By the age of 16, Hirt was playing professionally, often with his friend
Pete Fountain, while attending
Jesuit High School. During this time, he was hired to play at the local horse racing track, beginning a six-decade connection to the sport. In 1940, Hirt went to
Cincinnati, Ohio, to study at the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with Dr. Frank Simon (a former soloist with the
John Philip Sousa Orchestra). After a stint as a
bugler in the
United States Army during
World War II, Hirt performed with various
swing big bands, including those of
Tommy Dorsey,
Jimmy Dorsey,
Benny Goodman, and
Ina Ray Hutton. In 1950, Hirt became first trumpet and featured soloist with
Horace Heidt's Orchestra. After spending several years on the road with Heidt, Hirt returned to New Orleans working with various
Dixieland groups and leading his own bands. Despite Hirt's statement years later "I'm not a
jazz trumpeter and never was a jazz trumpeter", he made a few recordings where he demonstrated his ability to play in that style, during the 1950s with bandleader
Monk Hazel, and a few other recordings on the local
Southland Records label. Hirt's virtuoso dexterity and fine tone on his instrument soon attracted the attention of major record labels and he signed with
RCA Victor. Hirt posted twenty-two albums on the
Billboard charts in the 1950s and 1960s. The albums
Honey in the Horn and
Cotton Candy were both in the
Top 10 best sellers for 1964, the same year Hirt scored a
hit single with his
cover of
Allen Toussaint's tune "Java" (Billboard No. 4), and later won a
Grammy Award for the same recording. Both
Honey in the Horn and
Java sold over one million copies, and were awarded
gold discs. Hirt's Top 40 charted hit "Sugar Lips" in 1964 would be later used as the theme song for the NBC daytime game show
Eye Guess, hosted by
Bill Cullen and originally airing from January 1966 to September 1969. Hirt was chosen to record the frenetic theme for the 1960s TV show
The Green Hornet, by famed arranger and composer
Billy May. Based on
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's
Flight of the Bumblebee from his opera
The Tale of Tsar Saltan, it showcased Hirt's technical prowess. In 2003, the recording again gained public attention when it was featured in the film
Kill Bill. From the mid-1950s to early 1960s, Hirt and his band played nightly at Dan's Pier 600 at the corner of St. Louis and Bourbon Street. The
nightclub was owned by his business manager, Dan Levy, Sr. Hirt opened his own club, the Basin St. South, on
Bourbon Street in the
French Quarter, which existed from 1962 to 1983. He also became a minority owner in the
NFL expansion
New Orleans Saints in 1967. In 1962, in an effort to showcase him in a different musical setting, Hirt was teamed with arranger and composer Billy May and RCA Victor producer
Steve Sholes to record an album titled
Horn a Plenty that was a departure from the Dixieland material that he was generally associated with. Covering an eclectic variety of popular, standard and show tunes, it featured a big-band supplemented by timpani, French horns and harp. He also appeared opposite Troy Donahue and
Suzanne Pleshette in the 1962 motion picture,
Rome Adventure. In 1965, Hirt hosted the hour-long television variety series
Fanfare, which aired Saturday nights on CBS as the summer replacement for
Jackie Gleason and the American Scene Magazine. Hirt starred along with Marguerite Piazza, Lionel Hampton, Doc Severinsen and the
Southern University marching band at
Super Bowl IV halftime show on January 11, 1970. On February 8, 1970, while performing in a
Mardi Gras parade in
New Orleans, Hirt was injured while riding on a float. It was widely reported that he was struck in the mouth by a thrown brick or a piece of concrete and required 12 stitches to the underside of his upper lip. Factual documentation of the details of the incident is sparse, consisting primarily of claims made by Hirt after the incident although police reported that the 1970 Mardi Gras was one of the worst for trouble, with hundreds arrested for drunkenness and violence. He is referred to in the 1987 film
Good Morning, Vietnam, in a broadcast made by Lieutenant Hauk (
Bruno Kirby). Hirt died of liver failure at the age of 76, after having spent the previous year in a wheelchair due to
edema in his leg. He was survived by his wife, Beverly Essel Hirt, and eight children from a previous marriage. ==Discography==