Fritz Becker, a Strip piano player since 1949, dies at 76

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 11:36 a.m.

In 1984, while playing piano in the orchestra at the old Holiday Casino on the Strip, Fritz Becker clutched his heart and fell off his stool.

But Becker wasn't about to let one heart episode stop a career that dated back to the earliest days of the Las Vegas entertainment industry.

A pacemaker was installed and, less than a week later, Becker was back playing piano and organ for Rocky Sennes' Wild World of Burlesque at the Holiday, which today is Harrah's.

Howard W. "Fritz" Becker, a Big Band pianist of the 1940s and former musical director for the famed Mills Brothers singing group, died Dec. 10 from a combination of heart problems and cancer at Nathan Adelson Hospice. He was 76.

Services were last Sunday for Becker, who lived in Las Vegas for 49 years. Palm Mortuary handled the arrangements.

"Fritz was what we call in the business a 'boss pianist' -- one who works as well performing with an orchestra or accompanying a solo performer," said longtime Sun entertainment columnist Joe Delaney. "He did great work in Las Vegas."

Between 1949 and '91, Becker worked in nearly every Strip hotel showroom band.

Longtime Las Vegas drummer and musical arranger Otto Ortwein, who long worked with Becker, remembered his friend as "a sweetheart of a guy" who did his job well.

"Fritz was a master of the stride style of piano playing," Ortwein said referring to the method where a pianist's left hand goes back and forth hitting the note on the way up and the chord on the way back.

"He grew up in the Big Band era and that was the style that was popular then. Fritz also was a good jazz player."

Diane Becker of Las Vegas said her husband truly loved his work.

"The piano was his life," she said. "He was very disappointed when the major hotels went to taped music. It put him and a lot of other musicians out of work."

Diane was referring to June 1, 1991, when the majority of Las Vegas hotels, in an effort to cut expenses on their shows, replaced members of the American Federation of Musicians Local 369 with tape recorded music.

"During the two years after that, Fritz played organ for weddings at the Little Chapel of the West," Diane said. "He just wanted to play music and that was about the only work he could find."

Born July 23, 1922, in Mansfield, Ohio, to Carl Becker and the former Ada Kline, Fritz and his two brothers began playing musical instruments as youngsters.

Ada Becker, who now is 99 and living in Escondido, Calif., enrolled Fritz in piano classes when he was 7.

At Mansfield High, Becker was, as he put it, "a lousy trumpet player" in the school band. After graduation, he played piano with small bands in the Youngstown area.

In 1940, Becker went to New York, where he worked professionally in Gray Gordon's orchestra and later with Bobby Sherwood's Big Band.

During World War II, Becker toured with bands that entertained U.S. troops. After the war, he worked several clubs in Los Angeles before moving to Las Vegas in 1949.

Over the years, Becker worked at, among other places, the old El Rancho Vegas, the old Thunderbird and the Tropicana. He worked in the Holiday showroom for 13 years.

From 1969 to '77, Becker was musical director for the Mills Brothers for their frequent headlining performances in Las Vegas. He also traveled with the group on U.S. and world tours, which included gigs in Hawaii and Denmark.

In June 1981, at the local musician's union hall, Becker met Diane Tearle, who was visiting the facility as a guest of another musician. They married a month later.

Becker retired as a professional musician in 1993 amid mounting health problems that included four surgeries to replace pacemakers. In recent years, he also developed cancer. During that period, Becker spent much time at home working on his computer and playing piano for his wife and friends.

Becker also was a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 in Los Angeles. He was listed in the 1976 edition of "Who's Who in Music."

In addition to his wife and mother, Becker is survived by a brother, Donald Becker of Escondido. He was preceded in death by another brother, Earl Becker, who was a longtime musician in the the San Francisco bay area.