More Custom Olds Recording Trumpets, Hollywood

This custom built Olds Recording Model trumpet belonged to the late Manny Stevens, who had a long career in the Hollywood recording studios.  Manny's career included playing on hundreds of movie and television soundtracks ranging from "West Side Story" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "Cold Case" as recently as 2005.  I have no way of knowing on what sessions he may have used this trumpet, but it has been refinished once, at least, and shows wear from many years of careful use.  

I do recall Manny being a very meticulous person.  I had done a lot of repair work for him in the late 1970s and 1980s when he was best known to the public as the trumpet player (alternating with Chuck Findlay) on "The Gong Show".  He was often called on to play a fanfare on a long coach horn.  Most of the work that I did for him was his small, but choice collection of antique and vintage brass instruments. Unfortunately, I don't have a clear memory of this trumpet, but the patch on the bell looks like my work.    

Manny's long time friend, Bob Reeves, confirmed that this was his main working trumpet and that he had ordered it custom made (in about 1960), asking Olds to make one like Uan Rasey's.  It is, indeed, very similar to Uan's and appears to have been made this way in the factory.  Both have the bell length and valve placement like the Olds Super trumpets with Recording bells (including "Rey-O-Loy" red brass) cut to the Super length.  Each appears to have the Recording or Super model mouthpipe that was current.  Manny's has a valve section that is very similar to the contemporary Super, but the first and third valve slide tubing and bracing design seems different than any models offered by Olds.  The hook on the first slide may be original, but I can't tell for sure.  The trigger on the third slide is the same as the stock Recording models, of course.

Another custom built Olds Recording/Super model trumpet that is the same design as Uan Rasey’s and Manny Stevens’ has surfaced, although without any known history. It is shown in the first three photos below. This one was made in 1954 and again, uses contemporary Super model parts for the valve section with a shortened Recording bell, even more like Uan’s than Manny’s. The third photo is a lineup of the three Olds Recording/Super trumpets together in chronological order, Uan Rasey’s, unknown and Manny Stevens’.

The last photo shows a line up of Recording model trumpets, taken before the last featured trumpet was found.  Left to right: The first is a very original Super Recording from about 1947, the second is Uan Rasey's from 1949, the third is Manny Steven's and the last is a production example from 1969 (this one having been played by Douglas Towns on many Motown recordings and live performances).