Ah Spring is finally here! I was walking through our local flea market yesterday with my son Davey and came across a box of old 45 records. Now I'm really not much in vinyl, and 45's do not seem to be especially popular these days. But the neat organization and condition of the records themselves drew me to the box.

You see these were not typical 50s rock and roll records like you'd expect on 45s. But rather they were someones collection of vintage jazz 45s from the 1950s! Each was neatly placed in the box, with all of the records in their original sleeves and some still wrapped! There were all kinds of jazz duos, quartets etc. But one and only one caught my eye.

This particular 45 cover had a colorful graphic of a bunch of guys with a firetruck. I flipped the record over and started reading the first few artists names...Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas....Hey wait a minute! Weren't these the same names of early animators at the Walt Disney Studios back in the 40s and 50s?    

Sure enough, they were! The record was called the "Firehouse Five Plus Two, Good Time Jazz". It is dated "Copyright 1953 by Good Time Jazz Record Co. Inc.". Songs include: Five Foot Two, Mississippi Rag, Show Me The Way To The Fire and San Antonio Rose.  I grabbed up the record for a dollar and headed home to find out more!  

I did some quick research and found out some neat info. 

The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Walt Disney Studios animation department. The members included: Danny Alguire on cornet, Harper Goff on banjo, Ward Kimball on trombone-siren-tambourine-sound effects and band leader, Clarke Mallery on clarinet, Monte Mountjoy on drums, Erdman (Ed) Penner on bass saxophone and later tuba and Frank Thomas on piano. Later other Disney artists joined in; Jimmy McDonald, George Probert, Dick Roberts, Ralph Ball and George Bruns.

The band was active from 1949 to 1972, playing and recording while never giving up their day jobs as animators and artists with the Walt Disney Studio in California. They appeared in several Disney television specials, including the very first Disney special in 1950 called "One Hour In Wonderland". They also appeared on the early Mickey Mouse Club tv series, and appeared in animated form in the 1953 Goofy animated short, "How to Dance", and the 1999 direct to video Christmas film "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas".  

You'll never know what will turn up at the flea market!