King of the Oldies: Art Laboe Passes

In the 1950s, teenage life in Long Beach meant spending your dimes and quarters at the NuPike, attending dances at the Poly Hutch or Bruin Den, picking up 45s at Moreys or Humphrey’s downtown and Wallich’s Music City in Lakewood to spin them on your in-dashboard player while cruising Hody’s Drive-In on PCH and Anaheim. Couldn’t score a player? Turn up AM radio for you rockin’ fix thanks to Johnny Otis on KFOX, Huggy Boy on KWKW, Hunter Hancock on KPOP and KGFJ or Art Laboe on KPOP.

Otis, Huggy and Hunter left us years ago, but Laboe has kept spinning oldies almost until the moment of his passing on October 7, 2022 at the advanced age of 97, outliving the Queen of England who only made it to 96 one month previous. Laboe was L.A.’s King of the Oldies.

Born Art Engoian on Aug. 7, 1925 in Salt Lake City, Laboe arrived in California at 13 and began messing with radio and never left, radio or California. Out of the Navy, in 1943, Laboe went on-the-air at KSAN in San Francisco, where he acquired his Laboe identity, borrowing the name from a station receptionist. After a gig interviewing celebrities for L.A.’s KFWB, in 1955, Laboe took to playing rock and roll, taking requests and dedications from customers at Scrivner’s Drive-In in Hollywood on KPOP.

Laboe recalled handing out lists of current hits for dedications, adding a couple of “oldies” titles like “Earth Angel” or “Nite Owl” at the bottom. It didn’t take long for the oldies list to dominate his handout, which advanced his interest in older titles.

Sylvia Propes recalls as a teen in 1956, she, her sister and a friend visited Scrivner’s. A 30-foot cardboard Elvis dominated the parking lot. Laboe told them if they wanted to see Elvis, they should stake out the Hotel Knickerbocker, which they did, running after his white Caddy as he left the hotel with Colonel Parker.

In 1958, Laboe began a label dubbed Original Sound. He recalled romancing a new girlfriend by playing love songs on 45 rpm, but he found it frustrating to change these records, which interfered with necking. Motivated by this problem to put out a compilation disc of hits, slow songs on one side, rocking songs on the flip, Laboe approached major labels who wouldn’t give him the time of day. He then asked Dootsie Williams, the black owner of L.A.’s Dootone Records if he’d license his major hit, “Earth Angel” by the Penguins for his oldies album. Recalling how Laboe helped him with radio play back in the day, Dootsie agreed to license that song and one other title, “Heaven And Paradise” by Don Julian.

The first “Oldies But Goodies” album came out in September 1959 and was an immediate hit. In total, there were 15 volumes of “Oldies But Goodies,” the title so popular, Laboe trademarked it, setting the trend with other labels issuing variations like “Golden Oldies” and “Golden Goodies.”

In the late 1950s, Laboe took over booking shows at El Monte Legion Stadium, bringing in many of the stars he featured on his “Oldies But Goodies” albums. Potential acts for these shows knew to listen to his Saturday afternoon KPOP radio program to find out if they were booked, as Laboe announced the line-up for the first time, meaning acts like Don & Dewey or the Olympics were expected to show up and perform that night.

KPOP changed formats and call letters to KGBS in 1961. For the next decade, Laboe broadcast on KDAY, KPPC, border station XPRS, KRTH, KFI and KRLA. While program director of KRLA in 1972, Laboe renamed Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip into the Oldies But Goodies Club, giving needed work to many acts like Don Julian, Tony Allen and Ron Holden, all of whom he had booked to sold-out shows at El Monte Legion Stadium in the 1950s.

After his Hot 92.3 show ended in 2015, spurring hundreds of protests mainly from his huge Latino fan base, Laboe switched to KDAY, Call-in dedications never stopped, many were sent to prisoners listening from the cells or day rooms in Chino, Terminal Island and other local lock-ups. “When Will I See You Again” or “I Want You Back” tell the story. Asked about these dedications, Laboe said it’s all about the numbers. “For every one in prison, there are about 20 people interested in him or her,” meaning a potential audience of about two million listeners.

More recently, Laboe sold the Original Sound building in West Hollywood and shut down album production. Maybe that’s because in the past decade or so, 50s and 60s rock and roll has vanished from L.A. radio, KRTH being the main source, airing Boy George and Duran Duran instead of Coasters and Little Richard records. Until his passing, “the Art Laboe Connection Show” was the only source for real oldies of the 1950s to the 1970s on local commercial radio, which he continued to present until the end.