Alan W. Livingston

He had an older sister, Vera, and an older brother, Jay Livingston (1915–2001), who wrote or co-wrote many popular songs for films and television, including "Buttons and Bows", "Mona Lisa", "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)", as well as the popular Christmas song "Silver Bells".

Alan Livingston began his career in the entertainment business leading his own college orchestra as a student at the University of Pennsylvania.

After graduating from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce with a B.S. in economics, he moved to New York where he worked in advertising for three years.

At the start of World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private and served as a second lieutenant in the infantry.

After his discharge, he borrowed some money, hitched a ride on an Army plane and headed for Los Angeles, California where he obtained his first position with Capitol Records, Inc. in Hollywood as a writer/producer.

Livingston's initial assignment was to create a children's record library for the four-year-old company, for which he created the "Bozo the Clown" character.

Alan Wendell Livingston (born Alan Wendell Levison; October 15, 1917 – March 13, 2009) was an American businessman best known for his tenures at Capitol Records, first as a writer/producer best known for creating Bozo the Clown for a series of record-album and illustrative read-along children's book sets.

Livingston was born to Jewish parents in the Pittsburgh suburb of McDonald, Pennsylvania on October 15, 1917.

He was the youngest of three children, whose mother encouraged reading books and playing musical instruments.

The series turned out to be a smash hit for Capitol, selling over eight million albums in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

He wrote and produced a popular series of storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book sets beginning with the October 1946 release of "Bozo at the Circus."

His record-reader concept, which enabled children to read and follow a story in pictures while listening to it, was the first of its kind.

The Bozo image was a composite design of Livingston's, derived from a variety of clown pictures and given to an artist to turn into comic-book-like illustrations.

Livingston then hired Pinto Colvig to portray Bozo on the recordings.

Colvig, a former circus clown, was also the original voice of Walt Disney's Pluto, Goofy, Grumpy, Sleepy and many other characters.

Billy May produced the music.

Successful record sales led to a variety of Bozo-related merchandise and the first television series, "Bozo's Circus," starring Pinto Colvig on KTTV-Channel 11 (CBS) in Los Angeles in 1949.

The character also became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown."

Livingston wrote and produced many other children's recordings including products for Walt Disney; Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker; Bugs Bunny and all of the Warner Bros. characters.

One of these was "Hopalong Cassidy and The Singing Bandit" in 1950, which was the first children's record set to make the Top Ten charts.

Within a few years, Livingston moved on to the adult music arena and became vice president in charge of all creative operations of the company.

He signed Frank Sinatra when Sinatra was at a low point in his career.

Livingston wanted Sinatra to work with arranger Nelson Riddle, however Sinatra was reluctant to do so out of his loyalty to Axel Stordahl with whom he had worked for most of his career.

In the case of the latter, he wrote the 1951 pop hit "I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat" for Mel Blanc's Tweety Pie.

There were also several record-readers featuring the popular cowboy character, Hopalong Cassidy.

The first Sinatra/Stordahl recordings for Capitol failed to produce the magic Livingston and producer Voyle Gilmore were looking for, and Sinatra agreed to try a session with Billy May on April 30, 1953, but instead Livingston booked Riddle, telling Sinatra that May had to unexpectedly leave town for a live performance.

The impact was immediate, producing the classic "I've Got the World on a String".

However, it was "Young at Heart" that became the defining moment in Sinatra's comeback, peaking at #2 during its 22-week run on the charts in the spring of 1954.

Livingston was credited as the creative force responsible for Capitol Records' growth from net sales of $6 million per year to sales in excess of $100 million per year.

He was also officially credited as the inspiration for the distinctive Capitol Records Tower, completed in April 1956, noted for being the first circular office building in the world.

Livingston is also responsible for what have come to be known as the "Butcher Covers."

As Vice-president in charge of Programming at NBC, in 1959 he oversaw the development and launch of the network's most successful television series, Bonanza.

When The Beatles released their 1966 album Yesterday and Today it was initially released with a surreal Robert Whitaker cover photograph depicting the group draped in slabs of meat and dismembered doll parts.

Protests from record dealers forced Capitol to immediately recall the album and re-issue it with a new cover.

The original covers, in any condition, have become highly sought after collectors items.

Shortly after the controversy erupted, Livingston took home a box containing both mono and stereo copies of the original "Butcher cover" albums, sealed and in pristine condition.

They remained in storage at the Livingston home, untouched, for the next twenty years until Livingston's son Peter revealed their existence when he brought several of the albums to sell at a Beatlefest convention in 1987.

These Butcher covers are considered the best examples of these albums and currently command a premium price upwards of $20,000.

After 10 years with Capitol, Livingston and the company sold the "Bozo the Clown" licensing rights (excluding the recordings) to Larry Harmon, one of several people hired to portray the character at promotional appearances; Livingston left the company to accept a position as President of California National Productions, Inc., the wholly owned film production subsidiary of the National Broadcasting Company.

Shortly thereafter, Livingston was also named Vice President of NBC, in charge of Television Network Programming, dealing principally with all films made for the network.