The first warning signs were small ones. For example, why weren’t there any photos of Buck Hammer on his album? Only a simple drawn portrait, vague in its details, graced the album cover. And who were these music critics praising Hammer’s skills. Had anyone ever heard of Ralph Goldman or Gordon Goodman, the supposed experts validating Hammer’s biography and credentials?
It’s possible that the name Ralph Goldman was an allusion to real-life music critic Ralph Gleason. Gleason himself had played no role in the release of the album, but he listened to it with interest, and made a surprising discovery. Some of the passages in Buck Hammer’s music were literally impossible to play—unless the pianist had three hands.
Gleason phoned record producer Bob Thiele, responsible for the Hammer session, and demanded an explanation. Thiele admitted that some over-dubbing had been used on the album, so that two different piano tracks had been combined on the released takes—in other words, this was actually music for four hands.
But there was an even bigger scandal here: none of the piano parts had been played by Buck Hammer.
In fact, there was no Buck Hammer.
On December 14, 1959, Time magazine broke the story. The album had been an elaborate hoax perpetrated by TV celebrity Steve Allen. Allen is perhaps best remembered as the first host of The Tonight Show, still running after 77 years. But Allen was also a skilled pianist and songwriter, as well as a devoted fan of jazz. He not only featured musicians such as Art Tatum or Thelonious Monk on his TV show, but would even give them the opportunity to play three or four numbers. Few individuals in the history of network television have been more supportive of the music.
Yet Allen wanted to play a prank on music writers. He had heard Cannonball Adderley make some derisive remarks on how little critics knew about music, and decided to test that hypothesis. Could he release a fake album by a non-existent musician, and feature tracks impossible for a single pianist to play? Would the critics get fooled?
As a clue, the cover art for The Discovery of Buck Hammer actually showed that the pianist had extra hands.
Despite these giveaway hints, many critics bought into the story. “Downbeat magazine awarded Hammer three-and-a-half stars,” Allen later boasted—a pretty good score for music by an over-dubbed talk show host.