Korla Pandit

Larry Wessel invites you to explore the phantasmagorical worlds created by a variety of artists, writers, photographers, musicians and collectors.

Organist Korla Pandit was an alluring enigma, a television pioneer and the godfather of exotica music. He never spoke a word on 900 episodes of his groundbreaking 1950s TV program but captured the hearts of countless Los Angeles housewives with his soulful, hypnotic gaze and theatrical performance of popular tunes and East Indian compositions on the newly developed Hammond B3 organ. In the ’90s he resurfaced as a cult figure with the tiki/lounge music aficionados and ended up immortalized in the film Ed Wood. Often pegged as a “man of mystery,” Korla lived up to that billing when he took an amazing secret with him to his grave in 1998—one that is finally revealed in KORLA.

We bring you musical gems from near and far, blended into a pattern of glorious harmony. A program based on the universal language of music, it is our pleasure to present to you… Korla Pandit!

実在の映画監督で、“史上最低の監督”と謳われた、エドワード・D・ウッド・ジュニア－－通称エド・ウッドの伝記的作品。50年代のハリウッド。スタジオの片隅で使い走りをしながら、映画監督になる日を夢見て働いていた映画青年エドは、ある日業界誌に載った性転換をした男性の物語の映画化を知り、本物の服装倒錯者だったエドは、シナリオを3日間で書き上げ、ふとしたきっかけで知り合った往年のドラキュラ俳優、ベラ・ルゴシの出演を条件に資金を得て、監督デビューを飾るが……。