Jazz Connection Magazine

Crooner/TV Host Peter Marshall Returns To Headline "Juke Box Saturday Night"

Peter Marshall, big band vocalist, star of television and Broadway,

pictured above, returns to headline the "Juke Box Saturday Night"

show in Paradise, CA, on May 24, 2008, with The Skyliners Big Band

from Chico, CA. Marshall sang with big bands during the 1940s and

gained fame as host of TV's Hollywood Squares from 1966 to 1981.

Peter Marshall is and will always consider himself to be a "boy singer." Best-known since the mid-1960s as the popular host of television's The Hollywood Squares game show for 15 years, most people are surprised to learn that Marshall started his entertainment career during the1940s as a "boy singer" singing with big bands. Throughout his illustrious career that has also included work in live theater, motion pictures and radio, Marshall has never strayed far from singing and performing in the big band format.

"'Boy singer' is what all my friends call me anyway," said Marshall, 81, in a telephone interview from his home in Palm Desert, CA. "It's what I know and what I love. I don't really enjoy singing anything else."

While singing is what Marshall does best, he says, he will forever be categorically identified as the charismatic host of one of television history's most popular game shows.

"It did a lot for me," Marshall said of his time with the Hollywood Squares. "It made me independently wealthy. (laughing) It made me an entity of sorts. I've been around a long time. The average guy didn't know who the hell I was. After Squares they knew who the hell I was. A lot of good and a lot of bad came out of it. I became a game show host instead of a musical comedy performer. That's how they pigeon hold you. But, hey, you take the good with the bad."

But what audiences get with Marshall is nothing but good. They get sparkle. They get charm. They get polish. They get wowed. He's one of the best-kept secrets in music. He can sing the hell out of any song as his two solo CDs, Boy Singer (Glen Island Music) and No Happy Endings (Blu Jazz Records), offer aural proof.

Boy Singer, a self-produced project that was recorded in June 2000, Marshall waxed 15 of his favorite songs stemming mostly from the war years. He was backed by a lush 46-piece orchestra consisting of the finest studio musicians in Los Angeles, including saxophonist Pete Christlieb, trumpeters Rick Baptist and Wayne Bergerson, trombonist Bill Waltrous, and West Coast jazz icons Pete Jolly on piano and Chuck Berghofer on bass.

He also hired an all-star team of the crème de la crème of arrangers in the music business: Alan Copeland, who formerly sang with The Modernaires; Ray Ellis, a Hollywood legend; Sammy Nestico, the master of big band charts; and Larry White, who is Marshall's current musical conductor.

With that kind of talent supporting Marshall, it undoubtedly turned out to be a great album. And for many of his fans, his CD was a long time in coming.

"Nobody asked me to do a CD of these kind of songs so that's why it took me so long to do one," Marshall said. "I said, 'The hell with it.' My wife said, 'Let's do it.' So we did."

Marshall spent $120,000 of his own money to produce the album but he did it right, he said.

"It's hard to spend $120,000 every year on a CD," he said. "That's why it took me so long. I have a lot of grandkids and a lot of kids who depend on me. They came first before the CD."

Marshall's suave delivery, his cool way around a lyric, sparkling arrangements and his selection of great material make this album of oldies, a goody. Of course, how could anyone go wrong using material penned by such lyricist masters as E.Y. Harburg (Poor You, What Is There To Say?), Jimmy Van Heusen (Oh, You Crazy Moon, I Thought About You), Matt Dennis (Everything Happens To Me), and Johnny Mercer (And The Angels Sing, Fools Rush In). Even more contemporary songwriters such as Willie Nelson (Night Life) and Kris Kristofferson (For The Good Times) were presented in vintage "Gershwin" fashion.

Marshall's follow up project and latest CD, No Happy Endings, released in August 2004, is a survey of Marshall's favorite songs about unrequited love. Five songs from Billie Holiday's last album, Lady In Satin, are on the CD. Marshall teamed up with arranger Ray Ellis, who originally arranged and orchestrated Lady In Satin for Holiday in 1958.

"I always loved Billie's last album, Lady In Satin. I tried to buy the original musical tracks (to have Billie's voice eliminated from those tracks). They are beautiful tracks. The attorneys for Billie's estate and I couldn't come to together on it, so Ray and I did the project on our own. It's done very simply. It's a nice album. I love what Ray did."

Tracks on the album include Where Do You Start, You Don't Know What Love Is, I Miss You So, Don't Worry 'Bout Me, It Never Entered My Mind, When Joanna Loved Me, Good Morning Heartache, You've Changed, Violets For Your Furs, But Beautiful, and For All We Know.

Marshall considers himself a musical traditionalist when he described his style of singing, he said.

"I'll bend a note, but I won't change a note," he said. "If the composer wrote the piece a certain way, that's the way I'm going to sing it."

Northern Californians can have a chance to listen to one of the vanishing breeds known as a "boy singer" when Marshall is slated to return to headline the annual Memorial Day weekend extravaganza, "Jukebox Saturday Night," at the Paradise Performing Arts Center in Paradise, CA, on Saturday, May 24, 2008. Providing the musical backdrop for "Juke Box Saturday Night" will be the Skyliners Big Band from nearby Chico, CA, led by the husband and wife team of John and Joey Mahoney.

This will be the fifth "Jukebox Saturday Night" gala presented by the PPAC. Past headliners have included The Ink Spots, The Modernaires with Paula Kelly. Jr., Marilyn King from the renowned King Sisters vocal group, and last year's performer, Don Cherry, known as "Mr. Band of Gold." Marshall first performed at the PPAC in 2003 when the holiday event was known as "Stage Door Canteen."

When he returns to Paradise, Marshall plans to incorporate into his a show a Matt Dennis medley of early Frank Sinatra tunes, he said.

"My favorite Sinatra things are the one before he got 'hip.'" Marshall said. "He sang so purely, it was so simple. He was such a beautiful singer when he was just pure."

Also on tap will be arrangements by Alan Copeland and Larry White (who is Marshall's usual conductor). It is uncertain as of this time if White will accompany Marshall on this trip to Paradise as he has a prior engagement in San Diego. If he can not be available, then John Rodney, will conduct for Marshall in White's absence, Marshall said.

"I'll also do This Is All I Ask, a Gordon Jenkins tune which was written for me. I first did that in a show in Las Vegas in 1958. I always end with that."

Of course, no Marshall performance would be complete without a salute to crooner Dick Haymes, Marshall's late brother-in-law.

The highlight of Marshall's first visit to the PPAC five years ago was when he sang the song I Only Have Eyes For You as a duet with then 17-year-old Molly Mahoney, a featured vocalist with the Skylines Big band and daughter of its musical directors.

It looks as if that same collaboration will happen again this year between the young vocalist and season veteran, although a specific song has not be decided upon as yet, Marshall said.

"I suggested to the Mahoney's to have Molly pick out something to sing.," Marshall said. "The only problem with doing duets with Molly is that I'm old enough to be her grandfather. For the most part, the songs we'd sing would be love songs. I suggested we do Exactly Like You, or do medley of familiar tunes. Whatever is comfortable with her, I will do it with her. I know all the songs of this period, so it will work out."

Born Pierre LaCock (or LaCocque) on March 30, 1927, in Huntington, WV, he is the son of a pharmacist and voice teacher and the younger brother of Joanne LaCock, who went on to become a successful model and movie star in the 1940s and 1950s under the name of Joanne Dru.

Marshall began singing as a toddler, humming tunes around the house before he could speak, he said. In fact, it was his mother who first told her precocious son that he could sing.

"She said, 'You can sing, Son,'" Marshall said. "When your mother tells you something, you believe it. That's why mothers should never say to their children, 'You're ugly,' or 'I don't like your hands,' or 'I don't like your nose.' Mothers need to say to their kids, 'You have a beautiful nose. You have beautiful hands. You can sing.' That's what a kid believes and that's what mothers should tell their kids, whether it's a lie or not." (laughs)

When he was ten years old, Marshall's father passed away. He was lovingly raised by the three women closest to him - his mother, grandmother and sister - all of whom had a profound impact on his life, he said.

"I had a wonderful grandmother, mother and sister," Marshall said. "I have a great love for women. I'm mad for women. In the old days, it got me into a lot of trouble. I have great respect for women. It all comes from having a loving, wonderful sister, mother and grandmother."

"She was the best," Marshall said. "If anyone can choose anybody for a sister, Joanne would be the world's Number One choice. She was beautiful, she was funny, she was loving. She was everything you could want in a sister."

Dru was born Joanne Letitia LaCock in Logan, WV, on Jan. 31, 1923. She worked as a John Robert Powers model in New York before landing a major role in the 1941 Al Jolson Broadway musical, Hold On To Your Hats. That same year she married crooner Dick Haymes, who at the time was the "boy singer" in Harry James' band. Together, they had three children: Richard, Jr., Joanna (nicknamed "Pigeon"), and Barbara Nugent.

Dru made her first film appearance in the execrable screen version of the stage hit, Abie's Irish Rose (1946) starring Richard Norris. In 1948, she was cast by director Howard Hawks as the leading lady opposite John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in Red River, the film that forever typecast her as a Western actress even though she claimed to dislike the genre. While working on Red River, she met her second husband, actor John Ireland, with whom she later co-starred in the Oscar-winning All The King's Men (1949) starring Broderick Crawford. Dru also worked in films directed by John Ford.

In 1949, Dru and Haymes divorced. Later that same year she married Ireland. Their marriage lasted until 1956, also ending in divorce.

Other films in which Dru made during this period include She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) with John Wayne; Wagon Master (1950) with Ward Bond; Vengeance Valley (1951) with Burt Lancaster; The Pride Of St. Louis (1952) with Dan Dailey; Return Of The Texan (1952) with Dale Robertson; Thunder Bay (1953) with James Stewart; Three Ring Circus (1954) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis; Southwest Passage (1954) with John Ireland and Rod Cameron; Day Of Triumph (1954) with Lee J. Cobb and Mike Connors; The Warriors (1955) with Errol Flynn; Sincerely Yours (1955) with Liberace; Hell On Frisco Bay (1955) with Alan Ladd and Edward G. Robinson; and The Wild And The Innocent (1959) with Audie Murphy and Peter Breck.

With her film career on the wane by the late 1950s, Dru agreed to star in the 1960 TV sitcom Guestward Ho, which lasted 39 weeks. Thereafter she made only two big screen appearances, the last of which was the negligible, Super Fuzz (1980) with Ernest Borgnine and Terence Hill.

In 1972, Dru married a third time, to industrialist C. V. Wood. Dru passed away on Sept. 10, 1996, from lymphoma. She was at 74.

"Joanne always thought she was a lousy actress," Marshall said. "She never even tried to help me in that way at all when I got into acting. She hated acting. She had to work to pay off Dick and John's debuts. I wasn't very fond of John Ireland."

As a kid, Marshall's singing idols while growing up were radio crooners such as Gene Austin, "Little" Jack Little, and Jack Smith, who helped to inspire the young singer toward that career, he said.

Marshall's entrance into show business came in 1942 at age 15 when he became the "boy singer" with saxophone-playing bandleader Bob Chester.

Chester, who hailed from Detroit, came from a wealthy family. His mother's second husband was head of GM's Fisher Body Company. Chester organized his first band in 1939 and was accused of sounding like Glenn Miller's orchestra. His band may have been Miller-oriented, but Chester gave it a flavor of its own. After the band flopped at the Detroit Athletic Club, friend and bandleader Tommy Dorsey invited Chester to come East and live with him. With the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing's" help, Chester reorganized his band.

Chester engaged some fine vocalists with his band including Kathleen Lane, Delores "Dodie" O'Neill and later Gene Howard, Betty Bradley and Bob Haymes (Dick Haymes' younger brother). He also had talented musicians including bassist Ray Leatherwood, clarinetist/saxophonist Peanuts Hucko, and a great young lead trumpeter named Alec Fila, who went to play with the Benny Goodman and Elliot Lawrence bands, among others. Fila and O'Neill eventually married and later divorced, as did Chester and his wife, Edna.

After the war Chester became a disk jockey in Detroit, where he got so many requests for Dixieland records that he decided to form a new band with a Dixieland basis. He eventually settled into a business career in the automotive industry in Detroit, where he died in 1977, at age 69.

"Bob had a very good dance band," Marshall said. "His band was very popular but never became popular popular. He had some really good players in his band. Bob was a good sax player, not a great sax player. He was very personable."

When Marshall joined Chester's band, he followed male singer Gene Howard who left to join Stan Kenton's band. This was just prior to the musicians' union strike that initiated a recording ban which took effect on Aug. 1, 1942. As a result, Marshall never made any commercial recordings with the Chester band.

"Bob Haymes was a great singer who wrote a lot of great sings such as That's All and Hush Little Darlin'," Marshall said enthusiastically. "I also got to sing with a really good 'girl singer' in the band named Betty Bradley."

Marshall also sang with a few territory bands including one led by Johnny "Scat" Davis. It was while singing with these various bands that Marshall began developing a stage presence that he would carry with him throughout his career.

"I learned how to be comfortable on stage and not to be intimidated by people," Marshall said. "As band singers, we used to sit up front with the band. We weren't introduced off stage. I learned long ago that when singing in front of a lot of people, you are not really singing to a lot of people. You are singing to one person because they are all individuals. If you take that into consideration of singing to one person instead of a galaxy of many, it will make you a little more comfortable. I got to the point where I loved being in front of an audience. I'm very comfortable on stage. I think all those years working with the bands made me that way."

By the time he began singing with bands, Marshall had a new singing idol (and brother-in-law!) in crooner Dick Haymes. One of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s, Haymes is often considered to have the best baritone voice of the Twentieth Century. He rose to fame as a "boy singer" in the bands of Harry James, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey before beginning a solo career that took him to Hollywood stardom.

"I didn't know too much about Dick until he started dating my sister," Marshall confessed. "Afterwards, I started listening to him and was impressed with what I heard. The 'instrument' he had was the best instrument I ever heard! Nobody had that gorgeous of an instrument. Nobody ever had a better sound than Dick Haymes! Sinatra maybe did a better interpretation of sounds, but Dick was a very honest singer. People tell me, 'Boy, you sound just like Dick Haymes.' That's very sweet, but I tell them to play one of my records and then play one of Dick's. Nobody has that sound."

Haymes was born on September 13, 1918, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father, Benjamin, was Scotch/Iris descent, his mother, Marguerite Wilson, was Irish but raised in the U.S. His family moved to the states shortly after his birth. His parents separated when he was two and his mother took him and his brother, Bob, to Paris, where she opened a successful dress shop.

When the Depression hit, his mother was forced to closed shop. She brought her family to New York and found work as a singer and voice teacher. Haymes later went to Hollywood and found work as a stuntman as an extra at MGM studios.

In 1939, he tried his hand as a songwriter. After pitching his work to bandleader Harry James, he ended up being hired as a vocalist, replacing Frank Sinatra, who left to go with Tommy Dorsey in March 1940. His deep baritone voice quickly won over the critics and the public. He went on to have many hits while with James, including Fools Rush In (recorded April 1940), I'll Get By (April 7, 1941), My Silent Love (May 20, 1941), A Sinner Kissed An Angel and Mel Torme's composition, Lament To Love (both recorded June 10, 1941).

It was while Haymes was playing the Paramount Theatre in New York with the James band that he took notice of a dancing act on the same bill, The Samba Sirens. He was especially attracted to one "Siren" in particular, Joanne LaCock (Dru). After a whirlwind courtship, they were married September 21, 1941. Marshall attended the wedding, having the honor of giving his sister away.

"Dick was like my big brother," Marshall said of his relationship with the celebrated singer. "He was wonderful to me. He helped me in school. I lost my father when I was 10, so he was really a father figure. Even after he and Joanne divorced, we remained very close friends. Dick also worked very diligently with me on singing as did his brother, Bob. Dick and Bob's mother, who was a famous vocal coach, helped me as well. Between these three, I had the greatest training a guy could have."

A 14-year-old Peter Marshall giving

his 18-yerar-old sister, Joanne Dru,

away on her wedding day in 1941.

Haymes stayed with James until early1942, when, expecting his first child, left to form his own band. The young crooner's band was short-lived, quickly succumbing to the draft. Haymes then took a job briefly with clarinetist Benny Goodman, replacing singer Art London (Lund). He joined the "King of Swing's" band on May 27, 1942, as it opened at the Paramount Theatre in New York. Haymes recorded four songs with Goodman on June 17: Idaho, Take Me, Serenade In Blue and (I've Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo.

Haymes then found a home with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra staying with him for a year-and-a-half, replacing Sinatra, who branched out on a solo career. Because of the recording ban that occurred as a result of the musicians' union strike, Haymes do not record any commercial sides with Dorsey. With Dorsey, however, Haymes performed in MGM's lavish Technicolor musical, Dubarry Was a Lady (1943).

Near the beginning of 1944, Haymes' popularity exploded and he decided to go solo. He soon had his own CBS radio program and a recording contract with Decca. He also signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox and began what would be a very successful film career, starring in many top Fox musicals of the era, including Diamond Horseshoe (1945) with Betty Grable, and State Fair (1945) with Jeanne Crain. Hit songs for Haymes to come from these movies include The More I See You and It Might As Well Be Spring. Other films Haymes starred in include Do You Love Me? (1946) with Maureen O'Hara; The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) with Betty Grable; Carnival In Costa Rica (1947) with Vera-Ellen; Up Central Park (1948) with Deanna Durbin; and One Touch Of Venus (1948) with Ava Gardner.

While doing radio, Haymes worked with songstress Helen Forrest, with whom he shared band vocalist duties while with Harry James. From 1944-1947, Haymes and Forrest recorded eight hit songs together on Decca including All Through The Day, I'm Always Chasing Rainbows, Oh! What It Seemed To Be.

By 1949, Haymes' records were still selling well, but a troubled home life began to take it's toll. Problems with drinking and his handling of money contributed to the end of his marriage to Dru, and his career began to suffer. His list of other wives include Nora Eddington, the ex-wife of actor Errol Flynn, actress Rita Hayworth, singer Fran Jeffries, with whom he fathered a daughter, and Wendy Smith, who bore him two children.

In 1961, Haymes moved to Ireland. During the early 1970s, Haymes moved back to America to revitalize his career touring and appearing on various television shows.

In 1976, Haymes recorded his first album after many years, For You, For Me, Forever More, and in 1978, his final album, As Time Goes By.

Before Haymes died, he left his library of music to Marshall. As a tribute, Marshall sings in every show he does, two songs from that library that have come to be associated with the celebrated crooner: The More I See You and You'll Never Know, from the 1943 Alice Faye film, Hello, Frisco, Hello.

Of all the recordings Haymes made, these two songs are Marshall's personal favorites, as is the 1947 hit, Little White Lies, he said.

"Dick's recording of Stella By Starlight is one of the greatest records ever made," Marshall said. "He also did a recording of Laura which I play all the time."

Haymes was often looked upon as somewhat of an enigma in the entertainment world. With his good looks, great voice, charm and charisma, he didn't advance as far career-wise as did his contemporary, Frank Sinatra.

"Dick made a lot of mistakes," Marshall said. "Women and booze got in the way. You got to remember, Sinatra was down, too, at one time. But he made this marvelous come back. He was handled beautifully. Dick just blew a great career. At one time he had a better career than Sinatra. He sold more records than anybody. For two years in a row, Dick was the highest paid American, including the head of AT&T."

Haymes was also rather cavalier when it came to handling a buck, which also contributed to his career problems. It did on occasion, provide some humorous moments, even for Marshall, who experienced some of the crooner's financial foibles.

"Money to him was nothing," Marshall said. "He wasn't organized that way. If you needed money and asked Dick for $100, he'd give it to you. If he needed money and you gave him $100, he would forget that he owed you! I was Italy during World War II and guys were getting Christmas packages filled with cookies, candy and other food items. That's what we G.I.'s needed more than anything. I got a small package from my sister and Dick. I opened it and in it were a pair of cuff links! I was in a fix hole in Italy! But that's the way he thought. That's also the way he conducted his life, unfortunately."

In the linear notes of Boy Singer, Marshall wrote that he continues "to learn from his (Haymes') example as a musician.' Even 23 years after the famed balladeer's passing, Marshall still manages to glean something new from listening to Haymes' older recordings, he said.

"Every time I hear a Dick Haymes recording I learn something from it," Marshall said. "I try to emulate the way he phrased, and the way he sustained notes. He would take the last phrase of a song and make it one. The singers who end the last word of a song with one breath drive me crazy. Dick would sustain it. He'd take that whole phrase and make it one. He honored the songwriter. He would very rarely change a melody. He might 'slide' a little, where people today take liberties. I mean Richard Rodgers must be turning over in his urn as to what some people do to his music! The same goes for Cole Porter or whomever. Dick was a very honest singer who phrased beautifully and sustained magnificently with his gorgeous instrument."

As he was close to Haymes and Dru during their lifetimes, Marshall remains close with their children, he said.

"When my sister passed away, she left her kids very comfortable," Marshall said. "Their oldest child, Richard, Jr., is composing. He's a different kid. He was estranged from his mother for awhile but that all came together before her passing."

In fact, Haymes, Jr., now 66 and residing in Idaho, performed in Paradise at the Paradise Performing Arts Center on Sept. 11, 1999, with The Stuart Hemingway Trio, singing and playing flute. The concert was recorded live and released as a CD entitled, Cool Jazz In Paradise (MJT Records).

The Haymes' youngest daughter, Barbara Nugent, died before Dru did, while their oldest daughter, Joanna, nicknamed "Pigeon," lives in Carmel, CA, Marshall said.

Marshall feels that the legacy Haymes has left in American popular music can be found in the never-ending appreciation for the crooner's volume of recorded work, he said.

"As long as good music is going to be played, they'll be playing Dick Haymes, if they're smart, that is," Marshall said. "The more young singers that come along like Peter Cincotti or Michael Bublé who sing songs that Dick did is honoring him. Young singers come to me and ask, 'What's your advice?' I tell them to go listen to Haymes, Bob Eberle and Sinatra. Don't emulate them, but learn from them."

When the big bands began folding during the late1940's, Marshall took a job as a page at NBC. In 1949, he hooked up with comedian Tommy Noonan to form the comedy duo of Noonan & Marshall

with Marshall playing the role of straight man.

The team appeared in major nightclubs and theatres throughout the country and made several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and got cast in a handful of films in the early 1950s, including The Rookie.

Marshall then teamed up for awhile with Tommy Farrell to form another comedy duo, Marshall & Farrell.

When the comedy partnership ended, Marshall appeared on the early '50s ABC television series, Two Of The Most. He also embarked on a successful career doing live theater, going to London to star with Chita Rivera in Bye-Bye Birdie. His first starring role on Broadway was with Julie Harris in Skyscraper. Other musicals followed, such as High Button Shoes, Anything Goes, Music Man, 42nd Street, Neil Simon's Rumors, and doing over 800 performances in his role as "Georges" in La Cage Aux Folles. He's performed in HMS Pinafore with the London Symphony Orchestra.

"There are two things I prefer doing more than anything," Marshall said, "singing with an orchestra and appearing on stage. Singing in the theater would have to be my first love."

Marshall resumed his film career becoming a contract player at Twentieth Century Fox. Some of his earlier films include Ensign Pulver, the Warner Brothers sequel to Mister Roberts, Sing Along and The Cavern, a World War II drama in which a young Army officer (Marshall) is trapped underground with a group of allied and enemy troops. The1965 film was perhaps Marshall's best on screen performance and his last as an anonymous working actor. More recently he was seen as the radio crooner in Annie.

By 1965, a bi-spectacled Marshall, wearing black horn-rimmed glasses, was seen by television viewers on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes commercials. That led him to audition as host for a new television game show that was being developed called Hollywood Squares.

From 1966 to 1981, Marshall hosted over 5,000 episodes of the five-time Emmy Award winning game show. The show, played on a giant tick-tack-toe set with a guest celebrity occupying each of the nine squares, featured some of the greatest entertainers in history. Guest stars who appeared on the show on a regular basis included Paul Lynde (whom Marshall knew from New Faces in 1952), Rose Marie, Charlie Weaver (real name Cliff Arquette. "I adored him," Marshall said. I've known him since I was 18."), George Gobel and Wally Cox ("I knew him from P.S. 165 in New York when we were kids," Marshall said).

Peter Marshall hosted the TV game show, Hollywood Squares, from 1966 to 1981. The

show won five Emmys during its 15-year run. Here Marshall poses for a photo with

Squares regular Charlie Weaver (Cliff Arquette), middle, and rocker Alice Cooper.

The guest celebrities would often try to stump the contestants with their answers to a question posed by Marshall. The contestants had to determine whether they "Agreed" or "Disagreed" with the celebrity's answers in order to get a square. Three squares with an "X" (for the male contestant) or "O" (for the female contestant) going across, up-and-down, or diagonally would win a match as would five "X's" or "O's" placed intermittingly on the board.

Usually, the celebrity guest would initially answer Marshall's question with a funny one-line come back or "zinger." No one was better at this than comedian Paul Lynde, who was the de-facto star of Hollywood Squares for 13 of the show's 15-year run, occupying the center square. Lynde died of a heart attack (under bizarre circumstances) in January 1982 in Beverly Hills, at age 56. Here are a few examples of Lynde's classic zingers that helped to make Squares one of the best (and funniest) day time television shows around:

Peter Marshall: Paul, in the early days of Hollywood, who was usually found atop Tony, the Wonder Horse?
Paul Lynde: My Friend Flicka.

Peter Marshall: Billy Graham recently called it "our great hope in a confusing and ever-changing world." What is it?
Paul Lynde: Pampers.

Peter Marshall: What should you do if you're going 55 miles per hour and your tires suddenly blow out?
Paul Lynde: Honk if you believe in Jesus.

Peter Marshall: Why do sheep sleep huddled up?
Paul Lynde: Because Little Boy Blue's a weirdo!

While many fans who remember the original Hollywood Squares may have a zillion questions about the show and its guest celebrities, Marshall has attempted to answer those questions in his book, Backstage With The Original Hollywood Square. The book is the ultimate guide to the show, the stars, and what went on behind-the-scenes. The book also includes the fabulous CD of the long-out-of-print album, Zingers From the Hollywood Squares. The book can be purchased on Marshall's website at www.boysinger.com

"If you read the book, you'll understand what the whole thing was about," Marshall said.

Following Hollywood Squares, Marshall hosted the game show All-Star Blitz and the audience participation series, Fantasy, with Leslie Uggams.

He also guest-starred on numerous television series such as Love Boat, Lou Grant, WKRP In Cincinnati and Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

Marshall also does many "in house" corporate industrial videos including Home Shopping Network, Lincoln-Mercury, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

With his love for big band music, Marshall was the perfect choice during the mid-1980s to host a series of twelve shows for the Disney Channel, Big Bands From Disneyland, which featured such legendary bands and leaders as Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Les Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray McKinley and Buddy Rich.

"That was so much fun, I can't tell you!" Marshall said enthusiastically about the series. "Can you believe that I was working with such greats as Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw and Woody Herman? I knew Buddy Rich all my life. We were kids together. I knew Les Brown since I was a kid. Doing this show and meeting these people whom I admired all my life was a labor of love."

While there was no one special moment from hosting that show that stands out in Marshall's mind, just doing every show was an exciting moment for him, he said.

"It was thrilling for me just to be interviewing these greats and doing the show," Marshall said. "It was a great series, wasn't it? Why Disney doesn't re-release the series, I'll never know."


Peter Marshall with famed bandleader Artie Shaw during	Peter Marshall introducing bandleader Woody Herman and His
*the filming of the Big Bands From Disneyland* series.**	*Herd for the the filming of the Big Bands From Disneyland* series.**

Marshall has also produced and toured in big band shows that featured Tex Beneke and his Orchestra, the Les Brown Band of Renown, the Harry James Orchestra under the direction of Art DePew, The Modernaires with Paula Kelly, Jr., and with singers Kay Starr, Helen Forrest, Helen O'Connell and Frankie Laine. He also toured for over ten years with a group he formed called "Chapter 5."

Currently, Marshall is heard nationally on the Music Of Your Life radio network which plays Adult Pop standards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon (ET) and Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (ET). The show can be heard via the Internet by logging to the Music Of Your Life website at: www.musicofyourlife.com

"Doing this radio show is fun and we play some good music," Marshall said. "I play Dick's (Haymes) stuff a lot on the radio and I'm sure I bore people half to death with it." (laughs)

Always on the go, Marshall maintains an active performance schedule having recently performed for audiences in Prescott, AZ, with Carol Lawrence. Last month Marshall performed in concert with Shirley Jones in Phoenix, AZ, and with the Wheeling (West Virginia) Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor Adam Glaser, a professor from Julliard, he said.

Marshall is also slated to perform at the Big Band Academy of America's annual reunion on Sunday, June 1 at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, CA, beginning at 1 p.m. Also on the bill are The Modernaires with Paula Kelly. Jr., and musical satirist Stan Freberg in a rare performance. Musical backup will be provided by Pat Longo and the explosive Blue Ribbon Big Band.

"I just stay out there and try to keep working," Marshall said. "My motto is, 'Keep working.' I'm a Depression-era kid so I'm insecure. It's all going to end for me one day. So I keep working and doing and trying to re-create."

"It will be a dream album with dream songs," he said. "Songs like Dream, Darn That Dream, I Guess I'll Have To Dream The Rest will be on it. There are some great dream songs.

Marshall plans to record the album with a quintet and add strings later, he said.

As a practioner in nostalgia, Marshall sings the old stuff because the quality found in such material has stood the test of time. Another reason can be found in the sentiments that are implied by the Eddie Fisher hit, Wish You Were Here: "they're not (writing any good songs)... this year."

"It's hard to record new stuff," Marshall said. "You don't find many great new songs. People aren't writing them. Once-in-a-while when you hear a new thing that's written, you grab it. Take for instance the Johnny Mandel song, Where Do You Start? The Bergman's did the lyrics. It's a killer piece. I listen to the whole thing; the whole story and the melody."

Despite the lack of fresh quality compositions, Marshall remains enthusiastic and optimistic about the state of American popular music, he said.

"I think what is happening today is very exciting," he said. "When Rod Stewart can sell a couple of million CDs with that voice and those great songs (on his CD, It Had To Be You: The Great American Songbook), and Nora Jones, that pretty little thing selling four million CDs, and Jane Monheit and Diana Krall selling a bunch of records, along with new-comers like Michael Bublé and Peter Cincotti, I think the music is taking a turn for the best. If these people start recording these songs, people will start writing these songs again."

When not performing, Marshall and his wife, Laurie, spend their leisure time together at their homes in the San Fernando Valley and Palm Desert with their two dogs and three cats. Both are avid golfers and often participate in charity golf tournaments.

Peter and Laurie Marshall

Ever a family man, Marshall remains close to his nine grandchildren: Daisy, Rosie, Yogi, Chai, Alex, Nicki, Janae, Shelby and Savannah, as well as his four children, Davis, Suzi, Jaime, and Pete LaCock, a former major league baseball player. LaCock, 56, played over 700 games in the major leagues from 1972 through 1980, including three American League Championship Series and one World Series with the Royals. In the 1978 ALCS he hit .364 against the New York Yankees. LaCock’s best seasons were 1977 and 1978 when he hit .303 and .295 respectively.

In 2003, LaCock was named manager of the then newly-formed Niagara Stars of the Canadian Baseball League. LaCock led the team to a 15-15 record before league officials pulled the plug on the season at the half-way point. He then worked as a hitting coach for the now disbanded St. Joe Blackhawks (St. Joseph, MO), a member of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball League. LaCock just recently signed on to be the third base coach and hitting coach for the Lincoln (NE) Saltdogs, also of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball League. ( http://www.americanassociationbaseball.com/team/lincoln.php )

As a life-long lover of music, Marshall has kept " the music playing" in his own life demonstrating his versatility in every aspect of the entertainment industry on stage, television, radio, and in films and recordings.

"I just keep at it," Marshall said. "I keep trying. I do these kinds of concerts because I enjoy doing them. I will enjoy doing the show as much as the audience, hopefully, will enjoy listening to it."

*** "Juke Box Saturday Night" with Peter Marshall and The Skyliners will be on Saturday, May 24, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. at the Paradise Performing Arts Center, 777 Nunneley Road, Paradise, CA. Tickets are $25 (Premium), $20 (General). Senior discounts are available at $23 (Premium), $18 (General), $15 (Premium), and Student/Child at $15 (General). Contact the PPAC at (530) 872-8454 for ticket information. ***