Reprise for Herman : Ailing Big Band Legend Saved From Eviction as Entertainment Figures Come Through With Help

Big Band leader Woody Herman, bedridden with emphysema and heart problems, broke and unable to pay his rent or taxes, was saved Tuesday from eviction from the Hollywood Hills home he once owned.

The 74-year-old Herman, a legendary music figure whose career spanned more than 50 years, faced eviction from his leased house at 5 p.m. under a court order obtained by the owner, William Little.

Under terms of an agreement approved by Superior Court Judge Ricardo A. Torres in mid-afternoon, however, Herman and his daughter, Ingrid Herman Reese, 46, will be able to stay in the home until 1989, providing that they pay back rent of about $4,600 and monthly rent of $1,150.

Reports of Herman’s plight brought offers of help from entertainers Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett, according to Reese. She said jazz station KKGO volunteered to pay Herman’s back rent.

“If we hadn’t been able to turn to his friends and fans, I don’t know what we would have done,” Reese told reporters. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

Her father requires 24-hour nursing care and has run up a bill to the nursing service of $18,000, she said. In addition, he is continuously on oxygen and his pharmacy bills run more than $100 a week.

Reese had been concerned that knowledge of the eviction order would affect her father’s tenuous condition, but, to her surprise, she said, when he heard the news Monday night, “He told his nurse he wanted to get up and come out.”

And when he learned of the offers of support, she said, “It just made him feel good knowing that people cared.”

Herman’s landlord, Little, bought the bandleader’s house at an Internal Revenue Service auction for $99,800 in 1985 and leased it to Reese. He said he did not know until Saturday that Herman was ill and living there. He obtained a five-day eviction order on Thursday.

“I’m happy,” Little said after Tuesday’s agreement. “I don’t like problems. I’m glad they can get some help. It shouldn’t be a problem in the future.”

Herman’s tax troubles date back over two decades. The IRS auctioned his home to cover $1.6 million in payroll taxes and penalties that he purportedly owes dating from 1964-65. The government agency also confiscated royalties from more than 100 albums he had made.

Reese blamed her father’s tax problems on a previous associate who, she said, failed to file income taxes and gambled away the money. Herman also claims that the IRS wrongly calculated his tax bill in the 1940s when he earned more than $1 million a year.

Herman, a clarinetist who headed his first band in 1936 at the age of 23, is perhaps best known as the leader of the Thundering Herd, in the “swing” era. Over the years, he has headed a succession of Herman Herds while playing blues and jazz.

Fell Ill in Denver

He still was working in March when he was stricken in Denver after taking medicine for altitude sickness.

When he was asked a little more than a year ago about continuing to work, Herman told Times jazz critic Leonard Feather:

“First of all, I still love the music. Sure, there are some rough nights, but the good ones outweigh the bad. Of course, there’s another reason. I have to go on. If I stopped working, I don’t think the IRS would take very kindly to it.”