1930 - Music

Music

Hollywood musical: John Murray Anderson's King of Jazz with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, the Rhythm Boys (Bing Crosby, Al Rinker, Harry Barris), opening sequence by New Rochelle, N.Y.-born Universal Studios animator Walter Lantz, 30, songs that include "It Happened in Monterey" by Mabel Wayne, lyrics by William Rose, and "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin. The film is in early two-tone Technicolor.

The cartoon Sinkin' in the Bathtub released in April is the first Looney Toons animated film. Animators Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising parted with Walt Disney last summer, created a pilot film featuring synchronized speech, called it Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid, and have gone into partnership with Philadelphia-born title designer Leon Schlesinger, 46, to create the 8-minute musical adventure starring Bosko and his girlfriend Honey. Jack Warner has advised Schlesinger to get involved in animation and Schlesinger has persuaded Warner Brothers to send the short subject out to exhibitors in competition with Disney's Merrie Melodies cartoons (see 1933).

Texas-born animator Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery, 23, goes to work for Universal Studios' Walter Lantz Cartoons, with whom he will remain until 1935, turning out fast-paced, wackily surrealistic, and gag-loaded short subjects before moving to Warner Brothers.

Stage musicals: Strike Up the Band 1/14 at New York's Times Square Theater, with Boston-born comedian Robert Edwin "Bobby" Clark, 42, Red Nichols's Band (which includes Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, and Jack Teagarden), music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, book by George S. Kaufman, songs that include "I've Got a Crush on You," and the title song, 191 perfs.; Nine-Fifteen Revue 2/11 at New York's George M. Cohan Theater, with Ruth Etting, music by Buffalo, N.Y.-born cantor's son Harold Arlen (originally Hyman Arluck), 24, lyrics by Ted Koehler, songs that include "Get Happy," 7 perfs.; Lew Leslie's International Revue 2/15 at New York's Majestic Theater, with Gertrude Lawrence, Harry Richman, Esther Muir, ballet star Anton Dolin, music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, songs that include "Exactly Like You," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," 96 perfs. (the show cost $200,000 to mount but is so long that the second act does not begin until 11 o'clock); Simple Simon 2/18 at the Ziegfeld Theater, with Ed Wynn, Ruth Etting, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "Ten Cents a Dance," "I Still Believe in You," 135 perfs.; The Love Race 6/25 at London's Gaiety Theatre, with music by Jack Clarke, 237 perfs.; Fine and Dandy 9/23 at New York's Erlanger Theater, with Joe Cook, Eleanor Powell, Dave Chasen, music by Kay Swift, lyrics by Paul James (Swift's husband, James Paul Warburg), book by Donald Ogden Stewart, songs that include "Can This Be Love?" and the title song, 255 perfs.; Girl Crazy 10/14 at the Alvin Theater, with Astoria-N.Y.-born singer Ethel Merman (originally Zimmerman), 21, Missouri-born singer-dancer Ginger Rogers (originally Virginia Katherine McMath), 19, music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Walter Donaldson and Ira Gershwin, a pit orchstra whose members include Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden, songs that include "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," "Little White Lies," "But Not for Me," "Bidin' My Time," 272 perfs.; Three's a Crowd 10/15 at the Selwyn Theater, with Libby Holman, Fred Allen, Clifton Webb, dancer Tamara Geva, songs that include "Body and Soul" by New York-born composer Johnny Green, 22 (who has dropped out of Harvard after studying economics), lyrics by Robert Sour, 25, Edward Heyman, 23, and Frank Eyton plus "Something to Remember You By" and "The Moment I Saw You" by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Howard Dietz, 272 perfs.; The Garrick Gaieties 10/16 at the Guild Theater, with Sterling Holloway, Waterbury, Conn.-born ingénue Rosalind Russell, 23, Philadelphia-born ingénue Imogene Coca, 21, Philip Loeb, songs that include "I'm Only Human After All" by Russian-born composer Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky), 27, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg and Ira Gershwin, "Out of Breath and Scared to Death of You" by Johnny Mercer and Everett Miller, 158 perfs.; Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1930 10/22 at the Royale Theater, with Chester, Pa.-born actress-jazz singer Ethel Waters (née Howard), 34, Cecil Mack's Choir, songs that include "Memories of You" by Eubie Blake, lyrics by Andy Razaf, 57 perfs.; Sweet and Low 11/17 at the 46th Street Theater, with George Jessel, Fanny Brice, songs that include "Outside Looking In" by Harry Archer and Edward Ellison, "Cheerful Little Earful" by Harry Warren, Ira Gershwin, and Billy Rose, 184 perfs.; Smiles 11/18 at the Ziegfeld Theater, with Marilyn Miller, English-born, Cleveland-raised comedian Bob Hope (originally Leslie Townes Hope), 27, New Rochelle-born comedian Eddie Foy Jr., 25, Fred and Adele Astaire, songs that include "Time on My Hands" by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Harold Adamson and Polish-born writer Mack Gordon, 26, "You're Driving Me Crazy" by Walter Donaldson, 63 perfs.; Ever Green 12/3 at London's Adelphi Theatre, with comedienne Jessie Matthews, now 23, her husband Sonnie Hale, book by Benn W. Levy, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "Dancing on the Ceiling," 254 perfs.; The New Yorkers 12/8 at B.S. Moss's Broadway Theater, with Hope Williams, dancer Ann Pennington, comedian Jimmy Durante, dancer Lew Clayton, singer Eddie Jackson, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book from a story by songwriter E. Ray Goetz and New Yorker magazine cartoonist Peter Arno, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, songs that include "Take Me Back to Manhattan," "I Happen to Like New York," "Love for Sale," 168 perfs.

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George Gershwin's music transcended the pop and musical comedy genres to become part of the classical canon.

Opera: The Nose 1/13 at Leningrad, with music by Dmitri Shostakovich (who includes an orchestral sneeze and other novel effects), libretto from a story by Nikolai Gogol; Von heute auf morgen (From Today until Tomorrow) 2/1 at Frankfurt's Municipal Theater, with music by Arnold Schoenberg; Neues vom Tage (The News of the Day) 6/8 at Kroll's Theater, Berlin, with music by Paul Hindemith. Swedish tenor Jussi (originally Johan Monatan) Björling, 19, makes his operatic debut 7/21 at Stockholm's Royal Theater singing the role of the Lamplighter in the 1893 Puccini opera Manon Lescaut.

Soprano Emmy Destinn dies at Budejovice, Czechoslovakia, January 28 at age 52; soprano Dame Emma Albani at London April 3 at age 82.

Ballet: The Golden Age (Zolotoy Vyek) 10/26 at Leningrad, with music by Dmitri Shostakovich.

First performances: Suite for Orchestra by Walter Piston 3/28 at Boston's Symphony Hall; Symphony No. 2 (Romantic) by Howard Hanson 11/28 at Boston's Symphony Hall; Piano Concertino by English composer Elizabeth Maconchy, 23, is played at Prague. Her suite The Land is played at the Proms in London.

The BBC forms its own symphony orchestra under conductor Adrian Boult, 41 (see Royal Philharmonic, 1932).

Nazi thug Horst Wessel dies of blood poisoning in a Berlin hospital February 23 at age 22. Painter Sol Epstein, tailor Peter Stoll, and barber Hans Ziegler will be convicted of having shot Wessel the night of January 14 in a street brawl over a "Lucie of Anderplatz," the Nazis will make a martyr of Wessel, and his "Horst-Wessel-Lied," set to music plagiarized from a Hamburg waterfront ballad will be the Nazi anthem, containing such lines as "When Jewish blood drips off your trusted pen-knife/ We march ahead with twice as steady step."

Popular songs: "Georgia on My Mind" by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Stuart Gorrell; "When It's Sleepy Time Down South" by Leon Rene, Otis Rene, and Clarence Muse; "My Baby Just Cares for Me" by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson; "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by F. Andrée and W. Schwandt, lyrics by Gus Kahn; "Three Little Words" by Harry Ruby, lyrics by Bert Kalmar (for the film Amos 'n'Andy); "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" by Roy Turk, Fred E. Ahlert, Harry Richman; "Little White Lies" by Walter Donaldson; "Sing You Sinners" by W. Franke Harling, lyrics by Sam Coslow; "Them There Eyes" by Maceo Pinkard, William Tracey, and Doris Tauber; "I'm Confessing that I Love You" by Doc Dougherty and Ellis Reynolds; "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Irving Kahal and Pierre Norman (for the film The Big Pond with Maurice Chevalier); "Beyond the Blue Horizon" by Richard A. Whiting and W. Franke Harling, lyrics by Leo Robin (for the film Monte Carlo).

Mexico City-born composer-vocalist Agustín Lara, 33, makes his radio debut September 18 with the "Hour Intime de Agustín Lara," launching a career in which he will write 7,000 songs and an operetta.

Composer Henry Creamer dies at New York October 14 at age 51.