Evening star., 1945-11-12

cember, 1927. 1t was the Wall Street
boom period and the show ran
almost to the crash in october, 1929.
Howard Marsh sang as Gaylord Raw
enal, the handsome and gallant
gambler; Norma Terris romped
about as Magnolia Hawks. Togeth-
er they scored in the duet, why
Do I Love You2" and "Only Make
Believe" Helen Morgan started a
craze by sitting on an upright piano
and singing Cant Help Lovin' That
Man. Charles Winninger was
'Cap'n Andy. But 1t was Jules Bled-
soc, colored baritone, who stopped
the show with "Op Man River"
Paul Robeson sang it in the
London production and in the
revival in New York in 1882.
Books Brought Fortune.
Mr.. Kern's book collection was
one of the most valuable in Ameri-
ca. The total realized from its sale
by auction in January, 1929, caused
gasps of surprise even in those in
flated days. 1t was 81, ,729, ,462. Dealers
still speak of the prices with bated
breath. Top price was for a copy
of Sheney's Queen Nab" 1t went
for $4,000. His Dickens items
totalled $252, $40.
There is story that he also sold
all his stocks in 1929 before the
crash.
Mr.. Kern liked to collect rare
books, first editions and items with
the signatures of great authors at
tached. A favorite story is about a
Robert Burns presentation copy. AS
Mr.. Kern entered a bookshop one
of the dealers engaged him in con-
versation while a partner marked
the book up from $4,000 to $4,000.
Mr.. Kern wrote his check for the
latter amount. Mr.. Kern later re-
ceived $4,000 for it in the 1929
auction.
The depression put no damper
on Kern tunes. In 1881 the show
was THE Cat and the Fiddle" the
hit was The Night Was Made for
Love-" In 1888 the show was
Music in the Air" the hit, "I've
Told Every Little Star" In 1884
Roberta" became stage hit when
Tamara sang Smoke Gets in Your
Eyes" You're Lovely to Look at
was another Roberta" hit.
The movies some time before had
changed to sound and had dropped
another fortune in his lap. Show
Boat" Cat and the Fiddle" Music
in the Air" and Roberta" had been
filmed on the sound track.
Wrote for Hollywood.
In 1884 he moved to Hollywood
and wrote scores for original screen
musicals. The first were Swing
Time" and High, Wide and Hand
some"
!, In 1887 1t was "I Dream Too
Much" sung by Lily Pons In his
movie musical of the same name
In 1888 he returned to New York
for the production of his Every
Warm for May" The show was a
flop, but sales Of one of the songs
are still in the hit class-"All the
Things You Are"
AS can be seen from the list, Mr.
Kern's song hits we're not topical.
Except for "Ol' Man River" they
were the love songs America loves.
But the fall of France in 1910 caused
Mr.. Hammerstein and Mr.. Kern,
both frequent croSsers of the At
lantic, to observe that tragedy to
civilization with The Last Time I
Saw Paris"
In 1943 the Kern hit was "You
Were Never Lovelier," in a movie
of the same name. In 1914 it was
Long Ago and Far Away" from the
movie Cover Girl" In 1945 it
was More and More" and Cali
forniay" from Cant Help Singing, +"
written for Deanna Durbin.
His favorite composers were
Wagner, Rimsky -Karsakoff, Puc-
cini and Tschaikowsky.
Deems Taylor, noted critic and
president of the American Society
of Composers and Publishers, said
on hearing of Mr.. Kern's death:
Il think that no composer in his
field since Victor Herbert. has in
spired so much real affection from
countless hearers who never saw
him face to face. No artist of his
stature can ever write 'inis' to his
work. Kern was go. which means
that he had easily a score of years
OF his music still to write. Now we
shall never hear it,"
Col. Lipscomb to Teach