 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ron b.
Date: 2000-11-08 18:33
i've heard some tales in my time but, ....
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=483660811http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=483660811
...... ?
ron b.
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Author: Pam
Date: 2000-11-08 19:00
That does sound like a pretty tall tale. It looks as though they don't know how to put the horn together correctly either!
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2000-11-08 19:14
Apparently, Benny didn't just keep his mouthpiece with him, but his barrel as well. Is he known to have ever played an instrument such a simple key system?
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2000-11-08 19:28
Check out the rest of his auction material. Maybe he drank too much beer from:1650's PITCHER FROM A SHIPWRECK OFF FLORIDA!
Item #490969319
Bob A
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Author: javier garcia
Date: 2000-11-08 19:43
It seems an Albert system (key for Bb/F and forked Bb/F), does B. Goodmann played this system?
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Author: Bill
Date: 2000-11-08 21:16
I just got done seeing this, too. Hilarious! I still wish I could find the serial number of the Selmer BT Benny really did try to recover. In the 1950s he placed an ad in a clarinet magazine giving the serial number and asking whoever had the clarinet to consider selling it (back) to him. I have that problem with a Leblanc L7 I sold---the thing haunts me!
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Author: ron b.
Date: 2000-11-08 21:18
It's my understanding, having at one time or another known some of Benny Goodman's sidemen, that he started out playing an Albert and switched to Boehm.
Mr. Goodman developed his highly unusual trademark, the legendary double pucker embouchure, from years and years of practice on that old horn, before Lionel Hampton took him aside one day and explained the proper function of a barrel and single reed mouthpiece. It was a revolutionary revelation and launched him to stardom almost instantaneously. It was rumored also, by those who preferred to remain to this day anonymous, that he kept his beer cold, between intermissions, in the boot case.
I've heard more than once my parents mention that as a kid Benny Goodman played the tin whistle. Granted, the instrument up for auction looks kinda old, but you know how attached one becomes to favorite things, like worn teddy bears and such. Benny must've been broken hearted beyond consolation when, after that fateful concert and on the road again, he discoverd he'd left his favorite horn behind.
ron b.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-11-08 22:10
I have the book Benny, King of Swing [pictorial biography} and will look at the 811 EBAY cl site [??] and research the book re: questions posed above. Don
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Author: Todd H.
Date: 2000-11-08 22:15
I hope that this horn was offered to the Goodman estate prior to auction; if so, that may explain it's presence on ebay.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-11-09 17:11
The earliest pic , Benny @ 10 years, no clar, the next "around 1920" Hull House Boy's Club Band, most of the discernable cl's appear to be Boehm, but BG is farther back, could easily have been a mix of B's and Alberts. Will examine with magnification. Don
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-11-09 20:35
With magnification [and a fuzzy pic] the cl's appear to be mainly Alberts by virtue of the 2 only rt lf pinkey keys, the later versions via the several rings. Don
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-11-10 20:44
The bidding never went very high on that instrument. Guess a lot of people were skeptical of that improbable story. I'd like to see some documentary evidence for such a claim.
It also bothered me the way the seller had assembled that clarinet with the upper joint turned around, so that most of the upper keys didn't show. That's not a very intuitive way to assemble a clarinet. Even someone who doesn't play ought to be able to see it's impossible to reach all the keys with the joints in that position. I wondered if maybe there was something on the front of that joint that the dealer didn't want prospective customers to see.
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-11-11 13:22
Also meant to mention that in the light of the recent controversy over a stolen bass clarinet for sale on eBay, any claim that an instrument was "left behind" at a concert makes me uncomfortable. To me that is not a positive recommendation for an instrument. If it really was left behind inadvertently and someone "found" it, why wouldn't that person make sure the owner got it back?
BTW, that leather gig bag is a typical piece of cheap student equipment from early in the century. The clarinet can't be fully disassembled to fit into it and it offers next to no protection. At estate sales and flea markets, I often see old student-quality clarinets for sale in terrible condition in those bags. It's hard for me to imagine a pro carrying his clarinet in something like that.
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Author: ron b.
Date: 2000-11-12 01:01
I agree with you on all points, Lelia. I only posted this because it appeared no one else had yet picked up on it at that time. I thought it was so inane that.... well, everyone needs a good chuckle now and then. 
I used to work in nightclubs and you wouldn't (or, maybe you would) believe the number of people who dropped in and, after 'a few', claimed to have written Star Dust (or whatever) but... the manuscript was somehow stolen :
This item sorta reminded me of that.
ron b.
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