January 18 - Jay Meyer

On this day, in 2009, Jay Meyer passed away in Los Angeles, California. In a career that spanned decades, Jay was truly one of those performers that literally everyone has heard at some point but no one has any idea who he is. Born in Webb City, Missouri on May 20, 1923, he began singing at the age of five, mostly in local churches. He learned to play the trumpet and, in high school, was his team's only cheerleader (they for some reason didn't have any female cheerleaders and he wasn't big enough to actually play football). His older brother was a radio entertainer in St. Louis and Jay would occasionally visit him and sing on his program.

After graduating from high school in 1941, Jay could sense that war was coming and he signed up for the Marine Corps. He was officially stationed in New Zealand for most of his tour and spent his time singing for his fellow troops, both on Marine Corps radio and all over the world in live shows. When the war ended, Jay knew he couldn't go back to Missouri, so he stayed in Los Angeles, California and enrolled in the University of Southern California. Meanwhile he began performing with the likes of Spike Jones and eventually joined the Sportsmen's Quartet, a group that regularly sang on Jack Benny's radio program, including all the Lucky Strike cigarette commercials. For a while, the Sportsmen were doing double duty; they'd no sooner finish Jack Benny's show then they'd go down the street and do Phil Harris' show.

All this exposure led to the Sportsmen getting their own radio deal in New York. So Jay moved across the country with his wife, Tommy, to make it big in the Big Apple. The show flopped, but Jay stuck around, working pretty constantly. Tommy was a writer and Jay got into doing summer stock theater for a few years. Eventually, Tommy wanted to be back on the west coast, so the couple returned to their home in Los Angeles. Jay began doing all sorts of film gigs. He's in the chorus for movies like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins.

Then one day, he got a call to come do a recording at the Disney Studio. He arrived to see fellow Sportsmen Quartet member Thurl Ravenscroft, as well as Chuck Schroeder, Bob Ebright and Vernon Rowe. Jay says they didn't really understand what they were making the recording for but the song they sung was called "Grim Grinning Ghosts." The five performers were also filmed and, as anyone who's ever ridden the Haunted Mansion knows, they became a quintet of singing busts in the graveyard section of the attraction. The bust that Jay plays is the only one not wearing a necktie, is officially named Ned Nub and is generally the fourth one from the left. Phantom Manor, the Disneyland Paris version, only has four busts, so Jay is third from the left there.

As if that wasn't a big enough contribution to Disney lore, Jay got another call in 1972. Fulton Burley, a staple performer in the Golden Horseshoe Revue in Disneyland was taking some time off and needed a substitute. Jay agreed to fill in for him as resident Irish Tenor (although Jay is actually more German than Irish) over a six week period. When the month and a half was over, it was decided that the show needed Jay for a few more weeks. He actually stopped performing in the Revue when it closed fourteen years later. He was even a featured performer in the final show on October 12, 1986.

In addition to all his work with Disney and in films, Jay appeared in television commercials for everything from McDonald's (singing, of course, the famous slogan "You deserve a break today") to Mattel Toys and Knotsberry Farm. He sang in concerts at the Hollywood Bowl with Sammy Davis Jr. and Ray Charles. He made records with the Ray Connif Singers, the Pied Pipers and the Johnny Mann Singers. His final public appearance was, ironically, at a private function at the Walt Disney Studio, where he sang Too Ra Loo Ra Loo, a song he'd sung hundreds of times in the saloon in Frontierland. His amazing, mostly unrecognized, career ended 80 years after it began as a little five year old local singing sensation.