“Dr. Saslow, we have a problem.”
“So you’re asking me to help
solve it?” Max replied. During the day Dr.
Saslow practiced chiropody (today they call it podiatry) in a downtown
office. Nevertheless, he still found
time to play in the second violin section at Murray Hall where the El Paso
Civic Symphony performed and practiced.
“Max, our soloist for the concert
just cancelled on us. Laryngitis, she says.
It’s too late for us to hire a replacement and the concert is tomorrow
night. What should we do?”
“And why are you asking me,” Max
queried. “As if I don’t know.”
“Your daughter still sings,
doesn’t she, Max?”
“Yes, she does. But only in the choirs of two churches and at
the Reform temple on Stanton Street during the Jewish High Holidays.”
“Max, the orchestra has been
practicing this program for weeks. Shubert’s
Unfinished Symphony followed up by half a dozen of his greatest lieder. We even booked a special accompanist for the
songs too; paying him four thousand dollars just to show up. Look, we just lost
our soprano and we just don’t have time to plug in something else for the
orchestra to play to fill out the program.
We can’t afford to start refunding tickets. There’s no other healthy soprano around either,
Max. Help me.”
“I’ll talk to her, but no
guarantees. I’ll call you tonight.” Max packed up his fiddle and his music and
went out the door of the rehearsal hall.
Once back in the house which he
shared with Grace and her husband, he cooked himself a soft boiled egg which he
was spooning out of the shell with a piece of buttered toast when she walked
in.
“How was school today,
Gracie? Anyone willing to learn anything
show up?”
“Okay, Dad. No reason for your to
be sarcastic. But how come you’re home so early? Wasn’t there a rehearsal this afternoon?”
“Yes, there was. Went pretty well too. Gracie, do you remember when you were singing
German lieder a few years back?”
“Sure. I loved doing it. Do you remember the Shubert we did together
with you on the piano and me singing?
But why are you bringing it up? I
see that twinkle in your eye.”
“Gracie, we have a problem with
tomorrow’s concert. Our soloist
cancelled out and we need a replacement.
The program is all Shubert, including some of the same lieder you and I
did together for years. They have a first-rate pianist to accompany the singer,
too. Do you think you could give it a
shot?”
“You’re crazy, Dad. It has been years … but I think I remember it
well enough. Sure, I’d be willing, and
we could use the money, whatever it is.”
For the rest of the evening,
Grace and Max practiced the six Shubert lieder which were on the concert’s
program. Fortunately, they still had the
sheet music in the piano bench in the front room. Her voice, kept sharp by its weekly workouts
with hymns and harmonic praise of the Lord, was as resonant as ever.
The next evening in Murray Hall,
in a white gown with a rose pinned on it, Grace sang Shubert lieder. The audience applauded. The orchestra applauded. Even the accompanist applauded. She hadn’t practiced an encore, so she repeated
the final piece of the program, “Lachen und Weinen,” and again it was met by
thunderous applause. The critics, and
even in El Paso they had critics, applauded too.
In about a week, the calls
started coming in. They included one
from the New York agent with whom she
had worked when they were living in East Orange. They wanted her back. And just like the scenes in those old show
business movies showing the names of the cities as the trains rolled through
them, she quickly had bookings in Dallas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Pittsburgh,
Washington and finally, at Alice Tully Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center.
That fall, her husband was
transferred to his company’s corporate office in Chicago, and Grace, giving up
her tour after one season, had a baby, after which she was happy teaching voice
and performing in local concerts there as well as in church and temple
choirs. Max moved there too, working on
people’s feet part-time, but most of the time playing in two local symphony orchestras and telling everyone how his
daughter had filled in with one day’s notice on that wonderful evening back in
El Paso.
 |
| Lily Pons |
JL
* * * *
A Letter to the Post
After reading a letter in the Palm Beach
Post the other day advocating giving more authority to our States, I sent
them the following letter:
“The letter writer (Jan. 31) who
wanted “to see more authority come back to the states” might not remember that in
1789, we replaced the failed Articles of Confederation with our Constitution,
providing the cement which united those separate and disunited states into the
United States of America and which in 1861, withstood an unsuccessful attempt
to “see more authority come back to the states.” Actually, the opposite seems to be true since
many of our challenges today are the result of those states already possessing
too much authority.”
Incidentally, the Post is now but a
shadow of the fine independent newspaper it once was. I recall a winter visitor about ten years ago
saying he had little need for the New York Times when he was down here,
the Post being an adequate temporary replacement for it. But things have changed. Acquisition by the Gannett newspaper
conglomerate (whose flagship is USA Today) has left it as an acceptable
local (Palm Beach County and the southern part of the Florida Treasure Coast) newspaper,
supplemented by usually useless news from other parts of the State. The remnants of its past excellence are its
opinion and editorial pages, Frank Cerabino’s columns, and of course, its
occasional investigative journalism.
JL
* * * *
Advice for Democratic Leadership
Opposition to the presence of white
supremacists among the supporters of today’s Republican Party is sometimes
oversimplified down to a matter of skin color, making it the basis for defining
those who have discriminated, and worse, regarding persons of color for
centuries in our country. But such a
generalization, defining a group on that basis, is not accurate.
To some ‘progressive’ Democrats, Jews, who
mostly are not people of color, are included among the rest of the whites in
this firm dichotomy, ignoring or minimizing the virulent attacks of white
supremacist racists upon them. This is often magnified by an already existing pro-Palestinian,
anti-Israel, aspect to the agendas of some ‘progressive’ Democrats, including
members of Congress, which borders on anti-Semitism. Raising this point with those who might be
guilty of this results in belated and usually honest apologies.
Awareness of the history of anti-Semitism, including Holocaust education, must not be ignored in the struggle against racial white supremacists, who certainly do not include Jews among their number. It isn’t just a matter skin color. The Democratic Party should be aware of how divisiveness over this issue can cost them votes.
JL
* * * *
Quiz Answers and a New Puzzler
The answers to our second quiz in the last posting (Name the eight States which begin with the letter "N" and their capitals) are as follows:
New Hampshire Concord
New York Albany
New Jersey Trenton
New Mexico Santa Fe
Nevada Carson City
Nebraska Lincoln
North Carolina Raleigh
North Dakota Bismark
And here's Quiz #3, the final one in our "States" series.
Besides Alaska, Hawaii, and California, two states' shores are washed by the Pacific Ocean. Name them and their capitals. No cheating!
JL
* * * *
JL
* * * *
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