[Trombone-l] Clams

[Bill Dinwiddie]

A friend of mine who used to work in the pit band of the Chicago Theater in 
the old vaudeville days told me a story about Rafael Mendez. Mendez was, at 
that time, touring as a solo act and he came to play the Chicago Theater. In 
those days they would start the first show at about 9:00 AM, and then they 
ran a movie, then another show at maybe 12:00, and so on all the way to the 
last show at about 10:00 PM. They did this every day for maybe two weeks, 
when they would change the acts. Mendez was playing unbelievably difficult 
music..lots of violin transcriptions, etc. After the two weeks was over, no 
one in the band could remember having heard Mendez make a mistake...not one! 
In between the shows, all the guys in the band would leave the theater to go 
get a drink, or something to eat, or maybe have a card game. Not Mendez. He 
would go into a back room, close the door and practice all the way up until 
the next show, then come back downstairs after his act and practice some 
more until the end of the last show that night. No one seems to know if he 
then went back to his hotel and practiced with a mute or not. It's possible.

Bill Dinwiddie
billdin at comcast.net