Ruminations about Eliot Junior High  -- Jack Truher

Keith LaMotte and I are writing after seeing a book review on a musician famous from 1936-1954, Artie Shaw. Other Eliot classmates may find the connections interesting.

When we Eliot kids arrived at Eliot Junior High from everywhere else, it was all a mystery.  But we were delighted and amuzed by Rhythm Kings and other musical groups, with the likes of Keith LaMotte and other talented musicians.  The dances at the Altadena country club were puzzling for being so all grown up, but it were still a great trip.  Thanks for all that music, Keith.  I wondered, "How did that get started?" Who knows how far back in years?


However all that dance music came to be, must have included considerable inspiration from groups such as Artie Shaw's.  I remember reading in the student Elioteer in an interview with lead musicians then that "having my own band" was a frequently chosen career path.  I wondered about that at the time.  I learned just today that  Artie Shaw stopped playing in 1954, according to a new book.   Maybe he saw Keith coming.

I asked about the same time how the Eliot gymnastics team had won the city championship for the previous 30 years.  I was told that was because there was a tradition of the Eliot seniors tutoring younger athletes, a pattern never done quite as well at the other schools.

Who would think it would be so easy to find Artie Shaw still now all over youTube

with "Stardust sounding" just like the radio in the 40s.

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Subject: Re: Artie Shaw & the Rhythm Kings

From: "Dr. Gretchen Janssen"

Date: Sun, 02 May 2010 18:07:33 -0400

To: Jack Truher

Hi, Jack,

Glad you changed direction and shared this with all of us.  I knew next to nothing about Artie Shaw so you filled a gap in my education!  Fascinating.  I also loved seeing the photos!!  Good stuff.

Hope all is well with you.

Gretchen

PS  I just saw the equally fascinating article on Altadena where I was born and grew up for my first 13 years about two blocks from Christmas Tree Lane and thereafter across from the Altadena Town and Country Club.  I remember lots of the places mentioned but had never heard of the Balian Estate.  Very interesting; makes me want to come back and go to all those places!

Thanks again. 

Gretchen

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Three Chords for Beauty's Sake    The Life of Artie Shaw
book review    By Tom Nolan        (W.W. Norton; 430 pages; $29.95)

reviewed by Ted Gioia, Special to The Chronicle

Sunday, May 2, 2010    San Francisco Chroicle

I'm not sure how many people younger than 30 would even recognize the name Artie Shaw these days. Yet Shaw was not only the most famous musician in the United States on the eve of World War II, but he also virtually invented the modern concept of the celebrity. True, other performers enjoyed popularity and a large following before this clarinetist became the hottest entertainer in America, but more than any other musician of his day, Shaw anticipated the later cult celebrityhoods of Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, Michael Jackson and other megastars.

Much like today's pop idols behaving badly, Shaw became almost more famous for what he broke up and destroyed - bands, marriages, relationships - than for the masterpieces he created. With Shaw, we also encounter the blurring between public and private life so familiar to fans of today's stars. Above all, Shaw set the pattern for future celebrities in his paradoxical stance toward the media, which he both scorned and manipulated with the same virtuosity he brought to his clarinet.

Now Tom Nolan tries to tell the story of this mercurial life in his new biography, "Three Chords for Beauty's Sake." Shaw presents challenges to any would-be biographer. First of all, the musician left behind a well-known personal account, the eccentric and rambling book "The Trouble With Cinderella," and no fewer than three of his ex-wives published their own memoirs. A researcher today might want to second-guess these firsthand narratives, but given the fact that Shaw was born 100 years ago - the centennial of his birth takes place on May 23 - few are still living who can contradict the surviving documents.

But the bigger challenge here is where to find a balanced approach to such a polarizing figure. Ted Hallock, who worked with Shaw on a lengthy radio project, told the biographer: "He's got to have been the most selfish man who ever lived."

"Artie was probably the most egocentric person I've known," adds the artist's own son Jonathan. Yet countless people - not just the eight wives, most of them well-known celebrities themselves, but also the millions of fans - succumbed to the appeal of the man, and the emotional power of his music.

I've seen other biographers stymied by such complex figures, with the result that they either get caught up in tawdry gossip or else settle for shallow hero worship. But Nolan does an admirable job in avoiding both extremes, and instead somehow manages to capture all the sides of this multifaceted figure.

We get the rags-to-riches story of the youngster, born as Arthur Arshawsky, the son of poor immigrants who became the great bandleader with movie-star looks. We also follow the drama of his later relationships, including the passion and conflicts with spouses Ava Gardner and Lana Turner. Yet Nolan does not neglect the body of Shaw's work, as he guides us through the tremendous period from 1935 through 1954 when Shaw made recordings that still delight fans today.

Even before he became a household name, Shaw had impressed fellow musicians with his exceptional clarinet work, and was in constant demand as a sideman, session player and, finally, leader of his own orchestra. Then Shaw's 1938 recording of "Begin the Beguine" became a runaway hit and allowed him to charge $10,000, an astronomical sum in those days, for a week's engagement at a theater. Yet, at the peak of his fame, Shaw startled fans by disbanding, and heading off to Mexico. But this retreat from the public eye was just a cat-and-mouse game for Shaw, and before long he was back with more huge hits, including his immensely popular performances of "Frenesi" and "Stardust."

Breaking up the band and the marriage would serve as repeating patterns for Shaw. He also called it quits on his orchestra in 1941 and again in 1942. Despite his constant complaints about the indignities of the musician's life, he kept coming back for more, until his final retirement from performing in 1954. As his final recordings make clear, Shaw was still at the top of his game. Yet, though he would live another half century, he would never again play the clarinet in public.

Nolan follows Shaw's trail over the ensuing decades. Even after ending his performing career, Shaw did not give up his ambitions. At various stages, he planned to be a novelist, a sharpshooter, a dairy farmer and a movie mogul, among other pursuits. Finally, Shaw returned to the stage in the 1980s, but only as a conductor, with the clarinet left untouched. "Three Chords for Beauty's Sake" follows Shaw's various zigzags with aplomb, and Nolan shifts gears adeptly in pursuit of his subject. The book is well paced and never lags, while the author addresses everything from litigation to personal rivalries with fairness and a deft touch.

Toward the end of his life, Shaw grumbled about the impossibility of making sense of his personal odyssey. "I don't know a damn thing," he lamented. "I don't know what it's about. The longer I live the more mysterious it all is." Tom Nolan deserves credit for penetrating this mystery, and making sense of a turbulent life that even Artie Shaw himself had given up on explaining.

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