Biography
Born in Porterville, California in 1928, A. John Graves was writing songs and playing piano for school and vaudeville type shows at the age of eight, with his first professional engagement coming six years later. Through the World War II years, his high school dance band had a corner on most of the dances in Tulare County, since all the other musicians had been drafted. His other early professional musical experiences were with former big band jazz players who were too old for the service. (This is where he learned many of the some three thousand songs now included in his request book, The Memory Flogger).
Upon graduating from The College of the Pacific, he went to Los Angeles to try starting a career in broadcasting. When his money ran out, he went on the road with a small comedy band, replacing Stan Freberg. Besides playing for dancing, they did three floor shows a night, and Graves was featured as a dead-pan comedian. After a tour with Rick Fay's Krazy Kats, he settled in Los Angeles and started a family while earning a living playing in piano bars.
Since his efforts to break into broadcasting had been unsuccessful, he finally decided to start at the very bottom, and became a page at NBC. Six months later he was selecting recorded background music for Matinee Theater daily dramas, followed by an eight year stint as an NBC Broadcast Standards Program Policy Editor (so-called censor). This led to the position which had become his goal: Manager of Film Programs, where he supervised for NBC such shows as Bonanza, I Dream of Jeannie, Ironside, The Man from Uncle, Then Came Bronson, The Debbie Reynolds Show, The Monkees, and a series shot in London with Lord Lew Grade called The Strange Report.
In 1970 the management changed at MGM-TV and Graves moved over to become Director of Current Programming. He was the executive in charge of the award-winning Medical Center, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, GE Monogram Documentaries, and several syndicated talk shows. Since executive regimes at this level tend to change about every two years, 1972 gave him the opportunity to become a producer. He helmed Assignment Vienna, with Robert Conrad, an eight hour miniseries filmed on location in Vienna, Austria for MGM-TV and the ABC Television Network.
The newly formed South Australian Film Corporation was looking for someone with network, major studio, and international experience to head up their feature film and television area in1974, and Graves accepted the challenge. Under his guidance, the Corporation made its first major feature success: Peter Weir's critically acclaimed Picnic at Hanging Rock, of which Graves was Executive Producer. During his two year contract, he was also responsible for the BBC's feature Storm Boy, the re-editing of Sunday Too Far Away, and a TV feature movie, The Sound of Love.
Back in the U.S., there followed a series of development deals with Universal, Zev Braun Productions, and EMI. In 1981 Graves became a partner in L.A. House Productions and made a pilot for a syndicated sports show and produced corporate and institutional projects. At the same time, he enrolled in a graduate program at California State University at Northridge with the goal of teaching upon getting his master's degree in Mass Communication. After ten gratifying years as an associate professor in the Communication Department at Central Missouri State University, plus an exchange professorship in Wales, he retired to Pagosa Springs, Colorado as Professor Emeritus. He's very active in the local show business scene, as writer, performer, producer, and consultant.
Throughout this varied career, he has always played several nights a week as a single pianist, side man, or band leader at private parties, including affairs for Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, Danny Thomas, and John Wayne. He has recorded, been a staff pianist at KLAC-TV and on the first Betty White show, was musical director for the Gloria Hart Show on KLAC-TV, and has accompanied such artists as George Burns, June Christy, Rosemary Clooney, Rudy Vallee, Redd Foxx, Arthur Duncan, and Jimmy Durante.
Of the myriad of famous people Graves has met and/or worked with, he recalls associations with three that particularly stand out in his memory: a morning with Lord Bertrand Russell at his home in Wales, an afternoon tea with Katharine Hepburn at her home in Beverly Hills, and the delight of having Eric Sevareid as a house guest for three days in Warrensburg, Missouri.
After almost fifty years of evaluating other people's writing, he's now doing his own, as well as teaching a correspondence course in Creative Writing for Radio, Television, and Film for Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado. He also enjoys playing with different jazz groups, and at clubs and private parties for people who love the music of jazz, standards, and showtunes.
"Boom, Bust, and Battle" was a radio series he originated to explore the music and culture of the 20s, 30, and 40s. It became the basis for a musical variety show he produced with John Porter featuring a Dixieland band, singers, dancers, and comedians celebrating those three decades. This year (04) he created an original musical revue based on the life work of Richard Rodgers called "The Hills Are Alive...," which featured a cast of nearly fifty singers, dancers, and instrumentalists celebrating Rodgers' collaborations with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II.
