Tony Butala

Tony Butala
Butala in 2020
Born	Anthony Francis Butala (1940-11-20) November 20, 1940 Sharon, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Singer
Years active	1948–present
Known for	The Lettermen
Children	4

Anthony Francis Butala (born November 20, 1940) is an American singer. He was the lead singer of the vocal group The Lettermen since 1958, although he has been retired since 2019. Butala is the last surviving of the original three members. The Lettermen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 2020.

Early life

Butala was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, of Croatian descent, the eighth of eleven children of Mary Ann (Ference) and John George Butala.

Career

Butala began his professional singing career in 1948, when he appeared on "Starlets on Parade", a Saturday morning show on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh. He quickly became a favorite in and around his hometown of Sharon during his pre-teen years.

In 1951, Butala's mother, who was a nurse, was called to California to assist her cousin, who had been stricken with pneumonia and needed assistance with her children while she recovered. Butala's father, believing that there could be opportunities for his son on the West Coast, suggested that Tony accompany his mother to California to begin his career in entertaining.

Butala joined the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir and performed with the choir through 1954. He eventually was forced to leave the choir due to puberty. His notable works during this period included providing the singing voice for Lost Boy Slightly in the Disney animated film Peter Pan (1953).

Butala's tenure with the boys' choir ended as his voice naturally changed as he entered his teen years. However, Mitchell, retained him as assistant choir director and paid for his private education as he continued his show business career. As a teenager, Butala went to Hollywood Professional School and sang with a quartet called "The Fourmost", which included Concetta Ingolia, who would later be known as Connie Stevens. She left the group work on the show Hawaiin Eye. Though the group would later disband, for Tony, it laid the foundation of what would become known as The Lettermen.

The first unofficial incarnation of The Lettermen came in 1958, with Butala, Mike Barnett, and Talmadge Russell, who would later be replaced by Jerry Paul. That same year, Gary Clark and Jimmy Blaine followed, and that combination made its first recording, but it was not successful. Butala tried again with two new singers, Bob Engemann and Jim Pike. This lineup brought the group its first success, as The Lettermen scored their first Top 40 hit at #13 on the US charts in 1961 with "The Way You Look Tonight". This cover of a 1936 song went gold in the U.S. The Lettermen's pop music chart success ended in 1969, but they continued to record and appear live in concert since then, and continue to enjoy success.

Butala describes himself as having a "photographic memory" as he could practically sing a note or song he had just listened to for the first time.

Butala also owns Butala Vineyards, which he started from a Chatsworth, California ranch he purchased and planted grapes in, in 1969. Less than twenty years later, he purchased another ranch along the southern Vaca Mountain Range, which is the eastern border of the Napa Valley. He first began selling wine commercially in 1992 under the Castlebrooke label, and continues to produce both wine and grapes for other winemakers as well.

Bultala retired from touring in 2019, but still works on the business side of the group.

Personal life

Butala married the former Judith Ann Blaskovich (born October 9, 1946) in 1969. The marriage ended in divorce, but both remained friendly until Judith's death in a car accident on October 10, 2006, one day after her 60th birthday. Together they had four children: Anthony, Rebecca, Lisa and Regina, and five grandchildren.

External links

• Tony Butala at IMDb
• Butala Vineyards Archived November 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
• The Lettermen