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Joe Venuti Interview

Joe Venuti & Dick Cavett

Joe Venuti

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Joe Venuti fondly shares amusing stories about Paul Whiteman's Orchestra during an interview with television host Dick Cavett from his 1977 appearance on his show.

Well known as a practical jokester Joe Venuti recalls one instance where he placed five pounds of flour in the tuba which subsequently covered the entire Whiteman band in a white coating. But Whiteman was not above getting his revenge, once rubbing Venuti's violin bow and strings with soap so that it would not play. The memory is attached to that of his former musical partner and friend Eddie Lang of whom Joe states "he played guitar, the best in the world" before quickly changing the subject. Thinking of Eddie still seems to cause Joe great pain even so many years after his untimely death in 1933.