[Harp-L] Hypocritical Harmonicists

[Emily Keene]

Though I'd never choose his life as a template for my own, I very much
enjoyed Larry Adler's autobiography, as much for his insights into show
business than anything else. I found that once I accepted hypocrisy as part
of the human condition it gave me a lot more time to fume indignantly about
everything else in the world. The days of the "Red Scare" and the Blacklist
were pretty devastating for those they affected and their families (I know
some of their family members), and a lot of folks that weren't that
ideologically sophisticated found themselves cast as political pariahs.
Everybody has to pick their own fights, and you won't get far if you try to
fight every fight that needs fighting. That said, if you want to read a
good autobiography by my favorite swing-style harmonica player (and one who
seems like he was a genuinely good person), I recommend, "Goon With The
Wind", by Max Geldray, the Dutch harmonica player who played on the BBC's
"Goon Show". P.S. As good as Adler and Geldray were, I don't think either
of them had a patch on Ronald Chesney. -emily