Historical Accuracy of Tubas Depicted in Movies and On TV

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Mon May 01, 2006 8:24 pm

Hello Dolly! showed a band (Santa Monica City College Corsair Band) marching over and over down the street in a parade wearing different uniforms each time. The story was to have taken place about 1909, which means the bands probably would have other tubas than bell-front sousaphones. Those had only been around for a couple of years at that time.

Bonanza got it right, in one episode, when Ben Cartwright was carrying a helicon out of his bedroom. It looked a little dark and beaten up, but, I would imagine that houses got a little smoky on cold days in the 1870s.

The Music Man (in both the Robert Preston and Matthew Broderick versions) had the band with bell-front sousaphones. It was supposed to have been about the same time as Hello Dolly. The latter version added insult by having the 2000-ish style color guard girls twirling U.S. flags around.

Brassed Off, a more contemporary film, showed the tuba players in the brass band walking to rehearsal, carrying front action valved tubas (one with rotary valves). When we later saw the band in rehearsal, they were playing the usual top action valved tubas normally seen in British brass bands.

Maybe you can think of other movies which correctly or incorrectly use tubas.

I can think of many movies in which the tuba had a great leading role:
â€¢ Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
â€¢ Still Breathing
â€¢ My Girl
â€¢ The Stars and Stripes Forever (maybe the story was a little off, but they got the sousaphone correct)

pgiampi1 · Post by **pgiampi1** » Mon May 01, 2006 8:50 pm

in the foreign film "a very long engagement," the main character plays a euphonium from time to time (mostly just long tones that sound like fog horns) - however, it is identified by either the narrator or by the main character (i can't rememeber which) as a tuba instead.

the label on the DVD shows the actress, the same woman who had the title role in "amelie," holding the euphonium. it definitely looks too small to be a tuba but i'm about 90% sure.

GC · Post by GC » Mon May 01, 2006 9:48 pm

Probably O/T, but I remember seeing Andy Griffith playing "Melody in F" on tuba on TV many years ago.

winston · Post by **winston** » Tue May 02, 2006 2:51 am

Dylan King · Post by **Dylan King** » Tue May 02, 2006 5:09 am

Don't forget my favorite, L.A. Story.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Tue May 02, 2006 7:44 am

GC wrote:Probably O/T, but I remember seeing Andy Griffith playing "Melody in F" on tuba on TV many years ago.

Not really... Andy Griffith majored in trombone at the University of North Carolina because a tuba major wasn't offered at the time he went. He was a music teacher before he was a nightclub comic, then an actor.

dwaskew · Post by **dwaskew** » Tue May 02, 2006 7:47 am

well, he may not have been playing the tuba in that scene, but in every time he had a tuba in the show, it was an appropriate time/model--probably some sort of Eb, it looked like to me.

dwa

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Tue May 02, 2006 7:52 am

Andy Griffith took time to actually play tuba on many shows, including in his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor (and tuba playing leader of the Mayberry Town Band).

Lew · Post by **Lew** » Tue May 02, 2006 8:00 am

winston wrote:The 40 year old virgin played the euphonium...

It looked like a baritone to me.

corbasse · Post by **corbasse** » Tue May 02, 2006 10:31 am

pgiampi1 wrote:in the foreign film "a very long engagement," the main character plays a euphonium from time to time (mostly just long tones that sound like fog horns) - however, it is identified by either the narrator or by the main character (i can't rememeber which) as a tuba instead.

the label on the DVD shows the actress, the same woman who had the title role in "amelie," holding the euphonium. it definitely looks too small to be a tuba but i'm about 90% sure.

They're French films, and in France (and overhere in Belgium as well) the word tuba is used for TENOR tubas. What the rest of the world calls tuba is called bass tuba or simply bass.
So, if you heard the French version, it was correct. In case the narrator's voice was dubbed, it was only a translator's mistake (and they do make a s*%t load of those...)

pgiampi1 · Post by **pgiampi1** » Tue May 02, 2006 10:34 am

ahhh...very cool. that makes total sense.

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Tue May 02, 2006 11:57 am

corbasse wrote:
pgiampi1 wrote:in the foreign film "a very long engagement," the main character plays a euphonium from time to time (mostly just long tones that sound like fog horns) - however, it is identified by either the narrator or by the main character (i can't rememeber which) as a tuba instead.

the label on the DVD shows the actress, the same woman who had the title role in "amelie," holding the euphonium. it definitely looks too small to be a tuba but i'm about 90% sure.
They're French films, and in France (and overhere in Belgium as well) the word tuba is used for TENOR tubas. What the rest of the world calls tuba is called bass tuba or simply bass.
So, if you heard the French version, it was correct. In case the narrator's voice was dubbed, it was only a translator's mistake (and they do make a s*%t load of those...)

Well, at least they didn't call it a "saxophone"!

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:10 pm

And since it is an older French film, remember that the French C (not CC) tuba is a large bore instrument with up to six valves that is roughly the same size as a euphonium. So you can see what it looks like:
http://www.wichitaband.com/used2.html
http://www.wichitaband.com/01othersax/sax1.jpg

Will · Post by **Will** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:20 pm

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

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:21 pm

Well, in Greek, the word 'tuba' translates to 'horse'... and you never see the Trojans hauling a big wooden tuba inside their city!

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Tue May 02, 2006 5:27 pm

Are you familiar with the French tuba in C?

http://www.dwerden.com/tu-articles-thoughts.cfm

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Tue May 02, 2006 5:31 pm

Will wrote: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 · Post by **tubamirum** » Wed May 03, 2006 2:43 pm

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 · Post by **kegmcnabb** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:26 pm

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 · Post by **windshieldbug** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:29 pm

kegmcnabb wrote: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"!

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Historical Accuracy of Tubas Depicted in Movies and On TV

Historical Accuracy of Tubas Depicted in Movies and On TV

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