Ontario Composer, Steve Allen, To Play Wacky Duet

From local newspaper in Cucamonga, 1963

Unknown Source, 1963

Frank Zappa, 22, Ontario resident composer of music, serious and otherwise, will be on television tomorrow night playing a bicycle concerto for two with Steve Allen. The show is at 11 p.m., Channel 5. "It's very funny," said Zappa. "You play a bicycle by plucking the spokes and blowing through the handlebars." Other methods of producing "cyclophony" is to stroke the spokes with the bow of a bass fiddle, twirl the pedals and let air out of the tires. The Zappa-Allen concerto will be abetted by a man in the control room fooling around with a tape recorder and by a jazz group will supply toneless background noise.

Zappa studied music and art at Chaffey College. He wrote the score for "The World's Greatest Sinner," a low-budget tale about a sacrilegious imposter who repents. "Sinner" had its premiere at Vista-Continental Theater, Hollywood, and open Wednesday at the Ken Theater, San Diego. Zappa writes musical commercials for TV and radio. They are recorded at Pal Studio, Cucamonga.