Yasha Bunchuk

Mr. Bunchuk was born in Russia and graduated from the University of Petrograd. He was an accomplished cellist and achieved celebrity as the Musical Director of New York's Capitol Theatre Orchestra and other orchestras. On radio he led the Capitol Grand Orchestra and later the orchestra for Major Bowes Amateur Hour (Bowes was an investor in the Capitol Theatre). Although he made very few commercial recordings, he and his Orchestra starred in a Vitaphone short in the mid 1930s. At the request of Gregory Ratoff, Bunchuk transferred his talents to the West Coast. Shortly before his death at age 48 he was working for Columbia Studios. According to "Variety," a deal was pending for him to take over the "Contented Hour" broadcasts from Chicago.