United States or Fiji ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
An assistant conductor wielded the stick while Stoky sat in the rear of the dark hall manipulating an intricate system of colored lights that made known his wishes to his understudy on the platform. Mr. Stokowski is inordinately fond of gadgets and fancies himself as quite a technical expert.
Was his father one Joseph Boleslaw Kopernicus Stokowski, a Polish emigre who became a London stockbroker? Was his mother an Irish colleen and the granddaughter of Tom Moore, who wrote "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms"? Or is Stoky just plain Lionel Stokes, the sprout of a humble cockney family? Nobody knows.
His slim, youthful, virile figure was held erect, his feet remained still as if nailed to the floor, while his arms went through a series of sensuously compelling, always graceful motions. The view from the back was enhanced by the fact that the tailor who cut his morning and evening coats was almost as great as Stoky himself. And his hands! Ah, my dear, those hands !
In the Pullman smoker sat the handsome gentleman who was then manager of the orchestra and your correspondent. "Tell me," said the reporter, "just between you and me where did Stoky get that juicy accent?" The manager removed his cigar to reply: "God alone knows." Mr. Stokowski then had been in this country nearly twenty years.
Shortly afterward, the Philadelphia Orchestra and its blond, romantic conductor invaded New York. Their Tuesday night concerts at Carnegie Hall became the rage. The uninhibited music lovers of this town not only applauded Stoky but cheered, yelled and stamped to express their frenzied approval. He never lectured THEM. But in Philadelphia he continued his extra-conductorial antics.
So nobody ever quite knew whether the dead-pan Stoky was in earnest or moved by an impish sense of humor when, following the usual thin smattering of applause, he said: "This strange beating together of hands has no meaning, and to me it is very disturbing. I do not like it. It destroys the mood my colleagues and I have been trying to create with our music."
Stoky explained to the press that the spot was necessary to enable his men to follow the play of his facial expressions. Most conductors make their appearance in a leisurely manner.
Today he is as big a feature of the fan magazines as Clark Gable and Robert Taylor. Upon his return from Europe in August, Stoky made the most amusing remark of a long amusing career. He told this reporter: "I am not interested in publicity."
Word Of The Day