| Birth Date: | May 31, 1927 |
| Birth Place: | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Death Place: | Studio City, Los Angeles, California |
Lloyd Eugene Thaxton[1] (May 31, 1927 – October 5, 2008) was an American writer, television producer, director, and television host widely known for his syndicated pop music television program of the 1960s, The Lloyd Thaxton Show, which began as a local Los Angeles program on KCOP in September 1961. On his musical shows, he was known for cutting out the mouths on artists' sleeve covers, and miming to the lyrics through the cut–out hole.[2]
The son of George Thaxton, a newspaperman, and Gladys, Lloyd Thaxton was born in Memphis, Tennessee.[3] He grew up in Toledo, Ohio. On graduating from high school, Thaxton enlisted in the Navy, "barely hours" before he would have been drafted.[4] [5] His face appeared at the top of the newly launched Tiger Beat magazine (then known as "Lloyd Thaxton's Tiger Beat"), for which he did a column.[6] According to IMDB, Thaxton was a co-founder of Tiger Beat.[7]
Thaxton is best remembered for "The Lloyd Thaxton Show", which originated as "Lloyd Thaxton’s Record Shop" (later "Thaxton’s Hop") in 1959,[8] and aired five days a week from 1964 to 1968.[9] His show was recalled in the lyrics of The Go-Go's song "Beatnik Beach," which appeared on the 1982 album Vacation: "We'll lipsync a go-go / Like on the Lloyd Thaxton Show, yeah ..."[10] He later hosted the game shows "Everybody’s Talking" and "Funny You Should Ask".
In 2003, he wrote with John Alston "Stuff Happens! (And Then You Fix It)". Thaxton married Jacqueline Matthews in 1953, had one daughter with her, and also raised two children from Matthews' previous marriage. They divorced in 1967, and Thaxton moved to Los Angeles. A year later, he married his second wife, Barbara. Lloyd died at his home in Studio City, Los Angeles on October 5, 2008. He died five months after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma.[11]