ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 29, 1996 TAG: 9601300001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
Alex Axiotis doesn't remember how old he was when he committed his first and only crime, but he remembers the resulting lump on his young head quite distinctly. The lump was there for weeks. And it hurt.
This was during the Great Depression - that he does remember - and times were tough. His parents were Greek immigrants, struggling to make a life for themselves and their 10 children.
They lived in Springfield, Mass., where his father ran a modest junkyard, and although there was always food on the table, there was never money enough for even the smallest of extravagances, not even the 25-cent harmonica Axiotis had spied in the town five-and-dime.
All chromed and polished, it was irresistible to a boy like Axiotis, who desperately wanted to play it like the cowboys he heard so often on the radio. So, when the clerk was looking the other way, he took matters into his own hands.
He slipped the harmonica into his pocket and headed for home.
It was a Hohner, he remembered.
The lump came soon afterward, when his mother, realizing her son's dishonest deed, broke a kitchen plate over his tender head. Mercifully, she spared him from the far harsher punishment of making him return his stolen prize to the store.
Maybe, times being what they were, she decided to be lenient. Or perhaps, with a mother's instinct, she sensed something.
Either way, her decision changed the course of his life. In fact, the title of the first song he learned to play said it all. It was a popular song of the day:
``My Happiness.''
From there, with the Hohner seemingly attached to his lips, Axiotis practiced hours upon hours each day. At his father's junkyard, he would hide between scrapped cars and play to avoid work. At school, he played between classes.
``It just hooked me,'' he said. ``It just hooked me.''
Mostly, Axiotis was self-taught. He learned new songs by following along with a record player on slow speed. ``I was terrible at first. Then I thought I was good, but I wasn't. It took many years. I think I had to work up to being a natural.''
The devotion continued as an adult, sometimes to his own detriment, particularly when it came to steady employment. He remembered one of his first jobs, at the Schaefer Beer factory, where he often played his harmonica during coffee breaks. He even learned the company's jingle. ``The one beer to have when you're having more than one.''
But, like many of his jobs, it ended with a call into the manager's office.
``I used to be a hockey player,'' the manager told him, ``but I don't carry skates around my neck.''
The harmonica would have to go.
``I played a marching song and I walked out,'' Axiotis said.
Today, at 67, he smiles at the memory. ``It seemed like that was the start of my life.''
When he could, he played at nightclubs around Springfield. He married and bought a house, renting out the upstairs to help supplement his up-and-down musical lifestyle. Then, a musician friend suggested he contact the Harmonica Rascals about an audition.
By this time it was 1959, and times were better. ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' was the biggest thing on television, Las Vegas was booming, and the Harmonica Rascals were in demand by both.
The Harmonica Rascals got their start in vaudeville, eventually becoming a nightclub and recording act that appeared occasionally in movies and later on television. Today, the troupe probably would be deemed politically incorrect. Its routine was a mix of music and slapstick comedy, with leader Johnny Puleo's dimnutive size used as the source of much of the humor.
Axiotis wrote to Puleo, who invited him to New Jersey for a tryout. Axiotis played a polka. More importantly, he got along well with Puleo, who hired him on the spot. ``I like your personality,'' Puleo told him. ``I'm not looking for the best harmonica player.''
The next day, Axiotis called home from the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.
``I'm here,'' he said to his wife. ``I can't believe it. I'm in the casino gambling.''
His pay was $450 a week and he stayed with the group for seven years.
``It was the highlight of my career,'' he said. ``It felt like we were big shots, like we were famous. People would come up and want our autographs.''
With the Rascals, Axiotis appeared on ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' and other television variety programs of the time.
About Ed Sullivan, he said: ``He was all business. He didn't share anything. He was too big, too busy.''
In Las Vegas, Axiotis was familiar enough to the famed Rat Pack that he got the occasional nod from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He was careful to point out that he never boozed with them, however. He said he isn't much of a drinker.
His nickname was ``The Greek Ambassador,'' a tag given to him by Puleo, who liked the way he cooked Greek food and his ability to settle group squabbles. Axiotis remembered one incident in particular, when an argument resulted in someone being left by the side of the road, next to a cornfield.
``He can eat all the corn he wants,'' the driver said as he pulled away.
It was Axiotis who persuaded him to turn around.
``It was not easy living with five guys,'' he said.
He left the group when Puleo's health began to decline, and returned to Springfield. He divorced and took a job as a cook in a restaurant, where he also performed after the kitchen closed. Then he remarried. His wife's name is Yvonne.
Born-again Christians, they moved to Lynchburg about four years ago, partly because they wanted to live in a warmer climate and partly because Yvonne wanted to go back to school at Liberty University.
Today, she is finishing her degree in business administration. Axiotis helps support them by hustling harmonica tapes and performing gigs wherever he can. He played regularly at Valley View Mall in Roanoke between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
He still misses playing for the Harmonica Rascals. In his wallet, he keeps a photograph of Puleo, taken off the television screen when the group appeared on ``The Ed Sullivan Show.'' Puleo died about 15 years ago, he said.
But Axiotis is content with his solo act. He works on it still four hours a day, playing an assortment of harmonicas that he has collected over the years. He even has harmonicas he invented, like the one rigged with a balloon and a brass valve to sound like a bagpipe.
He said he has no plans to retire.
``As long as God gives me the air to blow these things,'' he said, ``I'll be playing.''
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Wayne Deel. 1. Alex Axiotis has an extensive harmonicaby CNBcollection (above). 2. Axiotis plays for shoppers at Valley View
(left) back before Christmas. 3. (no caption. color. 4. Alex Axiotis
appears thrid from left in this 1959 photo of the Harmonica Rascals. KEYWORDS: INFOLINE