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JANUARY, 19 3 0
29
RADIO Gave Gypsy Violinist Chance to Become FAMOUS
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Harry Horlick Fled from Russia I and Found Refuge in United States j
By BRUCE GRAY
ROMANCE and adventure have played a big part in the life of Harry Horlick, who is known to the radio audience principally as the conductor of the A. & P. Gypsies, one of the oldest and finest salon orchestras on the air. His rise has been comparatively rapid in recent years, but, before he came to this country, he suffered great hardships.
Harry lived in Russia during the turbulent times that witnessed the rise of Bolshevism. He was a native of the Black Sea district. His one pleasure in life was to play his violin, which many times he did in the face of much opposition. He was compelled to join the Bolshevik army and he served in it for a while. However, he seized the first opportunity to escape. That was in 1921. He made his way, with great difficulty, to Constantinople.
All Harry had was his violin. He had no friends and no money. He remained in Constantinople for about eight months, earning enough with his violin to pay his passage to the United States. He landed in New York with four or five of his countrymen. For a while he was in difficult straits, but he finally was engaged to play with the City Symphony, a new orchestra that was giving a number of concerts in and around New York.
Some time later Harry was employed, along with some of his compatriots, to play in a Russian club called Petrouschka. It was this engagement that indirectly brought him into radio. Someone who was interested in
The A. & P. Gypsies as They First Went on the Air
radio heard Harry and his Russians play their native music, as only they can play it, and brought them to the attention of the director of Station WEAF, which then was owned by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company.
Wanted Distinctive Feature
Just about that time the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company was considering radio broadcasting as a new
means of advertising its nationwide chain of stores and was looking for a feature that would be entirely distinctive. The WEAF authorities s u g gested Horlick's orchestra, which was summoned to play an audition. Needless to say, Harry did not know much about this new medium of musical expression but, after all, he felt, it might mean an engagement and a larger income.
The audition was all that it had been expected to be. Harry and his musicians played the wild gypsy melodies and the Russian and Hungarian folk tunes with fiery abandon, mingled with a pathetic and wistful quality that sprang from their longing for their native home. Their performance was so distinctly different from anything that had been heard in musical circles up to that time that they were immediately engaged to broadcast.
The A. & P. Gypsies, as they were christened, first appeared on the air in the Spring of 1924. Their programs were made up entirely of these Russian and Hungarian