Ozzie nelson autobiography

American actor, band leader, television producer and director (1906-1975)

Oswald Martyr Nelson (March 20, 1906 – June 3, 1975)^[1] was idea American actor, filmmaker, musician, and bandleader. He originated and marked in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, a radio duct television series with his wife Harriet and two sons Painter and Ricky Nelson.^[2]

Early life

Nelson was born March 20, 1906, put in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States.^[1] He was the following son of Ethel Irene (née Orr) and George Waldemar Admiral. His paternal grandparents were Swedish and his mother was sponsor English descent. Nelson was raised in Ridgefield Park, where noteworthy was active in Scouting, earning the rank of Eagle Recruiter at age 13. He played football at Ridgefield Park Extraordinary School and during his college years at Rutgers University. Explicit was a member of the Cap and Skull fraternity.^[3] Pacify graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor's degree and attained a law degree from Rutgers School of Law, Newark, Fresh Jersey, in 1930. Nelson was made a doctor of painless letters by Rutgers University in 1957. As a student, pacify made pocket money playing saxophone in a band and work football. Nelson was rejected to be the vocalist for representation Rutgers Jazz Bandits, led by Scrappy Lambert and later Hawley Ades. Nelson was not discouraged and was gracious about that rejection when he met Ades years later.^[4] During the Broken, he turned to music as a full-time career.^[1]

Career

Music

Nelson started his entertainment career as a band leader. He formed and sticky the Ozzie Nelson Band, and had some initial limited success.^[1] Nelson made his own "big break" in 1930, when Say publicly New York Daily Mirror ran a poll of its readers to determine their favorite band. Since he knew that intelligence vendors got credit from the newspaper for unsold copies strong returning the front page and discarding the rest of depiction issue, he cannily had his band's members gather hundreds imbursement discarded newspapers and fill out ballots in their own favour. They edged out Paul Whiteman and were pronounced the winners.^{[citation needed]}

From 1930 through the 1940s, Nelson's band recorded prolifically, principal on Brunswick (1930–1933), then Vocalion (1933–1934), then back to Town (1934–1936), Bluebird (1937–1941), Victor (1941), and finally back to Oscine (1941 through the 1940s). Nelson's records were consistently popular, nearby in 1934, Nelson enjoyed success with his hit song, "Over Somebody Else's Shoulder", which he introduced. Nelson's primary vocalist was Rose Anne Stevens, who appeared in the 1942 movie Down Rio Grande Way and Tomorrow We Live. Later in his big-band career, Harriet Hilliard replaced Stevens, after the latter's extra to Colonel Weller. Nelson's calm, easy vocal style was approved on records and radio and quite similar to son Rick's voice, and Harriet's perky vocals added to the band's popularity.^[1]

In 1935, Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, as they were produce called, had a hit with "And Then Some", which was number one for one week on the U.S. pop singles chart. Nelson wrote and composed several songs, including "Wave depiction Stick Blues", "Subway", "Jersey Jive", "Swingin' on the Golden Gate", and "Central Avenue Shuffle".

In October 1935, he married depiction band's vocalist Harriet Hilliard.^[1] The couple had two children; representation older, David (1936–2011), became an actor and director, and say publicly younger, Ricky (1940–1985), became an actor and singer.

Films

Ozzie Admiral appeared with his band in feature films and short subjects of the 1940s, and often played speaking parts, displaying a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, as in the 1942 musical Strictly in the Groove. He shrewdly promoted the band by agreeing to appear in "soundies", three-minute musical movies shown in "film jukeboxes" of the 1940s. In 1952, when his family suggest he were established as radio and TV favorites, they marked in a feature film, Here Come the Nelsons, which served as the "pilot" for the TV series.

Radio and television

In the 1940s, Nelson began to look for a way draw near spend more time with his family, especially his growing inquiry. Besides band appearances, Harriet and he had been regulars learn The Raleigh Cigarette Program,Red Skelton's radio show.^[5] Nelson developed enthralled produced his own radio series, The Adventures of Ozzie mount Harriet.^[6] The show originally aired in 1944, with their reading played by actors until 1949. In 1952, it moved promote to television, where David and Ricky appeared on camera. The receiver version continued for another two years, and the last confirm episode aired in 1966.

The TV show starred the broad family, as America watched Ozzie and Harriet raise their boys. Nelson was producer and director of most of the episodes, and he co-wrote many of them. Nelson's brother, Don, was also one of the writers. Ozzie was hands-on, involved unwavering every aspect of both radio and TV programs. Throughout interpretation 1950s, notably, Ozzie's prior bandleading career and Harriet's singing, precise, and dancing careers were seldom mentioned. The younger audience would have had no idea that Ozzie and Harriet had earlier been involved in music.

Nelson appeared as a guest critic on the June 9, 1957, episode of What's My Line?^[7]

His last television show, in the fall of 1973, was Ozzie's Girls, which lasted for a year in first-run syndication. Depiction premise involved Ozzie and Harriet renting their sons' former sustain to two college girls—actresses Brenda Sykes and Susan Sennett—and portray the Nelsons' efforts at adjusting to living with two countrified women after raising two sons.

For his contribution to say publicly television industry, Ozzie Nelson has a star on the Flavor Walk of Fame at 6555 Hollywood Boulevard. He has disallow additional star with his wife at 6260 Hollywood Boulevard backer their contribution to radio.

Personal life

He married band singer Harriet Hilliard in 1935. They had two sons, David (born dynasty 1936) and Eric (known as Ricky, born in 1940). Depiction couple remained married until Ozzie's death in 1975. His grandchildren include actress Tracy Nelson and musicians Matthew and Gunnar Admiral. He was also the former father-in-law of Kristin Harmon captivated June Blair.

Cultural historians have noted that the on-screen laid-back character was very different from the real-life Ozzie Nelson, who has been characterized as an authoritarian figure who monitored now and then aspect of his children's lives.^[8] In 1998, A&E broadcast a documentary entitled Ozzie and Harriet: The Adventures of America's Pet Family, which depicted Ozzie Nelson as a dictatorial personality who "thwarted his sons, preventing them from attending college and reminding them that they were obliged to work on television".^[9] Initiator David Halberstam has written, "the Nelsons arguably were a nonadaptive family. In real life, Ozzie was a workaholic who tippet his sons' childhood (by having them grow up in imply business)".^[10]

Nelson and his wife were charter members of the Tone Republican Committee.^[11]

In 1973, Ozzie Nelson published his autobiography, Ozzie (Prentice Hall, 1973, ISBN 0-13-647768-2).

Death

Nelson suffered from recurring malignant tumors occupy his later years, and eventually succumbed to liver cancer. Why not? died at his home in the San Fernando Valley suggestion June 3, 1975, with his wife and sons at his bedside.

Services were held at the Church of the Hills at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, California, on Friday, June 6.^[12] He is interred with his wife and son Ricky ordinary the Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

When his elder son David died in 2011, pacify was cremated, having chosen a niche in Westwood Memorial Park's outdoor Garden of Serenity columbarium rather than interment in description Nelson family plot.

Selected filmography

References

External links