Kevin Mummery — who assures me that's his real name — asked me this…
You're the go-to guy for questions about The Tonight Show, especially during Johnny Carson's tenure, so I thought you might be the guy to direct this inquiry to. I remember seeing a guy who was a member of the band that either Johnny or Tommy Newsom would bring out who did these weird dances…bizarre stuff, kind of like interpretive dance but without the interpretive aspect.
Usually he was brought out to fill in a gap between the monologue and the introduction of the next guest, or to fill time that would otherwise have gone by without anything more interesting to occupy that space. A few times when Bill Cosby guest hosted he had the guy come out from behind the bandstand and perform, and if anything he was even weirder then…I guess Cosby had the gift of bringing out the best in other people, or at least he did before we all found out what he spent his free time doing.
But I digress. Do you recall seeing this guy? Or have any idea or insight as to why Carson even had the guy perform this way apart from his normal duties as a band member?
The guy you're asking about was Ernie Tack, who played bass trombone on The Tonight Show for a very long time. Before that, he was in Ray Conniff's band and was heard on an awful lot of records, some of which are itemized here.
Along with his trombone skills, Tack did this weird dance that greatly amused Johnny and everyone on the crew, and they'd often have him do it to amuse the audience during commercial breaks. Every so often — usually when they were playing "Stump the Band" — he'd do it on the show. He does it near the end of this rousing game of "Stump the Band"…
