Show ad A adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE play fiddle play by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter ELLO everybody strike up the band here corrini COTO HELLO bandsman frank zoll zell of chicago you know they say that nero fiddled while rome was burning b frank zell went him one better fronk frank kept a whole doggone brehe orchi going while but wait a minute lets not spoil the story this yarn yam takes us back to the boom year of 1929 when evert eve was throwing parties at that time frank was a student at the cri sity of illinois and he had organized a dance band composed vt of from the university the army illinois football game was played play champaign that year and a prominent citizen ol of the town had issued issue citations to a flock ot of his friends to attend a ball which was to be h held his home after the game frank was engaged to furnish the music for the party I 1 dinner inner served alter after the game and a reception followed that so 50 the dac get started until around halt half past ten A platform been set up lor for the orchestra in the big ballroom on the third A floor 00 r the boys played tor for about halt half an hour first they thought it was a joke and then all of 0 a sudden sadden there came sounds of shooting sho otini lat on the lower floors boors the crackle of gunfire in the midst of a party was strange en eno out stranger still few of the guests paid any attention to it it the h was a man known tor for a certain flair tor for doing the unexpected to lie zest to his parties if this were just another stunt to give the assembled folks a thi i be tooled fooled by it the orchestra well no one wanted to played in the dance went on it went on tor for two or three minutes then suddenly tour four masked men carrying pistols and shot burst into the ballroom one of the thugs shouted put em up this is a holdup hold P there was a momentary confusion in the room the he stopped playing still no one seemed to be able to decide whether tb was a joke or not but as the bandits began pushing the guests around aronn fl lining them up against a wall it became apparent that this was no joke but grim reality r city up on the platform in full view of the gangsters with their e F frank rank began to get that uneasy feeling he felt like a day clay pigeon i shot out of the trap he had in his pocket and he slipped it out ga oil KL just as nero fiddled eddied when rome burned managed to ditch it behind one of the wings that flanked the then the confusion of the moment over frank led his band into series of dance tunes that would take about fifteen minutes to play and the band just played on so just as nero fiddled while rome burned frank led a whole chestra into a flock of lively music while all around him the fuesti gut of his employer were being robbed but he do it non chantly nero did As a matter of fact frank was feeling anything but poncha n balant ha lant but it gave him and his boys something to do besides beside ii around and feel helpless and on top of that frank had an idea the idea was that a holdup of that sort go unnoticed to loi somewhere in the big house with many telephones and swarming with w servants some one must have put a call through to the police and andfrid frad figured that it if his band played those crooks might lose track ot of the i ii and be delayed a bit so on the band played meanwhile the boys in the orchestra were just as nervous M he was those crooks might not like the music and tak take a notion 0 to start shooting frank looked at the piano player noticed that helas he was playing 11 only one hand and asked him why cant use the other one t piano player shot back its paralyzed but the thugs seem to mind music and his boys were 9 P ting more confident the saxophone player slipped oft off his wrist wa wat and dropped it into his instrument where it was concealed so thona that he had to pay the next day to have the sax taken apart ap they played through the whole number and the thugs tv far m ha li n objecting seemed to like it when they stopped one of them them pointed hinted gun at the platform and uttered one word mu ti ti timid and d fr says the nose of that shotgun looked like the muzzle ot of a one I 1 can assure you that we played III the bandits lulled by the music were going about their wo alzold a leisurely fashion they seemed to be in a good mood and no one w 0 shot during the affair they finished their work and started to leave then came the police shooting As they were going down the stairs they met a single joke coming up the cop like the guests first thought it was a staged 11 w he said all right boys the shows over lets have your gun the first bandit dumfounded dum founded handed over his revolver revolve r without a 2 ont but at that moment a whole squad of police burst in thee far door A second bandit whipped hipped up a shotgun and fired J DO 0 DO cap a captain in the thumb at almost the same moment tain let go with a 45 and the bandit tumbled down the sta rs JO j ho had ha who lie he landed at the bottom at the feet of some g guests u ests arrived and there he lay in a pool of his own blood a cynical c 5 sm was his face while the cops looked him over to see how badly he he died the next da day at mercy hospital in urbana low y do s day ya two of the thugs escaped but they were caught a few hosts Is rno in when the cops had gone that night after the holdup the c of came over to frank handed him 20 and told him it was hero d 1 S to lead his band under such harrowing circumstances 1 aih it h frank 1 I blushed when I 1 took it if she could have only wa 0 barrel ga th the D C could have played all night after taking one look down j that shotgun JS D service |