Artie Drelinger excelled on the saxophone...

Artie Drelinger excelled on the saxophone at an early age and went on to play with the Benny Goodman and Paul Whiteman orchestras. He had a long run with the CBS Orchestra in New York and made one nervous appearance under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. He concluded his professional career playing with television studio orchestras in Los Angeles. Drelinger, 74, and his wife, Dotty, live in Studio City.

My folks were very poor. When I was about 12, some people took an interest in me, bought me a saxophone and gave me lessons. When I was 16, I moved to Boston, 40 miles away. My parents knew I was close by and it was just one less mouth to feed. I was old for my age, kinda hip as far as taking care of myself. I got a job playing a little nightclub.

When I was almost 17, I went to New York and checked into a little room on 47th Street. The only window was in the roof. The toilet was in the hall. My first job was in a place called Adrian’s Tap Room, 10 o’clock till 4 in the morning, seven days a week, and we got a sandwich at night. Very little money, believe me.

When you’re a kid that age, it doesn’t matter whether you eat good food, you just want to play music. You have that drive to play. “If I don’t make it, I’ll die.” That’s the kind of enthusiasm I’ve always had.

We used to eat on 11th Avenue, The Professor’s, where guys on a panic used to go. A panicker was a musician who was waiting around for a job. Two little meatballs and a piece of bread, and it was the greatest for a quarter.

I started playing jazz joints and getting club dates, whatever I could do.

We were supposed to work in Columbus, Ohio, on a Friday night, in the wintertime. We’re all broke, all young. We get there Friday, there’s no date, the date’s Saturday night. We have no place to sleep. We sleep in the railroad station, freezing cold. Everybody’s got no money. That’s being on the road.

Traveling in beat-up cars, having flat tires in the snow, no money but loving every minute of playing. If you enjoy it enough, you’ll take all the pain. If you don’t enjoy it, you get out. I enjoyed it all.

I played with Benny Goodman for about eight months, about 1938, ’39. Then I played with Paul Whiteman for two years. Whiteman was a wonderful guy. We recorded “Rhapsody in Blue.” I loved every minute of it. I was 19, maybe 20. From Whiteman I went to CBS.

I was 30 years at Columbia Broadcasting, on staff. I recorded with Charlie Parker, Louie Armstrong, all the famous records. On the Sullivan show, I played 1,650 one-hour shows in 23 years, and on the Gleason 15 years. We did all the “Honeymooners.”

I had one show that was on 25 seconds a day. We had a little jazz band, there were six of us, and we did a Spic ‘n’ Span jingle following the Jack Smith show. That was live, it was radio. Five times a week, 25 seconds a day. That’s all we did for a whole week’s salary, $135. In those days that was a lot of bread. That was 1944, ’45.

Another time I was called to play for Toscanini, the NBC Symphony. The third clarinet player was a friend of mine, the guy had pneumonia. My wife said, “You can do it.” But I didn’t want to go. Toscanini was very dynamic, he had scary eyes. It was a huge orchestra, an acre of strings. Toscanini came in, and he bowed to the strings, and then he bowed to the woodwinds. I got nervous and threw up all over my instruments. The stage hands took me out in the toilet, cleaned my instruments and I went home. I never played with Toscanini.

I still play a lot with hot jazz bands. I play flute, saxophone, clarinet. I don’t play bassoon anymore. I do a date once in a while. I’m going to play as much as I can. When people stop calling me, that’ll be my cue that I have retired from music.

I don’t think of any other thing that I could have done in my lifetime that I would have enjoyed more. It’s sad to see your life go old, but if you’ve had a happy life, it’s not that bad.

‘If you enjoy it enough, you’ll take all the pain. If you don’t enjoy it, you get out.’