Klarinet Archive - Posting 000711.txt from 1999/01

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Ken Shaw's comments about 48th street
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 14:14:27 -0500

Very nostalgic!

But one of the paragraphs was on McGinnish Marx. The man who ran the
store was JOSEF Marx and he was one of the great characters of NY.

He had a resume which listed the many orchestral positions he played,
and the very first one was "Principle oboe, Jerusalem Police Band."
Way down at the bottom of the list was "Oboe, english horn, and
heckelphone, Metropolitan Opera."

Josef had an apartment on the west side in which he, his family, and
his mistress all lived together. His wife was there too, of course.
Many players would show up at his place after the shows were over
on Saturday night and we would play chamber music. There was never
a combination of instrument for which Josef did not have a work to
play. If 3 saxophones and a taragato were present, Josef would dig
out some edition from 1879 for exactly that combination.

Once, my wife and I took Josef and his wife to dinner and as we
crossed Broadway on foot, Josef told the story about how he was
helping Stefan Wolpe cross the same intersection when Wolpe was
at his sickest. He had some awful neurological disease that made
walking difficult and coordination even worse. And here was Josef
trying to get Wolpe across one the most busy intersections in
the world and the guy can hardly walk. It took 10 minutes to cross
over, the traffic became a chaotic mess, and Josef was afraid that
they would both be killed by cars.

Before I retired from my business career, I was asked to speak at
a computer conference in Jerusalem. I was sitting on the stage at
a special table for the speakers when a band filed in and began
to play for the audience. Simple waltz music, polkas, etc. Well
played. And one of the other attendees, who happened to be an
Israeli, said to me, "You might be interested in knowing that the
players are from a famous local group -- the Jerusalem Police Band."
To which I replied, "Oh, I knew your former principle oboe."

Josef died suddenly about 15 years ago. He tricked me. I thought
he was immortal.

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org