GEORGIE AULD

given name John Altwerger

birthdate 5/19/1919

birthplace Toronto, Ontario, Canada

father Jacob Altwerger, 8/10/1888-7/31/1962

mother Anna “Annie” Rosen Altwerger, 1889?-7/5/1944?

brother Benjamin Mark “Benny” / Ben” Altwerger, 8/27/1910-2/1993

sister Belle “Bella” Nettie Hootnick, 5/3/1912-3/23/2009

brother Barney Altwerger, 5/3/1916-3/29/2011

nephew Stanley Bernard Auld, 5/29/1931-1/14-2015

first wife Mary Francis Tullis Williamson, 3/1920-?, m.3/10/1942

military service U.S. Army, autumn 1942 to summer 1943

second wife Maybelle Tomlinson, 1926-1965

third wife Evelyn R. Elkins Lancaster, 1913~14?-1993, m.3/25/1965

fourth wife Diane A. Richards-Auld, 1/4/1929-3/29/1995, m.4/23/1972

height 5’8”

weight 145

hair color black

eye color brown

date of death 1/8/1990

place of death Palm Springs, California

cause of death lung cancer

“Sax Appeal” After his parents gave him an alto saxophone, he would entertain guests in their family saloon in Toronto. According to a close friend, he couldn’t read the printed notes on a page, but was able to improvise musically after hearing only piano chords.

In 1931, he visited the U.S. with his parents and received some music lessons from winning a scholarship named for the saxophonist Rudy Wiedoft. A few years later, inspired by Coleman Hawkins, he learned the tenor saxophone.

He was able to blow the tenor so excitingly that several famous leaders - namely Bunny Beri-gan, Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman - invited him to join their bands, and his full-toned playing helped to bring a new level of excitement and expression to each of those groups.

Georgie Auld’s draft registration card, 1940

an added notation reports that his name was legally changed to George Auld

publicity photograph of Georgie Auld, 1940

He actually took over Shaw’s sidemen in late 1939, billed as “Georgie Auld and his Artie Shaw

Orchestra,” but, for a couple of reasons, that was doomed so he organized his own big band.

Auld continued to play with gusto, and explored new sounds in jazz. Critic-author Leonard

Feather referred to Auld’s 1943 ensemble as “a manic bunch of youthful beboppers.”

They appeared across the country, including an engagement which started on February 3,

1944 at the Commodore Hotel in New York City.

Here is a photo of Auld having a laugh with Billy Eckstine that year:

Reportedly due to “agency problems,” Auld’s band broke up in December 1944.

However, over the next few years, he tried again a couple of times, organizing a new band

which performers for dancers at, for example, Eastwood Gardens in Denver, Colorado and

Meyers Lake Park in Canton, Ohio in the fall of 1945.

The band recorded at various times for the Apollo, Guild, and Musicraft labels. For example, a

recording session in New York City on October 23, 1945 included Let’s Jump, written and

arranged by trumpeter Al Killian:

Sometimes he used his big road band on the discs, and other times fronted small pickup

groups with, among others, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Erroll Garner contributing solos.

Other musicians who were on those performances included, at various times, Sonny Berman,

Charlie Shavers, Howard McGhee, Billy Butterfield, and Al Porcino (trumpets); Trummy Young,

John D’Agostino, and George Arus (trombones); Musky Ruffo, Al Cohn, Manny Albam, and Serge

Chaloff (saxophones); Morris Rayman or Israel Crosby or Chubby Jackson or Doc Goldberg

(bass); Mike Bryan or Turk Van Lake (guitar); and Lou Fromm or Specs Powell or Shadow Wilson

or Irv Kluger (drums).

Metronome magazine even declared Auld’s as the “band of the year,” but not long afterwards

declining business conditions forced him to lead smaller combos or perform as a soloist from then

on.

Auld’s biggest commercial successes on records were, arguably, a series of ballads that he

played on the Coral label from 1951-55, such as Manhattan, Tenderly, and Misty, accompanied by

a large studio orchestra and group of voices.

He led a big band of all-stars on two LPs recorded in high-fidelity for EmArcy in 1955 and

1956. Besides other familiar melodies, the albums offered new arrangements of Frankie and

Johnnie and The Prisoner’s Song, a pair of tunes which Auld had once played with Bunny

Berigan.

Throughout his life, Auld also gained notoriety from a couple of supportive acting roles.

In “The Rat Race,” a 1949 Broadway play about a musician and a dance hall hostess, he

portrayed a saxophonist. (“The Rat Race” was later made into a motion picture featuring Tony

Curtis and Debbie Reynolds. Auld wasn’t in the film, but fellow saxophonists Sam Butera and

Gerry Mulligan were.)

In 1971, Auld worked for Garson Kanin in “Idiot’s Delight,” with Jack Lemmon, at the

Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

For the 1977 movie release “New York, New York,” which starred Robert DeNiro and Liza

Minnelli, Auld taught DeNiro how to hold the saxophone and depress its keys for the cameras but

he played the sax solos on the soundtrack. He also appeared in the film as a (fictitious)

bandleader named “Frankie Harte.”

A few stills from “New York, New York” are shown here:

Though he enjoyed acting, music remained Auld’s primary focus.

He owned and operated his own club, the “Georgie Auld on Times Square” bar in New York

City, worked on the staff at MGM Studios in Hollywood, and - as did a number of instrumentalists

of his generation - began performing overseas. For instance, he went to Japan eight times during

the late 1950s and early 1960s, and to Europe in 1962.

All the while, employment in the U.S. from the ‘60s on proved somewhat spotty, though he

occasionally performed around Los Angeles with a quartet during the 1980s..

He took a variety of gigs in Las Vegas, served as conductor for Tony Martin in 1967 (touring

Europe and South America), and was a sideman in the band on comedian Flip Wilson’s TV show.

He continued to visit Japan, where, by 1975, he had recorded some 15 albums, many of them

quite well-received over there.

Auld’s final American recordings, besides the soundtrack work for “New York, New York,”

included Don’t Explain, heard in “Lady Sings the Blues,” a 1972 film biography which cast pop

singer Diana Ross as jazz legend Billie Holiday, and Song of India / Disco Boogie, a 12” single

done in 1976 for the D&M Sound label.

Christopher spoke with him briefly on the telephone around 1982 and tentatively set up an

interview - but it didn’t happen. Perhaps he preferred to continue working on his autobiography,

titled Where Do I Go From Here?, with co-author Bruce Fessier.

Fessier had started covering arts and entertainment in the Coachella Valley in 1979. He stated

that Auld “commissioned” him to write his autobiography, explaining “He had a producer watching

to see how it did while considering it for a film, so Georgie said ‘Pass-adena’ when we could only

get interest from a university press.”

With such a variety of career and life experiences, Auld’s book would have been an interesting

read, but it evidently was never published.

Well, there’s always print articles, like this one from a mid-’40s Bandleaders magazine:

SOURCE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“1921 Census of Canada,” Ancestry.com.

“Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960,” Ancestry.com.

“California Death Index, 1940-1997,” Ancestry.com.

Leonard Feather. “Auld, Georgie,” in The Encyclopedia of Jazz (New York City: Horizon

Press, 1955), p.106.

- - - . “Auld, Georgie” in The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies (New York City:

Horizon Press, 1976), p.56.

- - - . “Jazz: Auld Times Revisited in Big Band Movie,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 5, 1976, p.J78.

Bruce Fessier. “After 40 Years at The Desert Sun, writer-editor Bruce Fessier can say

he did it his way,” Palm Springs [ CA ] Desert Sun, June 6, 2019.

Find A Grave (findagrave.com).

Burt A. Folkart. “Georgie Auld, 70; Self-Taught Saxophonist,” Los Angeles Times,

Jan. 11, 1990, p.26.

Charles Garrod and Bill Korst. Georgie Auld and His Orchestra (Zephyrhills, FL:

Joyce Record Club, 1992).

“Georgie Auld,” in Karpan Family Tree, ancestry.com.

Jack Mirtle. The Music of Billy May: A Discography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998),

pp.370-373.

Popa Family Collection.

Tony Shoppee. Liner notes, “Georgie Auld and His Orchestra: ‘jump, Georgie, jump,”

Hep (UK) CD 27, 1996.

IMAGE ATTRIBUTION

Discogs.com (discogs.com)

Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive, Carnegie Museum of Art (cmoa.org), Pittsburgh, PA

George Hocutt

Jefferson Travis Radio Corporation

Malaco Music Group

MGM

Popa Family Collection

Universal Music Group