Feb. 3, 1973: The Amazing Dr. Zarcon's Breathing Machine
In which we discover that
Feb. 3, 1973
A Zany Jug Band with Happy, Shuffling
Sounds
Breathing Machine Recalls ‘30s
In Song, Costume and Kazoos
“HI THERE,”
one member of The Amazing Dr. Zarcon’s Breathing Machine says in greeting. “You
must be Mr. and Mrs. John Smith of
“And this here’s Ed,” says the guy next to him. “Whatcha
say we go bend a couple in the Doodah Room. If ya catch my meanin’ … If you get
my drift.”
Sheila Farrell – she’s the singer, the one sitting on the
couch with the red hair and the long black ‘30s dress, she hadn’t said anything
over the phone about how zany her friends would be.
No, she didn’t say they spring whole scenes out of Firesign
Theater on you like that. All she said was that there were seven of them and
they had a jug band.
“Our music is kind of like breathing,” she’d said. “The
band’s been playing for four years and we’re going to get a chance to do a show
Sunday at The Showboat (foot of
Instead of the Doodah Room, the group retires to bend a few
Canadian ales in the living room of the big old house where three of them live
not far from the Niagara River rapids in
* * *
A COUPLE
friends are there too. Sam Granada, who used to play bass in the group before
he split for
“Francis D. Reed was our inspiration,” says Jim Farrell,
the banjo player. “He hardened us all, got us together, told us the facts of
life. He’s the proprietor of The Midtown. If you ever write a book, you wanta
go down there.”
“Another place you oughta go is the penny arcade at Crystal
Beach,” Stan Eckel, the jug player, puts in. “There’s this computer that tries
to shoot down your spaceship with rockets while you try to shoot it. It’s
really tough. I put 75 cents into it before I got my first hit against the
computer.”
* * *
“WANTA HEAR
about the Zarcon movie?” Charlie Gibson, the washboard player, puts in. “It’s
called ‘Beach Blanket Zarcon, or In Search of the Lost Penoombra.’
“He’s got clues, you see, to find the penoombra and you know
that drainage pipe at the
“And Zarcon meets Mediaman,” Sheila says. “Mediaman is all
done up with recording tape and videotape and comic books. For eyes, he’s got
Viewmaster reels and his cape is made of Wall Street Journals.”
“Where’s Dr. Zarcon at?” remarks Charlie. “He’s a cosmic
traveler, like Winston Niles in ‘Sirens of Titan’ by Kurt Vonnegut.”
At this point the band decides it’s time for music. They do
it acoustically, no amplification, although they use microphones on the
instruments when they play out.
* * *
THEY START
out with “Evening Breeze” off the first Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks album,
guitarist John Feldmeyer singing, Sheila doing lilting counterlines, Charlie
scuffing sandblocks. The whole thing has a happy, shuffling ‘20s feel.
“Coney Island Washboard” has not only a washboard solo, but
also a first-rate jug solo. Jim Kweskin’s “
The Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” seems perfectly
adapted to the group and there’s a banjo solo in it. Then a camp classic,
“Brazil,” with a legless set of marimbas which someone found three weeks ago
among garbage cans on some Niagara Falls curb. They prop it up on amplifier
cases.
“One summer we had two chicks singing,” Frog says, “and we
did horrible things to all different songs. Then we were The Most Amazing Dr.
Zarcon’s Breathing Machine Ever. We don’t like to talk about those days.”
In days to come, the band plans on putting together a
program tracing the history of American folk music, then take it around to
schools. They’d also like to go to the Mariposa Folk Festival in
“We’re having a cookie drive to raise the funds,” Sheila
grins.
* * *
IT’S DECIDED
to make an expedition to The Midtown – Charlie calls up and tells them to keep
it open – and over the 20-block route to central
It goes back to a folk guild about six year ago, he says,
which fell apart when the treasurer absconded with its funds.
“It began with Frog and Stan. Stan has perfect pitch, you
know,” Sam adds. “Later on, we were playing the Willow Inn and we used to duck
out between sets to The Midtown.”
The Midtown is one of those old bars with the old-time tin
ceilings and a lot of room in back, and like most of those old bars, it’s for
sale. The bartender is a tall, kindly old man with a tall gray crewcut. There’s
two other customers.
Half the group surrounds the shuffleboard, some others take
over the pinball machine and the rest search the jukebox for just the right
song.
Someone spots it in one of the righthand columns and soon the room is bouncing lightly to an old rendition of “Bye Bye Blues,” just as it must have 30 years ago. For the band, it seems just like home.
The box/sidebar:
Dr. Zarcon Has the Inspiration
The towering spirit and overwhelming inspiration of The Amazing
Dr. Zarcon has left an indelible mark on his followers, none of whom have been
able to wash it off, even with phosphate detergents.
All, however, are quick to take up his defense. “The spawn
of hell, that man,” says one awestruck devotee, struggling valiantly to conceal
his admiration.
* * *
ALTHOUGH
members of the jug band have come and gone, their loyalty remains eternal. As
one guitarist gravely puts it: “No one quits The Zarcon!” The present active
membership includes:
Sheila Farrell, 25, vocals, Niagara Falls High School,
Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, freelance advertising copy writer for
a
Jim Farrell, 32, banjo, Sheila’s brother, Niagara Falls
High,
John Feldmeyer, 21, guitar and mandolin, Niagara Falls
High, UB graduate, “in between positions.”
David (Frog A) Berner, 24, 12-string guitar, Niagara Falls
High, attended
Charlie Gibson, 23, washboard (and other instruments
blurred and illegible), Niagara Falls High, NCCC “a-while,” drives
Niagara-Wheatfield school bus.
David (Frog B) Williams, 23, washtub bass, Bishop Duffy
High, NCCC “a-while,” drives for Nioga Library System.
Stan Eckel, 24, jug, Niagara Falls High, NCCC, married.
Among the originators of the band were Frog A, John and
Stan. “We’re the rotten core of the group,” Frog explains. “We’re all hardened
performers. We got that way by playing in a country band here in the Falls.”
* * *
NEWCOMERS
are Frog B and Charlie, who joined back around Thanksgiving after they were
promised a share of the group’s annual turkey.
While Dr. Zarcon may or may not be a fig newton of
imaginations fired by Marvel Comics, Saturday morning TV and other such mind-warping
devices (some say Dr. Z was named after a poison gas), the same can be said for
the Breathing Machine, which the group uses for laughs, promotional purposes
and occasional gulps of fresh air.
“It took 100 men 100 days to build it,” says Stan.
“Actually,” Sheila confides, “it’s always existed as a
non-existent thing. My brother did a poster of it …” (print blurred)
* * * * *
IN THE PHOTO:
The Amazing Dr. Zarcon’s Breathing Machine (with friends and disguises), from
left, front row, Sam Granada, Sheila Farrell, Pat Browning and Jim Farrell;
back row, Stan Eckel, David (Frog) Williams, Charlie Gibson, David (Frog)
Berner and John Feldmeyer.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: Amazingly enough, the Breathing Machine is
still alive and wacky and performing (variously as a trio, quartet and quintet)
in the San Francisco Bay Area, having fled Western New York just as the epic
winter snows of 1976-77 were starting to pile up. Its sense of the absurd is
intact. The most active among them seems to be John “J. P.” Feldmeyer, who records
his performances of vintage songs and his own compositions and then puts them
up on YouTube. Subscribers welcome.
Stan Eckel and Dave Berner show up in photos on his
Facebook page. The band itself has a way of materializing on and off, notably in
the summertime at the International Jug Band Festival in
Meanwhile, Sheila Farrell is now Sheila Farrell Zuni
and operates an airbnb and artist space in downtown
“My dear and talented artist friend, Rachel, and I
moved from
She performs from time to time with longtime local folkie
Michael Sheffield in a duo called The Snobknockers. They characterize what they
do as “Homebaked Jive,” which is old-timey jazz and blues and ragtime music. On
the Snobknockers website, she also notes that Zarcon enjoyed a bit of real-life
success before the band went West. For two years, she says, they did four
nights a week at the Ramada Inn in
Her brother Jim didn’t go West until 1992 and when he did, he headed for Southern California.
He died in 2018 in
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