Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1981.
Inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.
Pictured with brother Jimmy Dorsey on one of a set of four 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, issued 11 September 1996, celebrating big band leaders. Other band leaders honored in this issue are Count Basie, Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman.
The Dorsey brothers' father, Thomas Dorsey, Sr., was a cornet-playing coal miner who also led the Shenandoah town band and gave music lessons on the side. He was his sons' first teacher. Their mother, Tess Dorsey, would outlive both her sons by several years.
The first variety show on which Elvis Presley appeared was "Stage Show" (1954), a summer replacement for "The Jackie Gleason Show" (1952), hosted by Dorsey and his brother Jimmy Dorsey. Jackie Gleason, the show's producer, later apologized for putting on "a porno act" and Ed Sullivan said he would never have anything like that on his show. Sullivan later changed his mind after Elvis made another appearance on a rival TV show.