Loring Buzzell

Loring Bruce Buzzell (October 3, 1927 – October 20, 1959) was an American music publisher and record label executive. Together with film producer Harold Hecht and actor Burt Lancaster, he formed a series of music publishing imprints in the middle and late 1950s. His music publishing companies, Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music, Calyork Music, Leigh Music and Colby Music, were responsible for copyrighting, publishing and promoting the soundtracks and theme songs from such notable films as Marty, Trapeze, The Kentuckian, Sweet Smell of Success, Separate Tables, Cry Tough, Take a Giant Step and The Unforgiven. Buzzell's companies also published "May You Always", the recordings of which by The McGuire Sisters for Coral Records and Joan Regan for His Master's Voice, became the top-selling records and the second-best-selling sheet music in the United States and the United Kingdom for 1959. Calyork Records and Maine Records were two independent record labels operated by Buzzell in partnership with Hecht and Lancaster.

Prior to his association with Hecht and Lancaster, Buzzell was General Professional Manager of several Howard Spencer Richmond music publishing imprints, including Hollis Music, Ludlow Music, Folkways Music Publishers, Dartmouth Music and Cromwell Music. While working for Richmond, Buzzell published and promoted such hits as "Early Autumn", written by Woody Herman, Ralph Burns and Johnny Mercer and recorded by Jo Stafford and Paul Weston for Columbia Records, Georgie Auld for Coral Records and Ted Heath and Lita Roza for London Records; "Longing for You", written by Władysław Daniłowski and Bernard Jansen and recorded by Les Baxter for Capitol Records, Teresa Brewer for London Records, George Cates for Coral Records, Larry Clinton for Broadway Records, Vic Damone for Mercury Records, Sammy Kaye for Columbia Records, Russ Morgan for Decca Records and Tommy Tucker for M-G-M Records; "The Thing", written by Charles Randolph Grean and recorded by Phil Harris for RCA-Victor Records; and "A Guy Is a Guy", written by Oscar Brand and recorded by Doris Day for Columbia Records, Ella Fitzgerald for Decca Records and Peggy Taylor for Mercury Records.

Earlier in his career, Buzzell was a contact man for Jack Mills and Irving Mills' music publishing company, Mills Music, and a field man for the performance rights organization the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Buzzell was married to popular singer Lu Ann Simms, whom he managed towards the end of his life. Buzzell died prematurely at the age of 32 in October 1959 from a heart attack.

Loring Bruce Buzzell was born on October 3, 1927, in Long Beach, New York to Samuel Jesse Buzzell (1891–1979) and Alma Virginia Wanner (1896–1974). He was of German, Irish, French and Jewish ancestry. Loring Buzzell had two siblings: an older sister Gloria Joyce Buzzell (born August 3, 1923) and a younger sister Barbara Ann Buzzell (born September 15, 1936). The Buzzell family of five lived in a Victorian house located at 607 Lafayette Boulevard in Long Beach, New York. They had a private tennis court and lived only a few properties away from the waterfront at the north-end of their street.

Buzzell's father Samuel was an important figure in the New York music industry and entertainment community. He graduated from New York University School of Law and was principally known in his profession as a theatrical, music patent and copyright counselor-at-law, and also served as a business incorporation agent. Samuel helped Jack Mills and Irving Mills form their music publishing company, Jack Mills, Inc., in 1919; the company was renamed Mills Music, Inc. in 1921. Samuel was not only the Mills brothers' company attorney, he was also their partner, business manager and secretary of several of their enterprises, including Jack Mills, Inc., Mills Music, Inc., Mills Music Corporation, their agency Mills Artists, Inc., and their British and European division Mills British, Ltd. Samuel was still one of the three company owners and share-holders (along with president Jack Mills and vice-president Irving Mills) when the Mills Music conglomerate was sold in early 1965, leading to his retirement. Some of the artists that were represented by Samuel include Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Leroy Anderson, Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish.

Buzzell's father was also on the board of directors, as President of Long Beach Hospital, from the summer of 1940 until he resigned from the post on November 20, 1941, to focus exclusively on the music business. Buzzell's paternal uncle (Samuel's brother) was Edward Buzzell (1985–1995), a noted stage actor and entertainer who moved to Hollywood and became a film and television director.

Buzzell's older sister Gloria moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1940s and, through her uncle Edward Buzzell, secured employment as an executive assistant in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's story department. On November 1, 1947, she married talent agent and film producer Harold Hecht in Las Vegas, Nevada; they had three children. Gloria and Hecht separated on July 18, 1959 and were officially divorced on June 28, 1961. Gloria was married a second time on July 12, 1963, to Franklin M. Desser, an attorney from New York City. She and Desser moved out of Beverly Hills, California and the couple took an apartment on the East Side in New York City.

Buzzell's younger sister Barbara remained in New York and married Eugene S. Stein in 1959. She was married a second time in 1970 to George J. Tamaro, giving birth to a son named Loring Paul Tamaro, named in memory of her brother, on March 26, 1971.