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Winners of the Met Auditions of the Air, Miss Maxine Stellnnan, soprano, and Thomas L. Thonnas, baritone, with Director Edward Johnson, and Charles Lemperly, representing the sponsors.
NANCY BARROWS
SONG OF SIXPENCE
to the public.
It's a long way from Glamorganshire in South Wales to Broadway, and a big jump from a sixpence to a thousand-dollar check, which, along with a contract, was Tommy's reward for winning the Metropolitan Opera auditions. But the young Welsh lad with the marvelous voice still pours out his heart when he sings.
Music is, truly, his native tongue. His grandfather, a Welsh miner, journeyed to America to seek silver, in those (lays when Denver was the center of the great silver boom. And when he was not wielding a pick. Grandfather Thomas drilled a choir of miners, cowboys and Indians, that made the welkin ring.
Tommy's father, who went into the Welsh coal min'es at the age of eleven, was similarly possessed by music. The first instrument he owned was a tin whistle, on which he tooted manfully at old, familiar, .Welsh airs. Saving his scarce pennies, one day he became the proud possessor of a fife — a cheap little pipe, with oirly holes for stops. But with it he presently became leader of the local fife and drum corps. Next he acquired a flute, upon which lie learned to play so exquisitely that the Royal Academy of Music in London gave him its cherished degree. I^ter Thomas pere conducted the London Symphony Orchestra.
When Tommy was twelve, the family migrated to America, to the Scranton coal mines.
"I'll never forget," says Tommy reminiscently, "my first day in Scranton. I was wearing short pants, as the boys at home did, and short .socks. The neighborhood Ixjys followed me home from the store, pulling up their long pants and rolling down their socks and jeering at me ! It was a bitter moment for me — a hard pill to swallow ! Afterwards, though, we became friends. Some of them still are my good friends."
Tommy finished his schooling in the Scranton public schools and decided to become an engineer. He studied mechanical engineering and draughtsmanship and worked his way up from oiling engines to l)ecome, at twenty, assistant manager of the sales production department of an engineering firm.
And when he wasn't working at engines, Tommy sang. In school, in church, in concerts, his sweet young voice presently became a familiar delight to all of Scranton. He studied with his father and with a local teacher who ventured to predict great things for his young pupil.
Tliat year when Tommy was twenty, ju.si four years ago. Nelson Eddy came to Scranton to sing a concert. After the concert young Thomas was invited to meet the singing star at the home of a music-loving friend. Tommy sang for Nelson. They .sang together. And afterwards Nelson Eddy turned to the lad. Seriously he said : "You should go to New York, ^'our (Continued en page 78)
a name that is going to be famous in the world of music
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