios as a youth, and is said to have built his own station by the age of 12. Laboe attended high school in Los Angeles, then broke into the airwaves in San Francisco on radio station KSAN in September, 1943.
After serving in the Navy during World War II and working in the Bay area, he moved to Los Angeles’ KXLA-AM in 1950 (the station later became KRLA), according to a Laboe history written by author Harvey Kubernik.
Laboe “was the very first DJ to spin West Coast rock ’n’ roll, to merge race music under one broadcast,” Kubernik wrote in the book “Turn Up The Radio! Pop, Rock and Roll in Los Angeles 1956-1972.”
“When Elvis Presley came to town in 1956 with manager Colonel Parker, their only interview granted was to Laboe. Art had been the first person to play the Sun Records of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. He introduced Ricky Nelson to the radio airwaves. Laboe hosted dances at the El Monte Legion Stadium; in 1960, he teamed with Dick Clark to stage an unprecedented rock ’n’ roll show at the Hollywood Bowl that sold 18,000 tickets.”
Tom Cuddy sent us this link … which features some GREAT photos of Art Laboe with the likes of Ricky Nelson, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis …
Art Laboe dies;
his ‘Oldies but Goodies’ show ruled the L.A. airwaves
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-10/art-laboe-
Kent –
I just heard and read that Art Laboe has passed away at the age of 97. I have most if not all of the LP's he put out. He definitely was an "OLDIE' but also a "GOODIE".
Larry Neal
I'm guessing that nearly everybody on our list has owned at least one of Art's "Oldies But Goodies" record albums at some point in time ... and maybe even a dozen!!! They were always prominently on display in record stores at the time.
This was a GREAT way to fill in the holes in your record collection with hits you may have missed along the way. (I'm STILL shocked that this series started in the late '50's ... I didn't think there was an "oldies market" until at least ten years later!)
These photos ought to help stir a memory or two!
