An old acquaintance not forgotten

Ontario's Guy Lombardo Museum recalls how sweet it was

Author: By Dick Meister, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, December 28, 1997

Page: M1

Section: Travel

That's the hometown of Guy and the other Lombardos of the long-defunct Royal Canadian Orchestra, whose music will be forever linked to New Year's Eve. It's sure to be heard, through the orchestra's recordings and performances by admiring imitators, during this year's partying, just as it's been heard at New Year's celebrations for a half-century.

The museum's collection of photographs, paintings, posters, sheet music, record jackets, newspaper clippings, books, plaques, trophies, and more, trace the phenomenal career of orchestra leader Lombardo. He clearly was one of the world's most successful popular musicians and clearly London's favorite son.

One of Lombardo's scarlet tuxedo jackets, gold Royal Canadian crest on the breast pocket, is fitted to a clothing dummy at a far end of the museum's single floor. From the opposite end, a life-size cutout of the maestro in full orchestra regalia smiles warmly on visitors.

Recorded sounds of the Royal Canadians waft from a tall, polished radio, circa 1940, that stands near the entrance. The flow of soothing, bouncy tunes, the beat and rhythm of gently swinging saxophones, muted trumpets and dulcet voices is broken only by occasional recorded interviews of Lombardo by Arthur Godfrey and other radio personalities of his day.

Although he's been dead since 1977, many people still buy and play his records, just as many others continue to deride them as banal -- music so soft, one critic complained, ``you could even hear a mashed potato drop.''

That, however, was just the point, as a note in the museum explains: ``Guy kept his music self-consciously simple and low key . . . music to dance cheek-to-cheek to. . . . `We play for lovers, not acrobats,' he once announced almost disdainfully.''

Don't forget, either, that some of Lombardo's most popular tunes, written by his brother and lead singer, Carmen, were used as advanced musical vehicles by others. Louis Armstrong's recording of Carmen's ``Sweethearts on Parade,'' for instance, is among the greatest of all jazz recordings.

Like it or not, there's no denying the music's immense popularity -- or that of the thoroughly likable man whom the unique museum honors.

Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians introduced more than 300 songs and sold more than 300 million records over their half-century of music-making. No other dance band has even come close to those totals.

It all began in 1924. That's when 22-year-old violinist Guy Lombardo and two of his brothers, who had been playing in a band formed by their Italian father shortly after he immigrated to Canada, went to Cleveland to play as the Royal Canadians. They later moved to Chicago and finally, in 1929, to New York City and global fame. The orchestra, eventually including all seven of the Lombardo children and some of their children, played in New York for more than 40 years, first at the Roosevelt Grill, later at the Waldorf Astoria.

New York, of course, was the site of the famous New Year's Eve celebrations featuring Lombardo's orchestra that were broadcast throughout the United States and Canada for three decades. As another museum note says, ``It was not New Year's Eve if North America didn't hear Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians at midnight'' -- playing, naturally, ``Auld Lang Syne.''

Lombardo was a particular favorite of US presidents. His music, after all, took pretty much the same approach as they did. It was smack in the mainstream, designed to appeal to as many people as possible. His orchestra, royal and Canadian though it might have been, played at the inaugural balls of seven presidents -- Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter.

Guy Lombardo was not only a champion musician. As several museum exhibits attest, he also was a champion speedboat racer, winning every major US trophy in the sport before two serious accidents led him to retire from racing in 1948.

Lombardo eventually became a US citizen, but he never forgot his roots. He and the Royal Canadians returned regularly for performances in London and other Ontario cities. He played a major role in London's centennial celebration in 1955 and returned for special honors in 1971, when he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Western Ontario. He celebrated by conducting the school band at his old high school.

A 20-minute video outlines those and other aspects of Guy Lombardo's life, showing him to have been a gracious and modest man despite his great celebrity and wealth.

The last words are his, a familiar message: ``A Happy New Year everybody . . . a Happy New Year!'' There can be no doubt he meant it.