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You may know RICK TRAUM but did you know...
BY MANDY HAYNES • PHOTO BY SHERRY CARTER
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You may know Rick Traum as a witty fellow with a great smile and sense of humor, but did you know he’s an Emmy Award-winning executive producer? Rick has produced numerous television specials, movies, and plays during his career, but did you know that Rick’s a musician? In high school, he played Timpani. “I had a band,” he grins.
“What was the name of your band?” I ask. He flashes that smile and says, “Rick Traum, His Drums, and His Band.” When he graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1958, the graduation was held at Carnegie Hall, and Rick played percussion.
Did you know Rick graduated from the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine? He served as a medic for six months active duty, and five years in the reserves. I ask him what that was like. He raises an eyebrow. “A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.”
Rick’s father, Juddy Traum, was a theatrical aficionado. Rick followed in his father’s footsteps and studied television, motion pictures, and business management at New York University. Rick graduated in 1967 and went to work as commercial producer for Johnny Carson at NBC.
“He was great, Johnny made jokes out of everything,” says Rick, then shares a joke that still makes me laugh. “That’s not one I can print,” I tell Rick between laughs, “but it is one I’ll tell.” He became friends with Ed McMahon, who used to send Rick cases of Budweiser for his birthday.
In 1976, Rick took a job as the head of Late Night Programming at NBC and became the Executive-In-Charge of “Saturday Night Live.” He was there when John Belushi and Bill Murray made SNL the late-night show to watch. He says that Gilda Radnor was the performer he enjoyed the most, a real sweetheart, and Al Franken’s sense of humor almost gave him an ulcer.
“I love Al, he’s great,” Rick laughs, “a very bright guy. I had a great time working with SNL and made lots of friends. That was cool.” I asked Rick who was the easiest to work with on the set. “I guess I’d have to say Gilda. She was terrific.”
Listening to some of the stories from Rick’s time in television, I realized he was the go-to guy for the cast even outside of the studio. When one of the cast members, Don Novello, perhaps best known for the character of Fr. Guido Sarducci, was in the hospital for a short stay, there was no television in the room. He wanted one, but he was told he couldn’t have one. “Where’s Rick Traum?” he asked. Rick was found, and a television was delivered.
Rick went from NBC to PBS, where he worked as an Executive Producer. While working there, Rick won an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program for an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Displaced Person.” Rick was also Senior Vice President of Finance & Production for Radio City Music Hall Entertainment & Radio City Music Hall Productions, as well as Chief Financial Officer for Radio City Music Hall
“How did you end up in Florida?” I ask naively, thinking he moved to Florida to retire. Boy, was I wrong. “I got tired of taking my four-year-old daughter across the dirty, sooty slush. The studios were supposedly moving to Orlando to create Hollywood East, so we moved South. But that never happened, so I went to work for Walt Disney World.”
As a consultant to Walt Disney World Entertainment, Rick served as the Park Producer for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where he produced the opening ceremonies and the dedication of Asia.
Rick is still active in the business. In 2019, he co-produced a concert by Melba Moore, and he also coproduced “Danny Kean and Valerie Ghent: In Concert,” the second in the 2019 Concert Series held at the iconic Woodstock Playhouse in New York.
After all his incredible success as a producer, Rick has a little advice for me at the end of our interview. “The awards and recognition aren’t important; the money—it comes and it goes,” he says. “It’s meeting people and making new friends that’s important.”
