Seeking info on Joe Bruhl (steel player)

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 13 Nov 2018 12:32 pm

Can anyone point me to sources of information on a steel guitar player named Joe Bruhl, who once performed with bandleader Dude Martin? Dude featured singer Sue Thompson as his female vocalist for about three years. She later hit with â€œSad Moviesâ€ and â€œNormanâ€ in the 1960s.

Jerry Jones · Post by **Jerry Jones** » 13 Nov 2018 7:29 pm

Robert,

Send me your email... I have something from 1950 and 1974..

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 14 Nov 2018 9:45 am

Apparently this Joe Bruhl.

https://www.facebook.com/JoeBruhl/

https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/111171

I've got an mp3 of one of Dude's recordings with Sue that I think Bruhl wrote: "If You Want Some Lovin', Just Let Me Know". But I don't know if Bruhl was on steel.

Following from Billboard, 4-14-51:

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 14 Nov 2018 9:54 am

Mitch Drumm - It is the same Joe Bruhl steel player. This image is from Jerry Jones. Thank you both for quick response.

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 14 Nov 2018 10:03 am

Here's another, Robert:

Joe, third from left; Carolina Cotton on bass.

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 14 Nov 2018 10:21 am

Robert and Jerry:

That looks suspiciously like a Bigsby steel in that 1950 picture from the San Francisco Examiner.

Yes? No?

Jerry Jones · Post by **Jerry Jones** » 14 Nov 2018 10:34 am

Yes, I thought the same thing.

I've made a list of about 60 Bigsby owners and Smilin' Joe Bruhl is not one of them.

Wonder what happened to that steel....where are the Bigsby experts?

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 14 Nov 2018 10:37 am

Fremont California newspaper, 12-1-74:

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/38055013/

OCR text with some errors, a near biography of Joe Bruhl:

Joe Bruhl was teaching them then and he's teachingthem now! -- and they re learning their music from A to G. The Shraders (Marguerite, Suzie and Ken) are among his latest enthusiastic students music man Just imagine: there is a momentary hush throughout Brightside Country. Then, at the count of "four," a mighty concert band, 61700 strong, bursts.into the strains of the "Battle. Hymn of the Republic." Impressive? You bet your life it is -- and even more impressive is the fact that it would be reality if all of Joe , Bruhl's local students, .past and present, were assembled for one mass performance. All 6,700of 'em!

Remember 1950? "Oh My Papa," . crooned by Eddie Fisher was heard above the whirr of milkshake machines in the drive-in restaurants along "The Strip." And, in the loft above Jack Feinstein's Drug Store in San Leandro's Pelton Center, Joe Bruhl and his compatriot, Ted Johnson (present proprietor of Music unlimited) were teaching "Oh My Papa" and all the other hits of the fifties to the fledgling musicians of Brightside Country. ' ' .

The road that brought Joe to Pelton Center was long and colorful. Piano teaching at age 15 in Nebraska, a touring job with Russ Henegar whose fame as first chair trumpet player for John Phillip Sousa gave prestige to the "Territory bands" he led. 1934. "I'll Follow My Secret Heart" was the hit song and Joe and his beloved wife followed their's to California and away from the terrible drought and dust storms of the mid-western states. They settled in the Bay Area and leased the old Cook's and Baker's Hall in San Pablo for a music studio.' Nights were spent, playing in clubs and hotels throughout the area. Remember the night life in -the pre- World War II years? The Actors Equity dub, the Zanzibar Club, Tip Top. Club Deuville. Club New Yorker. Silver Cafe, By Pqt Davis Wonderbar, Rancho San Pablo. Joe played them all -and more.

He was playing at the St. Marks Hotel's Red Lion Club in 1935. a favorite mecca of east bay sports personalities. The first time Livermore boxer Max Baer walked in following his September 2} defeat by Joe Louis, Joe struck up a lilting version of "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling." Had mighty Max been .endowed with less than a warm sense of humor, 6.700 musical careers might not have included Joe Bruhl!

World War II. The draft.. Remarkably, Joe was assigned to special services in the Air Force, and spent five years playing in. and leading stage bands for Uncle Sam. His tours on the "Victor}'" circuit and the Stagedoor Canteen gave him opportunity to work with such notables as Kay Kayser, Duke Ellington, Basil Rathbone, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyk, Ann. Sheridan, and many more. At one point, in Tennessee, he worked with San Leandro's Frank Bettencourt, music arranger for Jan Garter..

The war ended and Joe came marching . home to Dude Martin's Round-up Gang, a live Western show on KYA-TV at six o'clock every morning. That's where Joe became associated with Ted Johnson and so. when the show moved to Hollywood. Ted and Joe moved to Jack Feinstein's. loft in 1950. It didn't take long for the popular pair to build up a large clientele, and by 1953 they had out grown their limited space. By chance, one of Joe's students, Elsie Martin, was (and still is) in real estate. There was an old farmhouse on 144th and East 14th with a 75 foot frontage. The $12.000 price was right and "Music Unlimited" was bom. The first facelift was a coat of fire engine red paint, evok- ing whistles and promptly giving rise to the new establishment's nick-name, "The Little Red School House."

Next came the slogan signboard whose weekly bits of wit and whimsey were a landmark on East 14th for the next 20 years. In 1958. Joe and his famous signboard moved to 1 his present location at 16563 East 14th to expand teaching, facilities. The walls are covered with photographs of years of music pupils. .Some have grown up and sent their moppets to Joe for instruction in guitar.or piano. At least 32 have gone on to active musician's union membership. Some are performers and teachers. Many are well known in the music world: Paul Carrol, Dennis Mas- tentoneo. Doug Torres, Glenn Deardorff. Steve Erquiga and so many more. Many play only when they are happy: or sad; or alone.

Some, perhaps, haven't tried music for years, but have a deeper appreciation for other's music because of their early training from Joe. Paul Covarclli. guitar instructor at San Lorenzo Music Center and performer in Pleasanton grins remembering the bygone years when Joe called him "the bird- watcher." Seems Paul, for a while, paid more attention to the nesting birds than to his lessons. Times have changed though. Paul's long flowing hair is in gentle contrast to the close cropped youth on Joe's portrait wall. Anibd Paul is a serious and professional musician. His first eight years of music lessons were with Joe. He says: "If it wasn't for Joe. I'd have missed out on a lot of music in my life!" Multiply that statement by 6.700 and thensome. ' All together now: at the count of four: "Thanks. Joe."

Jerry Jones · Post by **Jerry Jones** » 14 Nov 2018 11:01 am

Here's another screenshot of the Dude Martin Band and little better image of that "Smilin' Joe" Bigsby.

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 14 Nov 2018 11:13 am

Double neck with at least 5 pedals??

Is that last picture squished a bit? Everybody looks tall and skinny and that Bigsby looks very short scale.

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 14 Nov 2018 2:10 pm

Can't thank you guys enough for this wealth of information. Yes - it says "Bigsby" on the cabinet and yes the image is squashed probably from being reproduced. Perhaps Joe Bruhl was not original owner of Bigsby but acquired it second hand and put his name on it then. Just a theory.

George Bruhl · Post by **George Bruhl** » 28 Jul 2022 6:04 am

Smithsonian has his territory band scrapbooks

Summary: The collection primarily consists of photographs and a scrapbook documenting Joseph Bruhl's experiences playing with territory bands from the early 1920s through the late 1930s. There are also some materials that relate to his personal life.

https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0869

There is a bit about his radio work on the west coast in the '50s. I was a newborn in 1955 so I didn't really meet Joe Bruhl until I was 10 or so, and then high school, he would come out to vacation with my father (his younger brother)for a month during the summers.

He was a wise teacher, and had lots of stories.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 28 Jul 2022 9:20 am

Gary's pic in proper aspect ratio

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 29 Jul 2022 4:34 am

That Fremont article brings back lots of memories. Music Unlimited was my "Go To" music store for years. Bought my first pedal steel through them, ZB S10. I was going to trade in my National triple 8 on it. The owner personally bought it from me for himself for $350, my brother had bought it for me for $75. They loaned me a Fender 400 to use until my ZB got to me. Bought my Session 400 Session 500, and my current Nashville 400 there.

I know the name Joe Bruhl well. Trying to remember if or where I might have met him. What year did he pass away? I can't find anything on him. Anxiously awaiting any more info on him.

Joe Goldmark · Post by **Joe Goldmark** » 29 Jul 2022 12:59 pm

Great article on Joe. Surprisingly this is the first I've heard of him, especially since Dude Martin played around here so much (San Francisco). There was of course a rich San Jose South Bay scene that was pretty much unrelated to the scene up here.

I own Dan Boyd's Bigsby. Dan's career followed a similar trajectory as Joe Bruhl's did. I took lessons from him at Scalise Music in Richmond, CA. @1970. He was a seasoned pro who could play and teach multiple instruments, but his main ones were steel and guitar.

Joe

John McClung · Post by **John McClung** » 30 Jul 2022 2:38 pm

That pic from Donny Hinson seems to show 4 giant fingers seeming to come out from the pedals on Joe's right side and hanging over the pedal rack. Seems he had a good sense of humor! Probably part of some Halloween gorilla costume.