Norby Walters Dies: ‘Night Of 100 Stars’ Oscar Party Impresario, Music Agent & Hollywood Poker Game Host Was 91

Erik Pedersen and Tom Tapp
·3 min read
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Norby Walters, the onetime music agent who ran the annual “Night of 100 Stars” Oscar party for years and hosted an iconic low-stakes poker party for actors, died December 12. He was 91. His son, Walters Media Group founder and former Bold Films CEO Gary Michael Walters, confirmed the news but did not provide details.

Born Norbert Meyer, in 1952 Walters started booking jazz luminaries such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz into his father’s bar.

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Walters and his brother, Walter took over a place from their father and dubbed it Norby & Walter’s Bel Air, but its sign had no ampersand — which led to the name Walters would use during his career. He later took over a failing nightclub located next to the world-famous Copacabana, dubbed it Norby Walters’s Supper Club, and attracted a who’s who of boldfaced New York City names.

“What was I going to do?” Mr. Walters asked a New York Times reporter in 2016. “Become a bank robber?”

In 1968, Walters started Norby Walters Associates (later General Talent International with partners, Jerry Ade and Sal Michaels), booking Top 40 acts into nightclubs, lounges and hotels across the country. Walters quickly realized that he could make far more with recording artists and built a huge roster of disco, funk, r&b, soul, and rap artists over the next 10 years. Notable clients included Marvin Gaye, Patti LaBelle, Rick James, The Gap Band, Kool and the Gang, the Four Tops and even briefly Michael Jackson. Walters also represented many influential hip hop pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Public Enemy, NWA, Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J. He also repped Chazz Palminteri.

In 1987, Walters retired to Los Angeles, where his life became about what he dubbed “The Three P’s”: Poker, Parties and Palm Springs.

As for the former, Walters held an annual Oscar night gala he dubbed Night of 100 Stars filled with all his friends including Shirley Jones, Robert Forster, Patricia Neal, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Landau, Lou Gossett, Jr., JK Simmons, Red Buttons, Eva Marie Saint, Jon Voight and Allison Janney, along with Old Hollywood stars like Cliff Robertson, Charles Bronson and many others.

Despite the event’s moniker, Walters told the Times that it wasn’t about the glitzy attendees.

“It’s my party, that’s all it is,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the stars, it has nothing to do with the Oscars.”

Walters also hosted a well attended, low-stakes ($2 game) weekly poker game at his West Hollywood high-rise condo.

Walters was married for 70 years to his childhood sweetheart, Irene, who passed last July at the age of 89. Walters is survived by three sons Steven, Richard (a music supervisor) and Gary Michael (a film and television producer). He was laid to rest at Hillside Memorial next to his wife.

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