This is a question for any UNC folks on the list.  NC-Hist, if you will

The Trumpeter of Jamestowne is alive and well, and still living in Boyce.  Early next week I have been invited to take my show on the road give my lively presentation to the 1st North Carolina Company of the venerable Jamestowne Society in Raleigh.  But I would like to give them an historical musical challenge.

Saxie Dowd was a graduate of UNC, and I think probably headed up a band there somewhere back in the Kay Kyser, Johnny Long era.  He is best know in musical circles as the composer, in the late 1930's, of THE THREE LITTLE FISHES.  (boop boop diddle datum wadum choo...)  A forefunner of Mairzy Doats and Doazy Doats.........

But he is best known on the web in a WWII reference as the leader of the most famous US Navy Band ever, when in true RMS "Titanic" tradition, he kept the band of the USS "Franklin" playing sprightly music as fires raged about them after the ship was struck by a Japanese bomb, and was in danger of sinking.  Sadly, I have not been able to find anybody at the US Navy Band in Washington, or UNC who has ever heard of him.  He deserves better. 

Can anybody out there point me toward somebody or some group at UNC in Chapel Hill where I might have a chance of learning more about Saxie?

Randy Cabell

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