Shanghai

Abstract

Shortly after our wedding, which I must admit felt to me like a shotgun wedding, we packed our bags and caught the “President Hoover” of the Dollar Line ships for Shanghai, China. The personnel of the band was Teddy Buckner, Jack Bratton, myself (trumpets), Happy Johnson, Duke Upshaw (trombones), Arcima Taylor, Caughey Roberts, Hubert “Bumps” Myers (saxophones), Eddie Beal (piano), Baby Lewis (drums), Frank Pasley (guitar), Reginald Jones (bass) and Joe McCutchin (violin). We met at the pier and, with quite a few of our friends, had some bon voyage parties along with three wives who went with us. I was knocked out from the very start at the cleanliness of the boat and the friendliness of the passengers. I enjoyed listening to the little Chinese fellows ringing the bells announcing meal time. Naturally the bar was one of our favorite hangouts and sometimes some of the guys would play, just for the fun of it. We met and made many friends. Joe E. Brown, the famous movie actor with the big mouth, was aboard and we enjoyed talking to him. It’s a funny thing, but when you’re out on a boat everybody seems to be your friend, even people that you dont think you’d like to be associated with will become friends. We spent a pretty good time talking to people who were going to China for the first time and also to people who had been to China before and enjoyed telling us all about it.