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We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us ! ~ Pogo ~
By Bill Reddie
The following true story is about negative attitude, questionable intent, ignorance, egoism and how all of the foregoing, collectively or separately can cause communication to falter and eventually collapse. It's retelling here illustrates how negative human interaction can trigger subconscious reaction patterns that often contribute to misunderstanding, anxiety and stress.
On a brighter note ... the story also reveals how quickly a stormy and stressful situation may be constructively resolved by a positive change in attitude, a more empathic consideration of others and a genuine desire to make matters right.
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Back in the mid-50's and 60's, I was living and working in Las Vegas as a young composer-arranger-orchestrator, a profession that provided an enduring creative outlet and brought me in contact with many people in the entertainment industry. Most of the Vegas hotel showroom orchestras of that period were filled with excellent musicians from Los Angeles, New York or elsewhere and hearing one's music performed by them was often an exciting experience.
The great and near-great of show-business regularly performed in every major hotel showroom. Dancers, Singers, Actors, Magicians, Jugglers, Comedians, the Big Bands...you name it...all eventually passed through Vegas. Some liked the town so much they decided to move there permanently. I was one of those people.
Another who moved there during that period was an orchestra conductor from New York by the name of Antonio who had been hired as Musical Director for the Sands Hotel. His waxed moustache, wavy white hair and autocratic demeanor gave one the impression of someone who had been lifted out of the 19th century and somehow plunked down in Vegas. It was an image he proudly maintained.
However, that image crumbled considerably after Frank Sinatra referred to him as "Chef Boyardi". Unfortunately for Antonio, the moniker stuck and followed him everywhere thereafter.
His superior attitude often caused musicians and performers to react in one of two ways....with anger or laughter....the latter being most distasteful to him. At that point in time, I think he actually believed himself to be superior to others.
His appearance on the Vegas scene was not well received by certain musicians who remembered him from previous encounters in New York. Of course, I knew nothing of his reputed background and assumed that most of the complaints were merely exaggerated rumor. In any event, it wasn't long before our paths crossed.
My first encounter with him occurred one afternoon during an orchestra rehearsal at the Sands. I had been writing music for the Sands showroom production numbers for more than a year prior to Antonio's arrival and the rehearsal had been scheduled to allow him to become familiar with the music of the current show.
However, the rehearsal quickly soured as he proceeded to impose his negative attitude, will and opinion upon everything and everyone. The situation was becoming more stressful by the moment.
He intensely disliked being called Tony and insisted that everyone address him as Antonio which created a strong perverse desire in most of the musicians to do otherwise. Needless to say, things were not going well.
At that time, most of the production music at the Sands was written in swing-jazz style...a style that at the very least, demanded consistency from the rhythm section and really didn't require much "conducting" per se. All that was needed was for someone to start the production music in the correct tempo and then stop the orchestra at the end. However, Tony would have none of that.
During his initial rehearsal he proceeded to insert arbitrary tempo changes into the music such as rubato ( having certain notes arbitrarily lengthened while others are correspondingly shortened or vice versa), accelerando ( causing notes to gradually increase in speed )...all of which was intended to give him something to 'conduct' and appear important.
Of course, these changes were totally alien to the swing-jazz style and created pandemonium, not to mention laughter among the musicians.
He gave no consideration to the dancers and showgirls who had been performing to the original music for some time prior to his arrival on the scene. They were not present for this particular rehearsal so they had no warning of the chaotic experience that awaited them come show-time.
The band was due for a 10 minute break. While they were gone, I told Tony he was completely messing up the production and to get lost along with his stupid ideas. This provoked a rather loud argument during which Tony finally asked the Entertainment Director who was present and observing the disagreement, to settle the matter.
The Entertainment Director looked at me and said, "Have you been paid for your work?" I replied, "Yes sir", to which he answered, "Then you have nothing more to say." I thought, "Wo-o!....I'm up against something here that can only lead to more problems." ( I had heard that Tony and the ED had mob connections.) Ultimately, I left the hotel and refused to write any more music for their shows.
In those days, the Sands presented their shows twice nightly and the orchestra was also required to play dance music between each show. Tony realized that he did not have enough music to fill up an hour so he contacted me and asked me to write more dance arrangements. I refused. I wanted nothing to do with his royal pomposity. He persisted for days on end, and I refused as many times... but eventually I agreed.
At the time, he was living in a motel not far from the Sands and as each new arrangement was completed, I would deliver it to him there. However, on one such occasion he wasn't in his room so I went to the motel manager and asked him to allow me to enter Tony's room so I could place the arrangement on the bed and he would know it had been delivered.
The manager let me in, I put the arrangement on the bed and as I was leaving, noticed a drafting table had been set up in the room and what was on it completely shocked me.
Tony's intent was more than questionable. What he was doing fell under the heading of outright plagiarism. He was copying note for note, all of the production music I had previously written for the Sands, from my original scores to a miniature score for his own files.
Previously, I had been warned by a friend that this was an old trick used by another New York conductor who would tell performers who had a musical orchestration problem, "Don't worry...I'll write an arrangement for you that will work"...and then he'd go to his ill-gotten files where he 'lifted' 4 bars here, 8 bars there and eventually compiled an arrangement he called his own and for which he billed the performer.
Well, that did it for me. I refused to write another note for Tony and whenever we crossed paths around town, I thoroughly ignored his presence. This treatment was really too much for his ego.
Finally, one night (approx. 2 years later) I was crossing the parking lot of the Desert Inn Hotel and I heard someone calling my name...It was Tony and in his typical authoritative manner he said, "Bill!...It's been exactly 2 years, 3 months and 5 days since you refused to write for me. Tell me...would you possibly reconsider?"
This cracked me up and I started to laugh. I said " Sorry, Tony. I can't do it. I've too much work as it is" (which was true). Months later, Tony suffered several small strokes. He was still trying to conduct but was having trouble. At the time I was doing a lot of work with my partner in Hollywood and one of our clients ( a girl singer I was then writing for ) was scheduled to appear at the Sands.
That day arrived and we were well into the singer's initial rehearsal when Tony approached me and in a display of total remorse and humility said, "Bill...I know we have had our differences in the past and I just want to tell you how very sorry I am".
Surprised by his positive change of attitude, I replied, "Antonio, what happened is no longer important. It's as good as forgotten, so don't be concerned any longer". From that day forward I referred to him as Antonio.
His physical condition gradually worsened and about a year later he asked me to relieve him as Musical Director of the Sands. I agreed, and during that period we got to know each other quite well.
We had many philosophical discussions wherein I discovered a totally different person than the one who, earlier, had created such an aggravating display of pompous bravado and authoritative control. Instead, he had somehow morphed into a sensitive, knowledgeable and thoughtful person.
His physical condition continued to disintegrate and he became more forgetful of names, places and certain words....a condition he found very distracting. One day while in the Sands lobby, I heard my name paged and answered the phone. It was a very disturbed Antonio. He said, "I've been having a lot of dreams about all the people I've mistreated and I don't know what to do about it. Can you offer an explanation why this is happening?"
I don't know why the thought occurred at that moment but I remember thinking, "Oh-oh.. this guy is starting to play back all his "tapes" and preparing to pass on." After a long pause, I hoped I would say the right thing.
What came out was, "Antonio, the past is gone, the future isn't here yet, so that leaves us with now. You are no longer the same person you were in the past and today you would not do such things." This seemed to help him. A few weeks later, he passed away.
I learned a lot from my association with Antonio. If required to briefly sum up, I would have to say that people can and do change...sometimes drastically ( including yours truly ) and it's best not to judge others too quickly...for in the final analysis, we all teach each other.
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Postscript:
Here's an interesting side-note regarding Antonio's purported mob ties:
I happened to be in New York for a recording session. My agent and I were having dinner at that great prime rib restaurant in the old Forrester Hotel. I knew his job sometimes brought him in contact with certain mob people in the entertainment industry and although he wasn't one of them, I thought he might be able to find out if Antonio's mob ties were fact or fiction.
So, I asked him if he could find out why no one had ever been able to successfully remove Antonio from the Sands ( there had been many unsuccessful attempts to have him replaced ). He said, "Sure.... as a matter of fact here comes a guy I know." He hailed the guy and described the information he needed. The guy listened and in typical bent-nose fashion growled, "Gimme a week".
About a week later word came back that Antonio couldn't be touched. As the story goes, Antonio's father had done a big favor for someone in the mob many years previously and Antonio's position at the Sands was part of the payback.
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Bill Reddie is the owner of Channel 1 Records, a company that has been producing music for stress relief and stress management since 1972. Further information regarding the beneficial effects of music and its potential for relieving stress, anxiety and burnout may be found at: http//www.channel1records.com
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