Loring Buzzell
Loring Bruce Buzzell was an American music publisher and record label executive. Together with film producer Harold Hecht and actor Burt Lancaster, he formed a series of music publishing imprints in the middle and late 1950s. His music publishing companies, Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music, Calyork Music, Leigh Music and Colby Music, were responsible for copyrighting, publishing and promoting the soundtracks and theme songs from such notable films as Marty, Trapeze, The Kentuckian, Sweet Smell of Success, Separate Tables, Cry Tough, Take a Giant Step and The Unforgiven. Buzzell's companies also published "May You Always", the recordings of which by The McGuire Sisters for Coral Records and Joan Regan for His Master's Voice, became the top-selling records and the second-best-selling sheet music in the United States and the United Kingdom for 1959. Calyork Records and Maine Records were two independent record labels operated by Buzzell in partnership with Hecht and Lancaster.
Prior to his association with Hecht and Lancaster, Buzzell was General Professional Manager of several Howard Spencer Richmond music publishing imprints, including Hollis Music, Ludlow Music, Folkways Music Publishers, Dartmouth Music and Cromwell Music. While working for Richmond, Buzzell published and promoted such hits as "Early Autumn", written by Woody Herman, Ralph Burns and Johnny Mercer and recorded by Jo Stafford and Paul Weston for Columbia Records, Georgie Auld for Coral Records and Ted Heath and Lita Roza for London Records; "Longing for You", written by Władysław Daniłowski and Bernard Jansen and recorded by Les Baxter for Capitol Records, Teresa Brewer for London Records, George Cates for Coral Records, Larry Clinton for Broadway Records, Vic Damone for Mercury Records, Sammy Kaye for Columbia Records, Russ Morgan for Decca Records and Tommy Tucker for M-G-M Records; "The Thing", written by Charles Randolph Grean and recorded by Phil Harris for RCA-Victor Records; and "A Guy Is a Guy", written by Oscar Brand and recorded by Doris Day for Columbia Records, Ella Fitzgerald for Decca Records and Peggy Taylor for Mercury Records.
Earlier in his career, Buzzell was a contact man for Jack Mills and Irving Mills' music publishing company, Mills Music, and a field man for the performance rights organization the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Buzzell was married to popular singer Lu Ann Simms, whom he managed towards the end of his life. Buzzell died prematurely at the age of 32 in October 1959 from a heart attack.
Early life
Family
Loring Bruce Buzzell was born on October 3, 1927, in Long Beach, New York to Samuel Jesse Buzzell and Alma Virginia Wanner. He was of German, Irish, French and Jewish ancestry. Loring Buzzell had two siblings: an older sister Gloria Joyce Buzzell and a younger sister Barbara Ann Buzzell. The Buzzell family of five lived in a Victorian house located at 607 Lafayette Boulevard in Long Beach, New York. They had a private tennis court and lived only a few properties away from the waterfront at the north-end of their street.Buzzell's father Samuel was an important figure in the New York music industry and entertainment community. He graduated from New York University School of Law and was principally known in his profession as a theatrical, music patent and copyright counselor-at-law, and also served as a business incorporation agent. Samuel helped Jack Mills and Irving Mills form their music publishing company, Jack Mills, Inc., in 1919; the company was renamed Mills Music, Inc. in 1921. Samuel was not only the Mills brothers' company attorney, he was also their partner, business manager and secretary of several of their enterprises, including Jack Mills, Inc., Mills Music, Inc., Mills Music Corporation, their agency Mills Artists, Inc., and their British and European division Mills British, Ltd. Samuel was still one of the three company owners and share-holders when the Mills Music conglomerate was sold in early 1965, leading to his retirement. Some of the artists that were represented by Samuel include Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Leroy Anderson, Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish.
Buzzell's father was also on the board of directors, as President of Long Beach Hospital, from the summer of 1940 until he resigned from the post on November 20, 1941, to focus exclusively on the music business. Buzzell's paternal uncle was Edward Buzzell, a noted stage actor and entertainer who moved to Hollywood and became a film and television director.
Buzzell's older sister Gloria moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1940s and, through her uncle Edward Buzzell, secured employment as an executive assistant in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's story department. On November 1, 1947, she married talent agent and film producer Harold Hecht in Las Vegas, Nevada; they had three children. Gloria and Hecht separated on July 18, 1959 and were officially divorced on June 28, 1961. Gloria was married a second time on July 12, 1963, to Franklin M. Desser, an attorney from New York City. She and Desser moved out of Beverly Hills, California and the couple took an apartment on the East Side in New York City.
Buzzell's younger sister Barbara remained in New York and married Eugene S. Stein in 1959. She was married a second time in 1970 to George J. Tamaro, giving birth to a son named Loring Paul Tamaro, named in memory of her brother, on March 26, 1971.
Education
Buzzell first attended Central School, and later Long Beach Junior Senior High School in Long Beach, New York, before switching to the Cheshire Academy, a college-preparatory school in Cheshire, Connecticut. In 1944, he enrolled at Colby University in Waterville, Maine. "Buzz", as he was quickly nicknamed, played in Colby University's varsity football team, the White Mules, and was known for owning several Ford automobiles. He was an officer of the Alpha Tau Omega, Gamma Alpha Chapter fraternity, a member of the International Relations Club, and on the staff of the school's White Mule magazine. He graduated with the Class of 1948 earning a bachelor's degree in history.Career
ASCAP and Mills Music (1948–1950)
After graduating from Colby University in 1948, Buzzell landed a job as a field man for performance rights organization American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. In March 1949, he was hired by music publishing company Mills Music, Inc. as a contact man in their professional department. It is likely that his father helped him get the job, since he was an officer in the company. Buzzell worked at Mills Music for about twenty months. Some of his duties while working in the music publishing industry included finding new songs to publish and copyright, signing exclusive song-writing deals with songwriters, securing the recordings of the songs by notable musicians and record labels, and getting the songs out to the public through sheet music.Richmond organization (1950–1955)
In late October 1950, Buzzell began working for music publisher Howard Spencer Richmond. The switch from Mills Music to Richmond's organization was a surprise to the press, who were well-acquainted with an ongoing lawsuit between to the two publishers over the public domain composition "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", emphasized by the fact that Buzzell's father, Samuel Jesse Buzzell, was legally representing the Mills Music company. The lawsuit wound up dragging out until August 1954.Richmond was well-established in the music business but had only acquired full ownership of his first music publishing company, Cromwell Music, Inc., earlier that year, in February 1950. Cromwell Music, affiliated with ASCAP, had originally been founded in June 1949 by several partners, including lyricist Carl Sigman and disk jockey Gene Rayburn. By the time that Richmond hired Buzzell in October 1950, he was launching his fourth music publishing imprint, Hollis Music, Inc., affiliated with Broadcast Music, Inc. Buzzell was put to work as Professional Manager of Hollis Music, directly under Richmond who was Owner and General Professional Manager. On January 2, 1951, Al Brackman took position as the new General Professional Manager of Hollis Music.
Some of the compositions published and recorded through Hollis Music with Buzzell on staff include "The Thing", written by Charles Randolph Grean and recorded by Phil Harris for RCA-Victor Records; "Don't Cry", written by Edith Piaf, with lyrics translated from French by Eddie Constantine, and recorded by Don Cherry for Decca Records; "The Roving Kind", written by Jessie Cavanaugh and Arnold Stanton and recorded by The Weavers for Decca Records and Guy Mitchell for Columbia Records; "Botch-a-Me", written by Luigi Astore and Riccardo Morbelli, with lyrics translated from Italian by Eddie Y. Stanley, and recorded by Rosemary Clooney for Columbia Records; "Charlie Is My Darling", written by Fred Royal and Wellesley Roberts, and recorded by Lisa Kirk for RCA-Victor Records and Russ Morgan for Decca Records; "Green Acres and Purple Mountains", written by Mack Wolfson and recorded by Gordon MacRae for Capitol Records; and "Until Yesterday", written by Giuseppe Fucilli and William Engvick and recorded by Tony Bennett for Columbia Records.
In January 1951, only four months after joining Richmond's firm, Buzzell was appointed head of exploitation for Richmond's newly renamed imprint Ludlow Music, Inc., as well as for Richmond's newly acquired Folkways Music Publishers, Inc. By March 1954, Buzzell had been promoted to General Professional Manager of Ludlow Music. Some of the compositions published and recorded through Ludlow Music and Folkways Music Publishers with Buzzell on staff include "A Guy Is a Guy", written by Oscar Brand and recorded by Doris Day for Columbia Records, Ella Fitzgerald for Decca Records and Peggy Taylor for Mercury Records; "Longing for You", written by Władysław Daniłowski and Bernard Jansen and recorded by Les Baxter for Capitol Records, Teresa Brewer for London Records, George Cates for Coral Records, Larry Clinton for Broadway Records, Vic Damone for Mercury Records, Sammy Kaye for Columbia Records, Russ Morgan for Decca Records and Tommy Tucker for M-G-M Records; "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh", written by Woody Guthrie and recorded by The Weavers for Decca Records; "On Top of Old Smoky", written by Pete Seeger and recorded by The Weavers and Terry Gilkyson for Decca Records and Burl Ives for Columbia Records; "Song of the Dreamer", written by Memphis Evans Curtis and recorded by Eddie Fisher for RCA-Victor Records and Johnnie Ray for Columbia Records; "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas", written by John Rox and recorded by Gayla Peevey for Columbia Records; "Oh, That'll be Joyful", written by Jack McVea and Jake Porter and recorded by The Four Lads for Columba Records, Jesse Stone for Atlantic Records, Morey Amsterdam and Francey Lane for M-G-M Records and Bobby Wayne and Gene Baylos for Mercury Records; "Band of Gold", written by Jack Taylor and Bob Musel and recorded by Don Cherry for Columbia Records; "O-Sho-Be-Do-Be", written by Joe Carroll and Billy Graham and recorded by Dizzy Gillespie for Dee-Gee Records; and "My Girl", written by Charles Freed and recorded by Frank Sinatra for Columbia Records and Tommy Edwards for M-G-M Records.
In March 1951, Richmond formed another imprint, Dartmouth Music, Inc. mainly for the purpose of accommodating foreign compositions to be published in the United States. Dartmouth was eventually linked to ASCAP in July 1951 and Richmond installed Buzzell as Professional Manager of the company. By March 1952, Buzzell had been promoted to General Professional Manager of Dartmouth Music. Some of the compositions published and recorded through Dartmouth Music with Buzzell on staff include "Christmas Roses", written by Joan Whitney, Alex Kramer and Hy Zaret and recorded by Jo Stafford and Frankie Lane for Columbia Records; "Swedish Rhapsody", written by Hugo Alfvén and recorded by Percy Faith for Columbia Records; "This Too Shall Pass", written by Ervin Drake and Jimmy Shirl and recorded by Doris Day for Columbia Records; "Nearer My Love to Me", written by Ervin Drake and Jimmy Shirl and recorded by Jo Stafford for Columbia Records; "I'm the King of Broken Hearts", written by Fred Tobias and Jerry Tobias and recorded by Tony Bennett for Columbia Records; and the theme song of the film I Am a Camera, "Why Do I?", written by Ralph Siegel and Carl Sigman.
By July 1952, Buzzell had been named Professional Manager of Cromwell Music, Inc. and by September 1952, he was already promoted to General Professional Manager of the same imprint. Some of the compositions published and recorded through Cromwell Music with Buzzell on staff include "Early Autumn", written by Woody Herman, Ralph Burns and Johnny Mercer and recorded by Jo Stafford and Paul Weston for Columbia Records, Woody Herman for Mars Records, Georgie Auld for Coral Records and Ted Heath and Lita Roza for London Records; "I Believe", written by Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman and recorded by Jane Froman for Capital Records and Frankie Lane for Columbia Records; "Carolina Moon", written by Joe Burke and Benny Davis; "Honky Tonk Sweetheart", written by Carmen Lombardo and Sonny Clapp and recorded by Guy Lombardo for Decca Records; and the soundtrack to Indiscretion of an American Wife, composed by Alessandro Cicognini and released as a 10" vinyl LP by Columbia Records.
Buzzell also scooped a major signing when he inked his brother-in-law Harold Hecht's film production company, Hecht-Lancaster Productions, to a soundtrack publishing deal with Cromwell Music in December 1954. At the time, Hecht-Lancaster Productions, a subsidiary of Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster's Norma Productions, was the largest and most successful independent film production company in Hollywood. Cromwell Music published the soundtrack and theme songs to Hecht-Lancaster Productions' 1955 film Marty, which went on to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. The film's first theme song, "Hey, Marty", was written by Harry Warren and Paddy Chayefsky and was recorded by The Naturals for M-G-M Records and The Chappaqua High School Kids for Columbia Records. Marty