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

[Ken H in Ohio]

Looks like the new Gong Show is on tonight !

Not sure if this is the night for the woman playing harmonica with a
tarantula in her mouth...

I wonder if the tarantula is a tongue blocker or lip purser/pucker player ?

Ken H in OH

On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 12:24 PM, Mick Zaklan <mzaklan at xxxxx> wrote:
>    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