Under
Vesuvian Skies
Henry Thies and His Orchestra
Charles Dameron, vocal
1930
(Victor 22460-A)
June
Kisses
Henry Thies and His Orchestra
Jane Froman, vocal
1930
(Victor 22460-B)
Here is a recent acquisition that
I paid a bit more than I like to for. A few months ago, I was listening
to Rich Conaty's The
Big Broadcast radio program online and he played a song I had never
heard before - "Under Vesuvian Skies" performed by Henry Thies and His
Orchestra, a regional dance band that was based in Cincinnati.
I thought the tune was very pretty so it was immediately added to my "must
have" list. A couple of weeks ago, I finally located and won
a copy on ebay. The song was composed by Edgar Leslie and Burton
Lane.
The recording on the flip side of
the 78 rpm, "June Kisses," is one that I already have on a CD reissue and
has been in the playlist of my online
radio station for a couple of months. Jane Froman was a
vocalist with the Thies band for a brief while early in her career.
She made one additional recording for Thies besides the one featured here.
Despite the fact that, away from the microphone, her speech was hindered
by a severe stutter, Froman went on to enjoy a highly successful
career in show business. In 1943, while in Europe entertaining American
troops, Froman was severely injured and nearly died in a plane crash.
As a result of her injuries, over the next decade she had to endure 39
major operations in an attempt to avoid the necessity of having to amputate
her leg. Click here
for a very interesting biographical essay about Froman and how she successfully
overcame some rather significant challenges and tragedies.
Henry Thies had his own challenges
and tragedies. Unfortunately, he was not able to overcome them
and he ended up taking his own life in January, 1936. When I was
preparing this update, I remembered reading somewhere about his suicide
but was unable to locate any additional information about it. Therefore,
I submitted an inquiry to a 78 rpm email discussion group that I belong
to and received the following reply from David Lewis who has been researching
Thies for a long time. The reply is reproduced here with his permission.
"Thies was a classic manic
depressive. He was very well-known in the day when [Cincinnati radio station]
WLW broadcast in 50,000 watts and you could pick it up in your fillings
in Buenos Aires. His band played the night in 1934 that Powel Crosley threw
the switch that put 'LW up to that level of power. But he had to be taken,
via limousine, from Longview State Hospital where he was incarcerated during
the day and driven out to the gig, which was at the new transmitter north
of town (which still stands).
Thies died in January 1936,
with a single self-inflicted pistol shot to the head in his shower stall.
His family didn't find him for an hour - they were dutifully waiting for
him to show up at dinner. Then they couldn't get him out of the bathroom
because his body was blocking the door.That same day, sales staff at 'LW
had managed to close on a deal to syndicate Thies' show on a national basis.
The 40-minute pilot program, recorded in September 1934, still survives
- I guess it's his last recording.
A terrible waste of a very
gifted bandleader. Whether or not you like the style of his records, his
band had a very beautiful sound, I think.
Uncle Dave Lewis
What is sad is that, today, it is possible
that Thies' tragedy could have been avoided through the appropriate medication
and treatment.
EXTRA
This section will present
78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop
and jazz fare that I usually present. Here I will feature
recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities
as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
\
Gipsy
Princess Parts 1&2
Stiles Allen - Soprano
Richard Terelli - Tenor
London Concert Orch., Orazio Fagotti, conductor
1931
(Edison Bell Winner L 5332 mx 13569,
13570)
This week's selection comes from
an old Edison Bell Winner record - a British label that I do not
come across very often here in America. The envelope for this record advertises
it as being a "long playing record" - which, back in 1931, meant
a whopping 4 minutes of playing time per side for a ten inch record such
as this one. Unlike its original owners, however, you will
not have to flip the record over in order to listen to part two as I have
already done that for you.
The Gipsy Princess, also
known as Die Csárdásfürstin, is one of composer
Emerich Kalman's most famous operettas. Along with Franz Lehar,
Kalman was one of the leading figures in the so-called "Silver Age" of
Viennese operetta which lasted roughly from the turn of the 20th century
until the Nazi occupation of Austria. The Gipsy Princess debuted
at the Johan Strauss Theatre in Vienna in November 1915. The operetta
opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre in September 1917 under
the name The Riviera Girl in an adaptation by Guy Bolton and P.G.
Wodehouse. The New York production ran for 78 performances.
Its London premier was at the Prince of Wales Theatre in May 1921 with
an adaptation by Arthur Miller and Arthur Stanley. This particular
recording of vocal excerpts from the operetta is in English - but unfortunately,
the label does not indicate whether it is from the Bolton-Wodehouse or
the Miller-Stanley adaptation or some other adaptation.
I discovered Kalman's operettas
several years ago and have become a fan of his music and of Viennese operetta
in general. Kalman's work is still remembered and performed in Europe
- but, unfortunately, in America he is no longer well known and his recordings
are often difficult to find at even the better classical music stores.
This recording provides an excellent introduction to both a composer and
an art form that I highly recommend. .
Chinese
Foxtrot
Victor Miltary Band
1916
(Victor 35598-B)
Miss
Springtime - Medley
Victor Military Band
1916
(Victor 35598-A)
People usually associate military
bands with marching music. However, during the late 19th and early
20th century, so-called military bands played music from a variety of genres
ranging from ragtime to classical. The Victor Military Band was an
in-house studio band which was responsible for a significant percentage
of the dance records that the Victor Talking Machine Company issued during
the 1910s.
This week's selections feature medleys
from two Broadway operettas that opened in September 1916.
"Chinese Fox Trot" comes from The Amber Empress which was
composed by Zoel Paranteau. The operetta opened at New York's Globe
Theatre (known today as the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre) on September 19,
1916. "Miss Springtime Medley" comes from the Emerich Kalman operetta
Zsuzsi
Kisasszony which opened in Budapest in 1915. Its American adaptation
by Guy Bolton and P.G.Wodehouse was called Miss Springtime and opened
at the New Amsterdam Theatre on September 25, 1916. Both operettas
and their music have been largely forgotten today.
EXTRA
This section will present
78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop
and jazz fare that I usually present. Here I will feature
recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities
as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
Lucia
- Mad Scene, II dolce suono
Luisa Tetrazzini, soprano
Walter Oesterreicher, flute obbligato
1911
(Victor 88299)
This selection is from the famous
Mad Scene of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Lucia de Lammermoore.
Luisa
Tetrazzini (the namesake of turkey Tetrazzini, by the way) was
an internationally renown Italian born soprano.
This recording comes from an old
one-sided Victor Red Seal record. Victor stopped producing one-sided
records for most types of recordings in 1908. However, Red Seal records
were considered to be a premium product and Victor continued to press them
on one side into the 1920s. This particular record cost $3 when it
was new - approximately $54 in today's money when one factors in currency
inflation. That's quite a lot of money for just over four and a half
minutes of acoustically recorded music.
