Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 August 1938 — Page 13
Putting the Swing Into ‘Symphony
Jitterbug Opus Rained Out but Rehearsal Tickles Composer.
By JAMES THRASHER Times Staff Writer
NEW YORK, Aug. 17.—Today’s dance band arrangers, -in © their anonymity, are like the painters’ apprentices in Renaissance Italy. Leonardo, Titian and the rest had studios of ambitious young student artists. In many cases, especially with the more prolific creators, the master sketched out the painting and the apprentices filled it in. - So probably some of the glowing colors we admire today never knew * the touch of the master’s hand which signed the painting. It's the same way with experiments in symphonic jazz and other popular music developments. The tunes are much the same as they were 25 years ago, but: their treatment is different. Today we admire the new tone colors, but without knowing who mixed them.
Content to Work for Wage
Most of the old Italian painters rose to fame from their elders’ workshops, but few of our modern orchestrators have followed the same path. William Grant Still, the Negro composer, and Ferdy Grofe, who had as much to do with the “Rhapsody: in Blue’s” success as did Gershwin, are exceptions. As a rule, the arranger is content to work for a reasonably good wage and forego the program credits. So when rain began falling about 8 p. m. the.other evening, it dampened Ralph Wilkinson's hopes as well as the Lewisohn Stadium concert by the New York PhilharmonicSymphony Orchestra. For the time being, then, Mr. Wilkinson will continue to be one of the men who put the “Blue Velvet” in Mark Warnow’s radio music. Mr. Winkinson is the father of the “swing fugue.” He's been writing them, der Mr. Warnow’s name, for the ast couple of seasons. Now one of tiem, on the theme of “Sing Something Simple,” was to be played by the 97 virtuosos of the New York orchestra. It was to open a program including music by Jerome Kern, Vernon Duke, Hans Spialek, Massenet, Debussy and
- Dukas. ; Sa But it Rained _
Conductors were to have been Frank -Black, Raymond Paige, Mr. Warnow and several others. But “it rained. In fact, it rained so often this summer that the above popular program had been planned to draw a capacity audience to offset dozens of slim and dampened crowds. When the shower came, orchestra and audience moved into the Great Hall of the College’of the City of New York to hear a substitute program of ‘Tschaikowsky and Wagner. However, the “Sing Something Simple” fugue did go on the air that evening, via the Warnow radio program. Afterward, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson dropped in to see our: host. The last time I had seen the young composer-arranger was at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. I remembered him as pianist of the campus dance band, and as one who had tickled our guilty risibilities by playing jazz on the chapel organ. He had spent a good part of his four years in Pete’s Variety Restaurant. There he pondered the highly practical and significant problems of how to arrange“ Tiger Rag” to sound like anything under the ministrations of a half dozen amateur dance musicians. Meanwhile, the rest of us were chewing pencils and frowning over the abstract necessities of avoiding consecutive fifths in our counterpoint exercises.
In the Dog House
It seems now that Mr. Wilkinson had the right idea. For, although he had a reserved seat for four years in the administration’s dog house, he gleaned just what he wanted from his composition study. Enough, anyway, to become the father of a swing fugue. Mr. Wilkinson insists that his fugues are really fugatos. That probably won’t make any difference with his listeners. It simply means that a fugato is a less torturous bed of musical form. At that, it’s difficult enough. The! fugue form, . as perfected by Bach and mimicked : by every composition student since, = is a pale, dry thing in itself. The composer must turn his ideas into the river bed of prescribed form, where there are more restrictions
‘than in a Nazi recommended-read- |
ing list. -To write swing in fugue form is just about’'as easy as doing the Big Apple in a telephone booth, to mix the metaphor completely. Only in what textbooks call the interludes can the composer let himself go, or “take off.” In his arrangement for the Philharmonic-Symphony, Mr. * Wilkinson had to restrain himse:f even further.
Can’t Play Swing
Symphony players, he discovered, can’t play swing. They're “corny” by imstinct and training. “Longhairs” is what they are called by their less inhibited brethren of the jam sessions. So Mr. Wilkinson curbed his fancy _ to suit those who play by note in- ~ stead of by ear. Mr. Warnow, who conducted the swing fugue in rehearsal, imported his own trumpet section and a swing drummer for the occasion. And the result helped to assuage the composer's disappointment at having his magnum opus rained out. It was a rewarding sight, Mr. . Wilkinson said, to behold the jitter- --. bug addition ih the percussion sec-
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ETT EDGAR B
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And So Now a
Just out of the Yale University
Ironton. Although Mr. Daggett has written several plays, one of them published last fall, he had had no practical experience on the stage. Ironton has a dozen houses, a grocery, two churches, a free ferry for automobiles to cross Lake Charlevoix, and one other thing—a large low building, surrounded by cottages and with its grounds sloping to the lake. Scouting Michigan for an appropriate place for a. summer = stock theater, Mr. Daggett spotted the building and promptly flew back to New York for a conference with his associates.
He Didn’t Tell Roy
Before Roy at the filling station had time to stack up on chocolate bars and hire a helper, Mr. Daggett was in Ironton with a caravan of station wagons and a group of 20 actors and technicians. Presently at the gas station corner appeared a sign heralding the “Ironton Playhouse.” Similar signs went up throughout tite resort area. Summer stock is an established institution in the East and Far West but rather neglected in the Middle West—a situation -that Mr. Daggett is determined to remedy. The summer theater plays an important role in resort life. With the artistic social set leading the way, the theaters have large followings of summer social registerites. “The Old Barn” and “The Green Hagyloft” have a lot of affectionate and artless fun poked at them. But if there ever was any hay in the loft cf the Ironton Playhouse, it wasn't there on July 12 when first nighters parked their cars for the opening performance of “Double Door.” The evening lights were playing
tion rolling his eyes, swaying and throwing his sticks in the air while the longhairs perspired and sawed
wes this jitterbug’s reaction to symphony playing a thing to be dismissed lightly. “How about this guy next to me?” he inquired after the rehearsal. “What does he do—stands there and beats time and give one swish on the cymbals every 32 measures.
pA bg
away seriously at their fiddles. Nor,
he call himself a drummer?”
- A wn TEE
The technical staff and the star talk “shop” at their summer theater at Ironton. Seated (left to right) are Margaret Cornell, costume chief; James Harris, stage designer, and David Dempsey, publicity manager. Standing is Mrs. Rica Scott Titus, Indianapolis actress.
Curtain Call
Beckons James L. Daggett
S. T.
Ss Rin Writer IRONTON, Mich., Aug. 17.—James L .Daggett, 30-year-old Indianapolis man, is being given credit by residents of this resort area for what they call the first successful summer stock company in the Middle West. The son of architect Robert Frost Daggett is showing his plays to full houses of Indiana and Michigan vacationers. :
dramatic school, Mr. Daggett early
last spring gathered a group of professional actors, several of his classmates, some technicians and packed them and their equipment off to
on Lake Charlevoix, early arrivals were chatting in groups on .the terrace and music was being played. Cottagers from Harbor Point greeted friends from Burt, Walloon and Torch Lakes. A skyrocket announced curtain time. The curtain rose on “A sitting room in Mrs. VanBrett’'s home on lower Fifth Avenue,” the set for Act One. In the box office Blair Taylor checked the tickets and grinned —a grin native to Indiana ; Does a summer stock company relax after it gets over the first night hurdle? It does not. Mr. Dagget’s company began putting on a different play each week siariing July 12 and §§ will continue that practice right up to the end of the season Sept. 3.
After the Ball Is Over The morning after the opening, director John Jennings was rehearsing the Ironton Players for “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” James Harris, the stage designer with a Georgia drawl, who teaches stage designing in the winter at Mt. Kisco,. N. Y., was painting a Ritz Hotel interior. This was to set off Elsa Beamish’s blond (a wig. of course) beauty as Lorelei when she says: “A kiss on the hand may make a girl feel good but a diamond and sapphire bracelet lasts forever.” Lisa von Holstein, the property mistress from Shelbyville, Ind., who can talk a property right off a Scotch Michigan farmer, was ready with Rica Scott Titus’ ear trumpet. Mr. Daggett faced a number of jobs: General managing, rehearsing a part (Mr. Eisman, Lorelei’s button king), and ton king), and making plans for the
dL EN
QRUEY KEELER JAMES ELLISON FAY BAINTER
gett of Indianapolis. ' For his first
B hie warking costume. of gallos paste; pole shit and fensis shots is the organizer and director of the Ironton Players—James L. Dag-
practical venture into the dramatic
field Mr. Daggett last spring selected 11 the Ironton, Mich., site.
James Harris, stage designer,
appearing more like a mechanic
than a stage technician, carries a bucket of paint to be used on a new ‘ set. Two members of his crew are working on a prop doorway behind
him.
® third. week’s attraction, Noel Coward’s “Tonight at 8:30.” - Mr. Daggett - took over the directing when Mr. ‘Jennings stepped out to do a Coward part.
‘All Brightened Up’ .
The three short Coward plays chosen for Mr. Daggett’s presentation of “Tonight at 8:30” were “Hands Across the Sea,” “Fumed Oak,” and “Ways and Means.” “I feel all brightened up,” was one of the comments overheard in the lobby. after “Hands Across the Sea,” and further eavesdropping on two Indianapolis matrons disclosed that they considered the 35mile drive from Harbor Point to Ironton no chore at all. Mr. Daggett is the author of “Goodnight Please,” a one-act comedy included in the Dodd-Mead collection, “Best Plays of 1937.” His play, about a man who wanted to stay in bed for a week, has been presented a number of times recently both in this country and in England. The young dramatist attended DePauw University, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and spent. two years at the Yale School of Drama. As for. the future of the Ironton Playhouse—Mr. -Daggett is talking about the need next year of a dock for parties that come by boat. And Roy at the bus station, who has lost a lot of weight, is looking forward to a rest and time to spruce up for next season to accomedate his growing trade.
INSOMNIA?
Johnnie (Scat) Davis has invented a machine that produces sound effects of rain on the roof and
to lull him to sleep on rainless California evenings.
AND HIS FAMOUS
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Tonight's Presentations
WEST SIDE / Speedway City SPEEDWAY beubic Festur “PARADISE ISLE’ Mary Carlisle TED MEN” 2702 W. 10th St. STATE ‘hei reams “LADY IN THE MORGUE” Mary Carlisle “TIP OFF GIRLS” W Wash & Belmont BELMONT geste, Fesie “LADY IN THE MORGUE" Spencer Tracy “MAN'S CASTLE” SOUTH SIDE At Fountain Square SANDERS oan Blondel ars, A WOMAN! “HITTING A NEW HIGH” GROVE a MARRIAGE BUSINESS” Pros. Chure
AVALON ds Kianwver
“STELLA D. AS" Also FLASH RDON
ORIENTAL ‘feusle ier
“PARADISE FOR TERE
LINCOLN “Baunie srature’ “THERE GOES THE GROOM” Bing Crosby “DR. RHYTHM"
“FOUNTAIN SQUARE"
Double
CINEMA
UPTOWN
~~ NORTH SIDE - ZARING ~~ “eeini'etieut™ o" AND 1” y. Don Ameche “JOSETTE’.
16th & Delaware Double Feature Grey
“THE BLACK DO! Simone Simon “JOSETTE”
ST. CLAIR St. Cl a vt Ta
‘Doors O 5
MOTO 3 iS MARR! AGE fu ESE
2no ® 4 vllege
Doors 05 6 5:45
ion wEalist. TALBOTT Bik A Mary Carlisle "HY MEN” « 30th’ at Northwestern REX am EVERYBODYS DOING IT Cglieze, al at 634 VOGUE Br ~ Alecks "Also VOGUE VARIETY HOUR DREAM ouveia “THE pansoevi DRIVERS" RITZ Doors’ open Fils
wl ofo “Fills A CANCE:
Hollywood
Ye HONE
N°. Y y 8 ang | SIDE
At Your Neighborh a ae
6507 E. Wash. St.
IRVING “efi fi
“MURDER ON DIAM “FOUR MEN AND ofp, Bow
HAMILION - 7 xh =
CO! Simon imon “JOSE
GOLDEN Air “con =
YORK" 150 “THE HEART OF “& GIRL SE Ew
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o-([ Whar, WHEN, WHERE
APOLLO
| “Mother Carey's Chickens,” with Anne iy A y Keeler, James Ellison, Fay nies and Walter Brennan, at 11:23, 1:31, 3:40, 5:49, 7:58 and 10:07.
oh Introduction,” with Ed:
Andrea . Me an McCarthy and i aurphy. at 12:25. 3:35. 6:45
Se orils Party,” with Victor McLaglen, William Gargau, Paul Kelly. Beatrice Roberts and Frank Jenks, at 11:20, 2:30, 5:40 and 8:50.
LOEW'S
“The Crowd Roars,” with Robert Taylor, Edward Arnoid, Frank Mor- ‘ gam, Maureen O'Sullivan. William Lionel Stander and Nat , &
an, 11:10, 1:50, 4:30, 7:15
“Extortion,” with Scott Colton Mar dary Russell and Thurston Hall, af
3:30, 6:10 and LYRIC aSueway. with Don Ameche, Arleen Whelan, CGiregory Ratoff. Binnie
Vaudeville with fed Flo Rito's or- ' chestra, Muzzy Marcelino, ‘Three Debutantes, Tommy ta
Tren! James Ev Jakobt, at 1 10, 6:52 and 9:33.
sol,
wind blowing through pine trees’
STRAND Bf Fa
BIJOU :
TE ps es, TRAE CECE
PARKER “Telfiwfaf™
Fa = “HIGH, WIDE 2 Seats
HANDSOME” “MURDER IN G VILLAGE” * j 165 EB. | fortably
RIVOLI Comtertaniye ast tonight
CLEANED UP SINCE
Donald Crisp obtained his first stage job when an opera director
overheard him singing in his bath. |
“AHEAD OF HUBBY The radiator cap on Perc West-
more’s car is a statuette of his wife, Gloria Dickson.
>
Plane Smoker Causes Blaze
Times Special
HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 17.—Several
chickens and young turkeys were killed in a freak fire which partially destroyed a hen house and dog kennel at the home of Jane Withers. The theory advanced regarding the origin of the fire, which Jane, her mother and servants extinguished with garden hoses, was that it was ignited by a cigaret or cigar dropped from a plane which flew over the house.
STY NOT IN SCRIPT
HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 17 (U. P.).— Directors went over the script of actor Bob Hope's latest picture, “Thanks for the Memory,” today, looking for scenes that show only the back of his head. Mr. Hope is suffering from a sty in his eye and can't face the camera for a few days. The filming started with a rear-view of him shaving.
SWIM—DANCE
WESTLAKE |
Chuck Haug Orchestra
MARY BETRH-—Soloist - ¥ NIGHT EXCEPT MONDAY
BASKETBALL ACE'S TALENT WASTED
‘| Times Special
HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 17.—A writer working on “Campus Confessions,”
was relating to a woman friend at a party that Hank Luisetti had a featured role in the film. “Who’s he?” asked the woman. “Don’t - you know?” demanded the writer. “He's the Stanford ace who made 1495 baskets last season.” “Yes?” said the lady. “What kind
Halts: Filming
Times Special,
HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 17.—A sea=
ull on a :sitdown. strike caused a
production delay during filming of shipboard scenes in “Submarine Pa« irel” : John. Ford's company boarded a freighter at Los Angeles. Shortly after Ford had lined up a shot, an Inquisitive seagull alighted upon a jackstaff just within camera
range, : ~ Various missles were hurled at: the gull, which dodged disdainfully.
.| Not until the director conceived the
idea of luring the seagull from ils perch with a handful of “dulce,” the Maine seaweed which Ford hae bitually chews, did the ocean-going bird consent to fly out of camera range so the scene could be shot.
“TURN OFF THE MOON” sroat “Island in the Sky’
STUART
COOL COMFORT
LAST 2 DAYS!
ROBT. TAYLOR
“The Crowd Roars”
Maureen O'Sullivan Plus: “EXTORTION”
FRIDAY!
$ SWELL HITS
RICH MAN, POOR GIRL
ROBT. YOUNG RUTH HUSSEY LEW AYRES
—Plus—
‘THE CHASER’
DENNIS O'KEEFE ANN MORRISS
of baskets?”
N—
Name Reg. in
INDIANAPOLIS’ FAVORITE SPORT ~~ RETURNS
OLLER DERB
BUTLER FIELD HOUSE
Tomorrow, August 18th ADMISSION 40c Nightly 7 P. M. to 12—Except Sunday
U. 8. Pat. Off.
Sta a
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