1932 - Music

Music

Hollywood musicals: Frank Tuttle's The Big Broadcast with Kate Smith, George Burns and Gracie Allen, the Mills Brothers, the Boswell Sisters, Cab Calloway, and Bing Crosby, who begins regular radio broadcasts; Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "Lover," "Mimi," "Isn't It Romantic?"

Stage musicals: Face the Music 2/17 at New York's New Amsterdam Theater, with Mary Boland, now 52, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, songs that include "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee," 165 perfs.; Words and Music 9/16 at London's Adelphi Theatre, with Joyce Barbour, Ivy St. Helier, John Mills, music and lyrics by Noël Coward, songs that include "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," "Mad about the Boy," "Journey's End," "Let's Say Goodbye," 164 perfs.; Earl Carroll's Vanities 9/27 at New York's Broadway Theater, with New York-born comedian Milton Berle (originally Berlinger), 24, Philadelphia-born Ziegfeld Follies veteran Helen Broderick, now 41, music by Harold Arlen and Richard Myers, lyrics by Ted Koehler and Edward Heyman, songs that include "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues," 87 perfs.; Americana 10/5 at the Shubert Theater, with music by Jay Gorney, Harold Arlen, Richard Myers, Herman Hupfeld, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, songs that include "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" (music by Gorney), 77 perfs.; Music in the Air 11/8 at the Alvin Theater, with Al Shean, Vienna-born actor Walter Slezak, 30, music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for a show produced by Peggy Fears, songs that include "I've Told Every Little Star," 334 perfs.; Take a Chance 11/26 at the Apollo Theater, with Jack Haley, Ethel Merman, Brooklyn-born comedian Sid Silvers, 33, Charleston, W. Va.-born ingénue Jean Carson, 7, music by Nacio Herb Brown, Vincent Youmans, and Richard Whiting, lyrics by B. G. DeSylva, songs that include "You're an Old Smoothie," 243 perfs.; Gay Divorce 11/29 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Fred Astaire, Claire Luce, Grace Moore, book by Dwight Taylor based on an unpublished play by the late J. Hartley Manners, scenic design by Jo Mielziner, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, songs that include "Night and Day," 248 perfs.; Walk a Little Faster 12/7 at New York's St. James Theater, with Beatrice Lillie, Bobby Clark, music by Vernon Duke, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, songs that include "April in Paris," "That's Life," 119 perfs.

Bandmaster-composer John Philip Sousa dies at Reading, Pa., March 6 at age 77; Broadway singer-songwriter Chauncey Olcott at Monte Carlo March 18 at age 66 (approximate); showman Florenz Ziegfeld of a heart attack at Hollywood July 22 at age 63. He lost his fortune in the 1929 Wall Street crash, has never recovered, and leaves his widow, Billie Burke, now 46, with a mountain of debts (see Stage musicals, 1934).

New York's Radio City Music Hall opens December 27 at 160 Sixth Avenue in Rockefeller Center with 6,200 seats (the number will later be reduced to 5,874). Designed in art deco style by interior Minnesota-born industrial designer Donald Deskey, 38, and initially called the International Music Hall, the theater's grand foyer is covered from floor to ceiling in mirrors and draperies, is a city-block long (60 feet long, 60 feet wide), boasts a grand staircase, has a 24-carat gold leaf ceiling, and is lighted by two 29-foot-long chandeliers. A 100-piece orchestra and the mighty Wurlitzer organ accompany vaudeville acts on the 144-foot-wide stage, which has a turntable 43 feet in diameter and three cross sections which can be raised or lowered independently with an innovative hydraulic system (which naval architects will use as the model for systems on aircraft carriers). The organ built by Rudolf Wurlitzer is the largest and most versatile ever made, with steel and wood pipes ranging in size from 32 feet high to half the size of a pencil, and experts say it would take 3,000 musicians to duplicate all the instrumental sounds and tones generated from its console keyboards. Showman S. L. "Roxy" Rothafel has hired the acts, which include Martha Graham's ballet troupe, but much of the capacity crowd that attends the opening night of world's largest indoor theater leaves long before the show ends at 2 o'clock in the morning, by which time Rothafel has collapsed backstage and been taken to the hospital. John D. Rockefeller Jr. will begin showing films early next year to supplement the stage shows (two per day), but at $2.75 per ticket the Music Hall fails to attract crowds (see 1933).

Opera: Cleveland-born soprano Rose (Elizabeth) Bampton, 23, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut 11/20 singing the role of Laura in the 1876 Ponchielli opera La Giocanda; Italian tenor Tito (originally Raffaele Attilio Amadeo) Schipa, 44, makes his Metropolitan Opera debut 11/23 as Nemorino in the 1832 Donizetti opera L'Elisir d'Amore.

Pianist-composer Eugene d'Albert dies at Riga, Latvia, March 3 at age 67.

Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stowkowski records his first stereophonic disk at the city's Bell Laboratories March 12, using vinyl instead of shellac to extend the dynamic range to 60 decibels and the response to 10,000 hertz for greater fidelity in a performance of the late Aleksandr Scriabin's Poem of Fire. Stowkowski and two Bell Labs scientists used improved electrical recording equipment in December of last year to record and transmit both monaural and binaural sound at the Academy of Music. They will not file for a patent until 1936, but London-born engineer Alan (Dower) Blumlein of Electric Musical Instruments (EMI), now 28, filed a British patent application December 14 of last year for a revolutionary binaural recording system (see 1933).

Ballet: Cotillon 4/12 at Monte Carlo's Théâtre de Monte Carlo, with the new Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo organized by George Balanchine, music by the late Emmanuel Chabrier, libretto by Boris Kochno; Jeux d'Enfants (Children's Games) 4/14 at Monte Carlo, with Irina Baronova, Tamara Tommanova, David Lichine, music by the late Georges Bizet, choreography by Leonide Massine, libretto by Boris Kochno, scenery and costumes by Joan Miró.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra founded with help from conductor Sir Thomas Beecham gives its first concert October 7 at Covent Garden. Now 53, the Lancashire-born Beecham is a grandson of a digestive-pill maker and inherited a great fortune; he conducted his first symphony concert at London in 1905, formed the New Symphony Orchstra in 1906, introduced Russian ballet to London in 1911, inherited his father's baronetcy in 1916, and will continue as a conductor of the Philharmonic until 1946.

First performances: Four Orchestral Songs by Arnold Schoenberg 2/21 at Frankfurt-am-Main; Suite for Flute and Piano by Walter Piston 4/30 at Trask's Yaddo outside Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; From the Gayety and Sadness of the American Scene by Oklahoma-born composer Leroy Ellsworth "Roy" Harris, 34, 12/29 at Los Angeles.

Popular songs: "Say It Isn't So" and "How Deep Is the Ocean" by Irving Berlin; "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" by Victor Young, lyrics by Bing Crosby and Ned Washington; "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" by George Bassman, lyrics by Ned Washington; "(I'd Love to Spend) One Hour with You" by Richard Whiting, lyrics by Leo Robin; "Don't Blame Me" by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Dorothy Fields; "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got that Swing" by Duke Ellington, lyrics by Irving Mills; "Willow Weep for Me" by Omaha-born composer-lyricist Ann Ronell, 23 (Radcliffe '31). Originally Anna Rosenblatt, Ronell has changed her name on the advice of George Gershwin; "Maria Elena" by Mexican songwriter Lorenzo Barcelata, 34.

The Andrews Sisters from Minneapolis form a trio that will gain wild popularity in the next dozen years: LaVerne is 17, Maxene (originally Maxine) 15, and Patty (Patricia) 12.