[Harp-L] Toots

[Mick Zaklan]

Hey Winslow,
   Here's an interesting story you might be aware of already.  I spotted it
a couple of days ago while reading a fascinating new book by Brad Tolinski
and Alan di Perna titled "Play It Loud".  It's a history of the electric
guitar.
   Seems the Rickenbacker guitar company wanted to get a jump on their
competitors and score an endorsement deal with a new group called the
Beatles.  The owner, his wife, and a regional sales rep set up a suite at a
hotel near where the group was staying prior to their first appearance on
the Ed Sullivan Show:

"It was similar to the kind of hotel-room marketing displays they were
creating for trade shows at the time, only for a much more select audience
in this instance.  Cognizant of how much was riding on the occasion, Hall
had even engaged Belgian jazz guitarist and harmonica player Toots
Thielemans to entertain the lads from Liverpool.  Thielemans's use of
Rickenbacker guitars was what had influenced Lennon's purchase of one of
the company's instruments back in Hamburg."

Mick Zaklan