Uke sighting

Watching the Odd Couple ,old TV series, Felix had put together a band. Murry appeared to have a tenor uke. Odd, to see a uke in a show from that time period.

Not so odd that was the whole Tiny Tim, Don Ho era.

Your post brings up one of my fondest memories. I was a prop man in the movies studios in Hollywood from 1978 to 2006. Around 1980 I worked on a TV pilot at Paramount starring Al Molinaro (he played Murray the cop) and Lyle Waggoner (from The Carol Burnett Show and creator/owner of the biggest company in the country that rents travel dressing room and trailers to productions, Star Waggons).

During rehearsal one day, the producers were not happy with the script, so they told everyone to relax for a couple of hours. Within a few minutes Al brought out his ukulele and started playing, which inspired Lyle to bring out his harmonica. They started to jamb (both very good) and very soon the casting directing stepped and did a soft shoe along with them (he was a dancer in his younger days). This went on for about an hour and the entire crew gathered around, it was great.

(Addendum: At that time I was five or so years past trying to play harmonica, the instructions never made sense to me. After the jamb, I sat down next to Lyle and told him how I can't get the hang of the harmonica. He said he would show me how the person he learned from showed him. He said he needed my hand, so I put it out and he put the side of my hand into his mouth and played it like playing the harmonica. Wow, that was all I needed, I took out my harmonica and within minutes was playing "On Top of Old Smokey". One of the greatest music moments I've ever had.)

Ukulelerick9255 said:

Not so odd that was the whole Tiny Tim, Don Ho era.

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No wanting to start any arguments, but I thought if Tiny Tim, my recolection was that he was considered an analomy in the general entertainment sphere at that time. For got all about Don Ho at that time.

Never thought the post could do so much good. That is really neat.