EDWARDS GIVES

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azines and periodicals. We even made all the major newsreel movies throughout the country'

The ODJB followed Billy Sunday, famous evangelist, at the Century theatre. Who was booked to follow us? None other than the great Caruso! But the audience wanted the ODJB. To my mind, the greatest producer we ever worked for was Billy Rose. Rose was so thorough that he even knew the "corny" side. At rehearsal in Fort Worth, he stopped the band and said: "Eddie, put a little more schmere into that passage where we just stopped. Now, try it that way!" He was a man who listened and learned-and now, he was telling me how to play trombone! Billy Rose thought up the idea of having us broadcast from a plane up in the air. We went out to see the plane at the "Fiesta" grounds. It looked like the same one that Moisant used before he crashed up in Harahan, La. many years ago. It looked like it had been put together with silk paper, door panels, and spit! No, we did not make that broadcast from the air!

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Editor's Note: (Mr. Edwards has written such an interesting article, that we were hesitant to edit it to fit this one issue. Space does not permit us to squeeze it all in this issue, but we promise our readers that the rest will be forthcoming).

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JONES

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at the very height of their popularity they decided to pack up and return to America.

But it was only Nick La Rocca and Tony Sbarbaro that made the trip for the rest of the band stayed behind. Larry Shields decided on a holiday and straightaway left for Paris and the continent-he later returned to New York and again joined the band in the late winter of the same year. Emile Christian married an English girl and decided to settle down on the continent. Lastly Billy Jones, who after a period of fronting his own band at the Hammersmith Palais de Danse, laterly became ",,vine host" at the "Cross Keys" Chelsea, London. Billy is still very keen on what he calls the old ragtime stuff and if any of you, wherever you may come from, like to call on him he will be more than glad to see you and maybe, if you urge him enough, you may be able to get him on that piano upstairs to play you some old favorites of the Original Dixieland Band era.

Nick LaRocca gave Tony Sbarbaro the name of "Spargo". When he first arrived in Chicago, we rode the elevated railway. Tony didn't like it, and drew his neck into his coat, turtlefashion, to avoid looking below as another "L" rattled by. But Tony had some wonderful ideas. Once he thought of sending some snow to New Orleans-in a matchbox!

At the Follies Bergere in New York, Norman Spear, a patron, had a stunt which he believed would gain us much publicity. He wanted $100 for his idea: we were to play jazz music for the wild animals in the zoo! After much haggling, the stunt finally went through. Four newspapers sent out advance notices and photos. and coverage was made by every daily paper in New York, Brooklyn. Newark, Jersey City, Long Island, and many mag

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-THE SECOND LINE,- SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1955

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