Bandleader Faced the Music and Realized Father Knew Best

Horace Heidt Jr. is a man whose life has been hereditarily challenged.

Heidt has spent a lifetime leading orchestras, just as his dad advised him to do.

He once harbored political ambitions, but when he went to his father for advice, he was told to stick to the family business.

A pianist, Heidt first appeared with his dad’s orchestra when he was 3. He admits he liked being the center of attention.

After graduating from Stanford University in 1969 with a degree in political science and picking up a law degree from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, Heidt was ready to become a political animal.

That didn’t happen, and, after a career of conducting, he concedes that father knew best.

The elder Heidt, who died several years ago, had been famous during the Big Band era, not just for his music, but the way he delivered it.

“Dad was a born showman,” Heidt said. “He loved the idea of performing, so he would do crazy things with the band, like making them all wear tutus or all play the same instrument.”

Band-leading was not what Horace Heidt Sr. had planned to do with his life, either. He’d wanted to be a professional football player, the younger Heidt said.

“Dad was born in Northern California and went to Berkeley, where he was a football player with the University of California wonder team of the early ‘20s,” said Heidt, adding that his father suffered a serious football injury that ended the dream.

From then on, it was music and one entertainment industry innovation after another.

“Dad put his band on stage and made it the center of attention. That was something no one had done before,” Horace Jr. said. “He also featured comic singing groups in the early ‘30s. Actor Art Carney was one of the Don Juans.”

His father also toured with entertainers such as the King Sisters, Gordon MacRae and Alvino Rey. The elder Heidt also launched several pioneer radio shows, such as the game show “The Pot of Gold” and “The Original Youth Opportunity Program,” an early talent show.

His dad also built an apartment complex near the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Hazelton Avenue in North Hollywood meant to house members of his band and their families. But, by the time it was finished in the mid-’50s, most of the band members had done well enough to have their own homes.

The complex, known as the Horace Heidt Magnolia Estates, did attract people in show business, such as “Perry Mason’s” Barbara Hale, singer Helen Forrest, Ed Begley Sr. and Jr., and Dick and Patti van Patten, who raised their three sons there.

Heidt blossomed in show business. By the early 1970s, he and the Horace Heidt Junior Orchestra were playing at the L’Escoffier Room in the Beverly Hilton and the Century Plaza Hotel.

Heidt, whose group will perform Sunday at the Concerts in the Park program in Warner Center, has also performed at Disneyland and Disney World.

The closest he ever got to politics was an unsuccessful run at state office in 1992.

But he’s never stopped making music. At 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Warner Center bandstand, the beat will go on.

Take This Job and Look Above It, Look Beyond It

This is a test for those who have been, are or soon will be job-hunting.

It doesn’t matter if you were laid off, became obsolete or just got bored and booted, it’s all the same thing.

This is not a timed test.

There are no wrong answers.

The results will not be given to the person who was, is or might be your boss.

The only question is: How did you used to feel when “Take This Job and Shove It” played on your car radio?

If you pulled over to the side of the road so you could whistle, cheer and boogie, maybe the words and thoughts of Jocelyn Lighthill will have meaning for you.

Lighthill holds a master’s degree in career counseling and works at the Valley Women’s Center in Tarzana.

She believes that losing a dead-end, catatonia-inducing, asphyxiating job is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen.

“Don’t make it sound as if I don’t understand how frightened most people become without a paycheck,” she said. “What I am saying is that this can be a time for people to re-evaluate what they do professionally and bring that more in line with personal interests.”

She advises people not to wait until the ax falls. “It is always better to plan ahead so that you can be in control of the job situation, not be at the mercy of it,” she said.

In the current economy, everyone needs an updated resume and job options, she said.

“Most of us assume our jobs will always be there if we do them well, and that is not the case anymore,” she said.

Lighthill is not just a theorist. She practices what she preaches.

“I’ve had jobs I have loved, and jobs I haven’t. I have a tendency to switch directions every two years or so,” she said.

“We all have to do, our own deciding about how we want to work, and what we want to work at. Some people are happy at safe, long-term jobs. For other people that is suffocating. We’re all different in that respect and can have different ideas about that at different times in life,” Lighthill said.

The best advice for anyone out of work: Try to find a job that makes you happy as well as providing a paycheck.

“The more positive your outlook on the situation, the better your prospects of doing the right thing for yourself,” she said.

Overheard:

“It’s interesting to me that my grandson is in Mexico this summer perfecting his Spanish as a second language. I’ve never heard him say anything in English except, ‘Can you loan me $20 till next week?’ ”

Man to companion at meat counter at Gelson’s in Encino.