Snooky Lanson, a singing star of television's ``Your Hit Parade'' in the 1950s, is dead at age 76. Lanson, whose real name was Roy Landman, was nicknamed ``Snooky'' at age 2 after the Irving Berlin tune ``Snooky-Ookums.'' He got his first singing job with band leader Francis Craig at Nashville radio station WSM. In 1940, Lanson was hired by the Ray Noble Band, and a year later recorded the hit record ``By the Light of the Silvery Moon.'' In the late 1940s, he had a hit with ``The Old Master Painter,'' which helped him land the spot on ``Your Hit Parade.'' He sang on the show from 1950 to 1957. Lanson died Monday in Nashville where he had lived since 1967.
