The show begins with a Beatles gag. Garry swats at bugs while a recording of “I
Want to Hold Your Hand” is played. The
Beatles would make their celebrated first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show
on February 9.
Victor G Hyde from Niles, Michigan: “I play 4 trumpets at the same
time”
“Vic” Hyde played with Woody Herman,
Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo’s bands, but spent most of his solo career
barnstorming across the country playing in fairs and schools. At one point he claimed to own 65 musical
instruments, including an eight-inch piccolo trumpet and a slide cornet.
F.E. Stefonowicz of Wildrose, North Dakota: “I keep 5 punching
bags going at the same time”
Seated inside
a specially designed frame, Stefonowicz hits two bags with his hands, two with
his knees and the fifth with his head, all of it set to music. This is part of a novelty act he performs at
fairs and talent shows. By profession,
he publishes the Wildrose Mixer, a tiny weekly newspaper which is one of the
few remaining hand-set newspapers in the country. Stefonowicz is seventy years old here, and
would remain active through the rest of the decade.
“Special guest” Norman Paris, the
show’s music director, plays a piano duet with himself. One part of this original composition is a
player piano roll that Paris arranged.
Paris performs the other half of the duet live on the same
instrument. Lawrence Cook of the Aeolian
Music Roll Company appears briefly. He
created the music roll that Paris uses.
Today he is considered the most prolific piano roll artist in the history
of that very specific art form. One of
the many companies he worked for, QRS Music, still makes music rolls today.
The final guest for a brief game is
Simon Argevitch, who appeared on the show in 1960 (
E393
). Back then, he smoked six cigars at the same
time while whistling. He has returned to
demonstrate that he’s now up to ten cigars.
By 1982, he could perform the same stunt with 17 going at once.
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