The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 47: On Thin Branches

Episode Date: March 21, 2017

How a mild mannered middle-school band teacher terrified America. 

This is the way I heard it. The 405 was a parking lot, and Tommy's knuckles were white on the wheel. He took a very deep breath, closed his eyes, and silently willed the cars in front of him to move. But when he opened them, he saw nothing but five lanes of red taillights stretching to infinity. Damn it! Where the hell was everybody going? Tommy could feel the blood pounding in his temples as the sweat ran down his neck and darken the collar of his buttoned down Oxford. He thought about the device in his trunk,

a device that would unleash a new level of terror upon an unsuspecting world. Tommy took another very deep breath. Then he swerved out of his lane, onto the shoulder, and stepped on the gas. Later, when witnesses reflected upon the impact of what Tommy had perpetrated on that fateful afternoon, they would say the same things we always hear after situations like this.

How is it possible? He seemed like such a nice man. Truth is, Tommy was a nice man. He won the Lifetime PTA Award from Sepulveda Junior High School, where he taught band for over 20 years. He was the teacher every parent hopes their teenager will get. He was not the sort of man anyone expected to encounter on the shoulder of a Los Angeles freeway,

driving like a maniac, armed with a deadly tuba. That's right, a tuba. You see, Tommy played the tuba. Like Jimmy Hendricks played the guitar. He was simply the best there ever was. And I guarantee you've heard his work. Who can forget this one? Blah, blop, blop, blop, blop, blop.

Yeah, that was Tommy. With just eight notes, it is impossible not to see Bart Simpson zipping down the street on his skateboard under a blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. Or how about this gem? Boop, blop, boop, boop, blah, with just four notes, known officially as the Price is Right Losers theme. Tommy forever captured the essence of game show heartbreak. But ultimately, everything on Tommy's long and impressive resume would be eclipsed by the two notes he played on that fateful day in 1975. The day he swerved off the 405 at speeds entirely inconsistent with the posted maximum, the day he bolted across a parking lot while clutching a 40-pound tuba and crashed through the doors of 20,000.

20th century Fox where a world-class orchestra waited for the tardy tubist. Tommy grabbed a dry spit-valve towel and mop the sweat from his brow as a technician hastily positioned a dedicated microphone. Then, with his heart still hammering in his chest, he looked for the first time at the score in front of him. There must be some mistake. With the exception of the first few measurements, all the notes appeared on short ledger lines way above the staff. This is what horn players called out on the thin branches. It was high for a trombone, even high for a French horn. For a tuba?

Madness. Tommy called out to the composer. Excuse me, I'm sorry, but I think you gave me the wrong part. The composer laughed. No, Tommy. Those notes are all for you. The composer knew only one man with the talent to turn the bouncy sound of the lumbering tuba

into something truly terrifying. So he wrote a completely non-traditional solo for the best tuba player you've never heard of, and the rest is Hollywood history. In the back of the hall, the not yet famous director paced in nervous anticipation. On the podium,

the not yet famous composer brought the orchestra to attention and smiled down at the tuba player with the sweat-stained shirt. Today, Tommy, you're the bad guy. Now go ahead and scare the hell out of us. Tommy nodded and took one more very deep breath. Then, with just two notes, he brought a monster to life and gave a voice to our most primal fear. Wadum. You know the composer. John Williams. You know the director, Steven Spielberg.

You might even know the mechanical shark. His name was Bruce. But now you know the man who put the teeth into jaws. Tommy Johnson, the mild-mannered middle school teacher who ventured way out on thin branches, to snag an Academy Award for what many believe to be the best. movie soundtrack of all time and in the process scared America right out of the

water with just two notes from his trusty tuba anyway that's the way I heard it the ocean moves us whether that's surfing a wave or taken in an inspiring view

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