Saturday, June 30, 2012

He's REAL And He's Groovy But He Still Freaks Me Out A Little Bit With His Googly Eyes


Before there was Liberace, there was Korla Pandit (literally). Korla Pandit had a daily afternoon music TV show in LA back in the 1950s where he played his unique percussive style of Hammond organ while mystical cloud projections passed in the background and the camera focused in on his dreamy hypnotic eyes. So dreamy & hypnotic, in fact, that wealthy women started sending him really expensive gifts, like grand pianos. Rumors began to circulate that Pandit was actually hypnotizing women thru the TV & the concern got so great that the station cancelled him and he was replaced by an up and coming pianist - Liberace. Korla slipped into obscurity, eventually playing organ at silent film revival houses in LA until Tim Burton cast him for a cameo as himself in Ed Wood.




4 comments:

M. D. Jackson said...

That`s crazy! What an amazing story! It shocks me that he is not a cultural icon today. Damn that thunder-stealin`Liberace!

M. D. Jackson said...

And to make the story even more amazing he was born as John Roland Redd in St. Louis, Missouri

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Someone like Liberace would have happened regardless. Nothing was gonna stop him. I just had no idea that someone this creepy Turban guy came with his bullshit identity is a truly beautiful thing to me.

Can you imagine what early TV viewers must have made of him? I bet they had stranger reality stars then than we do now.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

"Ed Wood" is one of my favourite movies! I don't remember a cameo by Korla Pandit -- guess it's time to watch it again!