Re: trivia


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Posted by Karl H on April 30, 2001 at 13:09:11:

In Reply to: trivia posted by Ian Easton on April 30, 2001 at 08:04:59:

Absolutely true. He began on violin, but switched to tuba because he "...determined (he) was never going to make the world forget Paganini." In 1927 his fledgling career (he was a comedian, singer, and MC) was not paying the bills, so he got union-scale work on sousaphone providing bass lines for 9-piece dance bands in and around Portland, Oregon. He went on to play in the NBC Trocaderans radio orchestra, and later returned to Portland to become the pit conductor at the Orpheum Theatre. There he worked with vaudeville stars like Edgar Bergan, Jack Benny, and George Burns who were leaving vaudeville for a new thing called radio. Seeing the future, Mel left to seek his fame in Hollywood, and you know the rest of the story... Karl "why does he know this much junk?" Hovey


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