Before joining the Tower Theatre Foundation, Ray Solley served as the Executive Director of the Torrance Cultural Arts Center Foundation (TCACF), a nonprofit organization in partnership with the City of Torrance, California, to support and present affordable entertainment to people of all ages across the South Bay region of Los Angeles.
Hired as the group’s first full-time Executive Director in 2005, Solley oversaw all programming and marketing efforts, coordinated fundraising, and was in charge of day-to-day operations for the Foundation.
TCACF presents 25 programs a season at the Arts Center, ranging from top-flight entertainers, to educational programs for students and teachers, to nationally renowned speakers. Under Ray’s leadership, the intimate Nakano Jazz Cabaret Series became a local fixture for area music lovers, with three straight sold out seasons. He successfully launched Super Science Saturdays (known as “S3”) with sponsorship from ExxonMobil and the collaboration of the Torrance Unified School District. Solley also re-formatted the Foundation’s children’s programming, signing Farmers & Merchants Bank to a three-year sponsorship of the new Family Series.
The diverse acts and personalities Solley has brought to the Arts Center’s stages include:
Spike Lee, Martin Short, Lee Greenwood, Rita Moreno, Peking Acrobats, Vienna Choir Boys, the Theatre of Yugen, Hector Elizondo, Christopher Cross, Mariachi Divas, Monica Mancini, Flying Karamazov Brothers, Geraldine Ferraro, B.D. Wong, Cheech Marin, Free Flight with James Walker, The Tweaksters, The Bobs, Rita Coolidge, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, The Turtles….even Elvis.
From 1995 to 2001, Solley was the primary agent responsible for packaging and sales of programs to basic and pay cable networks for the William Morris Agency. He negotiated and sold a large variety of cable’s best known shows, including:
- South Park (Comedy Central)
- Bug Juice and Cheetah Girls (Disney Channel)
- BIOrhythm and Lyricists Lounge (MTV)
- Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill (HBO)
- Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood (Nickelodeon)
- Surprise Gardener (HGTV)
Before moving to Los Angeles in 1983, Solley spent seven years at WTTW, the public television flagship in Chicago, developing and then producing the series that re-defined the way a generation learned about movies and made media heroes of film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert—Sneak Previews.
Ray’s first job in Hollywood was as Talent Coordinator for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He then joined Paramount Television overseeing all aspects of Entertainment Tonight. The CBS Television Stations hired Solley to supervise their group-produced specials for national and international syndication. The Samuel Goldwyn Company next recruited Solley as Vice President of Development, where he established Goldwyn’s first-run programming division, launching their first daily strip (Body by Jake) and pop culture phenomenon, the original American Gladiators.
Ray was profiled in the book Creating Television: Conversations with the People Behind 50 Years of American TV, by Rutgers Professor Robert Kubey (Erlbaum, 2003). He has led program development classes for USC, UCLA, NAB, NATPE, the Writers Guild and the Producers Guild.
In 2007, Solley served as Executive Director of the venerated Leadership Torrance seminars, sponsored by the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce. Ray graduated from the intensive six-month program in 2006.
Solley, wife Michelle, daughter Allison and son Matthew are excited about their upcoming move to Bend, OR.