When I was a kid I was deeply involved with playing ragtime and stride piano, having learned how to do it by putting my fingers on our player piano while a roll played and seeing where the keys depressed and how the whole business of two-handed jazz piano worked. Somehow this led to me being introduced to a wonderful meeting club called ‘The Maple Leaf Club’, which met once (or twice maybe?) a month at Shakey’s Pizza on Laurel Canyon in the San Fernando Valley. It was a joyous outing–the pizza, fried chicken and potatoes were fabulous (to my young taste buds) and a large group of superb jazz/ragtime pianists rocked the house the whole afternoon. And then one day I began to lose interest in that style of jazz. Since Shakey’s didn’t do Bud Powell/Oscar Petersen/Ahmad Jamal style stuff it became a place that merely felt like a chore for me to attend. And that was the end of the Maple Leaf Club for me. But not before I met Eubie Blake, who was a special guest at the club circa 1974.

Above is a nice little mini-doc (and a bonus commercial) about the creation of Shakey’s and its tradition of having live piano and banjo music playing while kids scarfed Pizza and adults swilled beer. The chain still exists but in a largely diminished state, having long been overtaken by Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s and other far more lucrative pizza chains. Indeed, the doc offers us a general look at the whole chain pizza business which is a surprisingly complex one, with billion dollar mergers and all that kind of rot. I occasionally pass by one of the last Shakey’s in LA and don’t for even a second think of going in. I can only imagine how much less good the pizza would taste to me than it did when I was a young ‘un. And something tells me the pianos are gone, replaced no doubt by flat screens. Better to remember the days of the Maple Leaf Club, back in an era now known as the ‘ragtime revival’ of the 1970s…and meeting the ancient and most gracious Mr. Blake, who autographed an album for me which I have now lost. I am a shmuck.