Nick Vanoff, Emmy Award winning producer of The Julie Andrews Hour (winner of seven Emmys) has accumulated years of experience as an actor, dancer and choreographer before he turned to producing and directing some years ago.
Vanoff was born in Greece on October 25th, 1929. His father moved the family to Buffalo, N.Y. in 1931. At the age of ten he started entertaining the customers in his father's restaurant by playing the accordion. After graduating from Hutchinson High School in 1946, he received a scholarship at the McCune School of Music and Art in Salt Lake City, where he became a student of music and dance.
His professional career began in 1947 with the Charles Weidman Dance Theater, where he met his wife Felisa. They became soloists with the New York City Center Opera Company. He began performing on various television variety shows in 1948. In 1950 he performed on Broadway in Kiss Me Kate.
Vanoff was performing on Max Liebman's Show of Shows when he decided he wanted to try directing and producing. He got this opportunity when he was made associate producer to William O. Harbach for the Steve Allen Tonight show. Later Vanoff became producer of the Perry Como Kraft Music Hall. In 1963 he re-teamed with Harbach for various producing ventures including The King Family Show, The Milton Berle Show and Hollywood Palace.
In 1969 Vanoff and Harbach joined with Frank Peppiatt and John Aylesworth to package Hee Haw and Happy Days forming Yongestreet Productions, which also produced specials starring Bing Crosby, Don Adams, Don Rickles, Don Knotts, Herb Alpert, and John Wayne. The John Wayne Swing Out Sweet Land was a particularly enjoyable experience because Vanoff had tried for eleven years to sell this concept. Finally, in 1970 he sold it without the aid of an agent for one of the highest package prices ever for a television special, an extraordinary accomplishment in the television industry.
Vanoff is unique in television because his experience ranges from performing to choreography, directing, producing, selling, distributing, packaging,and media analysis.
In 1971, Vanoff put together a one-hour network to carry the prime time access version of Hee Haw. This was the first syndicated series to use telephone lines to electronically distribute a non-network series. The show has become a top rated series and in 1974 began its fourth year in the “access time periods.”
Also in 1974, he rejoined Perry Como to produce and direct his television specials.
For feature films, at this writing Vanoff is developing “White Dog” by Romaine Gary and “The Horse Is Dead” by Robert Klane.
The Vanoffs and their two young sons, Nicky and Flavio, reside in Beverly Hills
