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"Root Canal" Quartet Extracts Attention from seniors - by Jim Mc Carthy

Late in August, a Greater Pittsburgh "pickup" quartet was hired to do a hour-and-a-half "walk-about" performance at the Chartiers Manor Seniors Care Home in McKees Rocks. The quartet consisted of: Gary Corpora (tenor), Bill Hamilton (bass), Jim McCarthy (lead) and Bob Parker (bari). When the quartet arrived at the Seniors Care Home, somehow they acquired a name and were announced to the audience as the "Root Canal" Quartet. [holy molar!]

While warming up in an anteroom prior to their performance, a young man entered, holding his year- old son. "Heard you fellows warming-up and just had to come in and check it out," said the young man. "Guess you guys are going to entertain the seniors here today. Right!?" "That's correct." Responded Parker.

The young fellow asked if he could sing the bass part to "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" with the quartet. They agreed and Bill Hamilton humbly stepped aside. The young man sounded marvelous and blended well with the quartet.

Then the young man introduced himself. He was Brent Slater, a bass singer currently with the Pittsburgh Opera Company. He informed the quartet that he sang bass in a barbershop quartet while attending high school. He then commenced to sing several more polecats with the quartet.

Then Hamilton rejoined the "Root Canal" quartet and they proceeded to the two adjoining dining rooms, singing and entertaining the seniors from table to table, receiving numerous rounds of applause.

When they arrived at the table where young Brent sat with his mother, his wife Mollie, their baby boy and their other children, Brent was asked to rejoin the quartet and sing some more polecats. Once again, Bill Hamilton humbly stepped aside, letting Brent take over at bass. The audience loved it.

The surprises were not yet over. Brent's wife Mollie (mother of six), joined in with the quartet and sang the female accompaniment to "Lida Rose." The seniors applauded their approval. Mollie then conceded that she sang soprano with the Pittsburgh Opera Company whenever her busy life schedule permitted.

That August afternoon was quite an enjoyable learning experience for the "Root Canal" foursome.

Strange Twists Of Fate: by Jay Garber

George M. Cohan was a tune maker who always had a way with words. Ideas for songs sometimes came unexpectedly and in the oddest of places. Who would think that his most famous patriotic song would have its first glimmer in a funeral home.

Cohan was attending the funeral services for a departed show business friend and sat beside an old Civil War veteran. The old veteran held in his lap the tattered remnant of what was once a National Emblem. When Cohan asked why he held the flag, he was told that it was the one the man had carried during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. "I take it with me everywhere I go," said the elderly gentleman; "To me it's a grand old rag." The line rang a bell with Cohan and after the funeral, he jotted down the tune that became our country's virtual theme song during the 1st World War - YOU'RE A GRAND OLD RAG.

Before the song could be published, Cohan was told, by his editor, that the word 'rag' was disparaging of the colors. Cohan quickly changed the lyric to 'FLAG.'

The song was so popular that fellow song writer, Irvin Berlin (born Israel Balin) took a new tune he had written, titled GOD BLESS AMERICA, and deposited it, unpublished, in a desk drawer. He luckily remembered and pulled it out, for another war [WWII], many years later when singer Kate Smith asked him to write a patriotic song for her.

Reference: Life In Amedca by Peter Jennings.

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