Jonie Taps

Producer and studio executive Jonie Taps spent most of his career with Columbia Pictures. At one time he was the vice president and executive assistant to studio founder and president Harry Cohn. In Hollywood Taps is remembered for having founded the California branch of the Friars Club with actor George Jessel. A native of New York City and the son of music publisher David Taps, he studied at Syracuse University before entering the music industry and rising to become the general manager of Shapiro-Bernstein Music Publishing Company. He joined Columbia in 1945 to handle the music work for The Jolson Story. Taps retired from the studio in 1974. He spent the rest of the decade working as the California Friars Club's entertainment director producing celebrity roasts for figures ranging from Gene Kelly to Johnny Carson. Taps died of natural causes at age 89 in Santa Fe, NM.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide