Zeke Manners

Zeke Manners (October 10, 1911, San Francisco - October 14, 2000, Los Angeles) was an American country musician.

Manners was born in San Francisco but raised in Los Angeles, where he attended Fairfax High School and learned to play violin, piano, and banjo. He played in a traveling revue for a time before joining several Western swing groups. In the 1930s he came to lead a group called The Beverly Hillbillies, who were a popular radio attraction before the TV show of the same name became a smash success. Manners's show, featuring himself on accordion and organ, mixed comedy with Western Swing and was broadcast on Los Angeles's KPMC as well as in New York City.

The ensemble played for several years together before breaking up, after which Manners put together the group Zeke & the City Fellers. This band played on New York radio and did a tour of Europe shortly before the outbreak of World War II. In the 1940s he hosted his own One Man Variety Show, a comedy/musical routine, and in the 1950s he hosted music programs on Los Angeles's KFWB and New York's WINS.

Later in his career Manners did some standup comedy and ran his own mail order business. He did cameo roles in the films "Real Life" and "Lost in America", both of which starred his nephew Albert Brooks; he also appeared in the 1987 film "Barfly".

Manners was the author of over 100 songs, including "The Pennsylvania Polka" (best known as a hit by The Andrews Sisters), "Take My Wife Please" (a hit for Henny Youngman), and "Los Angeles" (best known in its version by Les Paul). He worked frequently with Buddy Ebsen, who went on to become Jed Clampett on the "Beverly Hillbillies" show.

References

*Greg Prato, [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sear&sql=11:knfqxq8gldae~T1 Zeke Manners] at Allmusic