California Birth Index, 1905-1995
Name: Richard Joseph Contino
Birth Date: 17 Jan. 1930
Mother's Maiden Name: Giordano
Birth County: Fresno
=========
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Contino
======
April 21, 2017
Famed accordionist, Fresno native, Dick Contino has died
Dick Contino headlined the Las Vegas strip for about 50 years. The Fresno native died Wednesday at the age of 87.
By Joshua Tehee [email protected]
On the list of famous Fresnans, Dick Contino ranks as a superstar.
In the 1950s, Mr. Contino was a high-profile musician and actor who married starlet Leigh Snowden and appeared multiple times on The Ed Sullivan Show; more than 40 over his whole career. Author James Ellroy used parts of Mr. Continos life and name for his 1994 novella, Dick Continos Blues¨ and in 1991 the actor was featured heavily in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In 2011, The Showbiz Society honored Mr. Contino at an event in Las Vegas that included the reading of a letter from President Barack Obama.
Among musicians, he was billed as The World's Greatest Accordionist.
Mr. Contino died Wednesday night at the age of 87.
Mr. Contino was fresh out of Fresno High School in 1948 when he gained national attention by winning the Horace Heidt Amateur Talent radio show in Washington, D.C. He went on to tour with Heidts orchestra and later the Musical Knights before breaking into the movie business. He was in the 1958 film Daddy-O and 1959s The Beat Generation.
While he spent the majority of his life in Las Vegas he was a well-known headliner in the early days of the strip Mr. Contino never forgot his hometown.
And it never forgot him. When Mr. Contino performed in Fresno in 1998 to celebrate his 50th year in the business, 500 people showed up at TorNino's to hear him play and sing. That included then-Fresno City Councilman Sal Quintero with a city proclamation declaring it Dick Contino Day in Fresno.
=========
∼Accordion's hep cat, Dick Contino, dead at 87
By Mike Weatherford Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 20, 2017 - 5:53 pm
Accordionist Dick Contino, returned from Army service in Korea, at a Hollywood night club in Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 1954 with actress Piper Laurie. Both said the date meant nothing more than friends ...
Dick Contino, a Las Vegas lounge mainstay and the man who made the accordion hip in the 1950s, died Wednesday in his native Fresno, California. He was 87.
Starring in the 1958 B-movie "Daddy-O" was evidence of Contino's teen-idol status in an era when the accordion was still a popular-music instrument.
"He put it in another place," his son Pete, a Las Vegas musician, said Thursday.
"There were young icons and television stars who made (the accordion) popular then, like Dick Contino. He was the teenage sex symbol before Elvis," Paul Pasquali, founder of the International Accordion Convention, once noted.
Contino lived in Las Vegas from 1975 to 2015 — except for a four-year spell in the Los Angeles area — raising three children here with his first wife, actress Leigh Snowden, who died in 1982.
After playing Las Vegas for years at bygone hotels such as the El Rancho Vegas, an offer of steady work in the Tropicana lounge motivated Contino to move here, buying a house near the Boulevard Mall from Las Vegas bandleader Vido Musso, his son Pete said.
Contino emerged as a bobby-soxer idol after winning Horace Heidt's "Youth Opportunity Talent Show" in 1946, and he was said to have played the Ed Sullivan show a record 48 times.
Contino's cult status was elevated with the short story "Dick Contino's Blues," part of best-selling crime fiction writer James Ellroy's 1994 collection "Hollywood Nocturnes."
Ellroy's story blended fiction with facts, such as Contino's recording and movie career being derailed after he spent six months in jail for ignoring his draft notice to the Korean War.
Contino remained hearty well into his 80s and played through most of 2014 — including the accordion convention — after bouncing back from a broken hip the previous year, his wife, Judy, said Thursday.
But health complications starting in early 2015 caused him to move back to Fresno to be closer to his daughter Deidre.
A private family service in Fresno will be followed by a public celebration of his life in Las Vegas on a June date to be determined.
Survivors include his son Pete of Las Vegas, daughters Mary, of Phoenix, Deidre, of Fresno, and two step-children, Cathie and Robert.
Contact Mike Weatherford at [email protected] or 702-383-0288. Follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.
∼Dick Contino
Jan. 17, 1930-April 19, 2017
World famous musician
Please join Dick's family and friends
at a Celebration of his Life:
Friday, June 16, 2017
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Copa Room at the Bootlegger
7700 Las Vegas Boulevard S.
Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 736-4939
Name: Richard Joseph Contino
Birth Date: 17 Jan. 1930
Mother's Maiden Name: Giordano
Birth County: Fresno
=========
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Contino
======
April 21, 2017
Famed accordionist, Fresno native, Dick Contino has died
Dick Contino headlined the Las Vegas strip for about 50 years. The Fresno native died Wednesday at the age of 87.
By Joshua Tehee [email protected]
On the list of famous Fresnans, Dick Contino ranks as a superstar.
In the 1950s, Mr. Contino was a high-profile musician and actor who married starlet Leigh Snowden and appeared multiple times on The Ed Sullivan Show; more than 40 over his whole career. Author James Ellroy used parts of Mr. Continos life and name for his 1994 novella, Dick Continos Blues¨ and in 1991 the actor was featured heavily in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In 2011, The Showbiz Society honored Mr. Contino at an event in Las Vegas that included the reading of a letter from President Barack Obama.
Among musicians, he was billed as The World's Greatest Accordionist.
Mr. Contino died Wednesday night at the age of 87.
Mr. Contino was fresh out of Fresno High School in 1948 when he gained national attention by winning the Horace Heidt Amateur Talent radio show in Washington, D.C. He went on to tour with Heidts orchestra and later the Musical Knights before breaking into the movie business. He was in the 1958 film Daddy-O and 1959s The Beat Generation.
While he spent the majority of his life in Las Vegas he was a well-known headliner in the early days of the strip Mr. Contino never forgot his hometown.
And it never forgot him. When Mr. Contino performed in Fresno in 1998 to celebrate his 50th year in the business, 500 people showed up at TorNino's to hear him play and sing. That included then-Fresno City Councilman Sal Quintero with a city proclamation declaring it Dick Contino Day in Fresno.
=========
∼Accordion's hep cat, Dick Contino, dead at 87
By Mike Weatherford Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 20, 2017 - 5:53 pm
Accordionist Dick Contino, returned from Army service in Korea, at a Hollywood night club in Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 1954 with actress Piper Laurie. Both said the date meant nothing more than friends ...
Dick Contino, a Las Vegas lounge mainstay and the man who made the accordion hip in the 1950s, died Wednesday in his native Fresno, California. He was 87.
Starring in the 1958 B-movie "Daddy-O" was evidence of Contino's teen-idol status in an era when the accordion was still a popular-music instrument.
"He put it in another place," his son Pete, a Las Vegas musician, said Thursday.
"There were young icons and television stars who made (the accordion) popular then, like Dick Contino. He was the teenage sex symbol before Elvis," Paul Pasquali, founder of the International Accordion Convention, once noted.
Contino lived in Las Vegas from 1975 to 2015 — except for a four-year spell in the Los Angeles area — raising three children here with his first wife, actress Leigh Snowden, who died in 1982.
After playing Las Vegas for years at bygone hotels such as the El Rancho Vegas, an offer of steady work in the Tropicana lounge motivated Contino to move here, buying a house near the Boulevard Mall from Las Vegas bandleader Vido Musso, his son Pete said.
Contino emerged as a bobby-soxer idol after winning Horace Heidt's "Youth Opportunity Talent Show" in 1946, and he was said to have played the Ed Sullivan show a record 48 times.
Contino's cult status was elevated with the short story "Dick Contino's Blues," part of best-selling crime fiction writer James Ellroy's 1994 collection "Hollywood Nocturnes."
Ellroy's story blended fiction with facts, such as Contino's recording and movie career being derailed after he spent six months in jail for ignoring his draft notice to the Korean War.
Contino remained hearty well into his 80s and played through most of 2014 — including the accordion convention — after bouncing back from a broken hip the previous year, his wife, Judy, said Thursday.
But health complications starting in early 2015 caused him to move back to Fresno to be closer to his daughter Deidre.
A private family service in Fresno will be followed by a public celebration of his life in Las Vegas on a June date to be determined.
Survivors include his son Pete of Las Vegas, daughters Mary, of Phoenix, Deidre, of Fresno, and two step-children, Cathie and Robert.
Contact Mike Weatherford at [email protected] or 702-383-0288. Follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.
∼Dick Contino
Jan. 17, 1930-April 19, 2017
World famous musician
Please join Dick's family and friends
at a Celebration of his Life:
Friday, June 16, 2017
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Copa Room at the Bootlegger
7700 Las Vegas Boulevard S.
Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 736-4939
California Birth Index, 1905-1995
Name: Richard Joseph Contino
Birth Date: 17 Jan. 1930
Mother's Maiden Name: Giordano
Birth County: Fresno
=========
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Contino
======
April 21, 2017
Famed accordionist, Fresno native, Dick Contino has died
Dick Contino headlined the Las Vegas strip for about 50 years. The Fresno native died Wednesday at the age of 87.
By Joshua Tehee [email protected]
On the list of famous Fresnans, Dick Contino ranks as a superstar.
In the 1950s, Mr. Contino was a high-profile musician and actor who married starlet Leigh Snowden and appeared multiple times on The Ed Sullivan Show; more than 40 over his whole career. Author James Ellroy used parts of Mr. Continos life and name for his 1994 novella, Dick Continos Blues¨ and in 1991 the actor was featured heavily in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In 2011, The Showbiz Society honored Mr. Contino at an event in Las Vegas that included the reading of a letter from President Barack Obama.
Among musicians, he was billed as The World's Greatest Accordionist.
Mr. Contino died Wednesday night at the age of 87.
Mr. Contino was fresh out of Fresno High School in 1948 when he gained national attention by winning the Horace Heidt Amateur Talent radio show in Washington, D.C. He went on to tour with Heidts orchestra and later the Musical Knights before breaking into the movie business. He was in the 1958 film Daddy-O and 1959s The Beat Generation.
While he spent the majority of his life in Las Vegas he was a well-known headliner in the early days of the strip Mr. Contino never forgot his hometown.
And it never forgot him. When Mr. Contino performed in Fresno in 1998 to celebrate his 50th year in the business, 500 people showed up at TorNino's to hear him play and sing. That included then-Fresno City Councilman Sal Quintero with a city proclamation declaring it Dick Contino Day in Fresno.
=========
∼Accordion's hep cat, Dick Contino, dead at 87
By Mike Weatherford Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 20, 2017 - 5:53 pm
Accordionist Dick Contino, returned from Army service in Korea, at a Hollywood night club in Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 1954 with actress Piper Laurie. Both said the date meant nothing more than friends ...
Dick Contino, a Las Vegas lounge mainstay and the man who made the accordion hip in the 1950s, died Wednesday in his native Fresno, California. He was 87.
Starring in the 1958 B-movie "Daddy-O" was evidence of Contino's teen-idol status in an era when the accordion was still a popular-music instrument.
"He put it in another place," his son Pete, a Las Vegas musician, said Thursday.
"There were young icons and television stars who made (the accordion) popular then, like Dick Contino. He was the teenage sex symbol before Elvis," Paul Pasquali, founder of the International Accordion Convention, once noted.
Contino lived in Las Vegas from 1975 to 2015 — except for a four-year spell in the Los Angeles area — raising three children here with his first wife, actress Leigh Snowden, who died in 1982.
After playing Las Vegas for years at bygone hotels such as the El Rancho Vegas, an offer of steady work in the Tropicana lounge motivated Contino to move here, buying a house near the Boulevard Mall from Las Vegas bandleader Vido Musso, his son Pete said.
Contino emerged as a bobby-soxer idol after winning Horace Heidt's "Youth Opportunity Talent Show" in 1946, and he was said to have played the Ed Sullivan show a record 48 times.
Contino's cult status was elevated with the short story "Dick Contino's Blues," part of best-selling crime fiction writer James Ellroy's 1994 collection "Hollywood Nocturnes."
Ellroy's story blended fiction with facts, such as Contino's recording and movie career being derailed after he spent six months in jail for ignoring his draft notice to the Korean War.
Contino remained hearty well into his 80s and played through most of 2014 — including the accordion convention — after bouncing back from a broken hip the previous year, his wife, Judy, said Thursday.
But health complications starting in early 2015 caused him to move back to Fresno to be closer to his daughter Deidre.
A private family service in Fresno will be followed by a public celebration of his life in Las Vegas on a June date to be determined.
Survivors include his son Pete of Las Vegas, daughters Mary, of Phoenix, Deidre, of Fresno, and two step-children, Cathie and Robert.
Contact Mike Weatherford at [email protected] or 702-383-0288. Follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.
∼Dick Contino
Jan. 17, 1930-April 19, 2017
World famous musician
Please join Dick's family and friends
at a Celebration of his Life:
Friday, June 16, 2017
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Copa Room at the Bootlegger
7700 Las Vegas Boulevard S.
Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 736-4939
Name: Richard Joseph Contino
Birth Date: 17 Jan. 1930
Mother's Maiden Name: Giordano
Birth County: Fresno
=========
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Contino
======
April 21, 2017
Famed accordionist, Fresno native, Dick Contino has died
Dick Contino headlined the Las Vegas strip for about 50 years. The Fresno native died Wednesday at the age of 87.
By Joshua Tehee [email protected]
On the list of famous Fresnans, Dick Contino ranks as a superstar.
In the 1950s, Mr. Contino was a high-profile musician and actor who married starlet Leigh Snowden and appeared multiple times on The Ed Sullivan Show; more than 40 over his whole career. Author James Ellroy used parts of Mr. Continos life and name for his 1994 novella, Dick Continos Blues¨ and in 1991 the actor was featured heavily in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In 2011, The Showbiz Society honored Mr. Contino at an event in Las Vegas that included the reading of a letter from President Barack Obama.
Among musicians, he was billed as The World's Greatest Accordionist.
Mr. Contino died Wednesday night at the age of 87.
Mr. Contino was fresh out of Fresno High School in 1948 when he gained national attention by winning the Horace Heidt Amateur Talent radio show in Washington, D.C. He went on to tour with Heidts orchestra and later the Musical Knights before breaking into the movie business. He was in the 1958 film Daddy-O and 1959s The Beat Generation.
While he spent the majority of his life in Las Vegas he was a well-known headliner in the early days of the strip Mr. Contino never forgot his hometown.
And it never forgot him. When Mr. Contino performed in Fresno in 1998 to celebrate his 50th year in the business, 500 people showed up at TorNino's to hear him play and sing. That included then-Fresno City Councilman Sal Quintero with a city proclamation declaring it Dick Contino Day in Fresno.
=========
∼Accordion's hep cat, Dick Contino, dead at 87
By Mike Weatherford Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 20, 2017 - 5:53 pm
Accordionist Dick Contino, returned from Army service in Korea, at a Hollywood night club in Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 1954 with actress Piper Laurie. Both said the date meant nothing more than friends ...
Dick Contino, a Las Vegas lounge mainstay and the man who made the accordion hip in the 1950s, died Wednesday in his native Fresno, California. He was 87.
Starring in the 1958 B-movie "Daddy-O" was evidence of Contino's teen-idol status in an era when the accordion was still a popular-music instrument.
"He put it in another place," his son Pete, a Las Vegas musician, said Thursday.
"There were young icons and television stars who made (the accordion) popular then, like Dick Contino. He was the teenage sex symbol before Elvis," Paul Pasquali, founder of the International Accordion Convention, once noted.
Contino lived in Las Vegas from 1975 to 2015 — except for a four-year spell in the Los Angeles area — raising three children here with his first wife, actress Leigh Snowden, who died in 1982.
After playing Las Vegas for years at bygone hotels such as the El Rancho Vegas, an offer of steady work in the Tropicana lounge motivated Contino to move here, buying a house near the Boulevard Mall from Las Vegas bandleader Vido Musso, his son Pete said.
Contino emerged as a bobby-soxer idol after winning Horace Heidt's "Youth Opportunity Talent Show" in 1946, and he was said to have played the Ed Sullivan show a record 48 times.
Contino's cult status was elevated with the short story "Dick Contino's Blues," part of best-selling crime fiction writer James Ellroy's 1994 collection "Hollywood Nocturnes."
Ellroy's story blended fiction with facts, such as Contino's recording and movie career being derailed after he spent six months in jail for ignoring his draft notice to the Korean War.
Contino remained hearty well into his 80s and played through most of 2014 — including the accordion convention — after bouncing back from a broken hip the previous year, his wife, Judy, said Thursday.
But health complications starting in early 2015 caused him to move back to Fresno to be closer to his daughter Deidre.
A private family service in Fresno will be followed by a public celebration of his life in Las Vegas on a June date to be determined.
Survivors include his son Pete of Las Vegas, daughters Mary, of Phoenix, Deidre, of Fresno, and two step-children, Cathie and Robert.
Contact Mike Weatherford at [email protected] or 702-383-0288. Follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.
∼Dick Contino
Jan. 17, 1930-April 19, 2017
World famous musician
Please join Dick's family and friends
at a Celebration of his Life:
Friday, June 16, 2017
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Copa Room at the Bootlegger
7700 Las Vegas Boulevard S.
Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 736-4939
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