Larry Orenstein

Born in Minnesota to Russian immigrant parents, Larry Orenstein (when he was 10 years old he decided to change his first name from "Lorentz" to "Lawrence", which was eventually shortened to "Larry") taught himself to play the trumpet at an early age and by the time he was a teenager he was writing and performing his own music. In 1937, while a student at UCLA, he arranged for Duke Ellington to perform, for free, at Royce Hall, which was the first time a jazz band ever performed at an American concert hall. Orenstein continued his musical career by singing and playing trumpet for the Paul Whiteman and Orchestra (as "Larry Neill"), then performing solely as a vocalist with the orchestra of bandleader Shep Fields. In addition to his work with other bands, such as that of Ray Noble, he kept busy as a sideman for radio variety shows. In 1955 he was hired on to The Donald O'Connor Show (1954) as a songwriter, and later wrote songs for (and had a small part in) an episode of I Love Lucy (1951) called "Lucy Goes to Scotland". In 1956 he was hired by Sidney Miller, with whom he had worked on "The Donald O'Connor Show", to write songs for The Mickey Mouse Club (1955), for which Miller was a director. In addition to writing music, Orenstein also came up with storylines for several episodes. He left the show at the end of the season. He freelanced as a songwriter for television (he wrote the theme song for Bachelor Father (1957) and stage. In the 1970s he started his own advertising agency, and among his clients were such powerhouses as Sony, Pioneer and McDonalds. He died of pneumonia on February 22, 2006, in Sherman Oaks, California.