Tony Sandler

Tony Sandler was born on August 18, 1933 in Lauwe, Flanders, Belgium as Lucien Santelé.

In 1952 the inevitable happened. Tony was drafted to serve in the Belgian Air Force. On June 25, 1950 The Soviet-backed North Korean army had crossed the 38th parallel to invade The Republic of South Korea in direct opposition to a post-World War II agreement. Belgium joined with an international coalition of United Nations forces to suppress the action in a bloody and extended conflict known as the Korean War. In a twist of fortune, Tony was stationed at Eben-Emael where his multi-lingual skills proved invaluable to the Allied effort, not only as a radar specialist but also in another and unexpected way. His reputation for singing got around, and soon he was asked to perform for the troops to boost morale. So throughout his commission he worked his radar shifts by day and spent his nights on the stage entertaining.

In 1954, he recorded his first hit "Song of the Sea" while serving with the Belgian Air Force during the Korean War.

He and Young met in 1963 when they were both sent to Milan, Italy, to rehearse for a musical revue to be presented at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. The show ran for a year and then Sandler joined Young in New York, where they began performing together in the Catskills.

Tony Sandler and Ralph Young stayed for two seasons committed to the Casino de Paris show. In 1965 Tony Sandler and Ralph Young decided to start a solo act and perform together as a singing team and that was the beginning of a very successful story of Sandler and Young.

The duo was originally discovered by comedian Phil Silvers while headlining their act at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. He and Young later headlined their own summer replacement TV show from London in 1969 entitled "Kraft Music Hall Presents Sandler & Young".

Young semi-retired in the 1980s and later retired in the early 1990s. He died following a brief illness in Palm Springs in 2008. Sandler continued to perform and at age 75 (2008) is still very much in the business.

In 1985, for the TV network PBS he hosted two 30 minutes shows filmed on location in Flanders: Portrait of Europe: Flanders and For The Night of Christmas from Bruges.

In the Fall of 1998 Tony was busy preparing a symphonic Christmas show as well as another annual New Year's Eve symphonic show when he was invited to New York to read a script for a proposed Broadway musical play about Maurice Chevalier. To give his reading more authenticity, Tony began to research Chevalier with his assistant Marna Petersen, and together they began to see a different Chevalier than the one portrayed in the script. In January Tony traveled to New York, read, sang, and took all the accolades. The Tony/Maurice fit was obvious. The producers kept Tony in the mix and looked for a new script.

In 2005 Sandler produced a 3 CD Album called 'Mijn Moederspraak, An Anthology of Flemish Art and Folk Songs' . This is an artistic selection of 36 classical Flemish Folksongs, arranged in recital style by pianist Gregory Theisen. With this Anthology Sandler wanted to leave a legacy in his native Flemish language. Songs are amongst others 'k En Hore U nog Niet O Nachtegaal, O Kempenland, Lentelust, Ik Zag Cecilia Komen, Het Loze Vissertje Gequetst Ben Ick Van Binnen, Mijn Vlaanderen heb ik Hartelijk Lief, 't Zijn Weiden als Wiegende Zeeën, Daar Zat een Sneeuwwit Vogeltje,... In 2007 Tony Sandler got the occasion to offer this CD personally to HM King Albert II of Belgium in New York.

Belgians are delighted with Tony's recent release of his Anthology of Flemish Art and Folk Songs (Een Bloemlezing: Vlaamse Kunst & Volksliederen), a three-disc album he recorded to preserve for all time the beauty of the Flemish language and song. In 2007 Tony personally presented this album to HM Albert II, King of the Belgians. The Belgian consulate in New York is working with Tony and Belgian organizations throughout the U.S. to promote the distribution of this collection to libraries throughout the world. This collection is now part of the Library of Congress in Washington.

Quite suddenly in 1983 Ralph Young announced he was retiring, thus breaking up the Sandler & Young act. Perhaps the thrill or glamour of entertaining had lost its allure, but more likely the unbelievably demanding pace became too much of a price to pay. Fifteen years older than Tony, Ralph was ready to sit back and smell the roses. Ralph moved to Palm Springs where he lived to be 90 (Ralph Young died on August 22nd, 2008).

In 2012, now 50 years in the US, Balladin Productions released a series of remastered CD's called 'Ton Sandler Legacy Series. The first three albums are Hits van de jaren 50 - Flemish Hits 1950's, Deutsche Schlagerparade - Parade of German Hits 1954-1963 en Symphony of Love.