European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday. December 18, 1990 _. The stars and strikes a a Page 5tubas go Oom but do they go pah pah by j Ames Barron new York times new York this is what 500 tubas playing Quot and cute fideles Quot in the skating rink at Rockefeller Center sounded like sunday Plomp Plomp \ Plomp Plomp Plomp Plomp. On a Day when Church choirs were caroling and strict Cornor santas were hoho Hoing the tubas were oort pah paying their Way through Christmas carols. There is no doubt about the coming. Some tubits however deny that they pah pah the French horns do that. It was the annual tub Christmas concert a a one word extravaganza that could be heard three blocks away. It was organized promoted and conducted by Harvey Phillips. Who has been called the Horowitz Heifetz. Segovia or Caruso of the tuba depending on who is doing the calling since the first Plomp resonated from the Rock file renter rink 17 years ago tuba Christinasen have become a Holiday ritual in More than 100 cities and towns nationwide. This keeps Phillips zipping around like that other yuletide frequent flyer the one with about the same substantial Girth. On monday night Phillips planned to be at the John f. Kennedy Center in Washington. A a. Sunday s Tubac Minias did not just happen. A couple of hours before the 599 tubits lugged their 59-Pound instruments across the ice there w As a rehearsal on the Rockefeller enter loading Dock. Phillips had been worried about whether the loading Dock would smell from the garbage strike last week. A this is relatively mild Quot said Karl Megules the principal cubist of the Trenton symphony a one year a garbage strike and it was half full in Here some tubits wrapped their instruments with Christmas tinsel and Battery powered Christmas tree lights. Rut not everything being huffed and puffed in the crowd was a tuba. There was at least one valueless Serpent was invented 499 years ago. Minutes before Phillips opening downbeat Howard Hovey of Riverhead n.y., screwed a Golden mouthpiece on his corroded Green tuba. A i picked it up off a scrap Hovey an 80-Venr-okl former music teacher said of his tuba. Frank aul Nii s tuba was shinier. A to a profession Al said Aulenti a 50-year-old plumber from Stamford Conn. A i played the violin for 19 years but i decided i had to play the is lament with the most plumbing t could Phillips likes to reel off fun facts about tubas. A tuba played part of the five note Earth to save Shiv greeting in a close encounters of the i Bird kind such Phi Century composers As Berlioz Wagner and. Bruckner wrote Brilliant Lulu parts a a unto Phillips said Quot the tuba was invented too late to Benefit Beethoven Mozart Haydn Handel or Bach but that does t Slop us from playing then a Phillips s Elotis to popularize the tuba have led to .159 new works Lind an appearance last summer on the. Game show a to Tell the he also seems to be getting into Sli tues. He is planning a 15-foot likeness of a tuba player in the Field outside his Indiana Home. site of the annual a Doctu Balesta. And the company that makes Hummel figurines is to give him a tiny tuba player. Phillips came up with the idea for tub Christmas in 1974 to commemorate his teacher the late William Bell who had been the principal teacher in the Sousa band Al the age of 19, and find played in the new York philharmonic and the Abc symphony under Arturo Toscanini. Wra Falls Church. A a unlike most of us Patrick j Fay never worries about making a Panicky late night dash to the drugstore to find replacement bulbs for his burned out Christmas tree lights. When the lights go put Fay does no to curse the darkness instead he chuckles and descends to his cozy basement where his antique collection of 700 to 800 tree lights a All in Good working order a and about 2,000 ornaments Are safely stored. He has so Many in fact that Hiss Bur ban Washington d c., Home boasts not one but three Christmas Trees their branches sagging under the weight of brightly coloured baubles and twinkling blinking bulbs. A a a a a in be gone a Little overboard on the lights Quot he said smiting ruefully. .�?~1 have so Many lights that i feel guilty not using them All so we change them and the ornaments every week or so. We have Ever changing a a. The Trees Are artificial the better to withstand All the changing of lights and ornaments they also done to require water ing. The Trees Are put up the Day after thanksgiving and sometimes Arentt taken Down until mid january he said. Fay a oldest ornament is a Teardrop shaped red and Silver Quot Kuci Quot or a a Witch a Ball a made in Germany of folded blown Glass in a the 1870s. I t is nestled in the branches of a rare old German a Feather a. ,. The Feather tree looks like a real a though somewhat straggly a Pine tree. It consists of Green dyed Goose Feather a a Needles wired to the thin Metal in Washington a president Bush returned Early from Camp David on sunday for an interview with British television journalist David Frost and a family Christmas party. Bush and his wife Barbara arrived by helicopter sunday morning after attending Church services at the presidential Retreat in Maryland. They normally stay at Camp David until late sunday afternoon. The Frost interview was taped for broadcast on Jun. 2. The White House did not release a transcript. The White House also would not say who was invited to Bush a annual Christmas gathering. Bush was to have met on Monda Yues Patrick j. Fay with one of the three ant ique decorated christinas Trees in his Home. Branches of. A tall wooden stick. Many German immigrants folded these Cher is lied Holiday artefacts into their Luggage and brought them to America in the 1809s, Fay said. His rarest set of lights is an eight bulb string of Carbon filament Edison lamps stamped 1904. That was Only a year after the Small Pear shaped bulbs first hit the Market As substitutes for tie centuries old tradition of tree candles. A at the turn of the Century,.electric tree lights were Only for the very Rich Quot Fay said. A the Bubs Cost about $1 each which was a tremendous sum in those Days. You had to have an electrician come to your to m e to wire them and t h by we re screwed into a ceiling fixture. A the Carbon filaments burned very hot and used a lot of electricity a he said. Sane Sof time in the stars and stripes a the bulbs overheated burned Down lives and really made the meter go Mound Quot a ,. A a a a Uliey were replaced by cooler brighter thugs Iii filament bulbs shortly alter world War ii which also was he. Beginning of Llie Golden Era of Fane Christmas tree ornaments. L Are Lull of lavish Glass baubles from Germany beaded Glass novelties from Czechoslovakia tiny illuminated houses Kewpie dolls in Snow sets dirigible fruits and vegetables miniature or planes and Ocean liners there arc spam Glass butterflies Dou he faced Angels barnyard animals. I eat her tailed peacocks windmills Chicks propping out of eggshells and lights covered with revolving painted Lanius Muules. There Are elaborately Seiss ored paper a Dresden so from a Germany tree balls from world War ii with Caps of cardboard Irist of scarce tin. Bubble lights from the 1950s and midget lights irom the 1960s., a Quot Fay a 42-year-old hotel banquet waiter began Quot collecting Christmas tree Antiques More that a decade ago when he. And h is w i be i Ora a re a i e Lea be n to found a Large Box of a quite rare quite expensive ornaments in the of a Home they had just bought. A a some people think in a absolutely crazy but its a Hobby that has grown by leaps and Bounds a he said. A we have Lii ads and neighbors Over for show and Lell and they Are always., stunned the older ones always see something on the fees that reminds them of their iraqi foreign minister Tariq Azizov hut that meeting was cancelled due to the iraqi president Saddam Ilus Seine a refusal to set an Early Date to see Secretary of state James a Baker 111 in Baghdad. Saddam offered to meet Baker on Jan. 12, three Days before the United nations imposed deadline for Iraq to withdraw from. Kuwait Bush has offered to Send Baker no later than Jan 3. Bush was to meet monday with Lynn Martin the Illinois congresswoman he tapped As his Secretary of labor. Martin who lost a Senate race last month to incumbent Democrat Paul Simon was not in Washington for Bush a announcement Friday. 40yeorsago dec. 18, 1950. A concentrated artillery an naval fire forced chinese evacuate the Industrial City of. Ham Hung lifter frontal attacks to the . Forces beachhead. A a 30 years ago Pec. A a . Air Force. a Vair. Transport with Dis people aboard., crashed and burned in downtown Munich irm Uny killing an to Ucil nit people including All aboard the plane and injuring semes More the Vitrino air med i a Var Siviy of Maryland so i Denise in route to England in die holidays. 3. 20 years ago today ,. Dec 18, 1979 a new disturbances were Omed . I he polish seaport of Edyma the scene of violent riots in recent Days. A. 10 years ago dec. 18, 1980 the United states announced it was resp riling its $20 million program of economic Aid to Al Salvador. No mention was made of $5 million in military Aid also suspended after the murders of four american women
