John Gary

John Gary, born John Gary Strader on November 29, 1932, in Watertown, New York, was an American singer, recording artist, television host, and stage performer who died on January 4, 1998, in Dallas, Texas, at the age of 65 from cancer. He served in the United States Marine Corps before achieving national recognition as an entertainer.

Gary began singing at the age of five. At nine, he auditioned for choirmaster Norman Coke-Jeffcott and won a three-year scholarship to the Cathedral School of St. John in Manhattan. By age ten, he had earned two pins of distinction from the American Theatre Wing Merchant Seaman's Club for the Stage Door Canteen. At twelve, he toured the southern states alongside Frank Pursley, a blind pianist for the Mason Conservatory.

His Broadway career included an appearance in the 1937 production of the play Processional. Beyond the stage, Gary built a wide-ranging career that encompassed film, television, concert halls, and recording studios. He appeared thirty times as a guest on The Tonight Show across the tenures of hosts Jack Paar, Steve Allen, and Johnny Carson, and performed at Carnegie Hall with numerous orchestras. He conducted approximately forty concerts per year throughout the United States and Canada, giving community concerts in more than four hundred cities and towns over a six-year period.

Before reaching national prominence, Gary was a regular presence on the New Orleans television station WDSU-TV, appearing on the noontime program Midday. He also performed at the Blue Room of the Roosevelt Hotel, later known as the Fairmont Hotel. He hosted The John Gary Show, a local program consisting of three fifteen-minute broadcasts per week, which preceded his national CBS television variety series by roughly a decade. That national program served as a summer replacement for the Danny Kaye Show.

Gary first recorded for Fraternity Records between 1958 and 1960. In 1960, he joined ASCAP and composed several popular songs. After signing with RCA Victor, he was nominated for the 1964 Grammy Award for Best New Artist and went on to record twenty-four albums for the label. He was a favored singer of fellow RCA Victor artist Elvis Presley. Gary placed five songs on the Billboard adult contemporary chart, with the 1967 release "Cold" reaching number one for two weeks, though it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1968, he provided the voice of John Alden in the Rankin/Bass animated television special The Mouse on the Mayflower. RCA has reissued selections from his catalog, including a ninety-two-track, four-CD box set released on the Collectables label.

Gary possessed a vocal range of three and a half octaves, capable of moving from robust baritone to high tenor, at times within a single song. He was noted for his breath control and tonal quality.