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Obituary
Bernard Press Topped Music Charts In1948
By Carole Beers
Seattle Times Staff Reporter
As a musician in some of the nation's busiest big bands, Bernard Press got around.
With one group or another, he played trombone, sang and arranged music for engagements atclubs ranging from New York's Copacabana to the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles.
He made the big time in 1948 when his song "That Certain Party" hit the topof the charts.
Mr. Press performed during the 1962 Seattle World's Fairwith the Jackie Souter Orchestra. His music graced the Elvis Presley film "It Happened at the World's Fair."
"That (World's Fair) is something a musiciandoesn't often get - a year's gig," said his son Mark Press of Edmonds. "He loved it."
Mr. Press also worked in The Boeing Co.'s tool-supply department from 1959 to 1977.
He died Wednesday, May 8, of complications from surgery. He was 84.
Born in Liverpool, England, of Russian and English parents,Mr. Press came to the United States as a boy and grew up in Hartford, Conn. He gravitated to New York's Tin Pan Alley and in 1930 joined Jerry Johnson and the NBC Orchestra.
"He was playful, full of life and joy," said his son. "He was a ham. In the World's Fair gig he used to chase an oversized, female percussionist around the stage to get a laugh.
"But he also was happy playing violin or singing. And he really loved to write music."
Mark Press remembershis father - a founder and cantor at the former Temple Beth Judea Reform synagogue - sitting at his desk,
writing a few notes, jumping up to play them on a piano, then returning to the desk.
Mr. Press played not only for World's Fair concerts and dances, but in a four-piece ensemble, the Four Foul Balls,at Seattle Rainier baseball games in the 1960s. He later played with the Max Pillar Orchestra and the Sentimental Gentlemen, which he helped found.
He directed the Nile Temple Oriental Band, performing in parades around the Northwest, and was organist of the Edmonds Masonic Lodge. His final gig was as a bassistand singer with the Senior Swingers.
He liked telling of how he turned down an invitation to join Lawrence Welk's band.
Mr. Press met Welk at Chicago's famed Trianon Ballroom on New Year's Eve 1940 while playing with the Benny Strong Orchestra, which was sharing music-making chores that night with Welk'sgroup.
He met Welk again a few years later but turned down the offer because he wanted to stay with the Strong band.
Mr. Press' survivors includeanother son, David Press of Seattle; sisters, Millie Apter of Hartford, Conn.,Isabelle Kafka of Peakskill, N.Y., and Vivian Kaplan of Hamden, Conn.; brother,Irving Press of West Palm Beach, Fla.; three grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
Services have been held. Remembrances may go to the Bernie Press Memorial Music Fund, Madrona School in Edmonds, c/o any Washington Mutual Bank branch.
Copyright (c) 1996 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.
Seán
Sloane Johnson
