Stumpy Brown

Clyde (Stumpy) Brown, the thirteen year younger brother of Les Brown Sr., performed in his brother's Band of Renown for over fifty years as bass trombonist, singer, and band manager. Their father Ray W. Brown or R W was the force behind music for the Brown family. The baby of the Brown family, Clyde, was born on September 1, 1925 on Grand Avenue in Tower City. The exact house is not known so in Stumpy's honor in 2016, the town council named the entire block "Stumpy Brown Block". He was the youngest of two brothers, Les and Warren, and a sister, Sylvia. He didn't live in Tower City long for when he was six months old, the family moved to Lykens when his father bought a bakery in that town. When Clyde was six yeas old, he became sick with swollen glands. While recovering in bed, a neighbor brought him some candy corn. Clyde ate the treat that lay in his hand sort of pecking at the food The neighbor, watching the way he ate remarked, "That boy eats like a chicken". This stuck in the minds of the family and Clyde had his first nickname: Chicken. Following the example of his older brothers and inspired by his father, very early in life he acquired a deep love for anything musical. At the age of nine he began playing the cornet. "You had to be a musician with dad," Stumpy explained. "He always wanted to be a professional musician, and in a way he was, conducting the town band, but never to the extent of Les' band. Instead, he became a baker. So with him, you either had to practice your instrument or work in the bakery. And since it was easier to practice . . . " For a short time Stumpy did help out by driving the family bakery truck. It wasn't long before his father Ray, took the cornet away from him because his checks kept puffing out and blowing from his throat. Stumpy was without an instrument for one year until he took up the baritone horn, a kind of mini-tuba. Young Clyde practiced as much as he could and by age fourteen he had his first "professional" job. His father was conducting a band at the Gratz Fair and he needed a baritone player. Clyde played four days of performances and was paid four dollars for each day. This was "big" money in those days when a loaf of bread only cost five cents. In the neighborhood was a man by the name of Punk Shomper. "Chicken" was not very tall. He was in fact short, as were many members of the Brown family. One day Punk made the comment the Clyde was about as tall as a tree stump and referred to the boy as Stump. Not liking his present nickname, Chicken took to the idea of being called Stump which quickly became Stumpy. Clyde Brown was no more. From then on, he was Stumpy Brown. As a teenager Stumpy became quite a dancer. At age 83 he fondly recalled, "In my early teens (13) I would get a rid or hitch-hike to Tower City to dance or just listen to a dance band at the Palace Hall. Many time I would also go to Troutman's Restaurant for a Coke or an ice cream." "All my instruments were hand-me-downs," he groused. "I started out on cornet, then he switched me to a soprano saxophone that Les had, then he switched me to a baritone horn that Warren had played. At the age of fourteen he won a musical scholarship to play baritone horn at the New York Military Academy, where his two older brothers had attended. The Academy called R.W. in need of a baritone horn player. They only had one who was a trombone player who was 6'4" and forced to play baritone. Stumpy went for an audition and every march the director wanted him to sight read Stumpy already knew. Stumpy had to look through all the march music to finally find one that he hadn't previously played. He played it and the director wanted Stumpy. R.W. said the director would have to ask Mrs. Brown if Stumpy could attend because Stumpy was the baby of the family. She cried but let Stumpy go. Stumpy was 4'19: his first year at the academy and they hid him in the band picture. Stumpy switched to trombone the summer he attended the Ernest Williams Music Camp in the Catskill Mountains of New York. "Then when I was 15, I had won a scholarship to a music camp and, just as I was leaving with my baritone, Dad called me over and said, 'Where you going with that horn?' He had a brand-new trombone that he wanted me to take to camp. I had never played trombone. I told him, 'Dad, I got the scholarship playing the horn.' 'Tell them you forgot it,' he replied." While at the Military Academy he became the choir conductor of the school glee club and his junior and senior years was the leader of the Academy's dance band. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1943. While Stumpy was in school, Les had formed his own swing band, in which brother Warren played trombone. In 1943 due to America being at war, some of Les' band members entered the armed forces. He bass trombonist went into the service Stumpy joined Les' band as the bass trombone player, a position he would hold for the next sixty years. Stumpy recalled, "Les never even heard me play." "The band had three trombones at the time, and Dad called Les and said, 'You need four trombones. And Stumpy needs a job.'" He joined the band at the Congress Hotel in Chicago. Warren joined the Navy and was not in the band when Stumpy joined. In 1946 Stumpy switched to bass trombone because he couldn't reach seventh position. "When my brothers needed a job, they got one," (Les) Brown said. "Stumpy came out of military school in 1943 and he's been with e ever since." "I joined up with Les during the recording band and it wasn't until November 20, 1944, that I recorded my first tune with the band," Stumpy Brown said. "That tune was 'Sentimental Journey.'" From 1943 to 1947 he toured all over the United States with the Band of Renown. During these performances the band saxophonist, Butch Stone and Stumpy performed the Dance of Renown. What is this dance? It started before Stumpy had joined. The band was to play in Atlanta and took a public Greyhound bus to get there. At a stop over, a jukebox was playing. Soon Butch and trumpeter Don Jacoby started dancing together just to be silly. They replicated this craziness publicly for the first time on the Atlanta stage. From then on, the two would perform this routinely at performances but it ended as Don joined the Navy, leaving Butch without a partner. The day the band performed at the Hollywood Canteen, a favorite club for service men, Don showed u in his uniform and he and Butch did the dance. So how did Stumpy become Butches partner? His first performance was on July 1, 1943 at Chicago's Congress Hotel. Les has hired Stumpy to cover the fourth trombone part but because the band ha recently gone from three to four trombones, some of the arrangements didn't have a fourth part. Rather than just sitting on the stage waiting for the song to finish, Stumpy would dance with the girls in the audience. With Don gone, Butch in need of a dance partner, and Stumpy being a good dancer it was obvious Stumpy should replace Don and because of Stumpy's short stature the band coat that he got was extremely large for him and would make the dance look even more comical. However he didn't step in immediately. The were doing four to five shows a day in Indianapolis. Back to Chicago in September and both Warren and Don were in attendance and Butch got up to do the "Dance of Renown". Don was ready to join him when Stumpy got up and began dancing with Butch. That was the team ever since. The band boy, Jeremy Grant (maybe Herb Jefferies), the attendant for the band gave Stumpy a zoot suit to replace his coat and later an extra long tie was added. The dance became a favorite of fans and they continued performing it into the 1990s. After they retired the dance, when Bob Hope asked why they no longer performed it, without missing a beat, both pointed at each other and simultaneously said "He got too old". When Butch briefly left the band in 1947 to form his own band, Les tapped Stumpy. "Les came up to me and said, 'You're going to sing Butch's songs.' And I said, 'I don't sing.' And he said, 'You do now.' And I've been singing with the band ever since." After a year, when Butch's band failed he asked Les to rejoin. Les told him he'd have to ask Stumpy. Stumpy said, "Who am I to tell a man with a wife and kids he can't". Stumpy handed the novelty songs back to Butch but continued singing more legitimate pieces. His first recorded vocal was in 1947, a song titled "I'm A Telling You Sam" written by Les and Sonny Burke. This was on the flip side of "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" which became the band's second record to sell over a million copies. On the 1954 New Years Eve radio broadcast from the Paladium in Los Angeles, Stumpy sang Doodle Dee Doo, the favorite song of his mother. He continued to sing with the band and was featured on several albums with songs like New York, New York and Sing. In 1946, the Band of Renown's trumpet player Bob Higgins composed a number but didn't have a title. Stumpy jokingly suggested Jumpy Stumpy and Higgins took it. Ironically the piece is not a trombone feature. In 1943, at the age of 18, Stumpy net Betty Jo Faris while the band was playing at Los Angeles' famed Palladium. Betty was only fourteen but a knockout. She had a girlfriend who was a 6'1" dancer across the street from the Palladium. She saw the band and told Betty she just met the cutest little guy. Betty couldn't get into the building because of her age. Under eighteen were only allowed at the Sunday matinees. On Sunday, Betty was in the audience with girlfriend. After Stumpy met her he gave her the nickname "Pretty". They married on April 29, 1957. Unfortunately, they never had any children of their own but were loved by nieces and nephews. They lovingly referred to him as Uncle Ticky-tick. In 1946, Stumpy got a bit part in the movie "Kilroy Was Here" starring Jackie Cooper and Jackie Coogan. The part was of a fraternity pledge. Although his movie career never took off, he did appear in three other films. Duchess of Idaho (1950) starring Esther Williams and Van Johnson, was the second film. Stumpy played trombone in Van Johnson's band. Later in that movie he sang in a quartet with Van and had a brief solo. His next film, another Esther Williams movie, "Dangerous When Wet (1953), had him playing violin which he faked. When the movie played at the Bud Theater in Lykens, the marquee read "Dangerous When Wet with Lyken's Own Stumpy Brown". In the 1963 Nutty Professor, Stumpy is introduced by Les. In another shot, all that is seen is his bass trombone until the camera pulls back as Stumpy blasts a note. Though the popular conception of life on a big-band bus is one of drinking, coarse language, dirty laundry and endless poker games, not so recalls Les Brown Jr. "There was always a healthy atmosphere on the bus. Sure there was dirty laundry and penny-ante poker, but it wasn't outrageous by any means. My dad is a gentleman, and he set the tone for everybody else in the band." Stumpy agreed that trips were tame compared to other bands. "When Doris Day was in the band (1940, '43-46), her little son would come over and sit on my lap. We were one big happy family." During the summer the band toured for three months of one-night performances. Stumpy liked touring by train because is was the most comfortable mode of transportation. If touring by car, Les would buy a fleet and once they returned would sell them. They were the only big band to tour by a DC3. Comedian Bob Hope began the first of his now famous USO Christmas show tours in 1947. This tour of Korea was to entertain the US and United Nation troops stationed there fighting in the Korean Conflict. Naturally the Band of Renown was to provide music for the troop of singers, dancers, actors, and celebrities that Bob was taking. Stumpy greatly enjoyed these tours and would accompany Bob for the next sixteen years every Christmas. The only year he missed was 1968 as a protest of the US involvement in the Vietnam War. In addition to playing in the band, Stumpy was involved in several skits through the years playing opposite celebrities such as Ursula Andress, Kaye Stevens, Johnny Bench, and Mickey Mantle. The 1972 USO tour that went around the world in ten days stopped to entertain the king and queen of Thailand. His Majesty King Bhumiphol regarded himself as a jazz musician and had the band at the palace to entertain them. The band played while the royal couple danced and the king played a clarinet duet with Les. It was now 2 or 3 am and Les said, "Your Majesty, we have to catch a plane tomorrow morning". The king suggested, "Why don't you just stay up all night". The Queen cut off the dance. While there the band recorded and album of twelve songs the king had composed. The record was only released in Thailand To start the USO tour in 1969, President Nixon invited Bob's entire troupe to the White House for a state dinner. This included the Band of Renown. Les was able to get an invitation for his parents but unfortunately R.W. got sick and couldn't go. Before dinner, while having cocktails, each person drew a number from a hat for seating. Jack Sperling, the band's drummer, got table number one and said that was the President's table. Even though Stumpy, a Democrat, wasn't a Nixon fan he offered Jack one hundred dollars for the ticket. Table two was supposed to be for Mrs. Nixon and the Golddiggers. Stumpy ended up on table ten located in the Lincoln room. At his table was Connie Stevens and a new guy. Teresa Graves sat to Stumpy's right. There was one open chair at the table. During the meal Nixon walked from table to table talking to all the guests. When the President got to their table he sat down in the empty chair. Stumpy asked Nixon about being late for some football game. Nixon was a big football fan and so he and Stumpy talked football for the rest of the meal. After dinner Les asked what Stumpy and Nixon talked about for Nixon and Les had attended Duke University the same years. During those years Nixon knew of Les who lead the Blue Devils Dance Band every day providing entertainment at the student union building. Les did not know Nixon who at the time was just another student. "It was so rewarding," Stumpy said. "I was 4-F during World War II, and doing the tours I felt I was really doing something in my duty. I think I saw more places of war than some of my friends who were in the service at the time." With the decline of the big bands Bob Hope saved the Band of Renown from disappearing. "Besides his hit recordings, being with Bob Hope was the greatest thing that ever happened to Les. Les himself will tell you that," Stumpy Brown said. 2 When the band wasn't on the road touring, the bandsmen would get together socially. The most common time they shared was to play softball and Stumpy was on the team. Les took games seriously and was the only band team to have uniforms. They played each Saturday morning on the Hollywood High baseball field against other big bands such as Harry James' or movie stars, writers, and directors like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Cahn, and Don McGuire. Once they had a best out of five contest with Tommy Dorsey's band. The results are forgotten. In the 1960s, in addition to touring, playing concerts, and USO shows, the band became the house band for Bob's TV specials, Steve Allen's weekly show. Their longest run on television was from 1965 to 1974 on the Dean Martin Show.2 Many times Stumpy was called on to act in skits with Bob or Dean sometimes including Butch Stone. Don Kramer, former Blue Devil member and classmate of Les, retired as the Band of Renown's manager in 1980 after over forty years of employment. Stumpy took the position in addition to performing until Les Jr. moved the band to Branson, Missouri. At that time Stumpy retired from playing bass trombone. He and his wife "Pretty" lived quietly in Palm Desert, CA until her death on April 29 after fifty-four years of marriage. During those retirement years Stumpy had developed Parkinson's disease and began to have difficulty walking eventually needing a walker. Eventually he needed help and hired a Philipino man, Joe, to stay with him. After the passing of his wife he downsized, sold his home and moved in with Joe's family. In 2014 Stumpy was honored at the Les Brown Big Band Weekend in Tower City by having the festival dedicated to him. Unable to walk he attended in a wheel chair. His niece and nephew Denny Jordan-Marsh and Les Jr and great nephew Jeff "Swampy" Marsh were also present. At the festival it was revealed that Tower City had named the 1200 block of East Grand Avenue "Stumpy Brown Block". This was in honor of the area where Stumpy was born. The entire block was dedicated because the exact location of the house is unknown. That same weekend he and Les were inducted into the Schuykill County Arts Hall of Fame by the Schulkill County Council for the Arts (SCCA) in Pottsville, PA. The event took place at the Yuengling Mansion. The Williams Valley School District had established the Les Brown Jazz Band award in 1981, This was presented to an outstanding jazz instrumentalist at the elementary school level. In 2005 The Stumpy Brown Low Brass Award was started to recognize superior low brass players in the elementary school. His grand nephew, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh co-creator of the Disney cartoon Phineas & Ferb, immortalized Stumpy as Grandpa Clyde, Phineas' grandfather. Does Stumpy think big bands will make a comeback? "Never," Stumpy says. "For a while, when Harry Connick came out with those big-band recordings, I thought something must be happening. But he turned out to be just another finger-snapper. We'll never see anything like when I was a kid and there were bands all over. I used to sit in awe watching groups like the Dorsey brothers. To me, they looked like gods."