Early television entertainer and 50s icon Korla Pandit died October 1, 1998.

Mr. Pandit appeared on KGO-TV in 1957, and many older San Franciscans recall how the camera slowly moved in for a closeup of his jeweled turban. He played what is now defined as "lounge music." Many songs ended with a full-screen shot of his seductive eyebrows and the diamond- and topaz-like jewels.

In an amazing conjunction of musical styles, Korla Pandit played organ with Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers, for the record "Stampede," waxed by RCA Victor, December 1, 1949, in Los Angeles, and released as Victor 21-0154. In 1993, Mr. Pandit recorded with the Los Angeles punk-rock group The Muffs. He also appeared in the 1994 motion picture "Ed Wood," directed by Tim Burton.

A sampling of Korla Pandit's musical artistry can be heard in RealAudio from CDNow.com online music store.

Korla Pandit's early career is not clearly understood. His obituary, provided to the newspapers by his family living in Santa Rosa, indicates that he was a native of New Delhi, and his father was a member of the ruling Brahman class which allowed him private musical tutoring in London and the United States.

The obituary said he began his career in Chicago radio, and then moved to Hollywood. He was on several early television broadcasts on KTLA, including his sensational "Adventures in Music," which established his West Coast stardom.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Beryl, and two sons, all of Santa Rosa.

Mr. Pandit recorded 14 albums for Fantasy Records in the 1950s, and recorded his last album in the late 1990s, shortly before his death.

Roy Trumbull is a West Coast broadcasting veteran who began in radio in the 1950s, and is currently the assistant chief engineer at KRON-TV, San Francisco. Trumbull and Larry Broomfield present a somewhat different version of the early days of Korla Pandit.

By Larry Bloomfield and Roy Trumbull

Born John Red in Arizona and having recorded under the name of Juan Rolando, he was better known as Korla Pandit, the bejeweled turbaned organist who graced the airwaves with his unique musical style. Dating back to the early days of Los Angeles television, Klaus Landsburg, television engineering pioneer and founder of KTLA, needed a filler between some of his programming.

In 1947, television didn't sign on until the late afternoons and was off by midnight, in those days and nearly everything was live. At a chance meeting on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, Landsburg asked Pandit if he'd be interested in performing on the new media, but Landsburg wanted him to come up with a gimmick. Pandit showed the next day up with a turban from the Paramount wardrobe department and the rest is history.

He never spoke; he just played his Hammond B-2, logging more hours on live television than most other performers achieve in a lifetime. Remember the early "Time for Bennie Show," when it was hand puppets? Pandit was the music. As television grew, the tastes of the viewers changed and so did the performers. Pandit moved to the Bay area and also lived for a time in British Columbia.

As Roy Trumbull recounts: "Korla Pandit was one of the TV originals. With his jeweled turban and his haunting good looks, he made many hearts throb. In my DJ days I interviewed him. Off the record, he told me that a certain record company's royalty statements weren't to be believed. He personally had sold more of each recording that his statement indicated. One day a moving truck came to his house with a grand piano. It was a gift from a woman who'd been on the verge of committing suicide, but his eyes had told her not to do it. Those were the days."

Pandit became well known for his performances at many of the American Theater Oregon Society meetings and similar occasions. Those who really knew him would always form a big smile when the announcer told the audience that Mr. Pandit would now play his theme song from his native land, "The Song of India."