The following are excerpts from a feature article in International Banjo magazine in 1981 when my dad and I were interviewed by its assistant editor, Randy Morris, (a great musician and friend). This is not a complete overview of his career, but rather highlights and a few of his countless showbiz stories:

Randy: You obviously started playing banjo when you were pretty young.

Pat, Sr.: Yes. When I was about 10 years old I used to go with my mother and father and play for square dances. When I was 12, my older brother Larry was 13, my younger brothers Emile and Leo were 10 and 9 years and my sister Edmay was 7 (she was a dancer). At that age, we had 14 different kinds of instruments at home and we used to play all of them on a radio show broadcast from WATR in Waterbury, Connecticut, and WTIC in Hartford. When I was around 15 I played with a lot of different 4 and 5 piece bands for dances, minstrels and that sort of thing.

Randy: What were the circumstances that led to your playing the banjo professionally?

Pat, Sr.: I was 18 and living in Bristol, Connecticut, and a friend of mine, and I were going to New York City to go sight-seeing. The Major Bowes Show was on CBS radio every Sunday night and the whole family used to gather around and listen to it. My mother and father always said, "You kids would win that show very easily", but nobody had the guts to try out for it because it was a network show on CBS. So, that night I said to my mother, "I think I'm going to go on that show next week while I'm on vacation." So, I took my banjo and headed for New York the next day... and found out that they were holding auditions that afternoon! The talent scout liked me so much that he said, "I think we can use you on the program this week." All I had with me was a suit. I was traveling very light and had only one banjo. After the rehearsal the Advance Manager said that he wanted to buy me a dinner at a high-class restaurant. On the way to the restaurant he stopped at TWA airlines and purchased a ticket for Kansas City, Missouri. On the way out he handed them to me. He said, "You're going to Kansas City after the broadcast to open at the Newman Theater." I never flew before. I told him that I didn't care to take the plane, and that I'd take the bus! "But you can't take the bus because you have to be in Kansas City for a one o'clock show on stage!", he said. I was nervous all week about taking that plane. I went to the airport... it was very foggy. That made it worse because I was thinking of the movies I'd seen! I had to go to the men's room. So, I'm there and the pilot comes walking in. He gets in the next stall and said, "Are you taking this plane?" I said, "Yes." He said, "You'd better hurry up. We're leaving a little earlier on account of the fog." (laughter) I was shakin'... I got out of there... I didn't even go! Finally we got up in the air. Everybody else was relaxing, but I was too nervous to go to sleep, so I started writing postcards with an ink pen. And the ink started to go all over the place. It was the air pressure in the plane, I guess the ink just sucked right out! I spoiled all of my cards. I got ink on my suit. It was a very light gray suit. I went to the Newman Theater and they had a parade for me. It was a real big deal because Major Bowes said that 'the manager of the Newman Theater just called in and asked for the banjo player to open up the one o'clock show.' While I was waiting at the theater I went out on the fire escape. A window washer on the floor above had a bucket of dirty water and I heaved it down... and got myself all wet. The dirty water besides the way I looked before....I couldn't go on stage looking like that! (laughter) I went to the cleaners next door and hid in a cubby hole while he was cleaning my suit! He got it cleaned before the show anyway.
So, that was the story of my first job on the road... How many pages did you say this magazine was? (laughter) Then I traveled through all of the mid-west states.

Randy: So, how many years did you travel with that show?

Pat, Sr.: About a year and a half. In 1939 I opened up a banjo school in Southbridge, Massachusetts and had 150 banjo students, both private and in classes. From 1941 to 1948 I had my own group, an accordion player, a sax player and a drummer. I played banjo and guitar.

Randy: What kind of music did you play, popular tunes of the day?

Pat, Sr.: No... the same old crap I'm playing now! (laughter.)

Pat, Sr.: Anyway, the accordion player came in the club one night and said, "Hey, Pat, you want to listen to the radio tomorrow night and hear a great accordion player? His name is Dick Contino. He's with the Horace Heidt Show.It's a talent contest. Why don't you try out for it?" I said. "Naw!" The next night I listened to the show, and wouldn't you know, there was a banjo player on it. He played "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise", and didn't win. The winner was a 300 pound guy that sang "She's Too Fat For Me! They were holding auditions in Hartford the next day and I went to it. I fought 5,000 other acts! They would go in for about 10 or 15 seconds and come out. When I went in they kept me there. They said that Horace Heidt wasn't there but they would call me. The next week after the banjo player lost, the show came to Hartford. That's where Horace was going to listen to the talent these guys had picked out for him. Heidt doesn't go into a room and listen to you perform. He puts you right up on the stage and you do your act... cold... no rehearsal with the piano player... nothing! So, I went and did "Tiger Rag" for him. After I got off Horace came over to me and said, "I want to see you in my dressing room." He had his arranger, secretary, photographer, and piano player in there. He said "would you mind playing that number for me again?" I said, "Sure!" "Amazing, amazing" he said to his arranger, Abe Aaron, "Take that down!" Do you know that I played that song once and then again when he started writing, and he wrote that arrangement as fast as I played it. Horace said, "I want you to put one of those 'Dick Contino' endings on it." And he did. That was on Wednesday. So, I worked the theater all week with him, and on Sunday I broadcast. After I won the show he said, "Go home, pack up your stuff and quit your job. You're traveling with me. Meet me in Boston." That was the next competition. I won in Boston and went to Syracuse, won there, and kept on going and stayed with his show for four years. That was 1948, '49, '50 and then I went with the Dick Contino Show, which was a show sponsored through Heidt.

We traveled throughout the country. When I was with the Contino Show I shared the bill with such celebrities as Bob Hope, Arthur Godfrey, Gordan MacRae, Frank Sinatra and Danny Kaye.

Randy: Somewhere during that time you got married, right?

Pat, Sr.: No, I didn't get married, my wife did! (laughter)... Yes, I got married on April 29, 1939.

Randy: I'm just wondering, usually if a lady is married and is starting a family, she wouldn't be too crazy about her husband going on the road.

Pat, Sr.: Well, I was home in time to have the kids... it wasn't done by mail!(laughter)

Randy: But did she have any objections to your traveling?

Pat, Sr.: My wife, Rita, always let me do what I wanted with my banjo-playing career. And she still does today because she knows that that's my life.

Randy: Did she ever do any of the traveling with you?

Pat, Sr.: Yes, in the summertime, when the kids were out of school, I used to have them fly to wherever I was and they used to travel with me.

Randy: Wasn't it at a Massachusetts theme park called Pleasure Island that you worked with The Three Stooges?

Pat, Sr.: Yes. They were to perform there. Curly and I and the manager of the park were walking down towards the stage. Curly had a big folder of music under his arm and asked, "What time does the orchestra get here?" The manager pointed to me and said, "This is your orchestra!" "Just a banjo player?", remarked Curly. "Yes." So I rehearsed their show and backed it up all by myself!

Randy: (to Pat, Jr.) What was your first connection with Disney Productions?

Pat, Jr.: Back in 1962 my dad was the featured soloist in the stage show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It was a Walt Disney production. He returned to the Music Hall in '65 with a different show. Then in '68 we played there together, and were featured in a show called "Words and Music by Irving Berlin". Then in 1971 we each played there individually. That show was "A Tribute to Stephen Foster".

Randy: And what were your activities between the Music Hall shows?

Pat, Jr.: We played mostly clubs and TV shows in the Boston and New York areas, including the Jimmy Durante Show and Ed Sullivan.

"Pat Terry and The Gaslighters" banjo oriented dixieland band opened many night clubs including The Banjo Room and K-K-K-Katy's both in the Boston area. My dad also featured at a club called The Beachcombers, in Wollaston Beach, Massachusetts for several years. That was one of the clubs he used to sneak me into to play when I was young.

Randy: Tell us about the Disney years.

Pat, Jr.: I played at Disneyland, in California for the summer and Christmas seasons of 1971, then my dad joined me for the Easter and summer seasons of '72. We moved to Florida and opened Walt Disney World on October 1st,

1972, my dad and I were a strolling banjo duo throughout all the park for 10 years. During that time we did a lot of convention stage shows and featured performances, playing for many of the 126 million people who have visited in the past 10 years. We have played for many dignitaries from around the world including Presidents, Senators, Ambassadors and Kings!

Who knew in 1962 when Pat, Sr. worked for Walt Disney at Radio City Music Hall, that he would be playing at Walt Disney World 9 years later? Link to Pat Terry, Jr. web site