The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-02-06

f-YSeS9,E GOluen state is the music center OF
49, the country. Seven out of the forty
national fnalsts selected from tens of
thousands of young contestants between the
ages of is and 25 years by the Atwater Kent
Foundation have come from California which
leads all the states in the production of young
aspirants to radio concert and operate fame and
fortune. And six of the seven finished either
first second in the national trials!
Ohio, the birth place Of Presidents of the
United States, can claim to be the only state
that has produced two national first place win
ners, in the persons of Miss Carol Deis, soprano,
OF Dayton, who is being proclaimed throughout
the country this month as the best young woman
singer found by the 1880 Addition and Miss
Genevieve Irene Rowe, also soprano of Wooster,
who won the first place honor last year.
New Orleans, with its traditions of culture and
artistic achievement extending back to the early
days of American settlement, however, is the
single city that has furnished the nation with
ten per cent of its forty young fnalists-four Of
the young immortals being from the quaint old
southern metropolis.
Colorado and Texas may lay claim to having
provided the nation with three each of the forty
young singers and the city of Denver asserts it.
self second to New Orleans with two of the
Colorado three, one of them being Miss Agnes
Davis, who first place in 1927, the first year
Of the additions. Illinois, Michigan, New York
and Arkansas have provided two fnalists each,
and Pennsylvania, Oregon, North Carolina, New
Hampshire, Virginia the District of Columbia,
Missouri, Georgia, Rhode Island, Maine, New
Jersey. Mississippi and South Dakota have each
supplied one.
The inquiring reporter who conceived the idea
of making a kind of box score Of the four years
of intensive search for young voices conducted
by the Atwater Kent Foundation which has
suited in the turning out of chorus of 40 espe-
cially good voices has also inquired what hap
pened to the young people after they were dis
covered-and what use did they make Of the
opportunity and the funds awarded them by the
Foundation. The purpose of the nation wide
editions, it was explained, has been to find
where the best voices grow and give their
possessors encouragement to go on to seek fame
and fortune in radio work. To this end the
Foundation has offered $4,000 in cash awards
and musical scholarships to the ten finally
selected. The selection was made through
series of elimination additions, local, state and
geographical districts. There are five of the
geographical districts and the young man and
young woman selected from each of these con-
stituted the national fnalists who met in New
York and sang in competition before musical
experts to determine the division of the cash
awards and scholarships.
More than thousand communities held local
additions in 1880 which year had the greatest
number of additions and entrants. Another
feature of the additions the 1880 contest empha-
sized was the never-say-die spirit of the young
singers of the country. In the state additions
more than fifty per cent of the contestants were
those who had tried in previous additions and
failed only to try again-and win. Four OF the
ten finalists this year, were singers who had
tried before, one of them having tried out in all
of the previous additions!
The inquiring reporters question to what
the young people have done with the opportu-
mites for training and cash to see them through
it, is answered in reports from the various ma
tonal nalists of other years Of their activities.
The 1880 group have just started and will spend
their next year in hard study as a result
of their victories Miss Deis and Raoul Nadeau,
baritone, of New York, the young man winner,
both want to do concert work and Mr.. Nadeau
aspires to an operate career. 1t would not be
expected that the after-careers Of the winners
of other years would run along uniform grooves.
Their accomplishments and successes have been
as individual and versatile, as would be expected
among thirty youthful personalities.
Donald Novis, Pasadena, California, tenor,
who won first award of $4,000 in 1928 has be-
come popular star in sound pictures. His sixth
picture eyes of the World already has been
released. He was presented this fall by Arthur
Hammerstein in musical comedy. He has ap-
peared in such sound picture hits as Bulldog
Drummond" with Ronald Colman; Kathleen
Mavourneen' with Sally O'Neil New York
Nights" with Norma Talmadge; Irish Fantasy"
a musical picture based on the music of Victor
Herbert arranged by DR.. Hugo Eoisenfeldt and
"Monte Carlo" recent hit. He is spending his
spare time studying under the direction of the
famous composer-coach, Frank LaForge.
Hazel Arth, the washington, D. c., contralto.
1928 winner, has done extensive concert and
radio work, and is now heard every Sunday eve
p;noon That Won Fame