Never in the history of the Accordion has a player skyrocketed to the top and gone so far so quickly as the 18 year old Californian, Dick Contino.  Dick, himself, is more surprised than anyone else!  In November, 1947, he was leaving his hometown, Fresno, to go to Los Angeles to look for a playing job when he heard that Horace Heidt was auditioning amateurs for his radio show.

This Fresno Broadcast was to be the first of a new weekly Series every Sunday night in which Heidt was making his return to radio.

Each week the broadcast would originate from a different city and a new group of amateurs from that locality would compete against each other and a "holdover" winner from the previous week.

Heidt thought that there would be a new winner each week since the local inhabitants would probably applaud their local talent most and the volume of their applause determined the winner.

On the very first night, Dick won -- and continued to win right across the United States!

Then, to clinch it, he won the quarter finals and stands a very good chance of winning the $5,000 finals next November.

Meanwhile, he is traveling with the Heidt troupe and getting top billing.  Theater managers report that not since the appearances of Frank Sinatra have so many bobbysoxers and teenagers crowded into the front rows of their theaters.

Dick is handsome!!  Standing six feet, with a really charming personality, it is easy to see why he is so popular with the ladies.  But how good is Dick?

He started playing about five and a half years ago at the age of twelve, studying with Angelo Cagmazzo of San Francisco.  Dick's father, a former accordionist, encouraged Dick who practiced frequently in the cold-room of his dad's butcher shop!  He displayed talent early and was soon playing at concerts and parties.  But he wanted to be an accordion artist and opportunities for that were limited in Fresno.  Then he entered the Horace Heidt competition wearing a green blouse and tight black trousers, which his father had designed as a copy of the outfit he once wore himself, Dick launched into Tolchard Evan's "Lady Of Spain".

Dick was once accused of "sterile, spectacular virtuosity".  His introduction by the announcer on the radio program was styled as "deliberate, vicious and blatant showmanship"!.  "Blood, thunder, speed, heat and noise" were considered Dick's main appeals, "and he lets loose a terrific barrage of noise and glissandos, bellow-shakes and similar stock-in-trade", one critic charged.

Promotion and ballyhoo did have much to do with lifting Dick up into the dazzling gleam of the billion candle power search-light of acclaim from the masses.  But it still doesn't take away from the fact that Dick is la really talented player.  If his talent is directed along the right paths, he too may yet enter the ranks of the accordion "greats".

Meanwhile, no one can deny that Dick has brought more publicity to the accordion than has even been obtained before.

And that means a lot more people will begin to play the accordion.  So Dick is really benefiting the whole accordion field.  To conclude, his showmanship is one hundred percent; his technique is excellent; his expression is fine.....

For the many, many sincere Accordionists who must have inspiration, an ideal, a goal to shoot at, and all the things in life that make for ambition, in thirteen short weeks, young Dick has provided all, if not more, of these ambitions.

Not since the days of Major Bowes (pioneer of radio discovery programs) has such an interest been once more directed towards the Accordion.  For this alone we--the past, present and future accordionists owe a great debt to Dick.  A young, modest, unassuming, ambitious and sincere boy who has truly made good.