Ev Smith went to our church…Wesley United on Askin Street in London. For the first part of the service the kids got to sit in “Big Church” and Ev and Dorothy always sat in the balcony to our right. It was a thrill for me to see him in person because he was on CFPL TV as “Captain Smith & Salty”. Captain Smith played the Popeye cartoons and as I recall, the show was on every day after school. We only got one channel, and it was black and white, but it was for kids and that was special. We watched every day.
Captain Smith’s sidekick was a ventriloquist dummy named Salty. The jokes and banter was corny, but always gentle and when you’re five years old in 1964, we were pretty sure that Salty was real. I even thought that they must be able to see us, because they talked to us kids just like they were in the room with us. He was our Captain Kangaroo.
I grew up and started playing in Bands and was able to play with Ev a few times. He was a gifted pianist and played guitar and vibes. I remember once when I was in the audience, on the patio at the marina in Port Franks during a dance, and Ev spotted me. He said “Tommy Linden, is that you? Come on up and sing a tune or two. They handed me a guitar, and I did a couple of blues/ rock tunes as Ev announced, “for the kids”. I was in University at the time, and my buddies were with me. I was kind of embarrassed, but they thought it was great and recognized the vibes player who called to me as “Captain Smith”. I know that one of my buddies asked if he still had “Salty”. Ev gave a gentle smile and said that “Salty” was safe and sound at home.
Ev played piano at Michaels on the Thames, and although his eyesight was going, he still took his guitar from table to table with Jack DiCarlo. Ev didn’t see well at a distance but if he squinted out saw me when I was there with clients or my wife, he would come by and play for us. He always asked, “Tommy, have you got your axe in the car?” I never did play or sing with him at Michael’s but we were able to play in other venues.
I played with Ev for the last time about 3 years ago. It was a Dixieland gig for the London Jazz society. Ev was on piano, I was playing clarinet and sax and George Langford (his son Dave was a sports reporter for the Free Press for Years) was playing trumpet. We had one rehearsal in the common room at George’s retirement apartment building followed by cake and cookies from Mrs. Langford. I was the only one there not in their sixties or seventies, but we laughed as much as we played.
Neither Ev nor George could drive because there eyesight was so poor and Ev’s daughter Susan had to drive him everywhere. The club was poorly lit and we had to help Ev and George up on the stage. They were both close to eighty, but man they could play anything in any key. We didn’t use any written music, because they couldn’t wee it anyway. They would just call out a tune and a key and ask me, “the kid” (in my forties) “Tommy you know this one?” Most times I did, and when I didn’t Ev would just cackle and start the intro, George would yell “Hang on, I’ll take the first solo and then you jump in”. We rocked the joint. The Jazz society audience wouldn’t let us stop and we played for a couple of hours with one break. I don’t know whether we even played the tunes we rehearsed or not. Jazz is like a conversation and when you have musicians the caliber of these guys, the music just happens and flows like a bunch of old friends talking at a reunion.
Ev was a kind and gentle talented man with absolutely no ego. He had great stories, and they were funny without being hurtful. Even though I was an adult when we occasionally worked together as musicians, I never got over the fact that I was playing with Captain Smith.
