Milton Delugg

Milton Delugg, born December 2, 1918, in Los Angeles, California, was an American musician, composer, arranger, and Broadway performer who died on April 6, 2015, at the age of 96. He believed his family's original surname to be D'Luggatch, a name his great-grandfather shortened to Delugg because it was difficult to pronounce. Delugg attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where his early musical training centered on piano before shifting to accordion after his father gave him one as a gift. He developed his jazz accordion skills in Los Angeles and came to dominate calls for jazz accordionists in the region.

In 1939, Delugg made his Broadway appearance in the musical Very Warm for May. During World War II he served in the Radio Production Unit of the US Army Air Force, performing as a member and occasional soloist with the 36-piece orchestra of the West Coast Army Air Force Training Center.

Following the war, Delugg built a multifaceted career as a performer, arranger, and composer. He appeared in short soundies musicals and in the 1949 film Jolson Sings Again, and worked as bandleader at Slapsie Maxie's Wilshire location in Hollywood. His clients included the American Junior Miss Pageant and soul performer Jackie Wilson, and he contributed as a musician to radio programs such as School Days of the Air and The Abe Burrows Show. Among his compositions, the polka "Hoop Dee Doo" became a recurring fixture on game shows, and his arrangement of "The Happy Wanderer" gained wide recognition. He also composed "Roller Coaster," recorded by the Henri Rene Orchestra on RCA Victor, which served as the closing theme for the Goodson-Todman panel show What's My Line? from the early 1950s until its cancellation in 1967.

From 1950 to 1951, Delugg served as musical director, bandleader, and accordionist on Broadway Open House, the NBC late-night television program regarded as the forerunner to The Tonight Show. During that run he frequently performed "Orange Colored Sky," a song he co-wrote that became a hit for Nat King Cole in 1950. Also in 1950, he served as orchestra conductor for Abe Burrows' Almanac. In 1953, the Milton Delugg Trio appeared on The Bill Cullen Show, and in 1957 Delugg joined the cast of the Winchell and Mahoney Show. Based in New York City during this period, he was also active in the recording industry, producing the 1958 Buddy Holly single "Rave On!"

Delugg served as NBC's musical director for several decades. In 1966 he became musical director of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, succeeding Skitch Henderson, before being replaced by Doc Severinsen in 1968. That same year he began a long association with producer Chuck Barris, starting with his arrangement of the original theme to The Newlywed Game. From 1976 to 1980 he was musical director of The Gong Show, where he appeared with his Band With a Thug and performed in comedy segments under characters including "Naso Literatus" and "Old Drool." He also composed themes for additional Barris productions, among them The $1.98 Beauty Show, Camouflage, Leave It to the Women, 3's a Crowd, and The New Treasure Hunt, as well as updated versions of the themes for The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game and their 1980s revivals. Delugg, along with sidemen Mark Stevens, Billy Neale, and Ray Neapolitan, appeared in Barris's The Gong Show Movie in 1980 as The Hollywood Cowboys.

Delugg composed scores and songs with his wife Anne for mid-1960s American releases of German and Japanese children's films, including Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He also composed the score for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, including its theme song "Hooray for Santa Claus."

His songwriting credits include "Orange Colored Sky" recorded by Nat King Cole in 1950, "Shanghai" by Doris Day in 1951, "Be My Life's Companion" by the Mills Brothers in 1951, "Shake Hands With Santa Claus" by Louis Prima in 1951, "The Photograph On The Piano" by Georgia Gibbs in 1952, "Just Another Polka" by Eddie Fisher in 1953, and "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)" by Patsy Cline in 1956.

Delugg and his wife Anne were married from 1946 until her death in 2002. They had three children. He continued working as musical director of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade through 2013 and made a final on-camera appearance during the 2014 parade. He died of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles on April 6, 2015.