Historical Accuracy of Tubas Depicted in Movies and On TV

[LoyalTubist]

Don't forget "Where's Officer Tuba"!

That was a nice tuba that Sammo Hung played (mirror image in the poster). I have this movie on DVD. Not your typical Chinese beat-em-up movie. In fact, parts are quite funny.

However, the movie, which was made almost 20 years ago (Hong Kong still belonged to the U.K.), uses a synthesizer for the tuba sounds. Since the movie is in Cantonese with English subtitles, you could watch this movie the way my parents used to always watch this kind of thing, with the volume turned completely off.

[tubamirum]

Andy also played trombone a couple of times with the Moravian Trombone Choir in Downey, Calif. A very nice guy, didn't just hold the horn.

[kegmcnabb]

I remember a Law and Order episode where the officers were interviewing a tubist leaving an orchestra rehearsal using what appeared to be a Yamaha top action piston valve tuba. Seems an unlikely choice for a "professional" orchestra.

[windshieldbug]

I remember a Law and Order episode where the officers were interviewing a tubist leaving an orchestra rehearsal using what appeared to be a Yamaha top action piston valve tuba. Seems an unlikely choice for a "professional" orchestra.

But, as I recall, just as in real life, "the conductor did it"!

[kegmcnabb]

I remember a Law and Order episode where the officers were interviewing a tubist leaving an orchestra rehearsal using what appeared to be a Yamaha top action piston valve tuba. Seems an unlikely choice for a "professional" orchestra.

But, as I recall, just as in real life, "the conductor did it"!

[Biggs]

IN THE RECENT MOVIE "FEVER PITCH" WHEN DREW BARRYMORE AND JIMMY FALLON GO TO OPENING DAY THE IS A QUICK SHOT OF A QUAR/QUIN TET....WITH A NICE SHOT OF THE TUBA PLAYER...ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THAT?

I did notice this immediately! The band they show is the Hot Tamale Brass Band, a jazz/funk group that plays outside Fenway Park before every home game. The rotating tuba staff has included, over the years, both John Manning (UIowa) and Jobey Wilson (BC). No coincidence that these two guys are my two favorite teachers...

[LoyalTubist]

I don't think they did this for any kind of historical accuracy, but when I was laid up in the hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, for severe dehydration, there was a movie about a 1930s mental hospital for the criminally insane in Florida, called Chattahoochie. Ron Davis, from the University of South Carolina, helped to organize a house tuba ensemble. I remember him talking about it. Anyway, this was supposed to be in the 1930s in Florida. So what that they picked an institution in South Carolina to do it and they used tubas that wouldn't be on the market for forty years! On the other hand, maybe it makes the non tuba playing movie goer think we ARE crazy!

[MartyNeilan]

there was a movie about a 1930s mental hospital for the criminally insane in Florida, called Chattahoochie.

Let's not forget the serpent player in the mental hospital band in Quills, the Marquis de Sade pseudo biopic.

[LoyalTubist]

I should have gone on with my story...

I told the local (Indonesian) doctor in the Jakarta hospital about some of my symptoms. He then asked me if I played tuba--my wife had mentioned to him about it (being a native speaker of Bahasa Indonesia).

"Yes, I am a tuba player... So?"

He took a deep breath and asked, frankly, "Are you paranoid?"

I think he saw that movie, Chattahoochie, too. Jakarta only had three TV stations at that time.

[Kevin Miller]

If we are including serpents, there is some good serpent exposure in the Patrick Stewart/Turner Network version of "A Christmas Carol". At Fezziwig's party there is a dance sequence where you see and hear the serpent being played in a small ensemble. Having never heard a serpent up close and personal I wouldn't know if an actual serpent was used on the soundtrack, but it sounded awfully tuba-ish to me.

[LoyalTubist]

The serpents were real but I'm not so sure you would see them out on the streets playing Christmas carols at that time in history. Christmas didn't get to be the big holiday it is until the 20th century.

[Lee Stofer]

I have seen a publicity poster for the Andy Griffith Show, probably taken from the episode about the Hooterville Vol. fire Dept. Band, where Andy is playing a small Conn Eb and Don Knotts is wielding cymbals. I understand that Don Knotts actually was trained as a euphonium player. No wonder they worked together so well!

[LoyalTubist]

Don Knotts played euphonium in school but I don't think he thought much of his own musical talent. The Barney Fife character and Don Knotts had a lot of good aspects in common.

[Bandmaster]

Don't forget the the uniformed sousaphone Christmas carolers in the movie Serendipity. They were shown playing then later packing up and getting on the bus.

I believe Lou Costello played (or faked it) the sousaphone or helicon in a couple of the old Abbott & Costello movies.

[LoyalTubist]

Those were Harvey Phillips' own TubaSantas in Serendipity. Not very historically accurate, but cute. It was a romantic fantasy anyway, wasn't it?

[David Richoux]

I have seen a publicity poster for the Andy Griffith Show, probably taken from the episode about the Hooterville Vol. fire Dept. Band, where Andy is playing a small Conn Eb and Don Knotts is wielding cymbals. I understand that Don Knotts actually was trained as a euphonium player. No wonder they worked together so well!

Andy Griffith was the state high school champion tuba player (and a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, continuing into college.) I'm not finding much evidence of any brass-wind training for Don Knotts.