Also, George's hometown is Cleveland, Ohio....just only one of a handful champagne music makers to hail from the Buckeye State!
In 1962, he left from being an active member of the band to becoming a very valuable member of the Maestro's production staff....such as producing and writing!
But there are times he'll bring his trumpet out of mothballs and join the fellas for a nice Dixieland number once in a while!
6 comments:
Is George Thow still alive today? I have just discovered him and his use of the Mellophone on the show and was curious if he was still around and where he lives now.
my cousin george or GUS as he was knows played with LW until 82 then passed away in 1987.
I visited his home once in Hollywood as I recall he lived right next door to bob hope pretty cool cuz.
M Thow
Hi: I'm George Thow's oldest daughter, Linda Thow Ward. Yes, Dad is deceased and continued to be associated with the Welk organization until about 1982, mostly in the production end of the show after retiring from trumpet playing. You mentioned and interest in the melaphone: when Dad went to audition for Welk, all of the trumpet men were doubling on trombone. Dad didn't have a trombone but found an old melaphone which had been owned by his oldest brother and was played by him in the army in WWI. Armed with this relic, Dad went to play for Welk who was impressed with dixieland jazz being played on this unique instrument; however,he didn't like the fact that the bell faced backwards, forcing the sound into the curtains which were behind the band. He contracted with one of the brass manufacturing companies to build a melaphone with a "forward" facing bell. They named it the "Gusaphone" after Dad whose nickname was Gus. More bio info can be found at www.cleveland.oh.us/wmv_news/jazz78.htm.
BTW: M. Thow: how are you related to us?
Iwould like to say to Linda Thow and the rest of Gus Thow's family that I think he was a great trumpet player and I guess the Dorseys,Glen Miller,Benny Goodman and quite a few others must have thought so too.
Don Little
Hey Linda I can't find an email for you I am Mark Thow who posted earlier. My email is my name at hotmail dot com with no dashes or spaces. If you google my name you will see my linkedin profile as the number one link you can contact me there too
I come from the same Thow family in Aberdeen.Our common ancestors were Hugh Thow and Helen Adie. Their son James Thow was my GG grandfather. 3 of his brothers and 1 sister moved to Cleveland from Scotland. Funny thing is my mum , Shirley Thow, was born and raised in Newcastle UK and moved to Cleveland in the late 50's with my father who was an American airman in the UK in the 50's. I went to school with a couple of Thow girls from that line. I've met a few Thows from the family as well.
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