{"id":896,"date":"2016-02-18T12:12:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T17:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=896"},"modified":"2016-02-18T14:29:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T19:29:05","slug":"whats-up-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/whats-up-doc\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s up Doc?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From WW II to today, music has kept Bugs Bower going for more than nine decades.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Sara Zeilman <\/span>
\n<\/span>mail@floridanewsline.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Everything in \u201cBugs\u201d Bower\u2019s life has a story. The 93-year-old resident of Ponte Vedra Beach easily moves through his home, teasing with these stories as he passes records, slips of paper and gold record plaques, on his way to a baby grand piano in the middle of the sundrenched living room. \u201cBugs\u201d flashes a quick, sly smile, sits down on the bench and the room is transformed by the sounds of the Charlie Chaplin 1936 instrumental \u201cSmile.\u201d Even though Bower says he is a trumpet player first, the story he tells with his piano is one that keeps him smiling. <\/span><\/p>\n

Born in 1922, Maurice \u201cBugs\u201d Bower grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The son of a music arranger, Bower\u2019s life has always revolved around music. His humble beginnings in New Jersey paved the way for a life full of experiences, from traveling the world as a dance band arranger, to producing and arranging hit songs for some of the top musicians of the day (including Kool and the Gang and Perry Como) to helping liberate a concentration camp in Germany. And it\u2019s been music, according to Bower, that has kept him going all this time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bower said growing up in Atlantic City, he was exposed to music in the summers when great bands would play in the ballrooms on the piers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so lucky for me,\u201d he said of having the exposure. It was that exposure to the big band musicians of the day that got Bower started playing trumpet. He said he saw Glenn Miller play at the Million Dollar Pier and was amazed. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the beginning of my whole life,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bower went home and begged his father to teach him how write and arrange music. He learned to write out the score of Miller\u2019s \u201cMoonlight Serenade,\u201d played it in school, and said, \u201cThe kids went crazy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

From there, it was music first, all the way. After graduating high school in the early \u201840s, Bower played second trumpet in the Ice-Capades at the Atlantic City Convention Hall. One of his colleagues insisted that he travel to New York City to study music and off he went to chase his dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

In New York, he studied with a variety of different music teachers, struggling to find the right fit for his vision of trumpet playing. When the United States entered World War II in 1942, Bower returned to Atlantic City. He was drafted October 28, 1942 into the 89<\/span>th<\/span> Infantry Division. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBugs\u201d got his colorful moniker in the army. In an oral history interview with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (conducted July 24, 2015), he said the nickname is from the cartoon character Bugs Bunny.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause all of my life, and I mean it, from the very beginning, I\u2019m very fast at everything that I do,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd, again being in the army, one of the people picked up Bugs Bunny and they used to kid me about it. They used to put carrots in my bed, I remember \u2026 my bunk and things like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And the nickname stuck. During his time with the 89<\/span>th<\/span> Division, Bower found his way to music again. He said early on in his training he was woken by a noisy band playing in the early morning hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was all I had to hear, that there was a band,\u201d he said. Bower went to the band leader, told him his experiences playing in Atlantic City and listened to the army dance band. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were terrible,\u201d he said. \u201cThey had terrible music they played.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Somehow, he said, he got ahold of score and manuscript paper and wrote out a few different musical arrangements for the band. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they heard my music play, I became a star overnight,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bower wrote a book of arrangements for the band and spent the rest of his time in the army touring the front lines with the army\u2019s Dance Band. He said the greatest thing, besides girls, was to hear the music of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n