from 2007
PAGE CAVANAUGH
talks about his trio and "The Truth About Mother Goose"

by Scott Wolf

Back in the '90s, some of my favorite memories were going to see Page Cavanaugh and his trio perform at the Money Tree restaurant in Burbank (pictured right, with Al Viola on guitar and Phil Mallory on bass).

I'd sit at the side of the piano as Page would play, and I'd learn all about the great songs, composers, musicians and singers of the golden age of American music. Page knew them all!

He was respected by the greatest names in the music industry. Frank Sinatra regularly called on Page to perform at his wedding anniversary parties. Page worked with everyone from Doris Day to Danny Kaye, appeared in such great films as "Romance on the High Seas," "Big City," "Lullaby of Broadway" and "A Song is Born," and in popular short musical films, often referred to as Soundies, a sort of predecessor to music videos. He was a guest on many popular radio and television shows including everything from "The Spike Jones Show" to "Larry King Live."
HEAR A RARE CLIP OF PAGE ON THE RADIO IN 1948:

With many great admirers, you never knew who might pop in to see Page performing such as Michael Feinstein (pictured right).

Michael had a mutual admiration with Page, and he invited Page to perform with him on several of his CDs, including "Pure Imagination" (which incidentally features a few great Disney songs.) In 1995, Michael produced a CD of new, live performances of the Page Cavanaugh Trio, entitled "Crazy Rhythm."

Page released a multitude of his own albums with the Page Cavanaugh Trio and his Page 7 groups. He also can be heard on numerous albums, performing with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Helen O'Connell, and Doris Day and many others.

Page's final recordings can be heard accompanying Lauren Koval on her 2006 album "No Complaints, No Regrets." Earlier that same year, Page released what would be his last album, a fantastic CD entitled, "Return to Elegance." At 84 years old, Page was in peak performance!
SAMPLE:

I'm constantly amazed at how many people have had some sort of connection with Disney... people I never would have expected to be involved with Disney at all, and Page was no exception. He and his trio performed and voiced all the singing in Disney's 1957 short, "The Truth About Mother Goose," which became available on DVD in 2007 on the Disney Treasures set entitled, "Disney Rarities."

(Photo: Page signing autographs after a 1994 concert)

Besides being a dear friend, Page was there for some of my most cherished memories. I had my first date with my wife seeing Page, and he was kind enough to sing "our song" when we got married. In the '90s, when we needed a company name for our two Disney books, "Where in Disneyland Park?" and "Where in Disneyland Attractions?", we named our company Page Publishing as a tribute to our friend.

Page passed away on December 19, 2008. Last year I sat down with Page at his house in what turned out to be his last interview, which I present for you here, to give you a small look into the life of the great Page Cavanaugh.

SW: How did you start the trio?

PC: That started in the Army. We were in the Signal Corps in Sacramento, and Al Viola, who's pretty much a go-getter, he just passed away recently, he managed to stir up a little job in north Sacramento at a place called Rodney's. It was he and Lloyd Pratt and the other piano player in the band, Louis Ventrilla (spelling may not be accurate).

Well, Louis had to go home because his family had an accident or some darn thing, so they came and asked me if I would work the job with them. I said, "No, I don't want to."

SW: Really?!

(Photo: Al Viola, Page, Lloyd Pratt)

PC: At that time I told Al Viola, "I don't want to do that." He said, "Why not?" I said, "Because you know I'm not going to get along with that bass player." He was difficult. Soon after we became good friends. But Al said, "Well, come down and do it and help us out for three days because I don't know when the other guy is going to come back." I did and I had more darn fun and they were thrilled to death. That's how the whole thing started.

We got to be very active within the confines of the Army, so when they sent us out for retraining, took the whole group down there. I had my fight cut out for me because I wanted to keep the trio together. I had more nerve than sense.

One of guys, the bass player was in the hospital with a kidney stone and I'd already been on the phone with another place in Washington state, so I said, "They've sent us to sing, we're already assigned to go to this base, and the bass player's in bed getting rid of a kidney stone." I said, "We better straighten this one out in a hurry." So, by gosh, we got him out of the hospital. I said, "Is he all right?" They said,"Oh yeah, he's passed the stone, he's going to be okay. He's going to be a little weak."

(Photo: Page, Phil Mallory and Al Viola in a 1993 performance)

So it was me, the bass player Lloyd Pratt, Al Viola (on guitar), Arnie Pascal who was a tenor sax player and another guy. At twelve noon we hopped in the back of this truck and we went down to the depot in Petersburg, Virginia, and we got up on the train and away it went.

We went and got to Chicago and I said, "Guys, tonight we're going to do something that's highly illegal. We're going AWOL." They said, "What?!" I said, "I had enough of this Army grief. We're going to get a hotel tonight and get our own rooms and we're going to go nightclubbing tonight in Chicago!" We went to three different clubs and got to see the singers and the whole bit. Got up the next day, got the next train and nobody ever said a word to me.

When it came time, the war was ending and we were getting close to being discharged, I said, "What are you guys going to do when we get discharged?" Al said, "I think I'll probably go back to Brooklyn." I said, "Why?" He said, "That's where my home is, where my family is," and all that. I said, "How about you Lloyd? Where are you going?" He said, "I'll probably go back to Redwood City where my home is." I said, "Why don't you two idiots (jokingly) get it together, come down to Los Angeles? Both of you two just got married... go down and find yourself an apartment, I'll tell you the area, and get yourself a place and then let's go for it. I have a few calls to make, too, and see if I can get the trio started.

By gosh, in a week we had a record date.

SW: How did that happen?

PC: Because I knew a few people. I knew the people who were at Columbia Records and they knew this other guy at another small little label.

SW: And you had an album?

PC: Well, not an album, but singles, 78 records, before LPs.

SW: How did you get cast to do the singing in "The Truth About Mother Goose"?

PC: I don't know how this came about. Probably my devious manager. He's since passed away, but he was a marvelous manager. He probably just aced us right in, he had connections everywhere. So I talked to the people in the music department, a nice bunch of people. They had written up all these lyrics for these things and what tunes they were going to be. So I got the guys together and we rehearsed them and then back over at the studio they had us sit down and do it.

We got a few laughs out of it because everybody was supposed to speak with an English accent, a British accent. I couldn't speak with a British accent. I'm a farmer from Kansas, now leave me alone! One of my boys Rod Leftwich, he'd get in there and just do the blimey thing all over the place.

SW: Were you supposed to talk in it? I just remember you singing.

PC: Once in a while we'd have to do a line or something. I just told them, "Please leave me out of this. I'm a farmer, and that's it." (We laugh)

SW: So the trio was you, Rod and who else?

PC: Rod was the guitar player and Jack Smalley playing bass, and me, just the piano player who tried to keep quiet and not sing too much.

It was kind of an interesting experience, putting these things all together.

They called and said they had it all finished and we went to see it and I didn't know whether to be very pleased or just totally in shock. (We laugh)

SW: Did you ever meet Walt when working on it?

PC: I never met him in my life. The music department was a pretty nice bunch of people at that time, which is pretty good. Every now and then you get into a music department where neither I nor them know what the heck we're doing. But, they were a nice music department.

SW: It just came out on DVD not too long ago on a DVD called "Disney Rarities."

PC: Really? I just had another pop up, I found out today that "Romance on the High Seas" just came out on DVD.

SW: You sang some great songs in that!

PC: Yes, with Doris Day  "It's You or No One," and "Put It In a Box."

Sammy Cahn was an old friend. He's the guy who wrote all those lyrics (for "Romance on the High Seas" including the song from that film, "It's Magic") and he came to see me over at the Money Tree and I said, "I'm glad you're here, because I want to sing something for you." (Page moves to the piano) I sang this thing for him. Sammy Cahn just loved it. (He sings, "It's Tragic." The lyrics begin: You smile, your teeth fall out, your hair looks just like sauerkraut, it's tragic. The bugs dessert the air and rush to nestle in your hair, it's tragic...)

That was given to me in Green Bay, Wisconsin. We were at the tail end of doing the first show, the dinner show, and a college girl came up to me and said, "Mr. Cavanaugh, I'll bet you won't sing these words," and put a piece of paper down. I said, "Thank you, Dear," and of course I wasn't going to sing it, so I took it home and I started laughing. "You smile, your teeth fall out," that's very good. That's a good opener. (We laugh) 

STEP BACK IN TIME TO 1993 AND HEAR PAGE TALK ABOUT HIS BIG HIT, "THE THREE BEARS," ONE NIGHT AT THE MONEY TREE IN BURBANK

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in the interviews are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mouse Clubhouse. Mouse Clubhouse accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed within.