A short notice reporting on the 1917 death of Count Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Von Zeppelin (b. 1838). The count is reported to have died a sad and broken man over the failure of his airships to hasten a decisive ending to the First World War and remorseful that his name would forever be associated with the first air raids on civilian targets.
For all you football scholars out there, we offer a small article concerning one of the biggest events from the 1949 world of college football which involved the numerous changes that the college football Rules Committee put into play as the season began. The unnamed journalist concentrated on the five most important that involved the legitimacy of forward passes, fumbles and laterals.
Here is an enthusiastic review of Jascha Heifetz’ (1900 – 1987) first Carnegie Hall performance. The journalist relays how fully loaded the concert hall seemed to be with the finest violinists in the Western world all sitting in rapt attention; and how joyously they all applauded following his first number:
Here, mark you, were the masters of the guild giving an ovation to a slim, eighteen year-old boy and acknowledging him as one of the master violinists of the world.
An article about Roland Rohlfs (1892 – 1974), chief test pilot of the Curtiss Engineering Corporation and his Curtiss Wasp triplane, the aircraft he flew at an altitude of 30,000 feet when he set a new speed record (163.1 mph) in 1919.
A short notice reporting on the one pride and joy of the U.S. Army Air Service, the Verville Packard, and how this one aircraft performed at the Pulitzer Trophy Airplane Race of 1920. The article is illustrated with a photo of the plane and the aviator, Lt. C.C. Mosley, who piloted the craft at the impressive speed of 156.5 mph.
Here is an explanation from the official newspaper of the A.E.F. as to how World War I American fighter pilots were credited for their victories in the war against Germany.
Click here to read an article about the development of aerial reconnaissance during W.W. I.
Photographs of one of the first attempts at night flying with wing-mounted electric lights.
Here is a short article with photographs depicting two unnamed British fighter- planes: one is described as double-decker, with the pilot riding directly over the gunner and the second boasts of a steel fuselage construction.
While the fighting raged on the central front the negotiators at Panmunjom rapidly approached an agreement on armistice terms. The July 19th (1953) agreement was reached on all points by both sides. The next day liaison and staff officers began the task of drawing up the boundaries of the demilitarized zone… At 1100 hours on July 27, Lieutenant General William K Harrison, Jr., the senior United Nations delegate to the armistice negotiations, signed the armistice papers. At the same time the senior enemy delegate, General Nam Il, placed his signature on the documents.
A 1913 article that examined the nascent world of hydroplanes.
Illustrated with a black and white photograph of the 33 year-old soprano was this small notice announcing the discovery of Dorthy Kirsten (1910 – 1992) of Montclair, New Jersey. Kirsten went on to great heights, performing with the Metropolitan Opera for the next thirty years, she would also enjoy some popularity singing duets on the radio with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nelson Eddy, and Perry Como.
An uncredited interview with the celebrated Russian composer, Sergie Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943); his education, family and his work at the Moscow Conservatory as well as the Moscow Grand Theater. Attention is paid to his activities in the United States following his flight from the 1917 Russian Revolution.
William James Henderson (1855 – 1937) was believed by many to be the greatest music critic of his day, and in this VANITY FAIR article he turns his nib in the direction of the pianists Ignace Paderewski (1860 – 1941), Harold Bauer (1873 – 1951), Ferruccio Busoni (1866 – 1924) and Josef Hofmann (1876 – 1957).
A profile of Futurist composer Leo Ornstein (1893 – 2002). Ornstein appeared on the New York music scene at a very young age; hailed as a genius by many, he performed to packed houses. In 1917, music critic James Huneker(1860-1921) remarked:
I never thought I should live to hear Arnold Schoenberg sound tame, yet tame he sounds—almost timid and halting—after Ornstein who is, most emphatically, the only true-blue, genuine, Futurist composer alive.
Leo Ornstein left the public eye by 1925 and was soon forgotten until the 1970s. This Vanity Fair article was written by James L. Buchanan, who had written a number of pieces on Ornstein and his music throughout his career.
Attached, you will find a small profile of Kosaku Yamada (1886 – 1965) published shortly after his New York debut in 1919. Classicly trained in Europe, Yamada organized the first symphonic orchestra of native players to perform the music of Occidental composers under a Japanese conductor, which later became the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. This article outlines some of his various accomplisments up to 1919, while deleting others. Prior to his two year sojurn in the United States, he had composed three Japanese operas: Reisho (1909), Ochitaru Tennyo (1913) and Shichinin No Oujo (1916).
A review of Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony written in 1948 by the respected Los Angeles music critic and historian Lawrence Morton (1908 – 1987):
…there can be no mistake about the Third. It is a solid structure, exceedingly rich and varied in expressiveness, large in concept, masterful in execution, completely unabashed and outspoken.
No wonder that Sergi Koussevitsky called it ‘the greatest American symphony.’
Tamaki Miura (1884 – 1946) was a Japanese opera singer most often remembered for having performed in over 2,000 stagings of Madame Butterfly. At the time this short notice appeared she was only one year into her opera career, yet the Vanity Fair music critic recognized talent when he saw it and nominated her for the Vanity Fair Hall of Fame. It was her inclusion in that august body that serves as the the subject for this short paragraph, which is accompanied by a photograph.
André Tardieu (1876 – 1945),while writing for the French magazine TEMPS, committed to paper these unkind words regarding the Italian opera star Enrico Caruso (1873 – 1921) in an attempt, perhaps, to only slander Caruso’s many adoring American fans and the culture that created them.
…the American public admire only those artist’s for whom they pay dear.
