Mellotronists

Dear Team,
Just recalled this morning a very funny moment in Beatlemania's early 
history (I portrayed George Harrison in the Original Cast on
Broadway).

The musician's union was VERY concerned regarding the tron's "putting 
guys out of work".... They pulled a surprise visit to the theatre
(The Winter Garden) to "inspect" what we were using it for in the
show. 
At this point in the show's history, the company was still "borrowing 
my tron. They later purchased their own unit,  Actually, apart from 
"Strawberry Fields", it also served as the string section, along with
a real violinist and cellist, for "Yesterday", "Eleanor Rigby" and
other tunes. So the frame in use was flute / 3 violins / cello. The
director frantically asked me to do something to "disguise the true
use 
of the machine when the "union boys" came in to hear it. So, I
swapped 
that frame for my SFX frame. You should have seen the looks on their 
faces when Bugs Bunny spit out "What's up Doc?" and various car 
screeches emerged when I hit the keys.

Quite a squeeze play for the old beast. (M400 #1285).

Regards,
Les Fradkin