Deejay, 84, Is Still Spinning Platters : At His Age, He’s Some Kind of Record Holder in the Business

When Frank Meyers dusts off an oldie from his record collection and slaps it on his turntable, it’s a real oldie. Frank Meyers is 84 years old. That’s young for a piece of classical music, perhaps, but pretty old for a disc jockey still trying to make toes tap and joints jump.

Dick Clark, for instance, was a schoolboy when Meyers started spinning platters. Glenn Miller was still a struggling band leader. Wolfman Jack’s voice had yet to change. And the long-playing record hadn’t been invented.

Meyers is a performer who knows his audience. When he spins records tonight at a Valentine’s dance at the Hotel Knickerbocker in Hollywood, hundreds of retirees are expected to attend.

Meyers said his 1,000-record collection is filled with romantic songs and Big Band ballads that can set the oldest of hearts beating and toes tapping. And if that doesn’t work, he’ll even toss in “a little rock ‘n’ roll”--tunes from the ‘50s.

“None of this hard-rock stuff,” Meyers said. “I play real music. Things that really swing.”

The energetic Meyers has been doing that kind of swinging since he purchased his first portable sound system in 1941, signed up for a night school announcing class and began playing at parties, weddings and dances.

He had worked in Canada as a carnival shooting gallery operator, welder and accountant before deciding that music was his life.

“I was playing records for $7 a night. Pretty soon, I got so many jobs that I had to hire four other boys to help me out,” Meyers recalls.

As his fame as a Toronto disc jockey grew in the 1940s, Meyers rented a small ballroom and staged his own dances for adults. In the 1950s, he launched a nightclub for teen-agers. By 1960, he was running a discotheque called Frankie’s Surf Club, large enough for 600 dancers at a time.

Meyers sold out and moved to California in 1965, working for an aircraft parts company and as an apartment manager while continuing part-time jockeying of discs.

“Playing at bowling banquets was a big thing then,” he recalled. “I was never on the radio. I never made a name for myself like Dick Clark. That’s my big regret.

“After night school, I got a radio job offer at a little 2-by-4 station for $80 a month. But at the time I was buying a convertible for $85 a month, so I couldn’t afford it.”

Although no piece of officialdom seems to keep track of party disc jockeys, Meyers figures he is this country’s oldest active deejay. Officials of the National Assn. of Broadcasters said Tuesday they know of no one on the air who is older--although legendary New York radio personality Hal Jackson is celebrating his 50th year in the business this month.

Because of space problems in his one-room, 12-by-16-foot apartment at the Hotel Knickerbocker, Meyers has converted about half of his albums and 78 r.p.m. platters to tape cassettes for his shows. His collection includes Charleston-type music popular in the 1930s, Big Band music of the ‘40s, ballads of the ‘50s and “soft” pop music from the ‘60s.

There’s not a Beatles tune in the bunch. Or disco or heavy metal.

Or rap.

“I never went in for any of that,” he said. “That stuff leaves me out in the cold. I don’t speak that language.”

That’s music to the ears of those who will be in Meyers’ Valentine’s dance crowd tonight.

“I’m too old for romance,” joked 73-year-old Mildred Feldman, a Glenn Miller fan who will be there. “But I still love his music.”

Lester Lees, 78, said he will be listening for “the old-time” tunes from the ‘50s. “That’s my kind of music,” he said.

Dave Maier, a 1928 Golden Gloves boxing champion, said he will also be there to listen. “I’m 81. I don’t dance anymore,” he said with a laugh.

But Meyers figures that his dance contest prizes will lure the crowd to its feet, even if his music doesn’t. Along with cash, he’ll give away bags of groceries.

“That’s what older people need,” he said.