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Originally Posted by wiseone2  Joe Venuti, the violinist in the video, was probably the most famous prankster in jazz.
One Christmas, he gave Wingy Manone one cuff link as a gift, the next year he gave him the other 
Venuti's most famous gag involved bass players. Joe called every bassist in the 802 union directory for a gig that would have a pick-up location in front of the Waldorf. Imagine the mob scene. He had a room in the hotel that faced the corner where dozens of bass players stood scratching their heads 
Wilmer |
I have a Barrett Deems story from his days with Venuti that I probably couldn't repeat in polite company. It is hilarious and involves Roy Rogers and Trigger at Madison Square Garden. Venuti once bet some guys $10 after a gig (after some fairly major ingestion of ethanolic substances) that a piano thrown out of a tenth story hotel window would play a C major chord when it hit the ground. The guys threw the upright out the window, and it didn't play a C major chord when it hit the ground. Venuti gave up the $10 and said OK, I was wrong.
Michael McLaughlin