Henry Gale

Jose Melis, Jack Paar's bandleader, dies at 85

From LATimes


Jose Melis, 85, the bandleader for the "The Tonight Show" when Jack Paar was its host, died April 7 of a respiratory infection at a hospital in Sun City, Ariz.
In addition to leading the orchestra, Melis frequently joked with Paar on the air, a format that became the model for the late-night hosts who followed Paar.
Melis also conducted or performed with Frank Sinatra, Clark Terry and Tito Puente.

RAF

Thanks for the heads up on this. I'm always saddened when I read about someone whom I "grew up with" on television passing on. It shows that we are all here for only a finite amount of time. Jose Melis was one of a kind. Those of us old enough to remember the Paar routines where he would tell a joke to Jose in English, then Jose would pass it on to another guest in Spanish and then on and on in various languages before returning to Paar via Melis to hear a completely different joke can't help but crack a smile.

Priceless early TV. Jose Melis was a class act.

RAF
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Henry Gale

On the passing of the wonderful Skitch Henderson I'm bringing this back because an obit I just read pretends that Jose never existed.

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