Courtesy: Spontaneous Lunacy
Born in Wichita, Kansas on April 5, 1922, James Horace Streeter got his start as a sax player in Lloyd Hunter’s territory band.
Courtesy: LAist
Bandleader Johnny Otis took Streeter to Los Angeles in 1944 to join Harlen Leonard’s band. Otis quickly took over Leonard’s gig as leader of the house band for Club Alabam and Streeter became a key component in Otis’s group.
Courtesy LAist
Courtesy LAist
By now he’d altered his name to James Von Streeter, in tribute to silent film director Erich Von Stroheim, who would go on to play Max Von Mayerling in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard.
Courtesy: United Artist
In 1949’s movie D.O.A., Von Streeter and his side group, The Wig-Poppers, became the first rock musicians ever to appear on screen. Although the music was dubbed by Maxwell Davis, it marked a milestone as the first instance of rock music on a soundtrack.
Courtesy: Unknown
Otis moved from drums to vibes. Leaving Streeter with fewer opportunities to shine. Von (as he now goes by) had some memorable turns in the spotlight in the early 1950’s. His influence on the music world extended far beyond his performances on stage and screen. As a pioneer of the saxophone in the early days of rock and roll, Streeter helped shape the sound of an entire era, infusing it with his distinctive style and energy.
Courtesy: Spontaneous Lunacy
In the late 1950s Von Streeter’s growing heroin habit ended his time with Otis’ band. According to spontaneouslunacy, “Just a decade after being a rising star with a major film credit and a featured role in one of the most popular groups in all of rock, James Von Streeter disappeared from the music scene he’d helped to define. He died in 1984 in Detroit, he was 62 years old.”
Streeter’s body was returned to Wichita for burial. He is interred at Maple Grove Cemetery. His small gravestone records his name as James H. “Vaughn” Streeter.
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