By the age of 15 (January 1924), Hackett – billed as "The Boy Wonder" – was playing popular piano music in Reno theaters. Hackett was a 1932 graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno. He studied philosophy with plans to become a lawyer. In 1928, while in college, he was leading his own dance orchestra. Following the crash of 1929, Hackett lost his scholarship and began relying mostly on gigs from his dance band to pay tuition. He graduated and pursued music. His primary instrument was piano.
Hackett's tenure as music director for CBS in San Francisco endured through the mid-1960s. Hackett was music director of The Bill Weaver Show with Ray Hackett and His Orchestra, which began in the mid-1950s and continued through the mid-1960s.
Education
Pre-college music
Before attending high school (around 1920), Hackett began studying piano with Harriet Irene Peterson (1886–1939).
Primary and secondary schools
Hackett attended grammar school at the Mary S. Doten School (grades 1–8) in Reno, finishing the eighth grade January 25, 1925.[6] Hackett was a 1928 graduate of Reno High School. In February 1928, Hackett became president of the Reno High School Senior Class.
^ abBuck, Richard P.; Bethards, Jack M. (2005). Music and Musicians in Bohemia: The First One Hundred Years: a Research Document. Bohemian Club. pp. 188, 250, 279.
^"Radio Orchestras of San Francisco," by Jack M. Bethards (né John Bethards; born 1940), Paramount Theatre Music Library, Oakland, California (2010), reprinted from the AFM Local Six Newsletter
