1929 - Music

Music

Hollywood musicals: Roy Del Ruth's The Desert Song is the first "all-talking and singing operetta"; Henry Beaumont's The Broadway Melody ("100% All Talking + All Singing + All Dancing!") with songs by Irving Thalberg protégés Nacio Herb Brown, 33, and Arthur Freed (originally Grossman), 35, that include "You Were Meant for Me" and "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" (a color sequence helps the film gross $4 million for M-G-M at a time when movie tickets average 35¢); Charles Reisner's The Hollywood Revue of 1929 with Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Laurel & Hardy, Marie Dressler, Buster Keaton, John Barrymore, Rudy Vallée, and Marion Davies opens 8/14 at New York's Astor Theater, whose façade is covered for the opening with a huge billboard that comes to life as chorus girls parade on catwalks cantilevered over the street, songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed that include "Singin' in the Rain," some sequences in Technicolor (the musical numbers are recorded first and then synchronized to the action on the screen rather than recorded directly on the sound track as in The Broadway Melody); King Vidor's Hallelujah with an all-black cast (theaters in the South refuse to show the film), Irving Berlin songs that include "Swanee Shuffle"; Ernst Lubitsch's The Love Parade with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald singing "Dream Lover" and "The March of the Grenadiers" by Victor Schertzinger; Rouben Mamoulian's Applause with Helen Morgan; Roy Del Ruth's The Gold Diggers of Broadway with songs that include "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" and "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine" by Joe Burke, 45, lyrics by Al Dubin, 38; David Butler's Sunny Side Up with Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by B. G. DeSylva and Lew Brown, songs that include "I'm a Dreamer" and the title song.

Stage musicals: Follow Thru 1/9 at New York's 46th Street Theater, with Katharine Cornell, Jack Haley, Irene Delroy, Frank Kingdon, book by Laurence Schwab and B. G. DeSylva, music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by B. G. DeSylva and Lew Brown, songs that include "Button up Your Overcoat," 401 perfs.; Lady Fingers 1/31 at New York's Vanderbilt Theater, with Eddie Buzzell, Esther Muir, Ruth Gordon, book by Buzzell (who has adapted the Owen Davis play Easy Come, Easy Go), music by Joseph Meyer, lyrics by Edward Eliscu, 132 perfs.; Mr. Cinders 2/11 at London's Adelphi Theatre, with Bobby Howes, Binnie Hale, now 29, in a reversed gender version of Cinderella, music by Vivian Ellis and Richard Myers, book and lyrics by Clifford Grey and Greatrex Newman, songs that include "Spread a Little Happiness," "I'm a One-Man Girl," "Ev'ry Little Moment," "On the Amazon," 529 perfs.; Spring Is Here 3/11 at New York's Alvin Theater, with Glenn Hunter, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "With a Song in My Heart," 104 perfs.; Wake Up and Dream 3/27 at the London Pavilion, with Sonnie Hale, Jessie Matthews, music and lyrics by John Hastings Turner, Cole Porter; The Little Show 4/30 at New York's Music Box Theater, with Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Ohio-born torch singer Libby Holman (originally Holtzman), 25, Bettina Hall, Peggy Conklin, Clifton Webb, Romney Brent, music by Arthur Schwartz and others, lyrics by Howard Dietz, songs that include "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," "Moanin' Low" (music by Ralph Rainger), "Caught in the Rain" (music by Henry Sullivan), "Can't We Be Friends" (music by New York-born composer-lyricist Kay Swift, 26), 321 perfs.; Hot Chocolates 6/20 at the Hudson Theater, with Louis Armstrong in an all-black revue, songs that include "Ain't Misbehavin'" by New York-born composer Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller, 25, and Henry Brooks, lyrics by Washington, D.C.-born writer Andy Razaf (originally Paul Andreamenentania Razafinkeriefo), 33, 219 perfs.; Show Girl 7/2 at the Ziegfeld Theater, with Canadian-born dancer-actress Ruby (née Ethel) Keeler, 18, Jimmy Durante, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, book by William Anthony McGuire, music by George Gershwin that includes the ballet "An American in Paris," lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn, songs that include "Liza" sung by Al Jolson in the audience to his wife, Ruby Keeler onstage, 111 perfs.; Bitter Sweet 7/18 at His Majesty's Theatre, London, with Peggy Wood, book, music, and lyrics by Noël Coward, songs that include "I'll See You Again," "Zigeuner," 697 perfs.; Murray Anderson's Almanac 8/14 at Erlanger's Theater, New York, with Trixie Friganza, comedian Jimmy Savo, book by Noël Coward, Rube Goldberg, Peter Arno, Paul Gerard Smith, and others, music Milton Ager and Henry Sullivan, songs that include "I May Be Wrong, But I Think You're Wonderful" by Sullivan, lyrics by Harry Ruskin, 69 perfs.; Sweet Adeline 9/3 at New York's Hammerstein Theater, with Helen Morgan as Addie Schmidt, music by Jerome Kern, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, songs that include "Why Was I Born," "Don't Ever Leave Me," "Here Am I," 234 perfs.; George White's Scandals 9/23 at New York's Apollo Theater, with Willie Howard, costumes by Erté, songs by Irving Caesar, George White, and Cliff Friend, 161 perfs.; June Moon 10/9 at the Broadhurst Theater, with Jean Dixon, Philip Loeb, book by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner, music and lyrics by Lardner, 273 perfs.; Fifty Million Frenchmen 11/27 at the Lyric Theater, with William Gaxton, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, songs that include "You Do Something to Me," 254 perfs.; Wake Up and Dream 12/30 at the Selwyn Theater, with Jack Buchanan, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, songs that include "I'm a Gigolo," "What Is this Thing Called Love?" 136 perfs.

The onetime Moulin Rouge dancer Louise Weber known as "La Goulue" ("The Glutton") dies destitute in a Paris public hospital January 21 at age 64 (approximate); Edward Gallagher of Gallagher and Shean fame dies May 28 at age 56 in a Queens, N.Y., sanitarium where he has remained since suffering a nervous breakdown 2 years ago; composer Ivan Caryll dies at New York November 29 at age 60.

The Chicago Civic Opera building completed at 20 West Wacker Drive has a 3,800-seat auditorium to challenge the Chicago Auditorium that opened late in 1889. The building also has a penthouse suite for utility magnate Samuel Insull.

Opera: Sir John in Love 3/21 at London's Royal College of Music, with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams that includes "Fantasia on Greensleeves"; The Gambler 4/29 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, with music by Sergei Prokofiev, libretto from the 1866 Dostoyevski novel; Rosa Ponselle makes her London debut at Covent Garden 5/28 singing the title role in the 1831 Bellini opera Norma. She will continue to sing until her retirement in April 1937; Happy End 8/31 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, with music by Kurt Weill, book and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht; Deepwater, Mo.-born contralto Gladys Swarthout, 28, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut 11/15 singing the role of La Cieca in the 1876 Ponchielli opera La Giocanda. She will be a Met regular until 1945.

Wagnerian soprano Lilli Lehmann dies at Berlin May 17 at age 80; librettist-playwright-poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal at his Viennese suburban home in Rodaun July 15 at age 55 (his eldest son has recently committed suicide).

Ballet: The Prodigal Son 5/21 at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater, Paris, with the Ballets Russes, music by Sergei Prokofiev, choreography by Boris Kochno.

Impresario Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes dies at Venice's Lido August 19 at age 57; his body is placed in an enormous catafalque and ferried to the Church of San Giorgio in a huge black gondola encrusted with gilt.

First performances: Symphony No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev 5/17 at Paris; Amazonas (symphonic poem) by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, 42, 5/30 at Paris; Concerto for Viola and Orchestra by William Walton 10/3 at London, with Paul Hindemith as soloist; Concerto for Viola and Orchestra by Darius Milhaud 12/18 at Amsterdam; Symphony for Chamber Orchestra by Anton von Webern 12/18 at New York's Town Hall.

Popular songs: "Stardust" by Bloomington, Ind.-born pianist-composer Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael, 29, lyrics by Mitchell Parish; "St. James Infirmary" by Joe Primrose; "Honeysuckle Rose" by "Fats" Waller, lyrics by Andy Razaf; "Am I Blue?" by Harry Akst, lyrics by Grant Clarke (for Ethel Waters to sing in the film On with the Show); "Louise" by Richard Whiting, lyrics by Leo Robin (for Maurice Chevalier to sing in his first American film Innocents of Paris. Now 40, Chevalier was shot in the back early in the Great War, won the Croix de Guerre, was held as a prisoner of war by the Germans until 1916, began a film career in Britain after the war, failed on Broadway, suffered a mental breakdown, but has recovered); "Falling In Love Again" by German songwriter Friedrich Hollaender, 33 (for Marlene Dietrich to sing in the film The Blue Angel); "Mean to Me" by Fred E. Ahlert, lyrics by Roy Turk; "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" by Rudy Vallée and Leon Zimmerman; "Pagan Love Song" by Nacio Herb Brown, lyrics by Arthur Freed (for the film The Pagan); "Siboney" and "Say Si Si" by Ernesto Lecuona; "Just a Gigolo" by Italian composer Leonello Casucci, English lyrics by Irving Caesar; "Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine" by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Irving Kahal; "Great Day," "More than You Know" and "Without a Song" by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Billy Rose and New York-born writer Edward Eliscu, 27 (for the short-lived Broadway musical Great Day that opens in October and closes in November); "Happy Days Are Here Again!" by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen (for the film Chasing Rainbows).

The Orthophonic phonograph developed by Western Electric Company engineer H. C. Harrison is an improved electric gramophone that will replace wind-up mechanical record players.

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"His Master's Voice" stopped winding down as electricity sent the wind-up gramophone to attics and antique shops.

Alabama-born New York trumpet player Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams, 21, joins the Duke Ellington band as a replacement for Ellington's plunger-muted trumpet player "Bubber" Miller.

Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians open at New York's Roosevelt Hotel, where the group directed by Canadian-born bandleader Guy Albert Lombardo, 27, will play dance music each winter for decades. A December 31 radio broadcast begins a national New Year's Eve tradition.