José Melis

José Melis Guiu (February 27, 1920 – April 7, 2005) was a Cuban-American bandleader and television personality.

Biography

Melis was born in

In 1954–55, Melis was the pianist when The Morning Show on CBS was hosted by Paar. Then Paar moved from mornings to late night, and from 1957 to 1962, Melis served as the musical director of The Tonight Show during Jack Paar's tenure as host. He also wrote the music for Paar's theme song, "IM4U" (lyrics by Sev F. Marino), and he performed with Paar on other shows, including Parr’s Startime (1960). One of his routines on Paar's shows was the "telephone game," in which Melis would improvise a musical number based on the last four digits of an audience member's telephone number.

Melis also appeared on other TV shows, including

Melis was 85 when he died of a respiratory infection in Sun City, Arizona, on April 7, 2005.^[1]

Listen to

• "Mas Feliz Navidad : Christmas with Melis". Archived from the original on 27 April 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2020.

References