Earl Wrightson; Major Singer in American Musical Theater

Earl Wrightson, the bearded baritone who became a major player in the American musical theater if not one of its superstars, has died at his Long Island home.

Lois Hunt, his companion and most recent singing partner, said he was 77 and died Sunday of heart failure.

For 50 years, Wrightson was heard on radio, seen on television and applauded in the nation’s concert halls.

He won a daytime Emmy as host of the television series “The American Musical Theatre,” broadcast Sunday afternoons on CBS in the 1950s; starred in “The Earl Wrightson Show,” a 15-minute musical program in the early days of TV that preceded “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends,” and appeared regularly on “Girl About Town,” an NBC live musical program. His other major TV credit was “Paul Whiteman’s Goodyear Revue” from 1949 to 1952.

On radio he was a regular, featured voice in such series as “The Prudential Family Hour” and “The Coca-Cola Hour.”

The son of a Methodist minister who introduced him to another minister’s son, John Charles Thomas, Wrightson was invited to New York City to study with the younger Thomas.

Wrightson remembered those early years fondly in a 1962 interview. He said Thomas “was the (John) Barrymore of singers (who) could get out of bed half stoned from the night before and start singing.”

Through Thomas he met future Metropolitan star Robert Weede, who was singing at Radio City Music Hall. Wrightson became a page boy with Dave Garroway, Gordon MacRae, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. “and a building guide we didn’t even speak to.” That was Gregory Peck.

After studying at length with Weede, another baritone, he followed his mentor into the Music Hall and by 1945 he was starring in the musical production “Firebrand of Florence” on Broadway. The play, written by Kurt Weill, featured Lotte Lenya.

He toured with some classics from the memorable years of the American musical theater and for the next two decades was seen around the country in “Can Can,” “Camelot,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Man of La Mancha,” “Paint Your Wagon” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” among many other shows.

He also sang with various symphony orchestras, including concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena.

He and Hunt once estimated there were many years in which they traveled more than 100,000 miles.

His last major singing role was in “The Sound of Music” with Hunt in a 97-city, six-month tour in 1980. He was Baron von Trapp and she was the countess Elsa Schraeder.