Visiting with Huell Howser is made possible through a generous grant from the Ralph M Parsons Foundation.

Well, hello, everybody.

I'm Huell Howser.

And here we are.

It's about 4:00 in the afternoon.

We've come to the Alex Theater and beautiful downtown Glendale.

And we have come here to get in the holiday spirit.

And if this doesn't do it, nothing will.

Now, we have gotten here early enough to attend the rehearsal.

We're going to get the best seats in the House and we are going to really blow it out today.

Get ready.

We're going to have a tuba Christmas.

All right.

Now, this is very exciting.

We didn't even get inside the theater before we met some of the participants in today's program.

Now, we really haven't given it away, but this gives it away right here.

Can you open that thing up and let's take a look at it here.

This is a euphonium Huell.

A euphonium?

Sure.

It's a it's a tenor tuba.

A tenor tuba, and you've got a same thing.

Okay, well, let's undo these things.

Now, this is what we, we kind of said it was a tuba Christmas.

Exactly.

Explain to me what that exactly means.

Well, we're all tuba players because there's these sort of like mini tubas.

Tubas come in different forms.

There's a big sousaphone you see in the marching bands that wrap that wrap around you.

Then there's the concert tubas that you look kind of like this.

Then there's the baritone or euphonium.

They come in different shapes and sizes.

So we're all the same family.

It's like a, you know, father son kind of thing.

So here's the.

Son.

So why?

Why is everybody always so excited?

Why tuba players are always smiling, always happy.

We're happy.

But it's a reason to get together and celebrate Christmas.

Uh huh.

The horn sounds beautiful.

Aha.

We get together and you see 200 plus tuba players.

It nice sounds.

It's a beautiful instruments.

You'll.

You'll love it.

You'll have a great time.

Now, aren't we supposed to.

Wait a minute?

Here comes a guy.

Come on over here, obviously.

Well, he might not be part of the program.

He might just be wandering around Glendale.

I don't know.

How are you doing?

Good.

Well, you dressed for the occasion or.

Yes.

Is Tuba Christmas.

Happy Tuba Christmas.

So I'm beginning to get the idea that this is a very special afternoon You caught on.

Oh, about time.

It's great.

You'll have a great time.

And people just.

They love to perform, perform, and people love to watch us.

We have a little mini little.

Just a little off from here right now.

That got me in the Christmas spirit already.

Does it sound great?

And we haven't even gotten inside yet.

Let's go.

Where are we going?

Is there a rehearsal?

There's a rehearsal somewhere back here.

Good.

Okay.

This is very exciting.

We have moved behind the Alex Theater.

Now we're in the gym of the First Baptist Church.

All right.

You've got to be very quiet because what's going on back here.

Joe?

We're rehearsing.

We always have a rehearsal before Tuba Christmas every year because we get all this disparate group like you heard from 8 to 80.

We have to rehearse them for an hour or two.

And what are we looking at here?

Look over here.

There's a whole room for a very tuba player.

Very unusual instruments.

Yeah.

We have a people come from.

All over Southern California and sometimes even further.

So this thing has really kind of gotten its own reputation going.

It does.

And it happens all over the country.

By the way, in many cities.

But we have a real good one here in Los Angeles.

How many years has it been going on in L.A.?

28.

28, yes.

And what is it that brings say, I'm almost afraid to open up this whole tuba mystique, but there really is a tuba mistake.

Yes, there is.

Well, Harvey Phillips, the mike, my teacher in New York and now retired in Indiana.

I started Tuba Christmas all over the country.

It happens at the Rockefeller Center.

It happens at Kennedy Center.

It happens in Chicago.

And believe it or not, there's one in Tikrit, Iraq.

And really.

Believe it or not, this year it's going to probably military tuba.

Players.

Now, is the idea to just to get together and share the joy and the wonder of tubas with everyone.

It is to celebrate it and to to recognize some important tuba players.

Bill Bell, who was Harvey Phillips teacher, was born on Christmas Day and he just started the tradition in the sound of tubas and euphonium, which are tenor tubas and baritones that are here.

It's just a gorgeous sound.

It's like a full choir.

Well, we're here to learn.

We're here to get all swept up in the excitement of Tuba Christmas.

Good.

But what's happening right now is you've got less than an hour.

About an hour, and you've got to get all these people organized because they don't they've never played together before.

That's right.

And well, we've been rehearsing since 330 with my assistant Tim O'Brien is up there now rehearsing them.

Yet, but they're still tuba players coming in.

Now, I know some people just come in when they.

Get all these tuba players.

We'd rather have.

Them than late than not at all.

Now, this is very exciting.

Your name is.

Charles.

Kent.

And tell us about your tuba.

Well, this originally was Santana's high school tuba, and it literally fell off a truck and the whole bell was smashed in and it was, you know, considered surplus in the back.

And then when my wife took over as the new band director, we decided to salvage it.

So I work with cars.

So I took body tools and I banged it all out and I stripped off the lacquer and was green and brown and it was all caved in and and we got it to play again.

And it's been customized and it didn't have the valve keys that you push down.

You've got your bare bottom house and you name this.

Yeah, we call the trashcan.

The trash and we're from solving.

And you've been I watched your special installed thing when you went to the bakeries and everything.

Every year we have the village band plays on the beer wagon.

You probably saw that and I play this on the bandwagon and I had to have the.

Carlsberg caps come down all the way from Osogbo.

Yeah.

We're with a group from San Luis Obispo and Solvang.

We rented a van and we came down.

For the day.

Now, what's the deal here?

You are all brothers, are you?

What?

We're playing a couple of jazz bands together.

And what are the.

Are these tubas?

No, this is actually a German baritone.

Now, wait a minute.

How can you be part of Tuba Christmas and not be playing a tuba?

Well, this is in the tuba family.

It's just a baby tuba.

Now, you're taking a little break here.

What's the deal with your to introduce yourself to everybody.

My name is Scott Strassmann and this is rumored to have been played by Dan Aykroyd in My Girl, but it was cut and they used a brass tuba.

They used a lack of color tuba.

Oh, they use this actually in the movie.

But they went with the brass one actually.

How heavy is can you stand up.

How heavy is this thing?

Well, I don't know, maybe about £40.

But now this is what you think of when you think of a tube as well.

Yeah.

1951 King Studio.

No, you see, this is what I think.

Sousaphone.

That's I find machine right there.

This is what I think of when I think of it too.

But come on over here.

Here.

You all stand together because now this is the traditional kind of tuba.

You see in a high school or college marching band.

Marching.

This is it was made for marching.

John Philip Sousa invented.

It really is.

Now, did you play it do you play it in your school band?

Yes, I do.

I play in the Carpinteria High School Marching Band and this is a carp style tuba right here with your complimentary duct tape and everything.

Oh, I gotcha.

Okay, that that's part of it, isn't it?

Yes.

The duct tape.

It definitely is.

And why did you choose the tuba of all the instruments you could play?

It's actually a very funny story.

I was in fourth grade and we were choosing instruments to play and I was small for my age.

So my fourth grade teacher thought, Be funny if I played the biggest instrument.

And so I put it on my card and ended up that since it's such an uncommon instrument to play it, that they'd actually chosen me and I kept with it.

Wow.

Yeah, we're taking a little bit of break.

We can finally talk at full level.

I've been whispering so far tonight.

Introduce yourself.

Their name.

Is David Iommi.

And there he is, striking a pose by a magnificent looking.

1922.

King was going to say, look at this on the side.

Then with the old engraving, it's engraved.

Are there such things as antique tables that people actually play?

I consider this an antique.

I was looking for a four valve sousaphone for 20 years.

I finally got it last year.

I'm a middle school teacher.

I was a tuba major in college.

This is kind of like my ultimate sousaphone for.

Yeah, back to college days I dream about now.

How exciting is it for you to be around all these other tuba players?

It's incredible for me.

I've been doing this.

I came when I was in high school back in 1978 and I came through college and my stepson's here this year with me.

And I think it's a great way or chance for tuba players to actually play the melody and have a chance at it and be among other tuba players.

Oh, so that's it.

You don't usually get to play the melody, do you know the tuba.

Known most time?

Not so.

This is your night to shine.

That's it, that's it.

Will, we're standing here with a lady whose claim to fame is.

I have the smallest tuba here.

Now, is this actually a tuba?

This looks more like a horn.

It's called an alto horn, but it is part of the tuba family.

Now, how.

How finely defined is the tuba is do you make a little bit of exception here?

I mean, do you can you broaden out the definition of a tuba for a night like this?

You can a little bit.

But essentially you want it to be like an upright horn or a sousaphone horn or one of the marching forms of a baritone.

Well, now somebody playing the horn like that.

Could you play a horn like that?

I don't have enough wind for.

One of the big ones.

Not me.

I don't have enough wind for them.

So you're here because this fits your.

Yeah, I'm actually a French horn player.

But she's part of Tuba Christmas tonight.

Everyone is a tuba player for Tuba Christmas.

And your name is.

My name is James.

All right.

And you're very excited about here.

Is this a table service?

I've been playing the tuba for about four years.

I started when I was in eighth grade because my on my eighth grade wind ensemble teacher did not have a did not have a tuba.

And I was a euphonium player at the time.

I first started with brass when I was in fourth grade, and I've been playing the trumpet since I was in seventh grade.

And then I got my braces.

So that's why I switched down that.

We're standing here with two fellas and one of you holds the distinction of band.

They said the oldest tuba player here.

Yeah, I'm this guy.

I'm about six months older than he is.

Well, what's the big deal?

There's really no age limit to someone who can play and enjoy.

The tuba is as long as you can hold it, you can play bass.

Well, how hard is it to hold it?

Because, well, these are big instruments.

Let's say look at the size of these, like pick that thing up, let's see how these are heavy and.

Have a standard.

Oh, you don't even have to hold it.

Oh, no.

So you stand up here and play it like that, right?

Right.

Yes, I, I couldn't figure a way to carry it, so I had to stand up and play.

Is that considered cheating?

Well, I think it is.

Their decorate, their tuba and a fine job of decorating you're doing now.

What's the story here?

How can you hear the tuba?

It's got it's plugged up with the Christmas tree.

Well, we put nice holes in it so that the sound can get out their holes.

In the bottom so the sound can get right out.

Oh, my.

So you get you get the decoration, you get the Christmas sound, and you get the tuba and the tree.

Right to go.

This is quite a work of art right here.

Well, took a little while, but, you know, a little careful shopping and a little bit of drill and saw work and it came out fine.

Who would ever think of putting a Christmas tree in their tuba?

Well, you know, you see them use them for flower pots and they use them for other kinds of decorations and some people use them for spittoons.

Is that what happens to all tuba?

I think so, yes.

They don't die.

They just become spittoon.

That's it.

We got a group of people over here.

What is this?

What is this group congregated over here to the side is Cal Poly.

We came down from Cal Poly.

I should have known the Cal Poly Bunch would have been over here up to no good over here on the corner.

What's the deal?

You all all come down from San Luis Obispo every year?

Yeah, sure.

Well, this our first year coming down here.

Really?

Yeah.

And what do you think of it?

So this is great.

How do you prepare for Tuba Christmas?

Do you know what you're going to play?

I take a good guess.

It's Christmas music.

I don't know.

We the only thing we did to prepare is vibrance.

The decorations look good.

Guys, I got to the hats.

The.

Oh, look, he's got his back.

And this is their first time at Christmas.

I'm from Portland, Oregon, and I've been to that one for probably the last four years before college.

And how does our's stack up against Portland, Oregon?

It's about the same amount of people.

I like our director better, but I've known him for a while.

I was in a youth band with him.

So.

So actually when you talk about tuba players, it's a pretty tight knit group of people you all probably know just about all the tuba players in Southern California.

Not really.

But there's always that connection that you can always make with another tuba player.

What is that connection?

You play a tuba.

This tuba is almost as big as you are.

You're the youngest tuba player here today.

Yes.

Your name is Matt Myers.

And what do you think about being around all these other tuba players?

I never knew there were so many.

Do you think you've made the right decision?

You've chosen the right instrument.

Do you see yourself playing this for a long time?

Yeah.

Okay, give us up.

Can you blow out the thing for us?

Let's hear it.

Oh, very good.

We'll be hearing from you in the future.

Long way.

Yeah.

Now, do you sit around the house and play the tuba?

I'm a band director.

I play these things.

I play all of the instruments that you see out here.

The one that I play personally is a trombone, but I pull this out every year and I've just been hooked into this.

This has just been a lot of fun.

It's getting quiet now.

It's time for the rehearsal to start again.

Yeah, and we know how seriously everybody takes these rehearsals.

Oh, oh, oh, absolutely.

I wish.

But we just have a lot of fun doing this.

You what is the attraction that that gets people so hooked on the tuba?

It's just there's nothing like it.

You become a a tubas.

I was introduced in high school and by accident was my choice of this or saxophone.

This was it.

And it's my love ever since.

Now you really you're holding it like here.

It's your lot as well.

When when I play, I hold it like a baby.

It's like that.

This is my baby.

And now this is one I haven't seen before.

A lot of people have it.

This is this this this is called a double bell euphonium.

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

And a double belly.

No, double bell.

Double bells.

And now I've got the double bell right now.

But this is the double bell normally, which plays out of the large bell and it has a very round tuba like sound.

It is a euphonium.

So it's not as low as a tuba, but it has a special valve here.

If I push this in, the air will come out of the small bell instead.

And that produces a brighter sort of a trombone type sound.

Now sit at home and think something like this.

Well, you know, here this is actually a product of over 100 years ago, they came up with a bunch of novelty instruments, duplex horns, they call them.

But they had two different kinds of sound to them.

In fact, they actually wrote music in the band where it said on the music trombone bell.

Then you would push this in and play that section.

And then it was a big bell and they were playing out of this side.

So really, this is a part of musical history right here.

Exactly.

They don't make these anymore.

They stopped making them in the late fifties, but they're around.

Collectors like to have them and they're a lot of fun to play to.

Now we're standing here and we're listening to some professionals play back here now.

Yeah, we are.

So they're professionals.

They're newcomers.

They're all different ranks of people.

There's kids from ten years old, people from 80 and.

Where do you fit in what age wise?

What I can tell you that what is more is your ability go well.

I played professionally for quite a few years and I'm a high school music teacher.

I'm the band director at a group of Valley High School in Mira Loma, California.

These are three of your students.

Yeah, they are.

This is Robert Matejka, and I was way Chavez and Matthew Bradshaw.

Now, how hard is it to get young people interested in playing this instrument?

It's it's kind of hard because it's a big instrument and they don't want to carry it to school and back, you know.

So, Matthew, we give him one to leave at home and one at the school and we kind of solved the problem.

And, you know, it takes a little creative thinking.

Now, we've come outside to the alley, outside the church gym where the rehearsals going on behind the Alex Theater, because somebody told me you were out here.

Your name is.

Eric Bamberg and.

You are out here because your tuba and all of this equipment, I.

Can't get it up the stairs.

You can't even get it in to the rehearsal hall.

Tell us exactly.

Don't do it.

Yeah, but tell us what you've come up with here.

Well, they had this amplifier I use for parades to make the tuba louder because, you know, normally aren't in enough to mix in a band.

And then I discovered that you can run lights using the amplifier that's in it.

So I've wrapped my entire tuba with rope lights.

You know, there's one light every inch on this thing.

And it's like the like the Disneyland electrical parade.

All right, I'm ready.

Are you ready to show us what's going to happen here?

Play us some Christmas.

Through to doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Woo woo woo woo.

Wow.

All right, now we're really in the Christmas mood as the rehearsal goes on, Jim, we are beginning to get close to Showtime.

Right?

The suspense builds as Showtime.

Get this closed and we get more nervous.

Yes.

Now, why are you nervous?

Well, it's just it's a funny thing.

What can go wrong?

We're not the way it's.

Going to be.

Go fine no matter what, but just a lot to take care of.

You know, the group behind you is a group of 12 professional musicians, all great players.

They do movies at that summer in the L.A. Philharmonic was really great players Norm Pierson and Tommy Johnson, the Jim Miller and Bill Booth and several other great musicians.

Some really this whole Tuba Christmas.

I know we've said it before, but it really runs the gamut of really pros from the L.A. Philharmonic.

You play with the Philharmonic.

That's right.

So just kids in the high school band coming down here to play.

We interviewed a kid that was seven years old.

That's right.

Well, they it's a lot of fun, you know, and we try to make it a we want we want to play with the really good players to kind of be an inspiration to the young kids.

See, the.

Truth of the matter is, though, that with all these tubas together on stage, if a couple of people miss a note every now and then.

It doesn't matter because it's such a mellow sound.

It blends in.

That's the secret of Tuba Christmas in a way, because can you imagine Oboe Christmas, 250 oboe players.

If you heard a mistake in that, you could hear it.

Now we're standing right outside the Alex Theater.

Look at all these people.

They're lined up to go in to the 630 performance.

Here are the two guys we interviewed over an hour ago when we first started this.

I didn't see you all in there in the rehearsal.

Well, we've done it so many years.

It's like this is our eighth year.

Rick.

So we went to dinner next door.

We know the music, so we just kind of skated, you know, you.

Skip to rehearsal.

We know the music, so.

But yeah, shame on us.

We needed nourishment.

More than.

We're hungry, right?

You're going to go in there and right now, we're right now it's coming right up.

Is it going to be a night to remember?

Absolutely.

You'll have a great time.

The sound is beautiful.

You'll never you'll want to come back and bring your family next year.

And see if I hear anybody miss a note.

It won't be.

Us.

It'll be you.

Because your daughter, Hershel, you went to dinner instead.

But don't tell them that, okay?

Yeah.

Oh, one, two, three, four, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one.

Visiting with you, Will Hauser is made possible through a generous grant from the Ralph M Parsons Foundation.