From Musicals to Money Tree : Pianist Page Cavanaugh, who played in several 1940s films, now appears with his trio at a Toluca Lake club.

When things have been good for Van Nuys pianist Page Cavanaugh, one of Southern California’s most successful lounge artists, they’ve been very, very good.

Take the year 1947, when his trio appeared in three musicals in a row: “Romance on the High Seas,” directed by Michael Curtiz (of “Casablanca” fame) for Warner Bros. and starring Doris Day and Jack Carson; “A Song is Born” with Danny Kaye, for Samuel Goldwyn, and “Big City” with Margaret O’Brien, for MGM.

And when things have been bad for him, they’ve been grim.

“At the end of the ‘50s, when rock ‘n’ roll came in, prices went down, and you couldn’t get arrested. I’d end up playing bowling alleys. It was a bad time,” said Cavanaugh, now 70. “I was so depressed, I even went on the road backing a vocal group,” he added.

In balance, though, the lengthy career of this Swing-era-style pianist, an admirer of the great Art Tatum, has been one of remarkable consistency.

Cavanaugh has had his share of long-run Hollywood and San Fernando Valley engagements. In the early ‘50s, he appeared for four years at the Captain’s Table on La Cienega Boulevard, playing three months on, a couple of months off. And for the last 2 1/2 years, he and his trio have played three nights a week at JP’s The Money Tree in Toluca Lake.

“A life in music was a good choice for me,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s been a damn roller-coaster, flying high one day, poor as Job’s turkey the next. But I can’t think of anything I’d trade it for. My fans are the most loyal in the world.”

Cavanaugh, who plays a repertoire of classic pop standards at the Money Tree with guitarist Al Viola and bassist Phil Mallory, says his trio is a unit, not three individuals “who are playing well.”

“We’re playing to each other, enhancing each other’s work,” he said. “We sound organized even if we’re playing something we’ve never played before.”

The leader calls his style “essentially cocktail-type jazz,” and then goes on to explain his nomenclature. “Fairly entertaining is what it boils down to,” he said. “I’ve never wanted to sit at the piano and look so dedicated and serious that people say, ‘It must be wonderful because he looks that way.’ If people are paying to see me, let’s look a little bit alive. Not that we wear funny hats, but we also don’t look like the world is going to collapse.”

Mallory, a versatile performer who joined the group about two years ago, disagrees with his boss about the “cocktail jazz” rubric.

“To me, that says that we play syrupy versions of ‘Misty,’ and that’s not what we do,” he said. “The group definitely swings.”

Cavanaugh concedes: “It does get to cooking hard, and sometimes we’ll finish up a number and be roaring, and I’ll just turn to Viola and laugh,” he said, laughing himself.

Viola has been part of the pianist’s trio twice: from 1943, when the group started, to 1949, and since 1985, when he rejoined Cavanaugh for a stint at the now-defunct Chez Siam in Encino.

“Al did some terribly important things in his career,” he said, “like make almost every album Sinatra made, while I stuck with being a road rat. Then my brother called him for the Chez Siam, and I was amazed because he agreed to do it. We hadn’t played together since 1949. We felt our way through the first week. Then it started falling right into place, and by the next week, it was the way it had been.”

Cavanaugh, who has appeared himself with Frank Sinatra, at the Waldorf Astoria, has owned his own nightclub--Page Cavanaugh’s in Studio City--and made numerous albums. He is quick to reminisce about those halcyon days of the ‘40s.

A film such as “Romance on the High Seas” brings up plenty of memories, as when director Curtiz didn’t like the way Doris Day had been singing the now-forgotten novelty tune, “Put ‘Em in a Box, Tie ‘Em With a Ribbon (and Throw ‘Em in the Deep Blue Sea).”

“We had done four takes of this tune with Doris, and Ray Heindorf, who was head of music at Warner’s, had played them all for Mike, who didn’t like any of them. So Ray said, ‘Look, Mike, I’ve got one more take we didn’t want you to hear. It’s not very good, but I’ll play it for you.’ Then Ray went to the engineer in the sound booth and told him to play the last take again, only crank it up loud. Curtiz loved it.

“It’s amazing what a little volume will do,” Cavanaugh said.

WHERE AND WHEN

What: The Page Cavanaugh trio.

Location: JP’s The Money Tree, 10149 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake.

Hours: 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.

Price: No cover, no minimum.

Call: (818) 769-8800.