William O. Harbach(1919-2017)

Signed by MGM as a contract player in 1945, until MGM canceled its contract-player program in 1948. Returning to New York, having met Kay Thompson at MGM, he became her "aide de camp", managing her nightclub act with the Williams Brothers. Joined NBC-TV as a film cutter, editing commercial film ads for insertion into programming commercial breaks. He remained as an editor for three years. He was promoted to stage manager, then director. When The Tonight Show (1953) with Steve Allen was initiated, Harbach was working on the show. Allen didn't get along with his first producer and made Harbach his show producer. Kay Thompson was able to get one of her Williams Brothers, Andy Williams, signed as a permanent weekly musical performer on Allen's show.