by Peter Cates

Roberta Chester

Still living in her 80s, poet Roberta Chester has written articles for different newspapers in Maine and taught English at UMO, College of the Atlantic and in Israel.

With respect to the Pine Tree State, she wrote the following in the 1989 Maine Speaks anthology:

“Now that I live in Maine, the intense beauty of the Maine landscape has been a constant inspiration. I can’t think of a better place to be a poet than Maine, where each of the seasons arrives with so much passion that all of our senses are awakened. If we’re poets we have to respond.”

One poem of Ms. Chester that is included in the above-mentioned anthology, Succoth (Bangor 1982), alludes to an episode of antisemitism, although where and when remains unclear.

But first a little context.

Succoth is a harvest holiday celebration directly following Rosh Hashanah and the Yom Kippur day of fasting in an outdoor hut in which people are feasting and living. The shofar or ram’s horn is blown to announce beginning of the fast on Yom Kippur in which sins are atoned and resolutions made with hope that each individual remains in the Book of Life for the coming year.

The shul is another name for synagogue.

Now the poem:

“After the last blast of the shofar
and the hard fast, the promises
and prayers for a good year,
it takes us by surprise
when we are in the season
of apples and honey cakes
and wine, when we eat in huts
open as birds to the stars,

it takes us by surprise
to see a swastika
drawn on the wall of the shul,
painted red and razor sharp
the women whisper,
there can be no mistake.
They know the sign.

It makes me think
we have been found out
although we’ve been here
for years, our candles shining
at the windows, the smell of challah,
the bittersweet sounds of Shabbas songs
escaping from out the windows and doors
and into the streets between the bridge
and the old brick church.

It takes us by surprise
and yet the trouble is so old
it echoes in my blood
with the sound of my grandfather
climbing the stairs of a building
on the lower east side
and pressed against the wall
by someone with a knife
who held the blade
against his neck and said,
‘Swear, swear you are not a Jew,
and I will let you free!’

And from my grandfather who refused
just as they were both surprised
by an angel in disguise who opened a door
in that long, dark hall,
I learned never to be too much in love
with a roof over my head,
that houses are made of sticks and glass,
that they break like the works of our hands,
and that we should be ready to fly
up into the night with parcels and children
and scrolls under our arms
on the back of the wind.”

Disney anthology

In 1976, Ronco released an LP anthology, The Greatest Hits of Walt Disney, featuring 24 original soundtrack recordings and also including song lyrics and eight cutouts of Disney characters (Ronco R-2100). Like other anthologies from the label, it was heavily promoted on television. The selections include Bare Necessities, Whistle While You Work, A Spoonful of Sugar, Ballad of Davy Crockett, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, etc.

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart

I recently rewatched for the 50th time the classic Humphrey Bogart 1946 film classic The Big Sleep via a nicely mastered DVD. Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe, his fourth and last wife Lauren Bacall as the “spoiled, exacting, ruthless Vivian Sternwood who falls in love with Marlowe and, among the distinguished cast, cowboy star Bob Steele and character actor Trevor Bardette, as two cold-blooded killers contributed vividly to its infinitely rewatchable qualities, with Henry Hawks directing and Mississippi novelist William Faulkner providing the script.

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by Peter Cates

Richard Himber

Richard Himber

A two LP set, Richard Himber and his Ritz-Carlton Hotel Orchestra Featuring Joey Nash (RCA Bluebird, AXM-5520, released 1975) contains 32 recordings from the 1934-35 years of 78s that were originally released on the ten-inch discs of that decade by RCA Victor’s subsidiary 35 cent Bluebird label.

Prior to the establishment of this Orchestra, Richard Himber (1899-1966) had been a violinist for Sophie Tucker’s hotel jazz band and then in charge of bookings for Rudy Vallee (whose own megahit of the 1920s, Stein Song, helped put his alma mater, the University of Maine/Orono, on the nationwide map).

Joey Nash (?-2000) was Himber’s lead singer from 1933 to 1935. Himber also hired such musicians as Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Bunny Berrigan for the Ritz engagements.

The records feature some very beautifully arranged performances in which sophisticated rhythms are blended with sweet melodic textures and solo instrumental details from the harp, strings, woodwinds, etc. Joey Nash had a consistently appealing tenor voice and knew how to put a song across. Himber’s Orchestra was basically hired by hotel management to play music for its patrons to dance to but many of them preferred to simply listen.

Some very fascinating liner notes were provided for the 1975 re-issue by Joey Nash on the trials and tribulations that he observed and personally experienced before the Orchestra hit paydirt.

A few details:

– Himber was a bit of a con man promoting pipe dreams of stardom, classy hotel bookings and nightly radio broadcasts nationwide , meanwhile paying nothing.
– Its first broadcasts from the Essex House had the players housed in a rancid basement storage room for old hotel furnishings and assorted trash.
– A saxophone player busted Himber’s nose in a moment of arrogance.
– Other musicians received summons for alimony.
– One violinist brought his German shepherd to work where it chewed up a songbook and howled on a nationwide duet with the clarinettist.
– A musician was attacked by the angry father of his pregnant girlfriend.
– When the Ritz broadcasts became a success, the orchestra was earning $4,000 weekly.

Among the Great American Songbook classics on the album are Stars Fell on Alabama, Tea for Two, What a Difference a Day Made, Avalon and Winter Wonderland.

In later years, Himber had a traveling band giving free outdoor concerts on a flatbed truck and got sponsorship from Pepsi Cola. During one of these concerts in 1966, he collapsed from a heart attack and died a few hours later at the age of 67.

Himber once stated, “Remember that vanity rules the world.”

The above recordings can be heard via YouTube.

by Peter Cates

Adolph Hitler

Adolph Hitler

In the interest of getting a few columns ready a few weeks ahead of time, I am writing this one on April 20, the 135th birthday anniversary of one of the two most evil dictators of the 20th century (the other being Joseph Stalin), namely former German chancellor Adolf Hitler (1889-1945).

William Shirer

My earliest exposure to Hitler’s life came via a short paperback, The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler, by William L. Shirer (1904-1993) which I bought for 25 cents through the TAB Book Club when I was in sixth grade during the 1962-63 school year. John Kennedy was still president and his father, who was appointed Ambassador to Great Britain in the late 1930s, for some mysterious reasons by FDR, was one of Hitler’s biggest fans, much to the disgust of FDR who eventually fired him, and of son Jack who would quietly leave the room whenever his father was spouting politics.

Shirer’s book was based on the much longer 1961 Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which has sold millions of copies and was a Book of the Month Club selection. Much of the material was based on the author’s years as a journalist in Berlin from 1934 to 1940. More than any other correspondent during those six years, Shirer personally witnessed the triumph of evil in its various manifestations and brought to his writing an immediacy most others lacked.

He authored several other books on these experiences – Berlin Diary, End of a Berlin Diary, The Nightmare Years, Twentieth Century Journey, etc.

In 1934, once Hitler was establishing himself after being “democratically voted in by the people,” Shirer wrote in the Nightmare Years what he was witnessing in Berlin:

“Platoons or companies of brown-shirted storm troopers of the S.A. and black-coated guards of the more elite S.S. were constantly marching through the streets, their jackboots echoing on the pavement. I was warned that anyone on the sidewalk who did not pause to salute their standards and flags was liable to be beaten up on the spot. I soon learned to duck into a shop when they passed.”

In 1940, Shirer received word that the Gestapo was planning to arrest him on trumped up charges of espionage and execute him, and got out in the nick of time.

Spencer Tracy

Most highly recommended is a viewing of 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg dealing with the trial of four Nazi judges by an American military tribunal and starring Spencer Tracy as the presiding chief justice, Burt Lancester as one of the Nazis and an all star cast that includes Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner, etc. Spencer Tracy stole the show.

A particularly disturbing aspect of the film was the several Germans who denied knowing about the death camps. And other pertinent historical issues were referenced – the beginnings of the Cold War, the temporary closing of Berlin by the Russians and the Berlin Airlift of 1948 in which food and other necessary supplies were parachuted by American planes.

And finally a haunting scene of Tracy as the Judge walking by himself through the outdoor amphitheater where Hitler had his rallies communicated powerfully.

Otto Klemperer

Otto Klemperer

Werner Klemperer

I have been listening to an eight CD set of the great Otto Klem­perer’s 1960s studio recordings of Bach’s B minor Mass and Saint Matthew’s Passion, Handel’s Messiah and the Beeth­oven Missa Solemnis, each of which is a masterpiece. Klemperer (1885-1973) was already in his 80s and still conducting at a peak level. Warner Classics 9 93540 2.

Klem­perer’s son Werner portrayed Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes.

These recordings can be heard via YouTube.

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by Peter Cates

Highlights

Barbra Streisand

Highlights (Columbia CT 52849) is a 1992 cassette of 24 selections from the massive 1991 four CD set, Just for the Record, of almost 40 years of Barbra Streisand’s singing with a few vocals from composers Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, and Michel Legrand, and singers Judy Garland, Neil Diamond and Ray Charles.

Streisand has consistently given magnificent performances of so many Great American Songbook classics and contemporary selections.

Here is You’ll Never Know via both a 1955 recording when she was 13 at the beginning of side 1 and a duet from 1987 at the end of side 2 with herself in 1955. Other classics include Cry Me a River, Get Happy, Happy Days are Here Again, People, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, Come Rain and Come Shine, etc.

It is a very good musical textbook for young voice students on what to choose for material and how to develop their technique.

Charles Harrison

Charles Harrison

Tenor Charles Harrison (1878-1965) recorded many shellacs for various labels including Columbia, Edison, Victor, Vocalion, etc., and did many of the classic pop standards of the day – I’m Always Chasing Rainbows, Peggy O’ My Heart, Avalon as well as sacred and opera selections.

A 12-inch acoustic shellac record (Columbia A5348), from November 4, 1911, featured him performing an aria Lend Me Your Aid, from Charles Gounod’s opera The Queen of Sheba.

Harrison didn’t have what one might call a beautiful voice, like Caruso, Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti, etc., but he did sing with intelligence, conviction and a naturalness of phrasing that was very enjoyable.

Charles Gounod (1818-1893) wrote one masterpiece, Faust, among his dozen operas, the others being for me uneven in quality but having some charming arias.

The Queen of Sheba (La Reine de Saba) was premiered in a magnificently opulent production at the Paris Opera in 1862 but rarely performed since then; the first recording of the complete opera was a live Italian production in 2001 while the U.S. premiere occurred in 2018 via a concert presentation in Boston by Odyssey Opera.

Creatore’s Band

Guiseppe Creatore

Columbia A5364 is another 12 inch shellac with Creatore’s Band giving very expressive performances of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah and the hymn Nearer My God to Thee. The two sides were recorded in 1908, originally released as one-sided discs and, around 1918, as the two-sided record.

The leader Giuseppe Creatore (1871-1952) organized the Band in the early 1900s after moving to the United States from Italy. Due to his musical gifts and flamboyant personality, he and the Band experienced incredible success and got $5,000 for each concert.

A son Luigi Creatore (1921-2015) partnered with Hugo Peretti as Hugo and Luigi and they did numerous arrangements during the ‘50s and ‘60s for pop artists, including Peter Nero and Perry Como, at Roulette and RCA Victor.

All of the above recordings can be heard on the Internet.

Sarah Orne Jewett

by Peter Cates

Sarah Orne Jewett

The October 1904, Atlantic Monthly, out of Boston, Massachusetts, had an article, The Art of Miss Jewett, on South Berwick Maine’s own Sarah Orne Jewett (1849 – 1909) , via which Charles Miner Thompson (1864-1941) stated the following:

“…I always think of her as of one who, hearing New England accused of being a bleak land without beauty, passes confidently over the snow, and by the gray rock, and past the dark fir tree, to a southern bank, and there, brushing away the decayed leaves, triumphantly shows to the faultfinder a spray of the trailing arbutus. And I should like, for my own part, to add this: that the fragrant, retiring, exquisite flower, which I think she would say is the symbol of New England virtue, is the symbol also of her own modest and delightful art.”

Thompson’s statement might be encrusted by a bit too much purple scrub brush prose but he did show a discerning appreciation of a writer for her gifts at endowing the “bleak land…gray rock…[and] decayed leaves ” of our Pine Tree State and conveying its own special beauties and truths in this at times very scary universe.

As with William Faulkner’s hot dusty roads in Mississippi and Willa Cather’s Nebraska wheat fields, Jewett’s Southern Maine was transformed into a microcosm that resonated with so many readers.

In her short story collection The Country of the Pointed Firs, one story in particular, The Flight of Betsey Lane, has an opening paragraph that conveys in its simple narrative just how much Miss Jewett absorbed into her “little piece of dirt” in Southern Maine (She lived in South Berwick most of her life and, as a child, traveled with her father on his rounds as a country doctor.); since it’s too long to quote in its entirety, I offer a few sentences that hopefully will convey the spirit of the author :

“One windy morning in May, three old women sat together near an open window in the shed chamber of Byfleet Poor-house. The wind was from the northwest, but their window faced the southeast, and they were only visited by an occasional waft of fresh air.

“There was a cheerful feeling of activity, and even an air of comfort, about the Byfleet Poor-house. Almost every one was possessed of a most interesting past, though there was less to be said about the future.

“There was a sharp-faced, hard-worked young widow with seven children, who was an exception to the general level of society, because she deplored the change in her fortunes. The older women regarded her with suspicion, and were apt to talk about her in moments like this, when they happened to sit together at their work.”

Faulkner wrote, “A writer needs three things – experience, observation and imagination, any one or two of which can supply the lack of the others.”

Willa Cather, who was a friend, wrote of Sarah Orne Jewett, “She early learned to love her country for what it was. What is quite as important, she saw it as it was. She happened to have the right nature, the right temperament, to see it so- and to understand by intuition the deeper meaning of all she saw.”

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg

An RCA Victor cassette contains Edvard Grieg’s a minor Piano Con­certo and two of his solo Lyric Pieces; and the Con­certo of Robert Schumann, also in a minor, as performed by Artur Rubinstein, with Alfred Wallenstein conducting a studio pickup orchestra for the Grieg and Carlo Maria Giulini directing the Chicago Symphony in the Schumann.

Rubinstein played with his wondrously expressive musicianship that he brought to a wide range of composers from Mozart and Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and they can be heard via YouTube. He could at odd moments smother the music with his personalized individuality but in general he conveyed the spirit of each composer in his many recordings.

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