Wally Osborne

Born in Philadelphia, USA, January 6th 1934 Wally was a singer, producer, musician and songwriter who operated the Toxsan Records label. After being transferred from Germantown High School to Simon Gratz High, Wally altered his birth certificate to enter the army in 1950 at age 16. As Wally was in training for airborne jump school, the Korean War began and his unit was transferred to Korea. By mid-1951, Wally’s grandmother had notified the Army of his real age and he was sent back home with an honorable discharge. Over the next couple years, he studied music at the Ornstein School of Music, the same school that John Coltrane had studied at a few years earlier. There, Wally mastered playing the guitar, bass and piano.