Milton Delugg (December 2, 1918 – April 6, 2015) was an American musician, composer and arranger.
Milton Delugg was born in Los Angeles, California. He said, “There aren't any Deluggs. It's not a real name.” He believed the family's ancestral name to be D’Luggatch. Delugg's great grandfather said no one could pronounce it so he changed it to “Delugg,” with a lower case “L”. Delugg attended the University of California, Los Angeles.
His initial musical training was on a piano. Moving to the accordion came as the result of a gift. "When my dad gave me an accordion I learned how to play jazz on it," he said. "I grew up in Los Angeles and it wasn't long before I had a monopoly on any calls for jazz accordionists." After attending UCLA, he traveled to New York City to study under Tibor Serly; in 1938, Delugg joined the Matty Malneck Orchestra as an accordionist. He served in the Radio Production Unit of the US Army Air Force during World War II. During that time he was a member of (and sometimes soloist with) the 36-piece orchestra of the West Coast Army Air Force Training Center. A talented accordionist, Delugg appeared in short Soundies musicals and occasional movies (like 1949's Jolson Sings Again).
He quickly became a successful arranger and composer and worked as bandleader at Slapsie Maxie's Wilshire location in Hollywood. His clients ranged from the American Junior Miss Pageant to soul singer and performer Jackie Wilson, and he was a musician on such radio programs as School Days of the Air, and The Abe Burrows Show. One of his best-known tunes is an arrangement of the song "The Happy Wanderer", and his brassy polka "Hoop Dee Doo" became a game show staple.
In 1950 and 1951, Delugg was musical director, bandleader, and accordionist on Broadway Open House the NBC late-night television program considered to be the forerunner to The Tonight Show. He often played a song he co-wrote, "Orange Colored Sky", which was best remembered as a hit for Nat King Cole. His other popular songs became hits for a variety of artists, including "Shanghai" (Doris Day, (1951); "Be My Life's Companion" (The Mills Brothers, 1951); "Shake Hands With Santa Claus" (Louis Prima, 1951); "The Photograph On The Piano" (Georgia Gibbs, 1952); "Just Another Polka" (Eddie Fisher, 1953); and "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)" (Patsy Cline, 1956).
In 1953, the Milton Delugg Trio appeared on the short-lived The Bill Cullen Show. Four years later, in 1957, Delugg joined the cast of the Winchell and Mahoney Show. Based in New York City, Milton was also active in the recording industry. In 1958 he produced the Buddy Holly single, "Rave On!" He also composed the tune "Roller Coaster"– recorded by Henri Rene Orchestra on RCA Victor. It was used as the closing theme for the popular Goodson-Todman panel show What's My Line? from the early 1950s until its cancellation in 1967. Delugg served as NBC's musical director for decades. In 1966, he was briefly musical director of The Tonight Show Band during the tenure of Johnny Carson.
Delugg composed the score for the 1964 B-minus movie, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," as well as for the 1966 U.S.-dubbed version of a Japanese animated movie called, "Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon." Delugg also composed and conducted incidental music for a series of children's recordings of tales by the Brothers Grimm produced by RCA and Golden Books around 1966-67.
Delugg enjoyed a long association with Chuck Barris, beginning as arranger of the original theme to The Newlywed Game in 1966. Delugg never let his accordion skills grow rusty, and space age pop fans will enjoy his 1967 album, "Accordion My Way--Ole!," which features an effervescent Milton on the cover, sporting an Amish farmer beard and a toreador hat.
From 1976 to 1980, he was musical director of The Gong Show (appearing with his "Band With a Thug"). Delugg often appeared on the show as a comic foil, in the characters of bad joke teller Naso Literatus and philosopher Old Drool. Delugg's venerable "Hoop Dee Doo" became a fixture on The Gong Show, and was used whenever the contest winner was chosen.
In his later life Delugg cut back on his schedule but remained active as musical director of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade through 2013, and made one final, on-camera appearance during the 2014 parade.
Delugg and his wife, Anne, were married from 1946 until she died in 2002. Delugg died from heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, California, on April 6, 2015, at the age of 96.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Spaceagepop)