[1] The orchestra was originally called the Little Symphony and it started on January 22, 1937, with four boys out of Katz's home in East Los Angeles.

[2] On May 15, 1938, they had their public debut at a community hall in East L.A.[2] Those in attendance included Los Angeles mayor Frank Shaw, California entrepreneur Laura Scudder and singer Carrie Jacobs-Bond.

[2] After hearing about their performance, William Randolph Hearst Jr. invited the orchestra to play every Sunday on his radio station.

Notable winners include: Marjorie Main, Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny, George Segal, Danny Thomas, Ed Asner, Chevy Chase, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Leslie Nielsen, Ben Vereen, Connie Stevens, Richard Pryor, Ryan O'Neal, June Lockhart, Helen Reddy and Weird Al Yankovic.

[1][2] The orchestra also boasts a roster of notable guest musicians who have performed with them, including: Isaac Stern, Jerome Kern, Meredith Willson, Richard Sherman, Jose Iturbi, Pat Boone Dimitri Tiomkin, Rudolf Friml, Lauritz Melchior, Shirley Jones and Edgar Bergen.