Founder of Grayson’s Tune Town Remembered

Hundreds of mourners filled Holy Redeemer Catholic Church Tuesday to remember Val Grayson, founder of Grayson’s Tune Town, bandleader, and one of the founding fathers of the Montrose Shopping Park.

Grayson, of La Cañada, died last Friday at Verdugo Hills Hospital at the age of 91. He had suffered from pulmonary disease for more than three years.

Val Grayson opened Grayson’s Tune Town in Montrose in 1953 as a record store. Gradually, it changed until it became what it is today, a source for musical instruments, accessories and music lessons.

Known as an active community member, Grayson was involved with the creation of the Montrose Shopping Park Association in 1968, and continued to be involved with that business group until the mid-1980s, according to MSPA board member John Drayman. He was also a lifetime member of the Loyal Order of Moose, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, and the Knights of Columbus, an organization for which he once served as Grand Knight.

But Grayson was also a private man, not one to boast of his achievements. Although Grayson was known for his generosity, few knew the specifics off his giving. And fewer still knew that Val Grayson was not his real name.

Grayson was born June 26, 1913, in Chicago to Italian immigrant parents. His given name was Fosscola (Foss) Micheli (pronounced mi-KAY-lee). Orphaned by the age of 8, young Foss was sent with his brother and sister to live at the Mooseheart Child City & School, a residential child-care facility run by the Loyal Order of Moose.

“He talked on many occasions to people about his wonderful experience at Mooseheart,” said his son, Ken. “He learned musicianship there. He used to travel with the Mooseheart Band to different competitions.”

Later, Foss married Adeline Ciucci, another second-generation Italian, and they had two children, Ken and Dennis.

“People had a very difficult time remembering the name Micheli and pronouncing it,” said Ken. “He just felt it would be easier to pick a name that people would be able to remember and pronounce. He just came up with Val Grayson.”

But Foss Micheli never officially changed his name.

During the 1940s and ‘50s, Grayson traveled around the Midwest, playing clarinet and saxophone, and conducting his Val Grayson Orchestra. When the family moved to California, he and Adeline started the music store, but Grayson wanted to keep playing music. He assembled a new Val Grayson Orchestra that played in a Honolulu Avenue restaurant called the Three Oaks (now The Mix). The Val Grayson Orchestra continued to play until 2001, although Val himself just conducted the band toward the end. “He was up on stage leading the band with his oxygen,” Ken said.

Grayson’s Tune Town grew and changed, moving twice to larger and larger spaces. Val worked in the store, at least a couple days a week, until he was 86. The business, now run by sons Ken and Dennis, recently grew again, taking up more space on the second floor of the store’s Honolulu Avenue building for more music studios.

Adeline died in 1986, and about a year or so later, Val met Blanche Grossi at a friend’s party. The two had met years before when they were both married; her husband had also been a musician. Now, both widowed, Val and Blanche started dating. “They remained best friends for 17 years,” Ken said.

Most people remembered Val Grayson for his smile and his generosity, said Ken. “Dad was the kind of person, he did everything from his heart and he did it so nobody would really know about it. He did it because he wanted to do something for somebody, not because he wanted recognition.”

He wanted so little recognition, he didn’t even tell his family about some of his generous gifts. Just this week, Ken learned about one of those gifts, given to John Drayman

“I used to deliver papers for the Ledger, a paper that isn’t even around anymore. When I was done collecting [money for the papers], I would go and look in the display cases at Grayson’s,” said Drayman, owner of Custom Photo, whose father owned several stores in Montrose, including the Hanging Red Pants. “I wanted to learn to play the clarinet. Val would say, ‘Do you want to learn to play?’ And I would say, ‘No, no, no,’ because I was the youngest of seven, and money was tight, and instruments and music lessons weren’t exactly on the top of the hit parade for my family.

“Then one day Val told me to have my dad call him. The next day, when I came home from school, there was a clarinet with a note on it for me to see him after school. He gave me free lessons for a year and a half. And he gave me the clarinet, which I still have.”

Drayman’s story is not unique, he said. “He was a man who understood that people in a community need to all work together and take care of one another, and Val did that.”

In those early days of the Montrose Shopping Park, Val Grayson was among the business leaders who created the events that are now Montrose’s treasured traditions: the Arts and Crafts Festival, Oktoberfest, and the Montrose Christmas Parade.

“Val’s passing reminds me how slowly we’re losing the original cast, so to speak,” John Drayman said.

Val Grayson is survived by his sister Delba Horsey of Las Vegas, son Kenneth and daughter-in-law Christy of Arcadia, son Dennis and daughter-in-law Claudia of Valencia, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The family asks that donations in memory of Val Grayson be made in the name of Fosscola Micheli to Mooseheart Child City, Moose Charities, 155 S. International Dr., Moose-heart, IL 60539-1100.