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Johnny Largo (real name Johnny LaPadula) was
Optigan's Music Director from Optigan's public launch through to about 6 months before
Mattel sold Optigan to Miner Industries. Basically he was the guy who went around
to the trade shows and actually played the Optigan for all those throngs of amazed
industry onlookers. As his was one of the first names I was able to dig up in relation
to the Optigan, his persona, known mostly through a handful of promotional photos,
took on a sort of mystical quality for me. Rob and I even wrote a song ìaboutî
him called "Johnny Largo On The Snowball Special-" inspired by the picture
I found of Johnny playing the Optigan for a couple of snow-bunnies bound for the
slopes on the Amtrak "Snowball Special." But through all this fascination,
I was never able to locate the man himself until Llyswen came up with the somewhat
obvious (duh!) idea of looking him up with AFTRA. Soon she was on the phone with
his friendly and fiesty wife Joyce, who reported that Johnny was alive and well and
living in Camarillo, CA- not far from LA. What's more, they actually turned out to
have an email account, making our correspondences just that much easier. After the
Largos saw our website and we cleared up some confusion about who was the official
"Music Director" at Optigan (Mike LeDoux had claimed this title because
he had been assigned it after Johnny's departure. Since the Largos knew nothing of
Mike's subsequent 3-year stint as "Music Director," they initially interpreted
Mike's claim as an attempt to steal Johnny's credit), we eventually set a date to
meet. Llyswen and I drove up to their house and spent several hours with them, looking
at pictures and clippings and generally talking up a storm about Optigan! Johnny
and Joyce were one of the nicest, most welcoming couples I've ever met, and I was
very honored to have them accept me into their home.
Not surprisingly, Johnny of course considered Optigan a mere footnote in a much more
noteworthy career as a professional session and club musician. He first came to public
attention as an accordionist in 1950, and in 1956 (at the age of 18) he became the
first ever American recipient of the "Coupe Mondiale" top-prize award for
classical accordian in Biel, Switzerland. Following this victory he appeared on TV
frequently in variety shows (such as Ed Sullivan, Arthur Godfrey and Lawrence Welk),
recorded an album of accordion solos for Disneyland Records called "Melodies
For Midnight," and even had his own fan club! He continued in this line throughout
the 60's (even playing accordion for Sonny & Cher on "I Got You Babe"),
but it wasn't until January 27th, 1971 that he was introduced to the Optigan.
Optigan's public debut was held at the Century Plaza Hotel on that date. F. Roy Chilton
was at the helm, demonstrating the barely-working Optigans to an enthusiastic crowd
of music-industry types. Roy had known Johnny previously through his affiliation
with Magnatone Amplifiers, and had had him in mind as the perfect candidate for a
Music Director for Optigan, but his efforts to get in touch with him had proven unsuccessful.
By sheer coincidence, though, Johnny was playing a gig at the Century Plaza on that
very same day! After running into Chilton in the hall, he was ushered over to one
of the Optigans and urged to give it a try. Johnny instantly fell in love with the
concept, and blew everyone away with his effortless skill at the instrument. He was
signed on then and there as Music Director, a title he would hold for almost the
next two years.
Johnny's job at Optigan (other than performing on the instrument at trade shows and
promotional demonstrations) was basically to oversee and quality-control the musical
arrangements for both the discs and the songbooks. Along with Marshall Pearlman,
he devised and patented (for Mattel) the 'Automatic Beat Counter' system which was
used in the music books. He also wrote many of the arrangements for the books, although
he reports that he never tried his hand at writing arrangements for the disc-recording
sessions. For these he contracted many union and non-union friends of his, most notably
the bandleader Art DePew. As Johnny's involvement in Optigan became more well known
in union circles, he found that many of his former colleagues were turning their
backs on him. Generally speaking, they saw the Optigan as the beginning of the end
for working musicians. This obviously put Johnny in a tough spot, and is part of
the reason why he tends not to look back on Optigan with much fondness
Johnny also remembers, without too much fondness, the way his Mattel superiors treated
the Optigan as a toy, and did not give it the level of detailed attention required
by a true musical instrument. This issue- toy mentality vs musical integrity- plagued
the Optigan camp for it's entire existence at Mattel, and was a contributing factor
in Mattel's decision to sell the whole works to Miner Industries. Simply put, Mattel
got in over their head, and had to bail out. This of course resulted in most Optigan
employees being laid off, Johnny included. So his final memories of Optigan were
not happy ones.
Still, after all these years, Johnny was able to loosen up a bit for me about his
experiences, and admits quite positively that he was totally dedicated to the idea
of the Optigan. He saw quite clearly the direction in which it pointed, and is not
at all surprised at the current state of digital instruments. And while, for medical
reasons, he's not allowed to play the accordion anymore, he still plays the odd session
here and there on his Technics synthesizer.
And what about the infamous Snowball Special incident??? "I hopped off about
halfway up the mountain!" he reports. Apparently the working conditions were
appalling, and he just got fed up with the whole thing and bailed!!! Johnny Largo.
Go, cat, go!!!!
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