This is a show called CHOPSTICKS. And before you call the PC Police, it's actually a children's game show that did not get on the schedule in 1958. Considering what did back then, you've got to be pretty awful to not make the grade. Aside from how utterly clunky it is, check out the African-American contestant. Ever hear of him? At one point he does a duet with June Christy and around the 18 minute he plays the organ. The kid can play.
And the girl, Janie Getz became a top jazz pianist and songwriter. Quite the panel.
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I have to wonder if this was at all inspired by the 1953 film "The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T." Seeing kids lined up seated at pianos brought that to mind!
Actually, all the kids here are pretty talented AND know their music! (Just wish the sound on this wasn't so distorted.)
Anyone else thinking 'Eddie Munster' when you see that big white collar on Mark Evans?
If this show had gotten to air and had lasted a couple seasons I can picture some contestant launching into "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" or "Good Golly Miss Molly'. How do you think that would go over?
That's Billy Preston allright! Always that big wide grin.
Other sources do say this was made in 1958, not 1954, which would be right for Billy Preston's age.
The girl on the show, Jane Getz, became a fairly well-known jazz pianist herself.
Host: There's a band that's recently become popular in Hamburg, Germany, that dare I say, has the potential to erupt the society. I think young Billy should join them as he would make a marvelous addition to the group.
Billy: Let it be.
And eleven years later he'd be playing on a rooftop.
Billy was a seasoned professional by this point. He played organ for Mahalia Jackson at age 10, and sang "Blueberry Hill" on Nat King Cole's TV show at age 11.
By 1962, he was in Little Richard's touring band, playing in Hamburg, so he knew about those scruffy Liverpudlians long before *we* did.
Another black wunderkind from about that time was Barry White, who in the late '50s already was a mainstay of the Los Angeles R&B scene. He played piano on Jesse Belvin's best-known hit, 1956's "Goodnight My Love," and got plenty of other session work.
The final child, Mark, appeared to be blind, and nothing was said about it. Interesting.
I loved it.
There were references to previous weeks. Is it possible this was a local show first?
Man, Billy Preston could play the hell out of the keyboard! There's a clip of him - maybe "Shindig" though I'm not sure - where he plays open chord solos...with both hands (think its on "Bony Moronie")
outta space indeed!
It also seemed to me that Mark was blind or vision impaired. I thought he was wonderful. I really enjoyed it. All so talented at such a young age. I found it rather inspiring despite the "clunky" presentation.
I just saw this show and was fascinated by it, especially by Jane Getz;s performance. I already knew about Billy Preston's childhood career -- he played Nat "King" Cole's character as a child in the 1958 biopic of W. C. Handy, "St. Louis Blues" -- but Jane Getz was known to me only as the excellent pianist on Pharoah Sanders' first solo album for ESP-Disk in 1964. Incidentally her Wikipedia page identifies her birth year as 1942, which would have made her 15 or 16 when this show was filmed, not 13 as host John Scott Trotter said. Billy Preston's stated age seems to be right but Getz was turned two or three years younger than she really was. Also, though the childhood Preston was competent on piano, it's not surprising that his main instrument as an adult was organ; once he gets to the organ he really lights up and flies.
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