The Washington times., 1933-09-05
Down Memory Lane
With Al Goodman, Veteran Or
cheStra Leader.

The lane tnat l traVel PACK
Strewn with the sweetest memorie
any man could ask for. Memo
rieS Of show business. Memorie
Of rehearSals, goodness knows hoy
many. Memories of openin
nightS-150 of them for me. Yes
you may have attended man,
times that many openings, bu
I'm certain you never had tn
thrill of that little lump in tn
throat that comes up regularly a
raise my baton for the opening
of the musical comedy equiValen
of a two hundred thousand tt
half-a-million-dollar showdown
And it isn't only the idea Of tn
money that brings that dubious
obstruction in your laryngea
parts, but the principals who have
given their all in rehearSals from
morning to morning for days anc
days and days, and particularly
those kids in the chorus to whom
the Job means eats. clothes anc
money to send back to the folk
as proof that they didn't dt
wrong by taking a stab at the
show business, instead of marry
ing Hank Forrest, the grocer''
son. But let me start gettine
some order to what, at best, mus
be rambling and mixed up sorl
Of story.
I don't suppose it m k e s
much difference that l was
born in Odessa, Russia, except
that the hardshipS my learned
father, who was a cantor, en-
dured, made me dislike things
usuaIly " con sidered Russian
such as cavair, bOrsht and tea:
NV father saved his rubleS and
spent them all bringing us to
America in general, and Baltl-
more in particular. My father
decided that 1, too, should be-
come a singer and taught me
early, SO that at five 1 was able
to read music perfectly. I used
to sing in a Catholic choir on
Sundays.
All through public school 1
sang and was awarded scholar
shin to the Peabody Institute.
Funny, but at the time wanted
to go to the reform school in
stead of Peabody, as long as l
l. civ
At the Institute was young
fellow who was studying, among
other things, orchestral tech
nique. Now there was study
ing voice and this boy studying
orchestra directing. Not many
years after in production
called "Maytime," 1, the student
singer, was the orchestra di-
rector, and the lad that studied
about OrchestraS was the fea-
tured baritOne-J o b n Charles
Thomas.
1 finally came to New York
and got a job on Broadway.
Not a glamorous job, but it was
Broadway, because I was only
a piano FOUNDER for one OF the
music publishers. But 1 mace
friends and connections. One
of these friends was given the
commission by Morosco, the
Ziegfeld OF his day, to come to
the coast and write book and
music for him. He and often
had spoken about things musl-
cal and he learned my back
ground. So when he received
word to go Vest went along
and together we worked out
$50 Long Lefty" one of the
greatest musical comedies OF
the time. Oh, yes, I nearly for
got. The lad who gave me my
first start was Earl Carroll.
And now things begin to
lump at my memory field. and
I give them to you in the same
way.
1 finally went with Jolson and
the Shuberts. After that there
comes a parade of familiar
faces, all of thenP I've worked
with. Eddie Cantor, Ed Wynn,
john Steel, Marilyn Miller, War
ner Baxter, Edmund Lowe,
Marie Dressler, Ethelind Terry,
George Hassel, the H ard
Brothers. Howard Marsh. Bert
Lahr, Trixie Friganzo, Charlotte
Greenwood, Fred Astaire, Frank
Morgan, Jim Barton, Joan
Crawford, Nancy Carroll, Claire
Luce, Ray Dooley, Eddie DoWl-
ing, Anna Held. Lily Damlta,
Jack Donahue, Harry Richman,
Jack Oakie, zelma O'Neal, Ethel
Norman, Gus Clifton Weob,
Patsy Kelly, Jack Haley, Charles
Butterworth, Phil Baker. Lou
Holtz, Ada May, Jack Whiting,
June Knight, j. Harold Murray,
Leon Enrol, and-oh, what's
the use-names, names and
NAMES that have been. are,
and will be tradition-most of
them I watched grow great.
There was Nora Bayes. You
know about all there is to
know about her, as does the
rest of the world, but I know
that she had a great love for
children. Every Saturday matt
neen she had from 10 to 80 OF
them sneaked into the pit with
my musicians, and 1 was the
guardian of the refreshments.
It was my duty to hand out
rather sticky candy periodically
to the kids, so that after the
first act, I could direct, waving
the baton with my hand open.