Reflections. Gary Italiaander

Dannecker, Hohner's Chief Mouthorgan Repairers in Europe, tuned and maintained Larry Adler’s harmonicas from the early 1950’s right up until his death in 2001.

      “Due to Larry’s busy performing, recording and touring schedule, his collection of harmonicas were in perpetual need of tuning and adjustment. Over these 50 or so years, I guess Willi and I must have completed more than 4000 of these overhauls to his three octave chromatic harmonicas”.

      “When my mouthorgans are out of tune I need Antony Dannecker, who besides being Chief Hohner Repairer, is also my friend”.

       Larry Adler

The War Years

      In 1943 Larry’s agent, Abe Lastfogel, was made head of the USO - The United Service Organization, providing live entertainment to US troops at military bases within the United States and overseas.

      Larry was invited to participate and jumped at the chance. In fact, even though he was booked to perform for a number of weeks in Chicago, he lied and said that he had been drafted for an overseas tour which allowed him to get out of the commitment.

      Once the USO tour was announced, Larry was contacted by the founder of the Chicago Sun to see if he would do a weekly dispatch for the newspaper. As he had always been keen to write, this provided the perfect opportunity and it was agreed that his fee would go to The Red Cross.

      It gave Larry the opportunity to travel widely all over the world entertaining the troops with Jack Benny and a host of other stars.

      It was during one of these tours that he first met Ingrid Bergman. Although married at the time to his first wife, Eileen Walser, it didn’t stop them from forming a close relationship with Larry considering whether his future was to be with Ingrid.

      Working on this project has unearthed some fascinating images from the period and I am extremely grateful that the holders of the images made them available for use with this publication.

      Larry with Ingrid Bergman, Jack Benny and US servicemen

      Larry with Ingrid Bergman on the balcony of the Reichskanzlei in Berlin 1945, Martha Tilton can be seen below.

      With kind permission of Joachim Kreck Film- und Fernsehproduktion

      Close-up of the previous image – Ingrid can be seen photographing Larry

      With kind permission of Joachim Kreck Film - und Fernsehproduktion

      During this visit to Berlin, Larry played The Battle Hymn of the Republic while Ingrid recited the Gettysburg Address.

      This, one of the most famous historical U.S speeches, was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, during the American Civil War, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, soon after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy (at Gettysburg).

      Jack Benny with Larry Adler – extracted from documentary film

      With kind permission of Joachim Kreck Film - und Fernsehproduktion

      A remarkable photograph!

      Ingrid Bergman, unknown officer, Jack Benny & Larry. Taken in the room in the bunker where Hitler committed suicide.

      With kind permission of Jonathan Shalit

      Larry had commented on occasions (and in his autobiography) that he considered himself a coward. I don’t know whether he really believed that to be so but things that happened to him and his response to these happenings indicate that this was not the case.

      One example of this refers to The Hohner factory - producer of the world famous harmonica, based at Trossingen in the Black Forest, Germany. During the war, being a German factory they were forced to work for the German war machine. At one point, Larry found himself based near Stuttgart on an overseas tour which was close to the Hohner factory. He didn’t want to pass up the chance to get some new instruments; by this stage it had become a French-occupied territory but getting permission to travel to the area would have taken some time. A pilot, hearing of the situation, told Larry that he was prepared to take him there immediately in a small plane he had access to. This was not easy as the war was still on. However, when they located a suitable place to land in a field nearby, they did so and were soon surrounded by French soldiers. It just happened that one of the soldiers played the mouthorgan, knew of Larry and escorted him to Hohner. The trip was a success and two senior members of the Hohner family who there at the time, were delighted to see him. He left Trossingen with many new harmonicas - or mouthorgans as Larry preferred to call them.

      The second, and very definite example of Larry’s strength of character refers to the dreadful period of American History known as McCarthyism.

      In brief, it was brought about by a real fear of Communism. Once Senator Joseph McCarthy introduced the concept that there was a real threat to US security caused by Communism, it started a ball rolling that caused great damage to many people, a number of whom ended up committing suicide. The FBI, under the leadership of J Edgar Hoover, also helped to develop the idea that many people needed to be side-lined, particularly in the entertainment industry. An advertisement from the period shows just how seriously this matter was taken as it was considered a danger to the American way of life.

      From Wikipedia

      Having lived in America in the late 60’s when I was a teenager and at High School, I was aware of the very strong anti-communist comments (that I heard in school) but felt that this had nothing to do with understanding what Communism was actually about.

      Larry documented exactly what happened to him and how it affected him personally in his autobiography. He was required to say whether or not he was a Communist and to name others that he knew were Communists, neither of which he was prepared to do, whatever the outcome for himself.

      He spoke to me about how terrible a period this was and the damage it did to many of his friends - all huge names in the world of entertainment. Like many others, Larry was ‘blacklisted’ and this meant that he could no longer work in America – people simply would not or could not offer him employment.

      Fortunately, he was already well-known internationally and what was happening in the States was of little interest abroad. When he was invited to visit London by C B Cochrane, who was the major name in entertainment in the UK, the opportunity was too good to turn down and Larry made London his new home.

      He rebuilt his life and continued to be a huge force in the world of music and entertainment, until the end of his life.

Larry’s passion for tennis

      What it was that originally captivated Larry’s interest in the game of tennis has not been possible to discover and unfortunately, it was a question I never thought to ask him!

      However, it was an interest that grew into a passion that led, it seems, to his playing every day where it was possible to do so.

      One of the earliest and best known stories is about how Larry received a phone call from his friend Charlie Chaplin inviting him to join a doubles game that had been arranged as one of the players had dropped out at the last moment. The person unable to make it that day was none other than a certain Bill Tilden who, with his incredible record, is considered