Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-08-25 16:57
While Benny played whatever he was shilling for at the moment, his preference for the products of the Selmer people is documented in (of all places) a movie.
In the movie The Benny Goodman Story, young Benny, showing up at his aged Music Mentor's studio, engaged in conversation with the previous student as follows:
Previous Student" "New clarinet, huh?"
Young Benny: "Yeah, it's a Selmer."
...or, more or less, words to that effect.
One wonders if there was a product placement fee paid way back in the 1950's...
This is not as satisfying to we Selmer lovers as was an almost hidden sequence in the Tony Curtis movie The Rat Race.
In that movie of a musician coming from a small town to the big city, Tony plays a saxophone man trying to make it "big". About a third of the way through, Tony shows up for a rehearsal with some New York locals (including one Jerry Mulligan), who send him (as the new guy) out for coffee. They then abscond with his arsenal of horns.
Tony, alone and broke, is rescued by his "dance hall hostess" girlfriend, who spots him the money to buy a completely new set of horns. Said horns make a very appearance in those hideous tweed cases that were once used by "another sax manufacturer". Then Tony takes a cruise ship job, where he is seen playing --- presto, chango --- your garden variety Mark VI equipment.
I remember reading a little bit about Tony's sax skill somewhere. He can play, well enough to know just how to move the fingers in both this movie and in Some Like It Hot (while the real playing is stripped in post-production), but not well enough to do the post-production recording. Same with Steve Allen, who was a decent clarinet player but not up to Goodman levels (Benny did the sound for the movie sound track).
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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The Clarinet BBoard
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