TubeNet

Dear Tube-Netters,

A while back I responded to an inquiry about who did the tuba on the "Fat Man" movie in the 1940's.

I ended it with:

"The Fat Man" was a take off on Sydney Greenstreet and was later spun off on the TV shows "Cannon" and "Jake and the Fat Man"- that Tommy Johnson did here in Los Angeles".

I should have added that the great Don Waldrop did many of Cannon shows when Tommy was busy elsewhere. Don was a very busy tuba-bass trombone doubler and had a long and successful career in the the Hollywood Studios. I got in on a couple Cannon episodes mayself--a the very end of that series. Don did MANY other shows himself as first call--notably the long-running Carol Burnette show.

It brings to mind the eternal question about who did the tuba playing on individual recording sessions. Because of the nature of the business a player would take the better call--usually a movie--and the subs would cover the other TV gigs. The same is true of movie sessions. I would guess that maybe 50% of all multi-session dates are played by more than one tuba player. Often the first-call player is busy elsewhere when sessions are added--or changed. That's exactly how I got started--being a sub for Tommy and Don.

It would be almost impossible to know which individual TV episodes and movies dates had which tuba player. A discriminating ear might identify Tommy or Don or me in a solo but even that would be hard to do. Maybe someday an enterprising grad student will search the old Union Contracts and make up a reliable list for his dissertation. It would be daunting task.


Jim Self
www.bassethoundmusic.com"
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As some people know in this forum, I collect recordings of old time radio shows. I believe that I have every American version of the "Fat Man" that exists (there are very few). There were also Australian and South African versions of the show which do not feature the tuba solo.

Jim, if I ever went back to do a doctoral program, I would love to do a dissertation on tuba players in the studios on the old contract system. It would be fascinating, especially if there were any photographs of how the workday went.

Is it known who played the tuba on the title music of Jake and the Fatman?

It may be 20+ years since that show ran on workday mornings here in DK, but as far as I remember it, there was a tuba solo every time, which was always either the same recording or at least the same player.

Klaus

And in the Resurrected Thread category, it's Klaus for the Win!!

Still, it would be nice to know.