 HONORING ROY CLARK
At Our Next Luncheon: SEPTEMBER 24, 2010
PPB will present the coveted Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award on September 24 to a man who has been entertaining audiences for over 60 years. His virtuoso guitar playing and his effortless, affable and emotional voice, along with his engaging personality, have made Roy Clark an industry icon and one of the most beloved "pickers" of all time.
Roy didn't taste major success until he was 30 and became a regular on Jimmy Dean’s TV show, “Town and Country Time,” taking over the series when Dean left. In 1960, Clark moved to Las Vegas and became a fixture at the Golden Nugget. He later was the leader of Oklahoma native Wanda Jackson’s band and played on several of her recordings.
A natural-born musician and performer, he is probably best known as co-host, along with Buck Owens, of the longest-running series on television, Hee Haw, produced by PPB President Sam Lovullo; but, Clark also made his way on to the radio charts on numerous occasions and achieved major chart success with classics like "Tips of my Fingers," “If I Had It to Do All Over Again,” “Thank God And Greyhound (She's Gone)” and “Yesterday, When I Was Young.”
Clark has been awarded “Entertainer of the Year” by both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association, “Instrumentalist and Comedian of the Year” by the ACM, and “Instrumentalist of the Year” (for both guitar and banjo) six times from the Music City News awards and he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009 with fellow honorees Barbara Mandrell and Charlie McCoy. His star in prominently displayed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
While born in Meherrin, Virginia, Roy was reared in Washington, D.C. and performed there regularly. A master of all stringed instruments, Roy also plays trumpet, trombone and piano. He’s a singer of simple love ballads and rousing country rockers. His brand of humor is infectious. He is difficult to categorize. Is he a singer, a comedian or an instrumentalist? The answer is that he’s more than all of these. Roy Clark is a great entertainer!
His innovation and flair for entertaining are not limited to music however. Fans of The Beverly Hillbillies may remember the characters "Cousin Roy" and "Big Mama Halsey;" both characters were played by Clark. In the late eighties he was finally made a member of the Grand Ole Opry and during the nineties he concentrated on performing at his own theater in Branson, Missouri. His most recent album releases came in 2005 when he released "Hymns from the Old Country Church" and "It's About Time, It's About Me," a collection of bluegrass tunes.
Clark and his wife of 50+ years, Barbara, have made their home in Tulsa since 1974. While maintaining a strong concert tour schedule, he also enjoys fishing, flying his airplanes and riding motorcycles.
SCHEDULED ON THE DAIS
Norm Crosby
Misty Rowe
Jonathan Winters
Barbi Benton
Tommy Lasorda
Gunilla Hutton
Jackie Autry
(Others to be announced)
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LAST LUNCHEON MAY. 21, 2010
Honoree: Keely Smith
Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Keely Smith at its May 21 celebrity luncheon at Sportsmen's Lodge. The well-known American jazz and popular music singer, who enjoyed great popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, was presented the Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award.
The "Queen of Las Vegas" swing, Keely Smith, is one of the last living
legends of the great Rat Pack era. For nearly half
a century, the Cherokee-Irish singer has thrilled audiences around the
world, entertaining music fans with unequaled charm.
Keely is perhaps best known for her partnership with Louis Prima, with
whom she helped turn Las Vegas into an entertainment Mecca for the
rich, the famous and everyone in between.
Keely's royal ascent began in Norfolk, Virginia, where at just 11-
years old, she became a regular on a popular Saturday morning children's
radio program, "Joe Brown's Radio Gang." By 16, she was singing
professionally alongside local big bands, entertaining servicemen at local
Army, Navy and Marine bases and, more importantly, getting a chance to
experience the swing movement first-hand. However, a chance to audition
for Louis Prima, one of the hottest musicians on the scene in a vibrant
post-war America, changed everything.
Prima's forte was his animated, trumpet-carrying swagger that mixed
his music with humor and an unforgettable gravel voice. On his visit to
Virginia Beach in 1948, he would discover that Keely's sizzling vocal
delivery perfectly suited his established swing orchestra. They went on
to tour the country, with her older brother Piggy as her chaperone. The
pair soon fell in love, marrying in 1953.
Only a few years later, they
brought their unbeatable act to Las Vegas and opened wider horizons
for both. What was initially a two-week gig at Sahara's Casbar Lounge
went on to help change the face of Las Vegas entertainment forever.
Louis Prima and Keely Smith gave their audiences a study in contrasts,
both musically and physically. She was half his age, and much prettier
to look at than the gregarious male Sicilian with broad features and a
coarse attitude. But it was her contrasting deadpan humor and clarion
vocal tone that brought out the best in their act. Together, Louis and
Keely gave Las Vegas a fun-filled musical show that melted the icicles
off those neon light fixtures and plastic geraniums.
By 1959, they were the hottest show in town, filling The Casbar Lounge
in The Sahara Hotel and Casino with a veritable who's who, from Frank
Sinatra, Spencer Tracy and Howard Hughes, to Elvis Presley, John F.
Kennedy and Humphrey Bogart. They were the "King and Queen of Las
Vegas. "That Old Black Magic" won them a Grammy Award, and Dinah
Shore introduced them on her television show as "the greatest nightclub
act in the country." Today their music is consistently featured in motion
pictures (Raging Bull, Big Night, Casino, The Bachelor, City of Angels, We Own The Night, to name just a few), along
with television and ad campaigns across the world. The Gap, The Olive
Garden, and Target have all based national campaigns on their musical
recordings.
Keely continues to tour and perform to sell out crowds around the world.
Her recent hit CDs, "Swing, Swing, Swing!" "Keely Swings Basie Style —
with Strings," "Vegas '58 — Today" and the Grammy nominated
(2002)"Keely Sings Sinatra" are available on Concord Records. In 2007,
Keely returned to London for the first time in many years appearing at the
premier jazz club, Ronnie Scott's.
The Recording Academy again honored Keely in 2008 by asking her to appear at their 50th Anniversary Celebration where she
performed, along with superstar Kid Rock, "That Old Black Magic," for
which she and Louis Prima received the first-ever Grammy Award in
1958. Also in 2008, The National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences inducted Keely into their Gold Circle for 50 years of service to
the television industry. Recently, Capitol Records released a Keely Smith
collection in the U.S. entitled "The Essential Capitol Collection — Keely
Smith" and also released another in Europe entitled "The Very Best of
Keely Smith." Currently, Keely is working on a duets album to be
released by Concord Records, and is looking forward to a summer
European tour.
On the Dais: Left to right: Jeanne DeVivier Brown, Hal Kanter, Sandy Martindale, Wink Martindale, Keely Smith, Morris Diamond, Jerry Sherrell, Chuck Southcott, Marilyn King, (Photo by Pat Gleason)
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