Breezy Point Crooner Donates to CLC

Big Band-era orchestra leader-singer Russ Carlyle has donated $20 thousand worth of arrangements to the Central Lakes College Instrumental Music Department in Brainerd.
Carlyle, who makes his summer home in Breezy Point, said he wants the music to be used in teaching college students "an appreciation and understanding of music when, back in the early days of Big Band, style and showmanship played a big part of the success of some of the biggest names in the business.
Carlyle's music has been performed from coast to coast in dance halls, night clubs, and theaters. He had a national radio show and was enjoyed by audiences at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas and the Blackhawk Restaurant and Aragon, and Trianon ballrooms in Chicago.
Before becoming a professional band leader, Carlyle performed as half of a comedy team with Joey Bishop. In 1972, when Bishop guest-hosted The Tonight Show for Johnny Carson, Russ Carlyle and wife Patty Clayton landed a coveted TV appearance. It had been nearly 20 years since Carlyle's other network appearance on the Jack Parr Show.
Frank Sinatra recorded several Carlyle numbers during his career.
He and Patty, whom he hired to be lead vocalist in the 1960s, winter in Scottsdale, Az.