psalt

Who were the 1st call guys in LA from the early days of sound movies until Dec 7th 1941. I know of Larry Sullivan (Warner Bros) Mannie Klein from 1937and also Harold Mitchell. Can anyone fill me in? I also believe the great Charlie Margulis from New York spent some time out west.
Peter Salt

Larry Gianni

Hi Peter,

Uan Rasey was 1st trumpet at MGM starting in 1948 ( Uan replaced
Rapheal Mendez who played at MGM starting in the early 40's) Mannie Klein , Frank Zinzer, Sol Caston were origianal section men

Larry Sullivan was 1st trumpet at Warner Bros. with Silvio Savant, George Werth and Johnny Best were original section men.

John Clyman was 1st trumpet at 20th Century Fox and Ed Sheftel later played as 1st trumpet for Universal. ( Universal was a post -war film company, of course )

Charlie Margolis , Uan Rasy and Mannie Klein worked together on the Movie " Sound Off " .

Charlie Margolis did arrive in Los Angelis in 1939 along with Mannie Klien ( around same time ) both origianlly New York players who were the pioneers of the " West Coast " scene.


That's a start.

Larry

psalt

Thank you for the information Larry. Was that the same Sol Caston that later becamme 1st trumpet with the Philadelphia Orchestra and later a conductor?
It's interesting that the film scene in LA from it's beginnings in the early 30's until the present day has always been a mixture of classical players (eg Malcolm McNab and John Clyman), and commercial players ( eg Rick Baptist and Warren Leuning.)
Regards
Peter Salt

Larry Gianni

Hi Peter,

Yes, the same Sol Caston.

As you probably know, Sol Caston played 2nd trumpet in the Philadelphia Phil with the legendary Ernest Williams who also was his teacher. He joined the orchestra at the tender age of 16 starting tin the 1918-1919 season with the recommendation of Williams.

When Williams left the Philedelphia Orchestra ( 1923 , the orchestra was under the direction of Leopold Stokowski at the time) to pursue teaching/solo career eventually started his won school of music plus teaching at ithica conservatory of music.


The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts an extraordinary record of media firsts. It was the first symphonic orchestra to make electrical recordings (in 1925), the first to perform its own commercially sponsored radio broadcast (in 1929, on NBC), the first to perform on the soundtrack of a feature film (Paramount's The Big Broadcast of 1937), the first to appear on a national television broadcast (in 1948, on CBS ), during the golden age of Radio, TV and the Movies.
In other firsts, the Orchestra made film history in 1939 when it recorded the soundtrack for Walt Disney's 1940 Fantasia, the landmark animated feature film that did much to popularize symphonic music in the USA.

Because the Philadelphia Phil was one of the first orchestras to start performing for Radio, TV and the Movies , under the direction of Eugene Normandy, Sol , for a period left the orchestra and played on the West Coast especially during the Orchestra’s long off-season. He shortly returned full time to the orchestra when the orchestra’s season went more year round.

You mentioned, Rick Baptist,

Rick Baptist is definitely the premier studio trumpet player in Los Angeles today. He has more credits to his name that time permits to list, but this is something most trumpet player do not know about Rick. He has extensive classical background playing utility trumpet with the San Francisco Orchestra starting at the age of 14 in the early 60’s , before eventually moving to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles.

Larry

dbacon

When Rick retires, Wayne will own L.A. Is Rick 60? Amazing trumpet player, fine human being. They don't come any better.

There is a really bad 70's western with Willie Nelson that has Rick and George Graham screaming out these god awful lines up to A's and beyond. Some writter that's learned his lesson, but he's got all this fast high stuff that Rick and George just nail. Can't remember the name of the movie but I've caught it twice and George told me all about it. When you hear it you can't believe how good it is!! They earned their pay that day.

RG111

Larry,
Thanks for the info on Sol Caston! Caston was Lloyd Geisler's ( my teacher) teacher at Curtis, and Mr. Geisler always said that Caston had an incredible sound. Also, I once played with some retired string players from Philedelphia who had the same opinion of his playing. I had no idea that he played on the West Coast!
RG

Larry Gianni

Hi RG111,

From what I hear, Mr. Castron , because he was good friends with Uan Rasey , would call ahead , when the Philadelphia Phil had this long winter lay-off during the decade of the 40's and Uan would get him on those MGM musicals with him. When the Phil went more and more to a year round commitment, doing both soon became too much. (You also probably realize that Gil Johnson (who recently pass away) the great trumpet player and teacher out of the Univ. of Florida, was also, a principal trumpet for the Philadelphia Phil. with Seymour Rosenfeld as 2nd trumpet.)

Under the contract orchestra system, usually the lead trumpet was an almost mandatory “ show-up position “ , but the rest of the section could sub or would have rotating assignments, so naming a specific section or trumpet players that were playing for the movie houses of the day , could have a multitude of names attached to it in any given year.

Back to Uan Rasey and the contact orchestra system.

Uan negotiated and had it written into his contact that he didn’t have to work Saturdays which, at the time, was quite a concession by MGM. (Uan was a big track and field fan and wanted to go to the track meets on the weekends). He also had in his contract that he could take time off for the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics, the full duration, which MGM gave him and which he attended with his wife, Margaret.

Because work was so plentiful in that era of movies, radio, shows, dinner theater , clubs and the new experiment TV, most of the
“name “players in that era, preferred to pick and choose and actually liked “Live TV " the best because it paid the most and took the least amount of time Having that much musical activity in the town, players had the luxury of picking and choosing engagements, ( Uan almost turned down MGM because he thought it might get too boring after a while ) so they could book more engagements in a single day.

Per Ian Rasey, Mannie Klein would get to a session early and " dive for the 4th chair ".He never wanted to play lead because he would book his day from sunrise to late at night and he figured he would stay the " freshest " by staying as far away from the lead book as possible saving himself for his daily workload.

MGM, Warners, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, was only part of what a trumpet player (that could cut it) could look forward
to, on a daily basis, that they could be playing for.

It was a totally different “scene “musically and economically then anything resembling today's music business.

Larry

dbacon

Uan Rasey was on at least 3,000 movies.

K.O. says more like 5,000, but who's counting.

I had the pleasure of taking lessons from Uan Rasey, very inspirational!

Larry Gianni

Hi Dave,

I also took from Uan and he is truly more amazing than any other trumpet player still around today. His credits would be too numerous to mention. I asked him once about it and his response was that I probably know more about that he did, all he did was show up to work everyday and came home every night, that was it.

Here's a couple of Classic's

" Ben Hur "
“Show boat”
“Mutiny on the Bounty”
“Red Badge of Courage “
“West Side Story”
“Meet Me in St. Louis"
“An American in Paris “- 1st trumpet plus trumpet solo
“Sing in the Rain”
“Anchors Away “
“Zigfeild Follies “
“Easter Parade “
“Take me out to the Ball Game “
“Annie gets your Gun “
“Show Boat “
“Guys and Dolls “
“Man of La Manchu “– 1965 version
“A Funny Thing happened on the way to the Forum “
“The unsinkable Molly Brown “
“That Entertainment parts I, II and III
“Pennies form Heaven “
“Victor / Victoria
And the most famous movie trumpet solo
“Chinatown “– lead trumpet and “trumpet solo “under the direction of Jerry Goldsmith.

Mr goldsmith told Uan before recording the track,( the 1st trumpet / solo part didnt have a trumpet I, II, II or IV on it, it just said in the upper right hand corner " Uan Rasey " ) the movie is about sex, lies, betrayal and incest, things like that, play the solo that way”.

Dave, your right, just off the top of my head I could keep going for a couple more pages.

If you some of you didn’t know, Mr. Rasey was struck with polio in his late teens ( right after a road trip with Sunny Durham’s band ) and there after had to use crutches as a young man and eventually was bound to a wheel chair, but that never let that stop him or his busy work schedule. He took lessons for Louis Maggie in the late 30’s after developing scar tissue on his upper lip ( forcing him to take a month off ) and from then on used the biggest mouthpiece ( bigger than a Bach 1 , which he told me they don’t make them anymore ) until his retirement. Louis Maggio wanted to be the principal trumpet for the Detroit Symphony, but Uan decided to head out West. When I took lessons form him he was still playing and he used and Olds and a King trumpet.

Even after taking lessons from John Cayman , then first trumpet at 20th century , who told Uan to give up playing because he’s never make it. ( I also took lessons form John Clyman ) , Uan never had a bad thing to say about anyone and after making it to the pinnacle of the trumpet world, he actually helped John Cayman whenever he could. That’s the type of guy he is.

Uan was born in Glasgow, Montana on August 22, 1921 (making him 82 now) and is still inspiring young players with his wisdom. In 2001, Calicchio trumpets actually had Uan (which I don’t think ever played a Calicchio) give a clinic here in Los Angeles and he was as engaging as ever, staying way past the allotted time answering any questions the audience, ranging from which School Students to LA session veterans such as Tony Terrain, Maury Harris, Malcolm McNabb, Big Bing, Roy Poper, Pete and Conti Candela, Zeke Zarchey, Rick Baptist, etc.

This is as unique an individual as they come.

Here’s one thing he told me that I’ll never forget

Uan - “When you go somewhere you can either leave positive or negative energy, and by all means leave a positive one, it all starts with you "

Words to live by.

Larry

Mikey

Incredible post Larry.......

Thanks

Mike