Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-15
ASKS SUPPORT
FOR ORCHESTRA
L. E. BEHYMER TALKS MUSIC
TO CITY CLUB
TELLS WHAT OTHER CITIES ARE
ACCOMPLISHING
CHICAGO, Boston and Denver Are De-
voting Every Effort to Building
Up Great Symphony
Organizations

! A plea for better support for the Los
Angeles symphony orchestra and to
keep the new municipal band out of
politics, was the speech delivered by
L. p. Behymer before the City cNb at
its meeting yesterday. Mr. Behymer
has just returned from tour of the
principal cities of the country where
he has been booking the Hammerstein
Grand Opera company and made
special study of what other munlclpau-
ties are doing for music.
Mr.. Behymer considers that, in things
musical, Los Angeles is far behind
where she should be, judging by the
standard she has set for herself IN
other things. He found many good
lessons for Los Angeles in other cities
in the country, and especially in Den
yer.
"The appropriation of $4,000 for
municipal band in Los Angeles, which
has Just been recommended by the
finance committee, is a long step in the
right direction" said the speaker. I'VE
who make music part of our lives are
very much pleased. We have waited
for this so long that we would have
been happy with half the amount.
Praise for Orchestra
at has been hard to get official Los
Angeles Interested in matters musical.
The Symphony orchestra time and
again has pleaded for funds, but the
funds have not come. Los Angeles
seems more interested in things materl-
al. such as her many miles of well
paved streets But now we think we
see the dawn of another day.
IF you had looked over one of the
Boston papers a few months ago. you
would have seen three editorials of
deep interest to Los Angeles. One was
about our great owens river project,
another about the park systems of the
country in which Los Angeles was
credited with having the biggest park
of any city, Griffith park. and third
on our symphony orchestra.
Our orchestra was compared with
other symphony orchestras throughout
the country to our great credit and
most favorable comment was made on
the uniting of the Symphony and the
Women's orchestra in which we were
credited with having done something
that had never been done elsewhere.
In the new plans for the beautifying
of Boston art, music and literature
are united.
Denver Is Active
Denver Is emulating the example Of
Boston. Denver was the only city
found that seemed afraid of Los An
geles and I want to say that no mat
ter what is costs. Denver is going to
go Los Angeles one better in every
direction, unless you get very busy.
This is especially true in the musical
line The people of Denver have prac-
ticallv gone into the concert business.
They have had symphony orchestra
five years that has been well supported
and that has proved valuable educa-
tional feature in that city.
while l was in Denver Ellery's band
gave a symphony concert in the new
convention hall 1t is unusual for
band to attempt a symphony program,
but to those not hypercritical the per-
fornances was meritorious. But what
surprised me more than a band playing
symphony was that an audience of
1890 people heard the concert. 1t was
given at the citys expense and every
thing was free to the audience
when I asked for a booking in Den
yer for the Hammerstein Grand Opera
I was surprised at the generous re-
sponse Eighty business men were
ready to go down into their pockets
and produce $1,000 each to make the
guarantee for a season of grand opera.
Very few of these business men cared
one cent about the music itself, but
they said they wanted the next eX-
cursion train for grand opera to Den
yer instead of to Kansas City and they
would make back the share of the
guarantee they put up and a good
profit besides. These men appreciate
music from the commercial side. They