Van Streeter

James E. Streeter was a native of Wichita Kansas, where he got his start playing tenor sax in Lloyd Hunter's territory band. Bandleader Johnny Otis took Streeter to Los Angeles in 1944. Enamored of director-actor Erich von Stroheim, Streeter billed himself as Von Streeter or James Von Streeter. In the late 1940s and early '50s, he recorded for several labels, including Coral, as Von Streeter & His Wig Poppers, playing wild, honking R&B, and several members of this group accompanied him when he appeared as a wild, sweaty sax maniac in a key nightclub scene of the original D.O.A. (1950). However, for the soundtrack the producer overdubbed another band altogether, led by saxophonist Maxwell Davis, who would later be influential as a Los Angeles A&R man during the early rock 'n' roll era. Streeter's career was derailed by heroin addiction, which eventually killed him in 1960.