Gary Theroux

Gary Theroux is an American radio personality, author, actor, educator, producer, scriptwriter, and musicologist. He co-produced the Billboard award-winning 52-hour 1978 edition of The History of Rock and Roll rockumentary. He also spent 20 years as the Music & Entertainment Editor of Reader's Digest. Theroux's work over the years has resulted in multiple Telly, Golden Reel, N.Y. Festivals, Billboard, and Communicator Awards. Over his 1982-2002 run as the Music & Entertainment Editor of Reader’s Digest he strategized, directed teams, and helped manage RD's Home Entertainment Division, marketing in 33 countries. He created, programmed, produced, and annotated more than 300 CD/DVD releases which collectively have sold more than 39 million copies. During Theroux's tenure his division of the Reader's Digest Association grew in stature to account for no less than 60% of the RDA's entire corporate income (while the flagship magazine was generating only 25%). Theroux began in radio at age 11, quickly developing the ability to climb into the heads of target demos other than his own and custom-craft programming just for them. His extensive knowledge of music and pop cultures of all eras and genres allowed him to create definitive LP and later CD collections in a broad spectrum of styles. A founder of Reader’s Digest Video, he created many of their biggest TV triumphs, such as America In The '40s (PBS), Legends Of Comedy (Disney), and An Old-Fashioned Christmas (syndicated). He also assembled such award-winning series and specials as Remembering The ‘70s, Elvis, On A Country Road (with Lee Arnold), In Touch (with Kris Erik Stevens), The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time (with Wink Martindale), The Golden Years, The Halloween Spooktacular (with Kerin McCue), and, most famously, the 52-hour History Of Rock ‘n’ Roll (winner of Billboard’s “Top Special Program Of The Year” award). The author of many articles, liner notes, and books, Theroux is a former format designer/programmer and Director of Special Features for Drake-Chenault Enterprises. A longtime DJ, actor, narrator, commercial spokesman, scriptwriter, and UCLA instructor, Gary is also an entertainment historian, maintaining files (bios, photos, reviews, etc.) on more than a century of hit music, films, and TV programming. From 2007 to 2011 he served as managing producer-head writer for Armstrong InterActive's Emmy-winning TV programming. Theroux is one of the industry leaders on the Nominating Committee of The Hit Parade Hall of Fame. In 2014 he completed both the goodtime comedy screenplay and novelization versions of his yet-to-be-published Knight Before Christmas.