Tom Solari

When Tom Solari was 10, his family moved from Boston to Los Angeles, where he and 3-year-old brother Jay-Jay were introduced to the world of entertainment. The brothers were soon performing as a song & dance duo and Jay-Jay, a phenomenal young tap dancer by age 8, landed a regular spot on Disney's hit television show, "The Mickey Mouse Club." As Mouseketeer Jay-Jay's official guardian on the Disney lot, Tom enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at day-to-day network TV production. Later, Tom resettled in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he co-founded the Old Town Studio, the region's first avant-garde theater, and Solari was hailed as the originator of a whole new style of theater with his "Happenings." According to a review in the Albuquerque Journal: "(A 'Happening' is) an ever-changing presentation designed to keep the audience asking 'What will happen next?'" Two years later, Tom packed off to New York's East Village, where he worked as an assistant to Off-Off Broadway theater icon, Ellen Stewart, at her La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, a Mecca for new playwrights. The original workshop production of the hit musical "Hair" took place at La MaMa during the period when Solari was assisting there. Inspired by the La MaMa experience, Solari brought several groundbreaking plays back to New Mexico for presentation by the Old Town Studio. Included were one-acts "Chicago" by Sam Shepard and "War" by Jean-Claude Van Itallie. Once again, from the Albuquerque Journal: "Both show off the excellent directing ability of Tom Solari." One night, at the Old Town Studio, a burgundy velvet beret was tossed from the audience onto the stage as a suggestion for an improv. The owner of the beret was Clark Carr, who later was invited by Solari to become part of the troupe. Thus began the successful comedy collaboration known as Solari & Carr. The comedy duo was featured at top performance venues in New York and Los Angeles: The Bitter End, The Factory, The Now Grove, The Ice House, and The Troubadour. Within a year of teaming up, Solari & Carr were appearing as cast regulars on major network TV shows including "The Sonny & Cher Show", "The Andy Williams Show" and "The Ray Stevens Show", with stints on "The Merv Griffin Show" and "The Tonight Show". Especially memorable among Solari & Carr creations were their endearing characters, "The Baggs," sometimes referred to as the "sacks." The Baggs were featured weekly on The Ray Stevens Show on CBS. The popularity of The Baggs led to the production of a children's film featuring Solari & Carr as the Bagg character heroes. Solari's talents in producing, writing and directing achieved a new level when he and his wife--author, educator and photographer, Cam Smith Solari (d. 1991)--founded their own production company, Solari Communications, in 1974. Over nearly two decades, Tom and Cam produced more than a hundred film, slide and video presentations for all types of organizations and on four continents. Solari clients included McDonnell-Douglas Corp., Jet Propulsion Lab, Carnation Company, Texaco, the University of Southern California, Walt Disney Education, Transamerica Corp., Edelbrock and Quaker State Oil, to name a few. A highlight of Solari's international work was the production of an audio/visual welcoming presentation for the United Nations Round-Table Conference at UNESCO House in Paris. Other work took them to Hawaii, the equatorial jungles of South America, and locations in the far east, including Hong Kong, Xian and Beijing, China. In 1983 Solari conceived, produced and directed the televised documentary film "The Measure of America," winner of the Honor Certificate for Excellence from The Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge and, out of hundreds of entries, a selection as one of six Finalists at the American Film Festival. (After the events of 9/11, this moving patriotic film was re-released in November of 2001 under the new title, "America!"" In 1992 comedy veteran Tom Solari and fellow writer, Richard Stewart, started a sketch comedy group called "LaughWorks," with Tom producing and directing a stellar cast of writers and performers, including Clark Carr of Solari & Carr fame. Based in Hollywood, "LaughWorks" created ten original, full-length shows over a ten year period while also enjoying successful runs at L.A.'s popular comedy clubs including The Theatre at the Improv, The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory and The Ice House. In 2002 Tom Solari and Jan Houston-Solari partnered to form Solari Creative Services and they continue to produce entertainment, documentary and marketing videos. Also during this period, Solari wrote five spec screenplays. In 2011, Solari was hired to write a sixth screenplay. In 2016 that film, "In Search of Liberty," went into production with Solari as Co-Producer and then Post-Production Supervisor. "In Search of Liberty" was completed and released in August of 2017. It is in distribution and is being very well received by audiences across the country.