For more than 50 years, The Lettermen have been entertaining audiences around the world.
For two shows Oct. 23, The Lettermen will be bringing their showmanship to the Wagon Wheel Theatre.
Tony Butala is an original founding member of The Lettermen. He is now joined by Donovan Tea and Mark Preston.
In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Butala was asked how The Lettermen were able to continue for five decades when many acts aren't able to continue after shorter time periods.
"I think it's a different way at looking at it," Butala said.
Butala began singing professionally at age 7 in Sharon, Pa. By age 8, he was on the radio in Pittsburgh. Within a few years, he moved to Hollywood to become a member of the Mitchell Boys Choir. He appeared in such films as "White Christmas", "Peter Pan", "War of the Worlds" and "On Moonlight Bay" while in the choir.
When Butala helped found The Lettermen, he said it was the first boys band, long before N*Sync.
"That premise was what I was doing in the '50s," Butala said.
To form the group, Butala said he looked in Hollywood for the best looking, best singing and most personable guys. The Lettermen first appeared in February 1958 at the Desert Inn Hotel Resort in Las Vegas. At that time, Butala was joined on stage by Mike Barnett and Talmadge Russell.
People think huge record sales and box office receipts started with The Beatles in the 1960s.
"That's not true at all," Butala said.
Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in the 1920s and 1930s was the start of it, and The Lettermen performed in the record-shattering revue "Newcomers of 1928" with Whiteman. Also in the revue were Buster Keaton, Rudy Vallee and Harry Richmond.
Butala said he's in the music industry for the long haul. He also said there's a difference between recording artists and performers. The difference is the connection to the audience that performers make. Recording artists just get up on stage, sing their albums, and then leave to go to their hotel rooms or parties.
"Entertainers to me are Sammy Davis Jr., Wayne Newton, Bing Crosby. People who, without the benefit of a hit record can walk across the stage ... and have people forget their problems," Butala said.
The Lettermen can do that, and they just finished recording their 76th album, he said.
If there are 20,000 or 2,000 or 200 or 20 people in the audience, Butala said The Lettermen do the same show. They don't look at their watches and wonder why they're playing at a smaller venue.
"Every show is like the last one we'll do, and we care about the audience," he said.
Their 76th album is titled "The Lettermen: A New Direction". Butala said it started out as a Big Band album with Les Brown. It evolved from Big Band with swing numbers to Big Band with pop hits. The hits include numbers from artists like Earth, Wind and Fire and The Doobie Brothers.
"We're doing songs we like, but with Les Brown's Big Band," he said.
They're not covers, he insists. Instead, they're "totally different concepts of these songs."
Already, Butala said, it is one of their biggest sell-out albums The Lettermen have had in 10 years. It's also a three-time Grammy nominee.
Don't expect to hear more than a couple of songs from the new album. Butala said The Lettermen don't record an album and then do a show. People can stay home and listen to an album. Instead, they may take a song or two from the album and mix it with some of the more than 750 other songs the group has recorded over the years.
Butala encourages audience members to the second show at the Wagon Wheel to bring their old LPs and cameras. After the second show, Butala said he and The Lettermen will sign as many records that people bring and take all the photos they want."I think I have the best job in the world," he said. "It's a joy to be on the stage with these guys at night. It's the best-sounding Lettermen group I've had."
Show times for The Lettermen Oct. 23 are at 6 and 8:30 p.m., according to a press release previously supplied by the Wagon Wheel Theatre. Tickets are $35 for front row, $30 for second row and $25 for all other seats.
