Max van Gelder (12 February 1916 – 2 October 2004), professionally known as Max Geldray, was a Dutch
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
player. Best known for providing musical interludes for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
radio comedy programme ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 19 ...
'', he was also credited as being the first harmonica player to embrace the jazz style.
Geldray was born in the Netherlands and played jazz in the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and his home country, before settling in Britain at the outbreak of the Second World War; he was wounded during the
Invasion of Normandy
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...
. He appeared in nearly every episode of ''The Goon Show'' from 1951 until the end of the show's run in 1960, providing one of the musical interludes and the closing music for each programme, as well as sometimes taking brief speaking roles. After ''The Goon Show'' series ended, Geldray settled in the US, where he worked as an entertainer in the Reno casinos alongside performers such as
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer.
Nicknamed "Sassy" and "Jazz royalty, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine ...
and
Billy Daniels
William Boone Daniels (September 12, 1915 – October 7, 1988) was an American singer active in the United States and Europe from the mid-1930s to 1988, notable for his hit recording of "That Old Black Magic" and his pioneering performances on e ...
. Moving to Palm Springs, he eventually became a part-time counsellor at the
Betty Ford Center
The Betty Ford Center (BFC) is a non-profit, residential treatment center for persons with substance dependence in Rancho Mirage, California. It offers inpatient, outpatient, and residential day treatment for alcohol and other drug addictions, as ...
. He was married twice and had one son. Geldray died in October 2004, aged 88.
Early life (1916–46)
Geldray was born Max Leon van Gelder, on 12 February 1916 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
to
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
parents.
His father, Leon van Gelder, was a commercial traveller, and his mother was Margarite, née Baillosterky.
By 1922, Leon was the European Manager for Maja perfume and the family moved out of Amsterdam to
Bilthoven
Bilthoven is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of De Bilt. It has a railway station with connections to Utrecht, Amersfoort and Baarn. It is home to the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health an ...
. Both parents could play the piano—Leon was self-taught and played by ear, while Margarite was classically trained—and it was Leon who started to teach Geldray how to play. He developed love of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
music after hearing
Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
on the radio in 1928; Geldray later wrote "how could anyone ''not'' love its energy, its vitality and the freedom of its form? And Louis Armstrong among all the players, became something special to me".
![Django Reinhardt (Gottlieb 07301)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Django_Reinhardt_%28Gottlieb_07301%29.jpg)
In February 1930, Geldray heard a mouth organ player on
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
and mentioned the performance to a friend, Hans Mossel, owner of a music shop in Amsterdam; Mossel had ordered a
chromatic harmonica
The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key ...
the previous week and gave it to Geldray, who practised assiduously. By 1934, Geldray had made some appearances on Dutch radio and formed a band with eight others; an agent named Franklin billed the group as "Mac Geldray and his Mouth Accordion Band", changing the surname of the principal to the name he retained for the rest of his life. With his performances, Geldray became the first person to play the harmonica in the jazz style. A change in the format of the band to a quartet and the introduction of a new manager led to a six-week tour of English theatres in 1937, accompanying the comedian Tom Moss; the band changed its name to "The Hollander Boys".
During the tour, Moss introduced Geldray to
Jack Hylton
Jack Hylton (born John Greenhalgh Hilton; 2 July 1892 – 29 January 1965) was an English pianist, composer, band leader and impresario.
Hylton rose to prominence during the British dance band era, being referred as the "British King of Jazz" a ...
, who invited him to play in his orchestra for the evening.
On his return to the Netherlands, the harmonica band broke up and Geldray travelled alone to Brussels, where he found work playing with the dance orchestra at the club
Le Boeuf sur le Toit, where he remained for a year. He then worked with a dance band in The Hague, before joining the house band at the Ostend Casino, the Johnny Fresno Band .
He would meet performers who were booked to play the casino on occasion, including saxophonist
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...
, the English bandleader
Ambrose
Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promo ...
and French bandleader
Ray Ventura
Raymond Ventura (16 April 1908, Paris, France – 29 March 1979, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel.
Career
Ventura was born to ...
.
Ventura soon offered Geldray a job and in 1937 Geldray moved to Paris.
While in Paris, he went to the ''
Hot Club de France
The Hot Club de France is a French organization of jazz fans dedicated to the promotion of "traditional" jazz, swing, and blues. It was founded in 1931 in Paris, France, by five students of the Lycée Carnot. In 1928, Jacques Bureaux, Hugues Pana ...
'' and played with jazz guitarist
Django Reinhardt
Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most ...
,
a musician about whom Geldray asserted, "I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone better". The two became close friends and played together often.
With the
invasion of France
France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans.
* the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...
by German forces in early 1940, Geldray travelled to England, where he realised he would be safer.
On 20 September 1940, he joined the
Royal Netherlands Motorized Infantry Brigade
During the Second World War, the Royal Netherlands Motorized Infantry Brigade, later known as the Princess Irene Brigade ( nl, Prinses Irene Brigade) was a Dutch military unit initially formed from approximately 1,500 troops, including a small gro ...
, part of the Dutch army exiled in England. During the war he continued to play and appeared on
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
; in 1942 he was part of the entertainment laid on for
Princess Elizabeth's sixteenth birthday at
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original cast ...
.
During the course of 1942, Geldray also met Sarah Prentice, a 26-year-old Scottish variety artiste, whose professional name was Zaza Peters; the couple married on 18 January 1943.
Geldray took part in the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
with the
Prinses Irene Brigade, but was injured by a bomb blast and spent time in a military hospital.
Although he did not incur long-term injuries, he suffered from recurring nightmares in the following years.
After the liberation of Amsterdam, Geldray travelled to the city to find his parents who had been resident when the Germans invaded. He found that both parents and his sister Xaviere had been killed in a
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
by the Nazis.
At the end of the war, Geldray returned to Paris and once again found work with Ray Ventura's orchestra for two years, before returning to London in 1947.
BBC years (1947–61)
Settling in London, Geldray took up British citizenship,
and worked on a number of BBC radio programmes, such as
''Workers' Playtime'', ''Melody Magazine'' and ''Forces' All-Star Bill''.
In 1951, he provided the musical interludes for a new BBC series ''Crazy People'', a comedy show that starred
Harry Secombe
Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'' (1951–1960), playing many characters, m ...
,
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
,
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...
, and
Michael Bentine
Michael Bentine, (born Michael James Bentin; 26 January 1922General Register Office for England and Wales – Birth Register for the March Quarter of 1922, Watford Registration District, Reference 3a 1478, listed as "Michael J. Bentin", mother ...
. ''Crazy People'' changed its name for subsequent series to ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 19 ...
'' and Geldray was a regular performer in the remaining nine series. The show followed a successful format of a vague plot interspersed by two musical performances; the BBC used the same structure for several radio series. In ''The Goon Show'', the musical segments were taken up by Geldray and The
Ray Ellington
Henry Pitts Brown (17 March 1916 – 27 February 1985), known professionally as Ray Ellington, was an English singer, drummer and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on ''The Goon Show'' from 1951 to 1960. The Ray Ellington Quartet h ...
Quartet, with Geldray also playing "
Crazy Rhythm
"Crazy Rhythm" is a thirty-two-bar swing show tune written in 1928 by Irving Caesar with music by Joseph Meyer and Roger Wolfe Kahn for the Broadway musical '' Here's Howe''. " for the play-out music.
On occasion, Geldray was given brief lines to perform, although he felt uncomfortable doing so, and his lack of acting ability became a running gag on the programme.
Geldray was also the butt of some of the Goon jokes and humour: he was referred to throughout the programmes as "Conks", on account of his nose, and his performances were often humorously dismissed by the announcer
Wallace Greenslade
Wallace Frederick Powers Greenslade (1 July 1912 – 21 April 1961), also known as Bill Greenslade, was a BBC radio announcer and News presenter, newsreader. He is best remembered for being the announcer—and frequently the Double act, straight ...
, with such comments as: "That was Mr Max Geldray playing a harmonica. We thought you ought to know what it was, anyhow."
In the early 1950s, Geldray's marriage ended in divorce, after the relationship had "burned itself out", and he began a relationship with a dancer, Barbara. In 1956, Geldray appeared in three television comedy shows produced by
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
and starring the Goons: ''
The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d
''The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d'' was the first real attempt to translate the humour of ''The Goon Show'' to television. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion during 1956 and was broadcast only in the London area.
It combined elements of a sitcom ...
'' (broadcast 24 February – 23 April 1956), ''
A Show Called Fred
''A Show Called Fred'' is a sketch comedy series best known for being an early television work by Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, then both regular performers on the BBC Home Service as two-thirds of the cast of ''The Goon Show''. Directed by ...
'' (broadcast 2–30 May 1956) and ''
Son of Fred
''Son of Fred'' was the successor series to ''The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d'' and ''A Show Called Fred''. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion and broadcast only in the London area, English Midlands, Midlands and Northern England.
It was the third ...
'' (broadcast 17 September – 5 November 1956).
In 1957, he released an album, ''Goon with the Wind'', which was produced by
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the B ...
and released on the
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...
label. Later that year, Geldray also appeared in ''Hancock's 43 Minutes'', the Christmas edition of ''
Hancock's Half Hour
''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Galton and Simpson, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James, Sidney James; the r ...
'', broadcast on 23 December 1957. In 1958, the BBC proposed dropping Geldray from ''The Goon Show'' in a cost-cutting measure; Peter Sellers threatened to leave the series, and Geldray remained.
''The Goon Show'' finished its ten-series run on 28 January 1960. In 1961, with his six-year relationship with Barbara at an end, Geldray worked as an entertainer on four trips on the
RMS ''Queen Elizabeth''.
On visiting Los Angeles he was impressed by the city and decided to emigrate to the US.
Moving to the US (1961–2004)
Geldray worked in the casinos of Reno, appearing with
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer.
Nicknamed "Sassy" and "Jazz royalty, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine ...
and
Billy Daniels
William Boone Daniels (September 12, 1915 – October 7, 1988) was an American singer active in the United States and Europe from the mid-1930s to 1988, notable for his hit recording of "That Old Black Magic" and his pioneering performances on e ...
; he did not like the city, so returned to Los Angeles.
In 1962, he met a divorcee with three children, Susan Donofrio; the couple married that year,
and in 1964 they had a son, Philip. Geldray worked for a period as a sales assistant in a clothes shop before becoming the regional sales supervisor for ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
''.
In 1972, Geldray returned to the UK to appear in ''
The Last Goon Show of All
''The Last Goon Show of All'' is a special edition of the BBC Radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'' commissioned as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the BBC. Simulcast on radio and television on 5 October 1972, the performan ...
'', a special programme recorded on 30 April and broadcast on 5 October 1972 to mark the 50th anniversary of the BBC. When the BBC refused to pay to fly Geldray from the US, two of the show's cast—Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers—contributed to his expenses.
After the performance, at the
Camden Theatre,
Princess Margaret
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...
came backstage and asked if she could be introduced to Geldray as she was an admirer of his playing.
In 1973, Geldray and his family moved to Palm Springs to look after his ailing stepfather; he also played harmonica in the local Trinidad Bar.
A local doctor approached him after one set and asked if Geldray would put on a show at his
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
centre,
which led to Geldray undertaking voluntary work teaching stroke victims to play the harmonica. Following the death of Geldray's youngest step-son, Timmy, Susan Geldray began drinking to excess, and she underwent treatment at the
Betty Ford Center
The Betty Ford Center (BFC) is a non-profit, residential treatment center for persons with substance dependence in Rancho Mirage, California. It offers inpatient, outpatient, and residential day treatment for alcohol and other drug addictions, as ...
.
Geldray volunteered to help at the clinic and qualified as a counsellor and technician.
To raise funds for the clinic he started "Jazz without Booze", a series of concerts, which included prominent local musicians, including
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of ...
.
In 1989, Geldray published his autobiography, ''Goon With the Wind'', using the same title as he had for his 1957 album.
Geldray died in Palm Springs of natural causes on 2 October 2004 at the age of 88.
Notes and references
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Geldray, Max
1916 births
2004 deaths
Dutch jazz musicians
Jazz harmonica players
Harmonica players
British television personalities
Musicians from Amsterdam
Dutch Jews
Royal Netherlands Army personnel of World War II
The Goon Show