Pete Fountain’s Club, circa 1972
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Pete Fountain is a local legend- a popular clarinetist who moved onto the national stage with the Lawrence Welk show. Known for his warmth and humor as much as for his ‘fat’ style of playing, his reputation continued to build and after he returned home, leading up to his opening this club on Bourbon, only blocks from his friend Al Hirt’s club.
Pete eventually moved his club into the Hilton where it stayed until he semi-retired to Bay St. Louis, MS in 2003, with the intention of playing two nights a week in a local casino, but Hurricane Katrina washed away his home and most of memorabilia collected over the course of his career.
Despite the pain of rebuilding, a mild stroke and a heart attack, Pete is back to preforming at the Hollywood Casino now, and going strong.
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2 Comments
October 7th, 2009 at 7:42 am
I just found your site. I had the pleasure of meeting one of my music heroes, Pete Fountain, the day they unveiled his statue in Music Legends Park. He was very gracious. It’s a shame all the bad fortune he’s had, but his fans(and that includes me!!) love him more than ever. I’m writing an article about Pete that will appear shortly in my newsletter The Great Escape at the above website. I’d enjoy hearing your comments
Thanks,
bob
December 24th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Hi, good post about Pete and nice photo of his club. I’ve seen him several times at the Hollywood Casino, good show, Pete can still wail. If you would like more information on the recorded history of Pete, please visit my site. petefountain.blogspot.com