Articles published in Hit Parader during 1967
Lothar and the Hand People | An Introduction | Lothar and the Hand People is here! They’re the most promising group to appear at the Night Owl since the Lovin’ Spoonful blasted into the starry stratosphere. The Hand People are so loud and wild it stuns the imagination.
They’re also capable of being subdued, humorous and always fun to watch. Lothar is a theramin, a sort of musical machine that can sound like a startled bird or a happy science-fiction movie monster.
We think Lothar and the Hand People have a bright future so we’re going to follow each stage of their career, month-by-month.
This is how it all began . . . .
Lothar and the Hand People began at the University of Denver two years ago when John Emelin decided it would be fun to start a rock and roll group, drop out of school, sing and have a good time. He didn’t know a thing about music.
early days
Neither did Richard Lewis, who wanted to play rhythm guitar. They spent 6 months trying to find what they thought would be the right people for the group.
In the fall of 1965, Tom Flye and Rusty Ford came to the University of Denver and were accepted into the group on drums and bass. William C. Wright was added as lead guitarist.
The name Lothar and the Hand People came from a dream that Richard Lewis once had. That’s all he would say about it. Further research on its origins was halted when Richard decided to go back to school, which he did.
Two days later Kim King came into town. He became lead guitarist and W.C. switched to rhythm. In May W.C. left to have a nice time in Berkeley, California. He’s still out there having a very nice time building dulcimers and things like that.
Paul Conly came into the group as electric pianist and rhythm guitarist and nobody has left since then. Lothar and the Hand People worked many 3.2 clubs in Denver – places where people aged 18 through 21 could drink 3.2 beer.
Lothar and the Hand People | An Introduction
They also played at rug rooms – teen clubs patterned after those on the West Coast where the dance floor is a big rug and cokes are served. They made many friends in Denver and became one of the top groups in town, but as Kim put it, “We’d gone about as for as we could go in Denver.”
“We wanted to get to as many people as we can with what we’re doing,” added John.
So they came to New York. Their first job was in a dance club. Two years earlier Kim had worked with a band in New York. He didn’t like the band and he didn’t like New York. When he left, the band’s manager, Trude Heller, told him to let her know if he ever had anything interesting.
Just before Kim left Denver with Lothar he let her know. Trude said, “Fine. Consider yourself booked,” without even hearing the group. That was nice. But . . . They appeared at Trude Heller’s club in Greenwich Village for 3 nights and realized that Lothar and the Hand People were not musicians for a dance club.
They don’t play “Louie Louie”, “Midnight Hour”, “Satisfaction” and all the other favourites churned out with monotonous regularity by animated jukeboxes posing as bands in dozens of dark holes around the country.
the Night Owl
Also, a dance club is not the place for Lothar and the Hand People because the dancers don’t want to stop lumping up and down long enough to listen to original never-before-heard songs done with subtlety and humour and unique style.
Where do audiences really listen to a group? One place in New York is the Night Owl. Lothar had heard of the role the Night Owl played in the success story of the Lovin’ Spoonful. And, their last appearance in Denver was in concert with the Spoonful who had told them to go to the Owl if they were ever in New York. The boys walked over to the Night Owl and were told that the only opening in the club’s audition schedule for the next three weeks was in half an hour.
Lots of groups assaulted owner Joe Mara’s ears, hoping to be “discovered” like the Spoonful were. The Hand People raced back to Trude’s for their instruments, auditioned and were booked for Tuesday night when one of the Owl’s regular groups was off.
Lothar and the Hand People | An Introduction
Their debut on August 9 was a success, Hit Parader’s Don Paulsen was in the audience applauding enthusiastically and Joe asked them to stay. We interviewed them, lots of people from record companies came down to listen and offer money, Night Owl regular Ray Bilitzky, after listening to groups for a year, took his first venture at managing a group with Lothar, and lots more exciting things began to happen.
The editors of Hit Parader believe that Lothar and the Hand People are nice and talented and they deserve to be successful. Every month we’re going to follow their career closely and let you know how they’re doing.
In our next instalment, we’ll have little biographies of the Hand People. John will explain what Lothar means and we’ll glance at another page of Hand People history. Don’t miss it. (Hit Parader, 02/67)
Columbia Records
Lothar And The Hand People were an immediate success at the Night Owl. Audiences packed the club, people from record companies came with their ears and cheque books open and several Lothar groupies materialized.
Two record company offers were nice. Columbia gave Lothar a studio and one of their top A&R men, Charlie Callello, to cut one song. Capitol went even further. For two weeks Lothar And The Hand People were able to rehearse, write songs and record in Capitol’s New York studios.
Dick Friedman, a new A&R man, worked with the group. They wrote and recorded 3 songs and Lothar and Capitol both got to learn a lot about each other. At this writing, they haven’t signed a recording contract yet, but it will probably be with Capitol.
Another good break for the boys was appearing with the Byrds for two weeks. The Village Gate, a long established jazz and folk music club, went rock for the first time with the Byrds.
But Lothar And The Hand People often stole the show with their groovy music, flashing lights and their theramin. With each appearance and rehearsal their stage presence and their music got tighter. John Emelin explained, “We weren’t looking for musicians, we were looking for people who could get along together.
Then the music develops easier, Also, people who come on as nice human beings tend to do better with audiences. It’s just a nice thing all around. We like each other. And if you like each other, audiences tend to like what you’re doing. “We weren’t looking for the kind of guy who’s in the band because he happens to be beautiful looking and he wants a lot of chicks to see him.
Lothar and the Hand People | An Introduction
Or he’s a fantastic guitarist and he’s only interested in making a name for himself,” he continued. “We would consider it really nice if people just considered us Lothar and the Hand People, instead of something like Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones . . . which is fine for them. But we’re doing a different thing.
“Lothar means a lot to us. The name has taken on a lot of meaning. Like, there is no one person whose name is Lothar or who acts as Lothar.
“Lothar is what we become when we play music. When five people play music together, if it comes off right, it becomes one thing. We’re no longer Rusty, John, Paul, Kim and John, we all become Lothar.
“Also, we like to think that Lothar is our guiding spirit”
Lothar is also a theramin, the little device that makes big notes. (Theramin is the name of the man who invented it.)
John is one of those people who’s always picked up trivial things. “When I used to see horror movies the music would go Wooooooooh oooooh when the monster came in. I wondered what made that noise and I found out it was a theramin, the most basic electronic instrument.”
Theramin
Also, John once saw a man playing one when it was a fad. “Popular Mechanics magazine would show you how to build them” he recalls. “And guys would come on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour and play them, in between the Austrian dancers and the spoon player.”
“There’s a registered theramin player in my musician’s union local in Chicago”, said Kim.
The Hand People got a theramin in January 1966 because they thought it would be nice to have. It sat unused for a while because they didn’t know what to do with it. Finally they found a way to integrate it with their music.
Most club owners prefer bands that play music for dancers. Most dancers like to dance to old familiar rhythmic favourites like “Midnight Hour”, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, and that great classic, “Louie Louie”.
A club owner in Denver liked “Louie Louie” and he wanted Lothar & The Hand People to play it all the time. They hated the song, but they did it . . . more or less. They’d play about a minute of the opening, then launch into a frantic, loud, frenzied, free-form improvisation and ten minutes later they’d play a few bars of the closing melody.
Lothar the theramin became part of the improvisation.That’s Lothar’s story. We’ll tell you a little something about the others in the group in the next issue. (Hit Parade, 03/67)
Lothar and the Hand People | An Introduction
“We’d better make it soon before the bottom falls out of the record scene”, said quotable John Emelin, gravely. “Right now there is so much great talent standing in the wings, ready to be pushed into public view by all the record companies. They’ve got a lot of money invested in then new groups.
“RCA Victor has The Youngbloods, United Artists has the Gurus, Mercury has the Blues Magoos . . . There are a dozen or so more. If these groups don’t make it, the record companies will be reluctant to back new rock groups and Herb Albert-type music will take over.”
Meanwhile Lothar & The Hand People continue to wait in the wings, gaining strength musically as they lose strength physically from malnutrition. They’ve been writing new songs, developing new sounds and working in clubs and at private parties to help pay the rent on their balloon-filled suits at the Hotel Albert and keep the refrigerator stocked with lots of peanut butter and catsup sandwiches.
Really. We’re not making this up-HONEST! Incidentally, in our next issue we’ll offer some of the colourful ‘I Love Lothar’ balloons as prizes in a lovable, laughable Lothar contest.
Seriously. And now, here’s what all you potential Lothar groupies have been waiting for – biographies of the human members of the group.
Meet the band
John Arthur Emelin, leader of Lothar & The Hand People as much as Lothar & The Hand People admit to having a human leader, was born on May 26, 1945 in Portchester, New York.
His first attempt at organizing a group resulted in Lothar. John is six foot one, weight 125 pounds, has blue eyes and brown hair. He spent 3 years at the University of Denver and his former occupations ore “student, raconteur and bon vivant.”
His hobby is trying to be one step ahead of what’s going to go wrong with his car. “Winky Dink And You,” “Annie Oakley” and “The $64,000 Question” are his favourite TV shows.
“Metallic rainbow colours and sounds that come so fast you don’t know where you are” rate on his list of favourite things. “If we seem like uninteresting people it’s because we really don’t do anything except this band”, said John.
Lothar and the Hand People | An Introduction
Thomas Harold Flye, began 4 years of piano lessons when he was 5. He hated it. Tom played flute “up until the age that boys just don’t play flute” then he took two drum lessons, practiced a lot and is now a very fine drummer.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 30, 1946, six-foot-tall Tom has been a cook in some of Chicago’s better supper clubs, he set up a ferris wheel for a traveling carnival one summer, he modelled sox for a while and was a telephone installer-repairman.
His eyes are brown, he weighs 145 lbs. and he spent a year at the University of Denver before going into the great big wonderful world of show business.
Russel Ford Jr, better known as Rusty, born on May 12, 1947 in New Haven, Connecticut, has been playing in bands since he was 14. He’s six feet tall, weighs 138 pounds, his eyes are green and he plays bass.
Rusty went to Choate prep school and is on an extended leave of absence from the University of Denver. Rusty likes to work with horses, but when none are available he watches old movies on TV.
His favourite colour is paisley and Buffalo Bob has always been one of his favourite singers. Seriously, Buddy Guy is his favourite musician and Rusty is one of the best bass players we’ve heard.
Self-taught
Kim King, nicknamed Kim King, was born in the Prince Charles County Hospital in Maryland on October 30, 1945. He spent 4 years in 4 different high schools.
He’s been playing the guitar for 8 years, self-taught, and he’s very good. “I’ve never done anything but play the guitar. If I stopped playing I’d probably die”.
He played in a country blues workshop at the Newport Folk Festival last year and he worked with various other groups before joining Lothar as their excellent lead guitarist.
In the vital statistics deportment, Kim is 5′ 11″ tall, weighs 115 lbs, has brown eyes and “impossible brown hair.” “I have a very long way to go to become the musician I want to be and I only hope I live that long,” Kim said.
Lothar and the Hand People | An Introduction
Paul Conly, the quietest Hand Person, Is nicknamed Little Hibov. He was born in Sacramento, California on March 10, 1944, he’s 5 feet ten inches tall, 130 pounds, has blue eyes and brown hair.
Paul took lessons on the string bass for several years, had 3 1/2 years of college and now he plays electric piano and rhythm guitar for Lothar And The Hand People. “Music is my only hobby”, he says. “I like all kinds of sounds”.
Like all the other guys in the band, Paul enjoys listening to the Beatles, The Lovin’ Spoonful and The Mama’s & Papa’s. Everybody’s best friend is Lothar. (Hit Parader, 04/67)
Big Things For Lothar
“There are very few magazines where you can read about the Good Old Days while they’re still happening,” said John Emelin after reading about Lothar & The Hand People in Hit Parader.
To keep you up to date on the group’s recent good old days, there’s been a change, and we don’t mean their socks. After lengthy negotiations Lothar & The Hand People have changed managers. They’re now represented by Stan Greeson Associates, who also manage Soupy Sales, Miriam Makeba, Pat Suzuki and some other people.
This cleared the way for them to sign with Capitol Records and their first release should be available right now. Its title is “L-O-V-E, Ask For It By Name” backed with “Rose Colored Glasses”.
Now it’s up to you to make Lothar & The Hand People big stars. Go to your friendly neighbourhood record store and ask for “L-O-V-E, Ask For It By Name” by name.
Once they get really famous, we’ll start doing intimate confessions and how-l-learned-to-play-kazoo type articles on Lothar and run big kissable photos and give you 5000 super fab fax and 8 million likes and dislikes and all the other stuff that happens to the really famous people. (Hit Parader, 06/67)
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