Lloyd Thaxton, 81, host of '60s dance show, dies
Matthew Kruk
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 10/07/2008 08:40:25 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES-Lloyd Thaxton, an Emmy Award-winning producer and host of a
popular Los Angeles television dance show that went national in the 1960s,
has died. He was 81.
Thaxton died of multiple myeloma Sunday at his home in Los Angeles, said his
wife Barbara Thaxton.
Lloyd Thaxton was known for his comic lip-synching to rock 'n' roll songs on
KCOP's "Lloyd Thaxton's Record Shop," which launched in 1959 and became a
hit despite its limited budget and cardboard set. He used puppets, costumes,
mime and "finger people" he drew on his thumb.
Three years later his show was revamped and renamed "Thaxton's Hop," before
going national in 1964. The show was eventually renamed "The Lloyd Thaxton
Show" and featured teenagers dancing to records and guest appearances by top
recording artists such as Sonny and Cher and the Righteous Brothers.
He always signed off his shows by saying, "My name is Lloyd Thaxton," to
which the teenage dancers would yell, "So what?"
"He was really a trailblazer," said his friend Ken Levine. "He did this show
on a local station with almost no budget at all. It wasn't just a bunch of
kids dancing."
Lloyd Thaxton was born May 31, 1927, in Memphis, Tenn., grew up in Toledo,
Ohio, and served in the Navy.
He later worked as an Emmy Award-winning producer with the consumer advocacy
program "Fight Back! With David Horowitz" and NBC's "The Today Show."
Thaxton is also survived by his daughter, two stepsons
Bo Bielefeldt AKA The Fireball
"Funny You Should Ask"?
allenk...@hotmail.com
<NellyLunatic1...@aol.com> wrote:
> Was this the same Lloyd Thaxton who also hosted the comedy game show
> "Funny You Should Ask"?
Yes
--
Allen Kirshner
(the alt.music.lyrics TV theme guy)
Hyfler/Rosner
"Matthew Kruk" <Matthe...@Telus.net> wrote in message
news:M6YGk.305$fF3.39@edtnps83...
>
> Three years later his show was revamped and renamed
> "Thaxton's Hop," before going national in 1964. The show
> was eventually renamed "The Lloyd Thaxton Show" and
> featured teenagers dancing to records and guest
> appearances by top recording artists such as Sonny and
> Cher and the Righteous Brothers.
>
> He always signed off his shows by saying, "My name is
> Lloyd Thaxton," to which the teenage dancers would yell,
> "So what?"
I remember the show pretty well, but I don't remember that.
Wish I had.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
Thaxton also signed off every show with an end theme that became
something of a hit. He even led the show with it once, and when he
started playing it the teenagers all began to drift away, as if the
show (which had just started) was over. Pretty funny, actually.
Radioacti...@hotmail.com
<NellyLunatic1...@aol.com> wrote:
> Was this the same Lloyd Thaxton who also hosted the comedy game show
> "Funny You Should Ask"?
That short-lived ABC game show was NOT entitled "Funny You Should
Ask", but rather "Everybody's Talking".
I thought it was "Everybody's Talking" immediately when I read the
title mis-remembrance above, but then feared my mind was conflating
that with the similarly-entitled "Everybody's Talkin' ".
The latter, of course, is a SONG, penned by folkie Fred Neil that
Harry Nilsson (better known by solely by his surname) recorded and
eventualy enjoyed a minor hit with. But that occurred ONLY after The
Great Inscrutable One missed the opening-titles song-deadline
submission the producers set for HIM for "Midnight Cowboy"...a
characteristic lapse for the musical mystic which ultimately turned
out to be a GOOD thing, since the Nashville Skyline take of "Lay Lady
Lay" would have been a quite-puzzling selection for moviegoers to hear
over the opening credits of the Joe&Ratso story anyway.
By the way, Thaxton was consistently witty and just a tad over-the-top
as the "Everybody's Talking" host. The game show on ABC's daytime
lineup was short-lived, but I caught every edition of it once school
let out in June. I wish I'd been a hip- enough 7th Grader back then
to enjoy his music show too. Of course, I never got to hear Thaxton's
DJ work, as I was languishing away in decidedly-unhip suburban St.
Louis during that Summer of Love four decades ago.
Having fun with the Zimmerman Theory of Everything,
BRYAN STYBLE/somewhere
Brad Ferguson
<2f815bc8-0fc8-4013...@a29g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
<Radioacti...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Oct 8, 2:59 am, Bo Bielefeldt AKA The Fireball
> <NellyLunatic1...@aol.com> wrote:
> > Was this the same Lloyd Thaxton who also hosted the comedy game show
> > "Funny You Should Ask"?
>
> That short-lived ABC game show was NOT entitled "Funny You Should
> Ask", but rather "Everybody's Talking".
They're two different shows. Thaxton hosted "Everybody's Talking" in
1967 and "Funny You Should Ask" in 1968-69.
BTW, here's Lloyd Thaxton's blog. A must-read, especially the bit
about how to write your own obit:
<http://www.lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/>
His wife made the final entry yesterday.
Radioacti...@hotmail.com
> In article
> <2f815bc8-0fc8-4013-9b0c-fa320b1f9...@a29g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
>
> <RadioactiveSeat...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > On Oct 8, 2:59 am, Bo Bielefeldt AKA The Fireball
> > <NellyLunatic1...@aol.com> wrote:
> > > Was this the same Lloyd Thaxton who also hosted the comedy game show
> > > "Funny You Should Ask"?
>
> > That short-lived ABC game show was NOT entitled "Funny You Should
> > Ask", but rather "Everybody's Talking".
>
> They're two different shows. Thaxton hosted "Everybody's Talking" in
> 1967 and "Funny You Should Ask" in 1968-69.
>
> BTW, here's Lloyd Thaxton's blog. A must-read, especially the bit
> about how to write your own obit:
>
> <http://www.lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/>
>
> His wife made the final entry yesterday.
Hey Brad--
Well, it seems you trumped me AGAIN; way to go, and thanks for the
link. But it WAS "Everybody's Talking", not "FYSA", that was
described format-wise, right? Or did both game shows have similar
formats?
I somehow missed "Funny You Should Ask" entirely, and in fact never
saw Thaxton's name again (once "his" Tigerbeat knockoff fan mag had
folded by the 70s) until I noticed his name listed decades later as
the credits rolled on that lame syndicated "Fight Back! with David
Horowitz" series. There may be two famous David Horowitzs (the
"other"--and vastly more interesting--one being the founder of Center
for the Study of Popular Culture, which as it happens, published some
of my Dylan writing years back), but there was only one Lloyd Thaxton.
Existentially,
BRYAN STYBLE/somewhere
Radioacti...@hotmail.com
But it's also lengthy. So you might just glance at it, maybe read a
bit, and move on. Or never call up that website in the first place.
But that might be a mistake--those who like to see how Hollywood can
work should read that telegram to his agent regarding the Friday,
November 26, 1965 edition of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
(presume it they had started using the "Starring" phraseology in the
title by then). And then read Thaxton's back-story of how--or more
precisely when--word of it reached him.
And I thought MY showbiz career has been plagued by bad luck!
Rueing ever leaving vaudeville,
BRYAN STYBLE/somewhere
N.Bruges
West with Sam Riddle(major crush on him),Where the Action Is.
Matthew Kruk
news:gcjmek$b7u$1...@aioe.org...
> ...
> OMG! I loved the Lloyd Thaxton Show when I was a kid! Also 9th Street
> West with Sam Riddle(major crush on him),Where the Action Is.
Where The Action Is - used to come home from school and watch it every day.
That would make one hell of a DVD set if ever released. A lot of timeless
performances.
Matthew Kruk
I just took a look at the list of guests on the show:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Action_Is
To this day, I could swear I saw the Rolling Stones perform Satisfaction on
that show (outdoor scene at some Malibu-beach like place). There were never
on it apparently.
Brad Ferguson
<e689dc14-615e-4105...@a18g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
<Radioacti...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Oct 8, 1:02 pm, Brad Ferguson <thirt...@frXOXed.net> wrote:
> > In article
> > <2f815bc8-0fc8-4013-9b0c-fa320b1f9...@a29g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
> >
> > <RadioactiveSeat...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Oct 8, 2:59 am, Bo Bielefeldt AKA The Fireball
> > > <NellyLunatic1...@aol.com> wrote:
> > > > Was this the same Lloyd Thaxton who also hosted the comedy game show
> > > > "Funny You Should Ask"?
> >
> > > That short-lived ABC game show was NOT entitled "Funny You Should
> > > Ask", but rather "Everybody's Talking".
> >
> > They're two different shows. Thaxton hosted "Everybody's Talking" in
> > 1967 and "Funny You Should Ask" in 1968-69.
> >
> > BTW, here's Lloyd Thaxton's blog. A must-read, especially the bit
> > about how to write your own obit:
> >
> > <http://www.lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/>
> >
> > His wife made the final entry yesterday.
>
> Hey Brad--
>
> Well, it seems you trumped me AGAIN; way to go, and thanks for the
> link. But it WAS "Everybody's Talking", not "FYSA", that was
> described format-wise, right? Or did both game shows have similar
> formats?
Thaxton mentioned on his blog that "Everybody's Talking" was popular
(and that seems to have been the case), but it was killed because the
show was in b&w, it used lots of film clips of everybody talking, and
ABC (determined to go full-color that year) thought it would be too
expensive to upgrade the show.
This reminds me of an earlier Allen Funt show called "Tell It to the
Camera," which was a reverse "Candid Camera." Funt got a Winnebago or
something, and hung a big sign on it inviting people to come aboard and
say whatever was on their minds. Their filmed comments would be run on
the show. I remember it as being hysterically funny, and much better
than "Candid Camera." In fact, it was so funny that they had to ban
the studio audience, because the people at home couldn't hear the
people in the Winnebago over all the laughter.
"Funny You Should Ask" was a thing where they'd put up a quote, and
panelists (some celebrities, some not) would have to guess who said it.
I think it was multiple choice.
Brad Ferguson
<6df67c1c-2e1c-4c9c...@e38g2000prn.googlegroups.com>,
<Radioacti...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> But that might be a mistake--those who like to see how Hollywood can
> work should read that telegram to his agent regarding the Friday,
> November 26, 1965 edition of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
> (presume it they had started using the "Starring" phraseology in the
> title by then). And then read Thaxton's back-story of how--or more
> precisely when--word of it reached him.
I presume you saw that Dave Tebet was offering him only $500, and they
wouldn't cover his transportation. I guess you don't do that sort of
gig for the money but, for God's sake, what a bunch of cheapskates.
Brad Ferguson
<Matthe...@Telus.net> wrote:
There are some surviving tapes. That show must have been a logistical
nightmare, since it was shot outdoors. I have a copy of one in which
Lesley Gore is dancing down a major boulevard (in Houston, I think)
during the middle of the day, and there's dozens of dancing teenagers
all over the place, and you can see the problems they had trying to get
anything like a watchable picture. For one thing, there was sun glare
off all the parked cars, and those mid-'60s cameras couldn't handle it.
Matthew Kruk
news:081020082350184927%thir...@frXOXed.net...
But that's what makes it sort of unique I think. Raw, unpolished (even if
they were singing to a record playing). Above all, what I remember is that
everyone seemed to be having fun and it was a fun time.
I remember seeing Paul Revere and The Raiders on Chicago's State Street
clip. Can't remember the tune. Almost took a bus downtown to go see them
until a friend mentioned it was filmed earlier.
Chuck Kopsho
Hullabaloo. That's what's missing on today's TV. No politics, no
controversy, no nothing. It was music for the sake of music.
Cheers,
Chuck Kopsho
Oceanside, California
King Daevid MacKenzie
> ["Everybody's Talkin'"], of course, is a SONG, penned by folkie Fred Neil that
> Harry Nilsson (better known by solely by his surname) recorded and
> eventualy enjoyed a minor hit with.
...only The Unstable One would claim a Top 10 hit (#6 in Billboard, #7
in Cash Box) is "minor"...
--
kdm
http://kingdaevid.podbean.com/
http://amp.az/home/User/KingDaevid
peace 'n oranges...
King Daevid MacKenzie
> I somehow missed "Funny You Should Ask" entirely, and in fact never
> saw Thaxton's name again (once "his" Tigerbeat knockoff fan mag had
> folded by the 70s) until I noticed his name listed decades later as
> the credits rolled on that lame syndicated "Fight Back! with David
> Horowitz" series. There may be two famous David Horowitzs (the
> "other"--and vastly more interesting--one being the founder of Center
> for the Study of Popular Culture, which as it happens, published some
> of my Dylan writing years back)
...David "The Jewish Swastika" Horowitz is only more interesting than
David "Fight Back!" Horowitz in the same sense that Vladimir Putin is a
more interesting world leader than Taro Aso is -- the Heel is always
more interesting than the Babyface. And the fact that he published your
crayon notes about the most overrated folkie of the '60s further proves
his malignancy towards Western Civilisation...
;-)
King Daevid MacKenzie
> I presume you saw that Dave Tebet was offering him only $500, and they
> wouldn't cover his transportation. I guess you don't do that sort of
> gig for the money but, for God's sake, what a bunch of cheapskates.
...hell, Tebet was a spendthrift compared to the thugs at Nova M/KPHX
Phoenix last year. They asked me to move to Phoenix from La Crosse,
Wisconsin, in order to do a weekly radio program -- and 10 days after
showing up (by which time I had no money to return to Wisconsin and no
place to reside there if I did try to return), told me they weren't
going to pay me anything for doing that show. They cancelled the show in
July after an online listener in Kansas City asked why I wasn't being
paid...
King Daevid MacKenzie
> OMG! I loved the Lloyd Thaxton Show when I was a kid! Also 9th Street
> West with Sam Riddle(major crush on him),Where the Action Is.
...at the beginning of the 1988 theatrical film THE IN CROWD, about a
Philadelphia-based dance TV show hosted by a character played by Joe
Pantoliano (!), there's a few clips from kinescopes of local dance shows
around the country; including the one Wink Martindale did at WHBQ-TV in
Memphis. The set closes with Lloyd Thaxton shouting, "The star of this
show isn't me, the star of this show is KIDS!"...
King Daevid MacKenzie
> I remember seeing Paul Revere and The Raiders on Chicago's State Street
> clip. Can't remember the tune. Almost took a bus downtown to go see them
> until a friend mentioned it was filmed earlier.
...Larry Lujack, the legendary disc jockey at WCFL and WLS in Chicago,
went to the same Idaho high school as Paul Revere; Mark Lindsay went to
a different one nearby. Revere and other eventual members of his band
were members in those days of a "gang" called The Nemows; whenever The
Raiders played Chicago, Lujack would stick his head in their dressing
room door before the show and shout sexually derogatory comments about
The Nemows to announce his presence ;-) ...
Matthew Kruk
news:YWuHk.4718$jf4....@newsfe10.iad...
> Matthew Kruk sez:
>
>> I remember seeing Paul Revere and The Raiders on Chicago's State Street
>> clip. Can't remember the tune. Almost took a bus downtown to go see
>> them until a friend mentioned it was filmed earlier.
>
> ...Larry Lujack, the legendary disc jockey at WCFL and WLS in Chicago,
> went to the same Idaho high school as Paul Revere; Mark Lindsay went to a
> different one nearby. Revere and other eventual members of his band were
> members in those days of a "gang" called The Nemows; whenever The Raiders
> played Chicago, Lujack would stick his head in their dressing room door
> before the show and shout sexually derogatory comments about The Nemows to
> announce his presence ;-) ...
"Did you Lujack today?"
Somewhere I have an aircheck of Lujack announcing WCFL's change to beautiful
music. Automated beautiful music which was ironic for the (W) Chicago
Federation of Labor station.
King Daevid MacKenzie
>> ...Larry Lujack, the legendary disc jockey at WCFL and WLS in Chicago,
>> went to the same Idaho high school as Paul Revere; Mark Lindsay went to a
>> different one nearby. Revere and other eventual members of his band were
>> members in those days of a "gang" called The Nemows; whenever The Raiders
>> played Chicago, Lujack would stick his head in their dressing room door
>> before the show and shout sexually derogatory comments about The Nemows to
>> announce his presence ;-) ...
>
> "Did you Lujack today?"
>
> Somewhere I have an aircheck of Lujack announcing WCFL's change to beautiful
> music. Automated beautiful music which was ironic for the (W) Chicago
> Federation of Labor station.
...I have not only that aircheck (in which he endorses another rock
station for displaced WCFL listeners to tune in, and it urns out to be
KHJ in Los Angeles, which was in 1976 inaudible east of the Arizona-New
Mexico state line), but also one from the next day, with Lujack somehow
keeping a straight face and voice while telling listeners to the Living
Strings that WCFL will still award KISS In Concert to the high school
that submits the most M&M/Mars candy bar wrappers...
...actually, the Chicago Federation of Labor decided to sell the station
in late '75; Federation President William Lee recruited the help of his
close friend, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, to help line up potential
buyers (of course, Daley died years before the sale was consummated).
Eventually, the station was sold to the Mutual Broadcasting System, then
owned by the Amway Corporation, one of the most infamously anti-union
businesses the country has ever seen...
Matthew Kruk
... until Wal-Mart ;-)
busgal
> On Thu, 9 Oct 2008 11:33:36 -0700, Chuck...@webtv.net (Chuck Kopsho)
> wrote:
>
> > I remember about 5-years ago American Movie Classics showing reruns of
> >Hullabaloo. That's what's missing on today's TV. No politics, no
> >controversy, no nothing. It was music for the sake of music.
>
> shows dedicated to nothing but music, but offhand they're the only
> ones I can think of on mainstream American TV.
>
> I don't know if it's shown on BBC America, but the "real" BBC has
> "Later with Jools Holland", which is an amazing all-music show with
> multiple guests per episode. I think "Rockpalast" is still running in
> Germany, but I'm not 100% sure of that.
The Stater Brothers on "Where the Action Is" I'm stunned but not
surprised
Brad Ferguson
<KingD...@cox.net> wrote:
> Matthew Kruk sez:
>
> > I remember seeing Paul Revere and The Raiders on Chicago's State Street
> > clip. Can't remember the tune. Almost took a bus downtown to go see them
> > until a friend mentioned it was filmed earlier.
>
> ...Larry Lujack, the legendary disc jockey at WCFL and WLS in Chicago,
> went to the same Idaho high school as Paul Revere; Mark Lindsay went to
> a different one nearby. Revere and other eventual members of his band
> were members in those days of a "gang" called The Nemows; whenever The
> Raiders played Chicago, Lujack would stick his head in their dressing
> room door before the show and shout sexually derogatory comments about
> The Nemows to announce his presence ;-) ...
Hell, maybe they had it coming. Nemows spelled backwards is Womens.
Strawberry
I too, would race home from school each day to watch it (and Dark
Shadows). Now that you mention it, there were ALWAYS rumors that either
the Rolling Stones or the Beatles were going to make a surprise
appearance on the show. They never did, but we always believed the
rumors, anyway, because you just never knew ...
Bob Patrick
Bob Patrick
back-to-back? While ours didn't our neighboring ABC affiliate, WGHP High Point, NC,
carried Thaxton at 3:30 and "Action" at 4:30. I could get WGHP and remember watching
them both. And I never missed "Everybody's Talking" when I was out of school; still have
the home game, in fact.
Bob Patrick
A Friend
on the west coast, while Cole was on the east coast. In NYC, they both
ran on different nights on independent Channel 11.