Broadway and Screen Star Byron Palmer Dies at 89

Film and television actor and former Broadway star Byron Palmer died last week of natural causes in Los Angeles. Palmer, who launched his acting career in the 1940s with Broadway's Where's Charley, went on to have a prolific career on screen, most notably starring on television in This Is Your Music.

Palmer, born in June of 1920 in Los Angeles, wrote obituaries for his father's paper, Hollywood Citizen's News, before joining CBS and eventually became a radio announcer.

During World War II, Palmer ran a radio station in the Armed Forces on an island in the Pacific, where he also sang tenor on the air with a quartet called the Music Mates. 

Where's Charley? with Ray Bolger came in 1948 after Palmer served as master of ceremonies for a touring Hollywood On Ice production.  His additional stage credits include the early 1950s Broadway revue "Bless You All" with Pearl Bailey.

Palmer's movie credits include Tonight We Sing, Man in the Attic with Jackie Palance, "The Best Things in Life Are Free" with Gordon MacRae.

On television, he had guest roles on several series and dramas, but is best known for co-starring with Joan Weldon on This Is Your Music. The show, which aired on KTTV-TV Channel 11, featured the duo singing "songs America loves best," according to a 1955 ad in Billboard magazine.