Peter R. Arnott (1932-November 2022) was an American composer, theatre director and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

player. Arnott was a member of the

Bohemian Club The Bohemian Club is a private club with two locations: a city clubhouse in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California and the Bohemian Grove, a retreat north of the city in Sonoma County. Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of journal ...

and was closely involved with a number of Grove Plays. Arnott was a founding member and banjo player for the Goodtime Washboard Three. He died in 2022.

Early life

Arnott was born in 1932 in Palo Alto, California. His paternal grandparents were John and Virginia Arnott, friends of John McLaren, the designer of

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development ...

Banjo

Arnott was a founding member of the band Goodtime Washboard Three, characterized as a regional one-hit jug band and as a vaudeville band.''Coast News''. Andrea Perkins
''Bruce Bratton, A Santa Cruz Institution''
Retrieved on July 14, 2009. Arnott played banjo, Bruce Bratton played washtub bass, and Wayne Pope played washboard and

musical saw A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. Capable of continuous glissando (portamento), the sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. The musical saw is classified as a plaque f ...

. In 1959, the band played Friday nights at the Monkey Inn in Berkeley, California.Clute, Pete; Jim Goggin; Cedric E. Clute, Jr.; Bob Helm
''Meet Me at McGoon's''
Trafford Publishing, 2004, p. 60. In 1963, when Arnott was absent from the group for two years working in Japan, the band wrote a humorous song about

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, appropriately entitled "Oakland", which gained regional popularity.''Oakland Magazine'', March 2007. Matt Dibble
''The Life and Times of the Oakland Song''
Retrieved on July 14, 2009. With Dick Fagarstrom covering banjo, the single 45 rpm record "Oakland" was played on many of the San Francisco Bay Area radio stations for a brief period, and has since settled into cult status, with occasional plays on eclectic radio shows such as that of Dr. Demento. Of its 1960s popularity, Bratton said "It got enormous airplay." The Goodtime Washboard Three was asked to perform the song for the Oakland City Council, and the group (with Arnott on banjo) played it from atop the marquee of the Tribune Tower, a performance seen by thousands. The band's quirky style and fame resulted in invitations to the Bohemian Grove where they met powerful people such as Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Bratton later joked that he organized a meeting of all the Bohemian Democrats, held in a telephone booth. The band's first full album was entitled ''Don't Blame PG&E, Pal'', recorded in 1964 at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley and released in 1965 by Fantasy Records. On April 1, 1967, the band appeared on the television show '' The Hollywood Palace'', with

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

as guest host. Crosby introduced them by saying that he first heard the group play at the Bohemian Grove. Crosby joined the band for the last chorus of '' Oh By Jingo!''. The band recorded further sessions, but no second album was released. Bratton left for Santa Cruz in 1970, to be replaced by Hal Nachtrieb on tuba. Bohemian

George Shultz George Pratt Shultz (; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held fou ...

, United States Secretary of State, invited them to the White House in 1986 to play during a state visit by Philippines President

Corazon Aquino Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People P ...

. The Goodtime Washboard Three continues to make the odd public appearance.

Bohemian Club

In 1975, Arnott directed the Grove Play ''Allegory: An Odyssey in Time and Space''. Arnott stepped forward with his own script in 1980: ''Olympus''. Ten years later, he directed ''The Prophecy''. In 2003, Arnott composed the music for ''Fort Ross'', the 98th Grove Play.

Family

Arnott married Ann Krikorian from Boston. The two lived in Sausalito, California and were active in city business, politics and art. They assisted with both the Marin Art Festival and the Sausalito Art Festival. Ann Arnott served as secretary for the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, has been president of the Sausalito Women's Club and was president of the Art Festival Foundation.Sausalito Chamber of Commerce
''About Us: Board Members''
. Retrieved on July 14, 2009. Arnott's son David Arnott is an actor, screenwriter and musical composer living in Southern California.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnott, Peter R. 1932 births 2022 deaths American male composers 21st-century American composers Songwriters from California People from Palo Alto, California People from Sausalito, California 21st-century American male musicians American male songwriters