Dixieland clarinetist rose to fame on Lawrence Welk show
NEW ORLEANS — Clarinetist Pete Fountain, whose Dixieland jazz virtuosity and irrepressible wit endeared him to his native New Orleans and earned him decades of television fame, died Saturday of heart failure. He was 86.
Benny Harrell, Fountain’s son-in-law and manager, said Fountain was in hospice care in New Orleans when he died early Saturday.
With his ready wit and infectious laugh, Fountain was the epitome of the happy New Orleanian who knew how to “let the good times roll.” He was well known to TV fans through his appearances on the Lawrence Welk and Johnny Carson shows.
In New Orleans, he had a club on Bourbon Street for many years. In a city dedicated to tradition, his annual trek through the French Quarter with his “Half-Fast Walking Club” was a raucous ritual.
Fountain often split time between New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf coast. But after hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, he settled in Hammond, Louisiana.
Fountain started playing professionally in his teens. He once called the street of bawdy strip clubs, music joints and bars his “conservatory.” In his early years he toured the U.S. with the Dukes of Dixieland and the late trumpeter Al Hirt. Real fame came in 1957 when he joined The Lawrence Welk Show as a headliner.
His recording of Closer Walk sold more than a half million copies in 1959. He called his autobiography A Closer Walk. Funeral arrangements were pending.