Al ‘Jazzbeaux’ Collins; New York, Bay Area Disc Jockey

Al “Jazzbeaux” Collins, San Francisco disc jockey who narrated Steve Allen’s “Be Bop’s Fables.” A native of Rochester, N.Y., Collins started spinning records when he was a student at the University of Miami on a swimming scholarship. He dropped out of college to work in radio, landing first at a bluegrass station in Logan, W. Va., and then settling into jazz in New York. Working at WNEW there, he created his trademark Purple Grotto fantasy underground that served as a backdrop for the jazz classics he played on the air. He spent many years broadcasting from the San Francisco Bay Area, most recently on KCSM in San Mateo. Collins gained national fame in the 1950s and 1970s, when Allen recorded his jazzy versions of Aesop’s Fables. With Allen playing piano, Collins also narrated such stories as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Cinderella.” On Tuesday in Mill Valley, Calif., of prostate cancer.