Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-24
Mechanical Music Starves vi
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

photograph needles. Nevertheless, the
union musicians have unquestionably
fallen upon hard times. BY the
thousands they walk the streets Of such
cities as New York, Cleveland and
Chicago looking for work and for the
most part, in vain. Harsh as this Is for
the present. observers think it incredible
that the day of the personal performer
is past forever. The mechanical tide
has risen high, but it, like the stock
market is subject to inevitable changes.
Philosophy is meager diet for
musicians out of work, but there is
reason to believe that the mechanical
age itself may bring about better times.
Public Demanding Good Music.
For one thing the radio is absorbing
more and more Of the musicians who
have been displaced In theaters and
other places of public entertainment.
Music cannot be broadcast unless there
| is a musician on the sending end.
Further, the wide distribution of radio
| receiving sets is bringing about an in
creased desire on the part of the public
for music, People who never gave music
thought before the days of the radio
now are demanding 1t. And the public
taste is being improved, it is claimed.
Better music IS being demanded and
this, obviously, calls for better musicians,
It is possible that the swing may
| find a positive lack OF competent
musicians, able to meet the public
requirements.
7 People used to go to the theater to
satisfy the American craving for some
thing to do. A lot of people went, not
because they cared for GAS You Like
| It." or Titus Andronicus," or even
East Lynne" but because the theater
furnished destination draped in the
aura OF joy and relaxation. Actors and
musicians, good and bad, obtained many
million dollars from American pockets
because they furnished a place for a
chap TO take his girl. Lesser sums were
so drawn because the performers were
artists.
So when the movies came along and
could be offered cheaper, the people
turned to them en- masSe. Here, too,
was a place to go. It was cheaper and
| the pictures seldom were over ones
head. There is little wonder that art
dropped, for, after all, unadulterated art
is not at premium among the vast
numbers which make UP any national
audience. Action, melodrama, as me-
chanical as possible, is the popular
desideratum. It will be remembered
that when Will Shakespeare attempted
to bride a palace guard to let him
through to keep rendezvous with the
LARK Lazy or the SonnetS by Offering
him a pass to the Globe Theater, where
a ShakeSpearean drama was playing,
the guard expressed a strong prefer
ence for piece of money which would
enable him to buy ticket for the
Spanish Tragedy, cheap melodrama
playing elsewhere.
So. when the people found the movies
a cheap place to go, there they fiocked
in greater numbers than ever had at
tended the legitimate theater. In con-
sequence, theatrical performances took
on new value No longer did they
j constitute an artistic profession; they
became real estate business. ANY
property, for admission to which large
numbers of people are willing to pay,
becomes valuable. So all the old the
aters, where once the voices of Mantell
and Marlowe, Booth and Jefferson, rang,
were bought up and turned into movies.
With the people willing to come any
way, why pay for the music? So, in
most Of the theaters the orchestras were
disbanded. When the talkies came,
bringing their own incidental music
more musicians went.
Now the query of the American Fed
Grafton of Musicians is: How long Is
this madness going to last? It is too
soon to answer.