Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

MUST STOOP « « can never be a duchess, she becomes an ardent republican. It is that old friend of Dr. Freud, an inferiority complex. The republican chamber-maid takes pride in her democracy, not because she loves the democratic ideal, but because the infinite superiority of the duchess irritates and offends her. • Low-brows are the chamber-maidsminds of music. I recently suggested to a prominent radio conductor a series of fine programs, just as fine as the very popular concerts by Toscanini over CBS or Damrosch over NBC, but more daring and modern. He said: "Lord! I'd love to do that! But it's too low-brow, man! The public would tune me off!" This attitude is typical of the highbrow. Just as typical of the high-brow as the attitude of a prominent broadcaster is typical of the low-brow. This gentleman said: "The next time I hear the Blue Danube waltz, I'll fire mv program director. I hate that highbrow stuff." I have never met a chamber-maid that did not want to be a duchess. I never met a motorist who would not rather drive a Packard than a Chevrolet. I never met a man who would rather be an ignoramus than a philosopher. • Dorothy I have never met a person who preferred second-rate to first-class in anything. Broadcasters who neglect fine music or sound talk overlook this undeniable human impulse toward the best things. Broadcasters who neglect the playful, the frivolous and the easily-digested, sugary music, also forget that it is human and natural to desire these things as well. Alexander Bevani • Music is like any other diet. One cannot live on beefsteaks alone, nor on French pastry alone, nor only on greens, biscuits or caviar. Even a hot-dog, with poisonous mustard, acrid pickles, biting onions and stale bread, is sometimes to be hankered for. Shall I be more specific? Well, here's a partial list of composers and their dietetic equivalents: Tenderloin and vegetables: Bach, Beethoven, Franck, Brahms. Chicken and truffles: Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Schubert. Roast lamb and watercress; Mozart, Scarlatti, Gluck, Weber. Pollenta and baccala: Verdi (early), Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini. Risotto Milanese and Lachrimae Christi: Verdi (late), Giordani, Boito. One lady who does her harping on a real harp, Zhay Clark, harpist Hot-dogs and soda-pop: Berlin Brown, De Sylva and Henderson. Caviar, rye bread and vodka: All the Russians but Tschaikowski and RimskiKorsakov. Roquefort, frogs'-legs and celery: Debussy, Ravel, Honneger, Dukas. Valencian rice, olives, Amontillado: Albeniz, De Falla, Turina, Granados. Tapioca pudding, lemonade, broth: Mendelssohn, St. Saens, Goddard. (Add pastry and cooking sherry to the above: Tschaikowski.) Pastry, raspberry ice, lobster: RimskiKorsakov and Gershwin. • This is a fairly representative list, both of composers and their roughly-computed food equivalents. Perhaps one should mention folksongs, which are the healthiest if the roughest of foods, like turnips eaten on the spot, raw and with grains of soil attached, or peaches warmed by the sun, pecked by the birds and with resin on the stems. I did not mention some of the prominent balladists, but neither did I mention horehound drops or lollypops. And it would be difficult to find a food corresponding to Palestrina, Vittoria or the Gregorian canto fermo. Broadcasters have it in their power to maintain a balance in the musical diet of the loudspeaker. This means giving both low-brows and high-brows a lesson in tolerance, training them to digest music which will correct those dietary disorders which make of the typical high-brow a dyspeptic and of the typical low-brow a potential ham sandwich. Page Thirty-one