Singer, TV host Al Alberts dies

AL ALBERTS, a Philadelphia-area icon who hosted a long-running kids' talent show on Channel 6 and had a successful singing career, died yesterday in Florida. He was 87.

Alberts moved to Port Charlotte, Fla., in 2001 with his wife and producer, Stella, when the "Al Alberts Showcase" finally went off the air.

The pair had been discovering and presenting talent for 30 years, helping to launch the careers of Andrea McArdle, Sister Sledge, Teddy Pendergrass and numerous others.

"We had the biggest extended family in the world, honestly," Stella Alberts said in a phone interview yesterday. "Today they still write . . . and it's just a treasure to hear from them."

While many in the Delaware Valley knew Alberts from his Saturday-morning TV show, he also had a string of hit records in the '50s and '60s as lead singer of the vocal quartet the Four Aces.

"They had a very unique harmony, with Al Alberts doing his tenor and them complementing him. It was an amazing sound," disc jockey Jerry Blavat said yesterday. "If you heard them on the radio without a disc jockey announcing it, you'd know it was the Four Aces."

Ed Hurst, a longtime friend and radio host, said: "Al was the consummate performer and businessman. He knew exactly what he was doing."

Among the group's hits were "Three Coins in a Fountain," "Stranger in Paradise," and the title song to the film "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing."

Alberts, a South Philadelphia native, served in the Navy in World War II, then attended Temple University, where he earned a degree in finance. He married Stella in 1953.

The turn in Alberts' career from headline act to talent-show host came as the British-rock invasion was changing the American music scene.

"Rock and roll was coming in, and he said, 'Honey, I feel we've got to make a change, and we've got to do it now," Stella recalled.

She said the idea for the Showcase came to him after she taught him how to lay bricks - her father knew the trade - and they spent three months on a home-renovation project.

"He finally said, 'I've had enough bricks,' " Stella said, and he had the idea for the Showcase.

Hurst said he thought Alberts did the TV show because "he was a homebody. They were raising their two boys and he didn't want to be on the road anymore."

After producing the show for two years on Channel 48, they had a chance to pitch it to Channel 6 in 1970. Stella, who produced the show, said that when station executives asked what kind of acts they'd bring on, Al turned to her for an answer.

"I said we're going to stick to our guns. We'll have little girls with frilly dresses and boys with suits and ties," Stella recalled. The suits at the station gave the Alberts a try, but didn't think the show would last 13 weeks. They were on for 30 years.

"I think we proved there were a lot of people who wanted to look at it," Stella said.

Al proved a natural with the kids, in part, Stella said, because when he was a youngster he'd appeared on a radio show called the Horn & Hardhart's Children's Hour.

Hurst said Al "was a very competent emcee, and he knew just how to handle those kids and their parents, who incidentally could be a pain in the rear."

Al continued to sing on the show, and around the house when they moved to Florida. "He never stopped," Stella said. "It was his whole life."

His last public performance was at the Port Charlotte Cultural Center in January 2005. Stella said Al had begun to get "antsy," so she found a 28-piece band to accompany him for a concert.

The show sold out, and crowd loved it.

When Al got antsy again and year later and talked with Stella about another one, she thought it over.

"I told him, 'It was such a success, why don't you just stop and smell the roses,' and he agreed," Stella said. "It was a great way for him recognize what a career he'd had."

Besides his wife, Alberts is survived by his two sons, Al Jr. and Chris.

Funeral arrangements haven't been completed.