The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-01
MAURICE LEVI, OF "ROGERs BROS, !.
MAKES A SPECIALITY
OF IT
GALLERY QUICK TO CATCH ON
Prof. Levi Is Known, as the "GaIlery
Gods Friend and He Is
Proud of. the
Title.

catchiest of the many catchy things in
Rogers Brothers in Central Park
How does it happen that the gallery
whistles this air? Is the whistling GAL
lery Indigenous to ST. Paul? If not. how
docs our gallery compare, musicallv with
OIL r galleries? These are some of the
qr stions that naturally suggest them
s.. IS to the conventional paruuet the
$ ate family circle, the polite second
cDny, when from that mysterious and
Y less region near the roof there
l. i 5 down the smooth sustained and
N. sdious whistling chorus of the gallery
got Surely nobody would answer those
questions so satisfactorily as the man
who OBLIGATED at the debut of the whis-
ting gallery. That man is Mr. Maurice
Levi, who every night this week has
waved his baton in front of the pretty
chorus girls, drawing melody from their
white threats. Mr.. Levi is not only the
musical director of Rogers Brothers
show, but he has written the music to
every song sung in the farce and to
many other songs as well. Naturally Mr.
Levi is proud of this fact, but even
prouder is he of the fact that he is
known in all the big cities as 1.-The GAL
lery gods friend" Much experience in
the "show business teaches wisdom
and Mr.. Levi has learned the value of
the gailery's criticism. When it pro-
nounces a thing good" that thing is an
assured success
Like all catchy things, the whistling
gallery was the result of an inspira-
tion," said Mr.. Levi to the Globe yes
terday. An Innocent Young Maid
brought it about. You remember that
was one of the songs in Rogers Broth
ers in Wall Street." played last season.
wrote the song. but didn't think at the
time there was anything particularly at
tractive about it, and everybody con-
nected with the show agreed with me-
A song to be popular last season had to
be of the coon" variety, so everybody
said. 1t was one night In Philadelphia.
The song had been sung in the previous
act, and the orchestra was playing it for
an entr'act when the tnspira ton came to
me. L have always observed that whis-
Ting is very contagious. Have you ever
noticed how, if one man whistles an air
in an elevator or the corridor of a build
ing, everybody else is aptfto be humming
the same air before he gets through? I
thought of that and whistled a bar of
An Innocent Young Maid while the or
chestra played it Then from somewhere
up in the gallery the air was whistled
back. Nowhere are people so quick to
catch on to a new or4noFel idea as the
people who sit under the roofs of the
big theaters. That one whistle in the
gallery became a duet, a trio, a quartette.
finally chorus. AS an experiment I
stopped the orchestra, just as I've done
in st. Paul, to see if they could carry
the air without the music. They fall
tered and finally stopped altogether, but
when the music started up again the
whistling was renewed. Once more I
took my new chorus through with the
music, and once again L tried them
without. Before the evening was over
they whistled it smoothly and correctly.
L had received my idea and profited by
1T. Now, in every town we visit, I train
the gallery,and the .whistling has become
part of the performance. An entertain
ing part too, I think" remarked Mr.
Levi modestly.
The somnolescent Quaker City gallery
gods surpass all others in quickness to
catch and whistle smoothly a popular
air. Satisfying to civic pride, however,
was the assurance from Mr.. Levi that
far superior unsteady to the gallery OF
the little town up the river is the gallery
Of the SANITY City The Minneapolis
gallery, frivolcusly speaking, is mot in
it with u.s.
1t was "An Innocent Young Maid" last
year 1t Is when Reuben Come to
Town this year. What will it be next
year? Mr.. Levi shrugged his shoulders
at the question. 'Who can say" he
queried back. ''These things are the re-
suit of inspiration. II the il spira ton
doesn't come or if the gallery doesn't
approve of the inspirati ton Again
Mr.. Levi shrugged his shoulders. ct is
impossible to predict he concluded,
what will or will not meet with popular
approval. One thing is certain, however,
the coon song has had its day.
Mr. Levi is proud of the fact that the
opening chorus in the fist act of
Rogers Brothers ms Wall Street" =;
n Two
derted thing" he sad' flor as rule, an
audience pays very little attention to the
stage for at least five. minutes after the
curtain goes up" The Chorus referred
to is the Going, Going, Gone" one sung
by the girls who visit the matrimonial
bureau. THE most difficult bit of song
writing in the farce receives the least
attention" complained Mr.. Levi. "Ir's
the Aud Lang Syne' air around which
have woven number OF popular melo-
Cies, but retaining always the original
theme. Last year L did the same with
the 'Suwanee River
Mr.. Levi related some amusing ex-
periences in the song writing line. LAS
soon as the show is arranged, for I'm
given the lyrics to write the music to-
naturally it is important that the music
is written in time for the first rehearsal.
But always the inspira ton doesn't come
and as the time for rehearsal draws near
one becomes nervous and the manager Is
apt to make remarks and there is gen
orally unpleasantness. But l have never
failed yet The theme of q song occurs
to enc in the most unexpected places
Once walking up Broadway broken BIT
of melody flashed through my head, and,
taking out bit of paper and a pencil I
wrote down q line of it, That line
evolved itself into "A Large Cold Bottle
and a Small Hot Bird which Miss Rush
sings
Mr.. Levi has written the music for
number of the Matthew & Burger farces
as well as for Rogers Brothers, He
taught Della Fox many of her fetching
little songs. but Miss Fox, according TO
Mr.. Levi, is not easy to teach-muscally.
Many who have noticed the similarity
between IAN Innocent Young Maid"
sung in Rogers Brothers in Wall street
and the Kangaroo" song of the Bur
gomaster" have perhaps Wondered which
was written first Mo xvi states that
it was the former that}first made its APP
pearance and asserts that rot only was
the motif of lis song initiated in the
Kangaroo song, tutoLGeder the lead
er, borrowed his idea of getting the sal
ieries to whistle. ~
III Sc