Ellison has done tourism advertising/marketing in Branson’s for 30 years. In that time the southwest Missouri music town went from eight theaters and no tour busses to a nation-wide tourist destination. He has done network television marketing and production for a group of theaters including the Baldknobbers, Roy Clark, Bobby Vinton, Mel Tillis and Jim Stafford. In 1996 Ellison served as a member of Springfield’s Mayor’s Commission on Travel and Tourism.
In February 1996 Ellison was appointed to the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors and was elected board president for 1997 and 1998. Also in 1997, Ellison served on the board of directors of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.
Ellison began his work in broadcasting in high school on ABC-TV’s Ozark Jubilee. He worked in radio and television news during college. In 1966 Ellison graduated from Southwest Missouri State University with a B.S. in speech and communications. He hosted Springfield’s Cerebral Palsy Telethon for eight years, as well as a telethon for Dickerson Park Zoo with Marlin Perkins. He was president of Friends of the Zoo 1978-82.
Governor and Mrs. Kit Bond asked Ellison to produce and direct a television special in 1983 dealing with Mrs. Bond’s restoration of the Missouri Governor’s Mansion.
As a performer, Ellison was named Missouri’s Official Ragtime Piano Player by the State Senate in 1973. The Gary Ellison USO Show toured South Vietnam in 1967 and Korea in 1968. He has played Missouri music in concert all over the United States including Disneyland in California and Lincoln Center in New York.
In 2007 he was presented the “Ozzie Award” from the Springfield Area Arts Council in recognition of his work in promotion, personification and support of artistic achievement in the Springfield area.
He can be reached at gellison@showmemissouri.net.