[Harp-L] Harmonicas in the news, sort of.

[Mick Zaklan]

   Rarely do I see the harmonica mentioned in any context in my daily
newspaper.  For some reason, there were two separate references yesterday.
The first was in a piece about a South American collector.  Apparently
authorities found a secret room in his house or office devoted to Nazi
memorabilia.  Mixed in with swastika jewelry, Hitler busts and statues, and
a magnifying glass purportedly used by Hitler, was a box of harmonicas.  I
assume they Hohners from that period.  Don't know why they were mentioned,
unless they were embossed with some sort of Nazi insignia.  There was also
a package of propaganda stuff designed for children, so maybe the
harmonicas were also used to entice kids.  I thought back to my first
harmonica, which I got for participating in a "wheel barrel" race during a
Serbian picnic.  I must have been 12 or 13.  It quickly got clogged with
sand and thrown away.  Had I stuck with it, I would have had a 6 year head
start on the instrument.  I also flashed on how uncomfortable it must have
been for the Hohner people during that period to know that your leading
harmonica endorser or promoter was a Jew named Larry Adler.
   The second harmonica reference was in an article about the new version
of "The Gong Show".  Apparently, a disguised Mike Myers is the emcee and
one of the acts features a woman who manages to play the harmonica with a
tarantula spider in her mouth.  Is there time to get her for Tulsa?
   Neither of these stories really elevates our instrument beyond novelty
or toy status.  But, as Joe Leone once remarked to me, the harmonica is
often used on screen as the soundtrack for buffoonish, primitive behavior.
Somebody doing "donuts" in a parking lot with a souped-up car or a guy in
bib overalls moonshining in the middle of the woods.  Etc.,etc.  People
with kazoos, sliding whistles, and comb and tissue paper used to handle
these chores.  Now the harmonica players seem to have it all to themselves.

Mick Zaklan