1939 - Music

Music

Hollywood musicals: Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz with Grand Rapids, Mich.-born actress-singer Judy Garland (Frances Gumm, 17), Ray Bolger (as the Scarecrow), Bert Lahr (as the Cowardly Lion), Jack Haley (as the Tin Woodsman), Frank Morgan (as the wizard), Margaret Hamilton (as the Wicked Witch of the West), music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, songs that include "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," "We're Off to See the Wizard," "If I Only Had a Brain"; Walt Disney's animated Saludos Amigos with songs that include "Brazil" by Brazilian composer Ary Barroso (who has adapted "Arguela do Brasil"), English lyrics by Bob Russell.

Radio music: The Dinah Shore Show 8/6 on NBC Blue Network stations with Tennessee-born singer Dinah (née Frances, or Fanny, Rose) Shore, 23.

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is founded October 14 by U.S. radio networks to build "an alternate source of music suitable for broadcasting" in competition with the ASCAP monopoly founded in 1914 (see 1917). ASCAP has boosted its license fees and the networks balk at paying the higher fees.

Stage musicals: Dancing Years 3/23 at London's Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, with Ivor Novello, Mary Ellis, book and lyrics by Christopher Hassall, music by Novello, 127 perfs.; The Hot Mikado 3/23 at the Broadhurst Theater, with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (who celebrates his 61st birthday 5/25 by dancing down Broadway from Columbus Circle to 44th Street), 125 black performers who include Hell's Kitchen-born chorus girl Rosetta LeNoire (originally Rosetta Burton), 27, music and lyrics by Gilbert & Sullivan, 85 perfs. (developed originally by the Federal Theatre Project and produced by Minneapolis-born showman Michael "Mike" Todd (originally Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen), 29, the show moves to the World's Fair at Flushing Meadow); Sing for Your Supper (revue) 4/24 at the Adelphi Theater with a Federal Theater Project cast, music by Lee Weiner and Ned Lehac, 44 perfs. All Federal Theater Project productions close nationwide 6/30 following congressional action to cut off funding for that part of the WPA. The House has voted 373 to 21 against continuing it, the Senate has voted 54 to 9, President Roosevelt has signed the measure with reluctance, and the United States will have no more federal sponsorship of theater in this century; The Streets of Paris 6/19 at the Broadhurst Theater, with Portuguese-born Brazilian entertainer Carmen Miranda (Maria Carno da Cunha), 26, singing "South American Way," music by Jimmy McHugh and others, lyrics by Al Dubin and others, 274 perfs.; George White's Scandals 8/28 at the Alvin Theater, with Willie and Eugene Howard, Ben Blue, Ann Miller, Ray Middleton, Scottish-born singer Ella Logan, 26, the Three Stooges in the 13th and final edition of the Scandals, music by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Jack Yellen, songs that include "Are You Having Any Fun," 120 perfs.; Too Many Girls 10/18 at the Imperial Theater, with Desi Arnaz, Eddie Bracken, Van Johnson, Richard Kollmar, Marcy Wescott, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," 249 perfs.; Very Warm for May 11/17 at the Alvin Theater, with Grace McDonald, Jack Whiting, Eve Arden, Lucerne, N.Y.-born actress-singer June Allyson (Ella Geisman), 16, Vera-Ellen (Vera Ellen Rohe), 13, music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, songs that include "All the Things You Are," 59 perfs.; Du Barry Was a Lady 12/6 at the 46th Street Theater, with Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman, Betty Grable, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, songs that include "Friendship," "Do I Love You?" 408 perfs.

Former Broadway musical star Fay Templeton dies at San Francisco October 3 at age 73.

Opera: New York-born baritone Leonard Warren, 27, makes his Metropolitan Opera debut 1/3 singing the role of of Paolo Albiani in the 1857 Verdi opera Simon Boccanegra; New York-born contralto Risë Stevens (originally Risë Steenberg), 26, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut in the 1866 Charles Ambroise Thomas opera Mignon.

First performances: Sonata No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra (Concord) by Charles Ives (who wrote it between 1911 and 1915) 1/20 at New York's Town Hall; Symphony No. 3 by Roy Harris 2/24 at Boston's Symphony Hall; Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra by Béla Bartók 4/23 at Amsterdam (Bartók flees the Germans in the fall); Chamber Concerto No. 1 by English composer Elisabeth Lutyens, 33, whose father is the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens; Symphony No. 6 by Dmitri Shostakovich 12/3 at Moscow.

Violinist Jan Kubelik dies at Prague December 5 at age 60.

Oratorio: Joan of Arc at the Stake (Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher) 5/6 at the Théâtre Municipal, Orleans, with music by Arthur Honegger, libretto by Paul Claudel.

Frank Sinatra joins Georgia-born trumpeter-bandleader Harry (Haak) James at age 23 to sing with a new band that James, 33, is assembling. The Hoboken-born New Jersey roadhouse singer will leave within a year to join the Tommy Dorsey band, break his contract with Dorsey in 1942, and take an 8-week engagement at New York's Paramount Theater to begin a career as idol of teenage "bobby-soxers."

Popular songs: "There'll Always Be an England" by London songwriters Ross Parker and Hughie Clark (Charles Hughes) ("There'll always be an England,/ while there's a country lane,/ Wherever there's a cottage small/ beside a field of grain"); "We'll Meet Again" by London songwriter Hugh Charles; "I'll Never Smile Again" by Stephen Weiss and Paul Mann, lyrics by Toronto songwriter Ruth Lowe, 24, a former pianist in an all-girl band who has written the song in memory of her late husband, Emile, who has died at Chicago (Frank Sinatra will record the song next year and make it a hit); "Heaven Can Wait" by Syracuse, N.Y.-born composer James Van Heusen (originally Chester Babcock), 26, lyrics by Eddie De Lange; "And the Angels Sing" by trumpet player Ziggy Elman (Harry Finkelman), who has adapted a Jewish folk tune, lyrics by Johnny Mercer; "Ciribiribin" by composer A. Pestalozza, who has adapted an Italian folk tune, lyrics by New York songwriter Jack Lawrence; "Undecided" by New York-born trumpeter and bandleader Charlie Shavers, 22, lyrics by Sid Robin; "Moonlight Serenade" by Glenn Miller, lyrics by Mitchell Parish (see 1938); "In the Mood" by Joe Garland, lyrics by Andy Razaf; "All or Nothing at All" by Arthur Altman, lyrics by Jack Lawrence; "The Lady's in Love with You" by Burton Lane, lyrics by Frank Loesser; "Scatterbrain" by Kahn Keene, Carl Bean, Frankie Masters, lyrics by Johnny Burke; "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)" by Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr; "Three Little Fishes" by Saxie Dowell. Patsy Montana records "I Love My Fruit."

New York singer-songwriter Carmen McRae, 19, writes "Dream of Life" for Billie Holiday, now 23, who joins with trumpeter Frankie Newton to record "Strange Fruit" by Bronx schoolteacher-songwriter Lewis Allan (Abel Meeropol), who wrote the verses 2 years ago after being horrified by photographs of a lynching and has composed the music himself. First published as a poem in the magazine of the New York teachers' union, the song about bodies "hanging from the poplar trees" has been performed at rallies for the Spanish Loyalists and at left-wing gatherings; Holiday introduces it at New York's Café Society, the city's first integrated nightclub, but it will only rarely be played on the radio and recordings will be hard to find (Holiday will sing briefly with Count Basie and Benny Carter's band in 1944).

Drummer-bandleader Chick Webb dies of spinal tuberculosis at his native Baltimore June 16 at age 30. His lead singer Ella Fitzgerald, now 21, takes over his band.