Show OUT OF THE PAST Zither Gains Many fiends Fends F ri MILWAUKEE MILWAUKEE WIS The good old zither with its 40 or so strings and its quaint charm is having a revival Probably the least exciting musical instrument in the world n I when it begins to make a come come- comeback come I comeback I back in popularity that's news I I It is rapidly gaining favor here I and London England seems to be bein beI bein I in the throes of a mild zither craze An English movie The Third Man which stars Orson Welles in the role roie of a Vienna rack rack- racketeer racketeer racketeer named Harry Lime was I made by Carol Reed Reed had heard one Anton Karas playing a tune in a Vienna beer garden He hired Karas to play it for film Theme Became Favorite The result was that the Harry I Lime theme became a favorite tune in Britain and zither players were dug up for the fashionable saloon trade Nothing goes away forever Most I I people have an irresistible longing I Ito to do and use the things that pleased their granddads The I have an explanation I for it the it-the the instinctive longing for a a return to security of prenatal life But no matter how you explain it the evidence is all around you in sizable stacks The bustle was a symbol of Vic Vic- Victorian Victorian Victorian torian primness and yet it was ac ac- accepted accepted ac- ac accepted in the The plunk- plunk plunk of the banjo gave way to the slap-slap slap of the string bass in dance bands nearly 20 years ago and the banjo was counted out But a few seasons back the ir irrepressible ir- ir irrepressible irrepressible repressible Art Mooney vowed that I the banjo was too valuable an in in- instrument instrument strument to be neglected and he and his band recorded Im Look Look- Looking Looking ing Over a Four Leaf Clover for fora a new generation and the banjo stole the show I The banjo has been taken up by other bandsmen and showmen too Billy Roses Rose's latest Broadway revue was called Banjo on My Knee and was pretty much of a revival I of the old minstrel show and The Black Crook extravaganza of grandfathers grandfather's youth The maestro I himself wrote the theme song Bring Back Those Old Minstrel Days and he hired as many vet veterans vet vet-I erans crans as he could from fr m the old Primrose and West er era Old Things Liked Youngsters today ride fast cars but they concede that the old lash and sleigh ride par par- parties parI parties I ties have their undeniable tion The phonograph and radio bring huge and dependable blasts of music but they haven't driven out the delicate little music boxes which still are sold in uv quantities I and which still tinkle their inter inter- interpretations interI I of Merrily We Roll Along and How Dry I Am I Television is a big thing these days but it hasn't displaced the I stereopticon not by a grand canyon full The newfangled stereopticons I use small colored film squares in in- instead instead instead I I stead of the old big picture post post- postcards postcards postcards cards but they still reveal all the I gleaming wonders of natures nature's stand- stand standbys bys the bys-the the Wisconsin Dells and Yel Yel- Yellowstone Yellowstone Park Mount Lassen vol vol- volcano volcano vol- vol volcano cano and hundreds of other views Its It's easy to have your pound of coffee ground by that growling en en- engine engine engine gine on the cash counter but does that mean that grandmas grandma's coffee mill has gone down the shute to ex ex- extinction Not at all The time old little walnut mill with the rotating J handle on top and the little drawer to catch the ground coffee is again on the market and it makes an even cuter gadget than the old- old style home ice cream freezer which is likewise enjoying a new sweep in popularity I |