| Show C I l' l OMAN COLUMNIST FOR W. W W. W guest column columnist for tor VJ Watter Winchell is s Alice AIke Hughes who con- con another on the big Dig town town A n A Womans Woman's New York Yock By ALICE HUGHES I dont don't believe my parents had a a. plan to make an orchestra ny ily of us In fact I 1 ascribe no motive other than a love for P r sic to their insistence that ea each h o one e of their there children were take h-take take lessons mL o on L some musical 4 instrument mL L started taking akIng at the age of ot ht By the time I was a fresh- fresh In high school I could play Covens Coven's Moonlight Sonata on one e piano with only a few errors t ray my best was wa done donean III 51 an fl orange-colored orange p paper back ae called Jordan Marshs Marsh's dard Opera Selections pry tl fasher loved to hear me play chaikowSkY's Pique Dame It d to put him into a more com- com cent nt mood than usual I always f d ii it Jt prior to asking permission o on a picnic or swimming or orI oror I ng or when I 1 need needed da a new newa or a a. pair of shoes He was a af man f but music music- moved him 1 ij older brot brother er played the jn The younger one studied tie tto cornet cone oine though never suc success success- j M. M My IY young oun sister Was Vas ti the pride of the family She was the speaker cery year the local high school hid Hi an elocution on contest Twice she away achY with second prize a aill aio ill io gold told piece The third year she captured the first prize 25 with 25 with 0 Co called Mr r. r Brown Gets HI HiJ Hair Cut music teacher was the organist organ organ- organ I lot 1st l jn In the local cathedral It was Us his job to play and improvise for hoars hods at t t 3 a stretch without a note before him He taught me lIle to do the same To this day I havi hays a prodigious musical memi mem- mem i fory cry ory retaining mistakes as well as asI I melodies But none can stump me in recalling such operettas as Prince of Risen JW Firefly Naughty S 4 lot farietta Chocolate Soldier bi bl u ft Pink iak Lady Merry Widow and Dd- Dd hj t l t They all all' antedated me by quite for home town tb i z few years my JEd nile store never carried new music 1 0 nul til it had bad proven itself worthy of I hi being leing condensed in priced popular-priced t on Editions When eventually they did Ji 5 reach ach me one- I played them through rand find had them m memorized within 24 p Pa hours Ws ours Th They y were always tuneful ind catchy and they helped me toward Inward my Ony early career In the movies i Thanks to my ray music teachers in- in upon memorizing I had begun to earn 3 a week at my artA artrA art I rA A friend of the family had opened i isman a small moving ng picture house in our II town Pictures were changed daily and a pl piece two ce orchestra consisting consist I I ing ing- sometimes of a piano and violin of a piano and drum furnished the music I The ioe Orchestras Orchestra's hours were from 1 12 noon till 11 evening with two ho hours out for supper from froni fromI I 5 to 7 70 The show ran about 90 minutes and there was a 10 minute intermission so they had hada a er rest I 1 became tl nipper relief Every day except pt Sundays I played those two hours hoars and nd loved them With my knack for memory play- play l I never had to look at a note The Perils of Pauline whizzed ps put Pt me one without any recourse to sl sleet sheet music The Million Dollar Mystery The Black Box the sentimental love scenes s of Beverly Bane Bayne Ba ne and nd Francis X Bushman the themore more sophisticated romances between between be be- tween treen Arthur r hur Johnson and Florence 4 Lawrence and Americas America's Sweetheart Sweetheart Sweet Sweet- heart Mary Pickford flickered across the screen while my fingers rattled the waltzes of the operas of Verdi and the Fifty Favorite Fantasies of the Worlds World's Famous Masters of Music Between phrases of melody came hurries There were the special refrains for the dastardly redskins the heroic U. U S. S cavalry the stealthy villain the heartbreaking parting I twixt mother and son and the pitiful pitiful piti piti- ful cry of the tiny girl in her white I nightie There were hurries for I soldiers starting off for war for i we weddings for babies' babies booties shyly I sho shown to an unsuspecting papa for nature running amok with purling brooks t twittering birds and flamboyant flamboyant flam flam- boyant sunsets R Robins bins Return and Rustle of Spring served me well for tor the nature treatment There were hurries for everything Thanks to my desperately retentive memory memory memory mem mem- ory every bit of that old movie music clutters up the attic of my brain to th this s day I worked m my my way through high school at the piano When I retired retired re re- re- re tired my y young ung sister inherited my job Job- My salary had never topped 3 a week But when she stepped into my shoes with not nearly so 50 good a memory though a far tar more accurate touch the union got after atter her And so at the age of 14 she joined the Manchester Manchester Manchester Man Man- chester Musicians' Musicians union and nd she too too played two-hour two relief until she departed for college She got more money than I did 5 a week But I bet I had more fun 1 I was boy My current admirer used to step into the picture hou house e to see t the e show The gate was only 10 cents He would sit way down front just above tl the e orchestra pit While he talked to me about the high school football or debating team or of flunking algebra or the dance in inthe inthe inthe the local Grange I would desert my hurries and my Fifty Favorite Masters and would pour out fervent fervent fervent fer fer- vent love songs such as and Tosti's Farewell My heart was bursting with movie moyie love my fingers W were re skittering over ver the keys my ears strained to catch every word he in the front i row uttered But my eyes eyes' never I left the screen i |
