Trumpet virtuoso Al Hirt was born 100 years ago today. My dad was a big fan, and when he heard that Al would be playing the theme for the TV show The Green Hornet, he was really excited, saying that Al was the only trumpeter that could handle the song. The original Green Hornet, on the radio and in movie serials, used Rimsky-Korsakov’s "Flight Of The Bumblebee" as its theme; Al rearranged it and made it swing. I’ve included both his single version and the introduction to The Green Hornet from 1966.
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
For some reason John…I never saw this as a kid in the seventies…they showed Batman but not this…I would have liked it.
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My guess is that it didn’t have enough episodes for syndication. I think the minimum was three seasons at the time. I didn’t see the series again until New Year’s Day a few years ago (it was post-stroke, so 2008 or 2009), when SyFy ran the whole series. It was a good show, but didn’t have the audience (as I recall, it ran Friday night). William Dozier, who created Batman, came up with this, and unlike Batman, he played this one straight with none of the campiness, which was probably why it didn’t catch on. There were rumors that Van Williams and Bruce Lee didn’t get along as well. The whole series is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6fJmjt84zZijUX52K1F24557XEatByGT
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Thanks for the link…I’ll catch a few. I’ve read where Lee had different opinions about it.
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Very cool. This is a most difficult piece to play and this man made it even more so. He’s brilliant.
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He was a true virtuoso, and a big, friendly guy. He underwent gastric surgery where they took out a big chunk of his small intestine and he lost an incredible amount of weight, as I remember.
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I saw Al Hirt when I was in New Orleans. He was fabulous.
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He always put on a great show, I’ve heard. He was the standard for trumpet players.
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I loved Al Hirt and I loved The Green Hornet – both song and show.
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Shame the show only lasted the one year.
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I can still hear this in my head
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One of those songs that sticks with you…
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