Elliot Lawrence

Elliot Lawrence, born Elliot Lawrence Broza on February 14, 1925, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, and conductor who died on July 2, 2021, in Manhattan at the age of 96. He came from a broadcasting family: his father, Stan Lee Broza, and his mother, Esther Broza, created and produced the Horn and Hardart Children's Hour, a variety program that ran on WCAU radio from 1927 to 1958 and on television concurrently from 1948 to 1958. Stan Lee hosted the program and Esther produced it; among the children who appeared on it were Eddie Fisher, Frankie Avalon, Joey Bishop, Bernadette Peters, and Jacqueline Susann. Stan Lee Broza later served as the first president of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia from 1962 to 1963, and both he and Esther are inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Lawrence began studying piano at three years old and gave his first public performance at four, conducting the orchestra on the Children's Hour stage show. At six he composed his first piece, "Falling Down Stairs," and that same year contracted polio, from which he recovered after six months. By twelve he had organized a fifteen-piece band called The Band Busters and was already performing club dates on weekends. He completed high school at sixteen and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in symphonic conducting under Harl McDonald. McDonald offered him a position as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra upon graduation. Lawrence graduated in 1944 with a Bachelor of Music degree and received the Thornton Oakley Award, presented annually to the undergraduate who has contributed most to the arts.

In 1945, Lawrence adopted his professional name to distinguish himself from his family name when he became music director of WCAU's house band. The ensemble debuted on radio on January 18, 1945, in a weekly half-hour broadcast called Listen to Lawrence, with "Heart to Heart" as its theme song. The band incorporated classical instruments including oboe, French horn, English horn, and bassoon. A favorable review in the March 1945 issue of Metronome by George T. Simon helped propel the program to a national CBS radio broadcast later that year.

From 1946 to 1954, the Elliot Lawrence Band toured continuously, playing dances, concerts, and college proms across the United States while recording for Decca, Columbia, RCA, Fantasy, and Vik. In 1949 the band performed a three-week engagement alongside the Nat King Cole Trio at the Paramount Theater in New York City, during which it recorded Gerry Mulligan's "Elevation," later cited by the Smithsonian Institution as one of the fifty best jazz recordings of the twentieth century. That same year, Look magazine named Lawrence one of America's most eligible bachelors, and Billboard's polls recognized the band as the campus choice in its most promising new orchestra category from 1947 to 1949. In 1950 the band performed at the World Series in Philadelphia, playing Lawrence's original composition "The Fightin' Phils." Lawrence also recorded extensively as a bandleader for Columbia, Decca, King, Fantasy, Vik, and SESAC between 1946 and 1960.

Lawrence served as host of the DuMont Television Network program Melody Street from 1953 to 1954. In 1953 he was invited to travel to the Soviet Union with The Ed Sullivan Show as part of the first American band to broadcast from that country, an engagement on which Marge and Gower Champion also appeared. Gower Champion subsequently asked Lawrence to serve as musical director for Bye Bye Birdie, which opened on Broadway in 1960 and earned Lawrence a Tony Award nomination. His second Broadway show, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, opened in 1961 and brought him the Tony Award for musical direction in 1962. His Broadway career as conductor and musical director spanned sixteen years and included Here's Love (1963), Golden Boy (1964), The Apple Tree (1966), Golden Rainbow (1968), La Strada (1969), 1776 (1969), Georgy (1970), and Sugar (1972).

As a composer for film, Lawrence scored The French Connection (1971) and Network (1976), as well as The Cradle Will Fall (1983). His television work was equally extensive: he served as musical director and conductor for every Tony Awards telecast from 1965, its first year on television, through 2011. He also conducted for Night of 100 Stars in 1982 and 1985, the Bicentennial Celebration for the Statue of Liberty at Giants Stadium in 1986, and The Kennedy Center Honors from 2000 to 2006. For his television work he received nine Emmy Awards for musical direction. In advertising, Lawrence worked as a music consultant and producer for N.W. Ayer from 1978 to 2002, with credits that included the U.S. Army's "Be All You Can Be" campaign and AT&T's "Reach Out and Touch Someone."

In 1959 Lawrence conducted in the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. He had also done radio work earlier in his career, serving as musical director for the Jack Sterling Show and the Red Buttons Show. In 1956 Lawrence met Amy Jane Bunim on a blind date in New York City and married her three months later. They had four children: Alexandra, Daniel, James, and Mariana.