Crazy Otto

	Glad Rag Doll
	Smiles

This reference is to one (or both?) of two pianists who were known by that name in the 1950's. The first was the German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel, whose career was comparable to that of Peter Schickele, who composes under the pseudonym of P.D.Q. Bach. Schulz-Reichel alternated between playing "serious" music and playing ragtime, for which he donned an absurd-looking fake goatee and Kaiser Willie mustache, along with the moniker "Otto der Schrage." (Crazy Otto). Most reference works on ragtime that mention a Crazy Otto, however, are referring to Johnny Maddox, another popular piano player. A phone call from Maddox to me on October 22, 1997, revealed the entire story of Maddox's association with the Crazy Otto name and music. Maddox says that a returning GI brought back a copy of the Otto der Schrage record from Germany, and brought it to the deejay Walt Henrich at WERE radio in Cleveland. Henrich in turn brought it to Bill Randall, also a deejay at that station, who played some tracks from the record on the air. Such was the reaction of the listening public, that Randall got in touch with Randy Wood, who was a producer of "copy" records, and who, in turn, commissioned Maddox to record a copy of the ragtime pieces as a medley, which was released as "The Crazy Otto Medley-Played by Johnny Maddox."

At the time, (1954), Maddox was rated the number one jukebox artist in America, independent of any association with Crazy Otto. According to Maddox, it was a common practice at the time for independent producers to commision "cover records"-virtual note-for-note copies of records which were not readily available. Maddox never wanted to be known as Crazy Otto, though, and he only released one other record which contained a reference to the character, Crazy Otto Piano. He released over forty albums of ragtime and other popular piano pieces under his own name. His biggest album, mentioned in most standard ragtime discographies, was Authentic Ragtime. (As an interesting side note, Maddox noted that many of today's reverential ragtime performers make the music sound like it belongs in a funeral home, rather than for dancing.) Maddox hailed from Gallatin, Tennessee.