Oregon Movies, A to Z

A musical prodigy who mastered his instrument after a week of instruction from a book, Carl Hilding Severinsen chose the trumpet because it was the only instrument for sale in his tiny home town of Arlington, Oregon. He was seven years old.

Dropping out of high school to begin his musical career, “Doc” Severinsen eventually joined the Tonight Show’s NBC Orchestra in 1957 as first trumpeter. In 1967 Johnny Carson promoted him to bandleader, a position he held with panache for 25 years. He turned over the baton to Branford Marsalis in 1992.

Severinsen lives in retirement in Mexico. During his reign on NBC, this son of a dentist was arguably the most influential musician on the planet, in terms of the size of his audience.