Red Norvo
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Norvo in The Screaming Mimi (1958)
Norvo was born Kenneth Norville in Beardstown, Illinois. The story goes that he sold his pet pony to help pay for his first marimba. His career started in Chicago with a band called "the Collegians" in 1925. He also played with an all-marimba band on the vaudeville circuit
Norvo helped introduce the xylophone and later the vibraphone as legitimate jazz instruments.
He played with the bands of Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman. He played himself in the film "Screaming Mimi" (1958).
For his entire career, he recorded and toured until a stroke in the mid-1980s forced him into retirement. He died at a convalescent home in Santa Monica, California at the age of 91.