[Harp-L] Toots

[Winslow Yerxa]

Thanks, Mick. I've heard several versions of this story, but this is the first that puts it in a trade-show context.
 
Winslow Yerxa
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition: ISBN 978-1-118-88076-0
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School
President emeritus, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica



________________________________
From: Mick Zaklan <mzaklan at xxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l at xxxxx>; Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa at xxxxx> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 11:48 AM
Subject: Toots



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