Happy 90th Birthday! Tony Bennett…Born August 3, 1926
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in Astoria, Queens, New York 90 years ago today.
In a nutshell, here’s how Mr. Bennett’s career began. In 1949, Pearl Bailey, who had seen him in a club, asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. She had invited Bob Hope to the show. Hope liked him and decided to take Benedetto on the road with him, and simplified his name to Tony Bennett. In 1950, Bennett cut a demo of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and was signed to the major Columbia Records label by Mitch Miller.
In 1951, he had his first big hit…”Because of You”, a ballad produced by Mitch Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-4zvArJDGg
His first release started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes, then reached number one on the radio play charts in 1951, and stayed there for ten weeks, selling over a million copies. The rest, as they say, is history.
Above is a rare photo of Mr. Bennett on the “Tonight” show, October 1, 1962. That was the night Johnny Carson made his debut as host of the show, and Tony Bennett was the musical guest Johnny Carson invited to share that special the night with. Happy Birthday Tony! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
I like the cozy studios, houses and casinos of yesteryear. Great picture. Never saw this angle before.
I keep hoping video of that first Carson Tonight Show episode will be unearthed somewhere.
I went to the link and it was great !!!! The resolution was fabulous. Marconi cams? And it is refreshing to see the camera dolly as opposed to zoom. Although graphics like we see today weren’t invented………you don’t need graphics flying across the screen. If the graphics were invented why would anyone in their right mind insert them over Tony Bennett and Judy Garland or any other big stars. It just “takes away” from their stardom…..
And last night on Colbert! Still great!
The old Judy Garland and Merv Griffen shows are being re-aired on Get TV – these days…
Bennett introduced “I Wanna Be Around” on this show…