Lettermen coming to Stambaugh

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Lettermen’s 50th annual holiday tour will begin at Stambaugh Auditorium on Nov. 30.

The show will include Christmas classics and Lettermen hits, including “Goin’ Out of My Head,” “Theme from a Summer Place” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at the Stambaugh box office, 1000 Fifth Ave., by phone at 330-259-0555, and online at stambaughauditorium.com.

The Lettermen got their start in 1958 in Las Vegas. Original members were Tony Butala, who is a Sharon, Pa., native, Mike Barnett and Talmadge Russell.

Today, Butala is the only original member still with the group.

Butala began singing professionally at age 7 and soon moved to Hollywood to join the Mitchell Boys Choir, with which he appeared in the films “White Christmas” and “War of the Worlds,” and lent his voice to Disney’s animated film “Peter Pan.”

The other current members of the trio are Donovan Tea, who joined the group in 1984; and Bobby Poynton, who began his second stint with the Lettermen in 2011 (the first was from 1988-1995). He is also a television actor, who has appeared on “Days of Our Lives,” “Jake and the Fatman,” “Life Goes On,” “Touched by an Angel” and “Walker: Texas Ranger.”