Never mind Star Wars Day, May the 4th is the birthday of Pete Barbutti (b. 1934).
How this performer would have throve in vaudeville! Barbutti is a comedy musician, a raconteur who tells long form jokes combined with his expert playing on accordion, piano, and trumpet. For a while the bass was also among his instruments of choice. He’s of the be bop generation, and is one of the rare people to sport that look all his life, a goatee and shaggy locks. His appearance reminds me of Chuck Low’s character Morrie in Goodfellas (interestingly, Martin Krugman, the real guy that character is based on, looked nothing like that).
Originally from Scranton, Barbutti started out in Vegas with a jazz combo called The Millionaires circa 1960. Changing times necessitated acquiring a gimmick for bookings and that was how comedy came into it. Fairly quickly, his bandmates took other offers and Barbutti found himself doing a solo — and it suited him. He has worked constantly in night clubs and hotel bars, and for a good long stretch he was a staple of TV variety. He started to get booked for television just about 60 years ago, and as long as variety shows were going strong, he was on them. He did The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 40 times, Mike Douglas 30 times, Merv around two dozen, The Joey Bishop Show 14 times. You could also see him on The Hollywood Palace, Kraft Music Hall, Steve Allen Playhouse, Playboy After Dark, Regis Philbin, Woody Woodbury, Alan Thicke…haha, all the greats. He only dabbled in acting a very little — you can see him in episodes of Get Smart and Benson.
Briefly, in 1983, Barbutti had a Canadian talk-variety show-sit-com hybrid called Pete’s Place which featured guest stars like Howie Mandel, John Candy, Henny Youngman, Phyllis Diller, Connie Stevens, Della Reese, a pre-Moonlighting Cybil Shepherd, the inevitable Barbi Benton, Erin Gray (from Buck Rogers and Silver Spoons), and Gordon Jump and Frank Bonner from WKRP in Cincinnati. His last tv work was about 20 years ago.
But he STILL performs in Las Vegas, usually with a group of guys called The Four Jokers which also includes ventriloquist Jay Johnson. In fact Barbutti is performing TONIGHT at the Ahern Hotel with a female assistant named Donni!
Kliph Nesteroff’s excellent interview with Barbutti about his early days is here. Barbutti is one of those guys whose real stories sound just like his routines. You can tell he embellishes for effect, but there’s a strong foundation of truth underneath. Ain’t that what art is?
For more on show biz history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.
(Travalanche) 
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