[78-L] Alec Templeton

[DAVID BURNHAM]

In 1956, I had the opportunity to see Alec Templeton, (who, I thought at the time, made TRCs, whatever they are or were), in Massey Hall.  He put on a fun show as a guest of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.  In one segment of the concert, he asked the audience to give him some musical notes, and then he asked for some names of composers in whose style he would perform a tune made up of the notes.  Well even at the age of 13, it struck me that you didn't have to be too clever to pick out the notes and composers you want when 2500 people are calling out every note in the chromatic scale and every composer of note from the last 300 years.

He, in his last years, may have been comparable to the young Victor Borge who appeared on 78s but I think as he became more polished, VB was far more clever and spontaneous.  I met and worked with Borge in 1984 and I took that opportunity to have him autograph the 78 album.  He said he hoped they weren't the most recent of his records that I owned.

db