EIGHT
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
WET INSPIRATION:
Blue Waters Help Float
Opera on Willow Theme
By GEORGE WALKER rvMyjWife" and "Tea Suites Me
Willow Run Housing Project to a T'."
and the tranquil Bay of Naples- And despite all his musical en-
half a world apart-have a lot in deavor, Ebersole, an economics
common. . major, claims he "doesn't know
Like the vast Atlantic Ocean beans about musical theory."
that separates them, they were the i * *
inspiration for the top songs and WHAT'S THE Atlantic Ocean
story of the Union's forthcoming ot to do Oith the Union Opera?
"Froggy Bottom." It was while he was sailing back
MOST AMATEUR OPERA his- and forth across the Atlantic as
torians wll tell you the war put a radio operator aboard a troop
an abrupt end to the Union transport that.Chudacoff wrote
Operas. It didn't. "Till the Dawn."
While war raged in the four Chudacoff, a composition ma-
corners of the world, Jim Eber- jor in the School of Music, has
sole, '50, and Ed Chudacoeff, written five other songs for the
'49SM were writing songs that Opera: "A Girl Like You,"
would some day be sung in the "Froggy Bottom," "Rights for
first revival of the Union Opera. Wives," "Win Her Heart with
Ebersole's first song, "So Far, a Hat" and. with Ebersole, "The
Away," was written in Naples, Pickle Song."
where he was a cryptographer in Jim Wright, Grad., who wrote
the Army Air Force. the script for the Opera, came
"IT MAY SOUND corny," says
Ebersole, "but the Bay of Naples
was the inspiration for "So Far
Away."
The title and lyrics of his song
have been altered to fit the plot
of Froggy Bottom, but the music
hasn't changed.
Ebersole wrote three other
songs last summer - expressly
for "Froggy Bottom"; "Autumn
in Froggy Bottom," "Alone With
back from the war faced with the
prospect of living in Willow Run.
But a friendly milkman tipped
him off about an Ann Arbor
apartment.
* * *
AFTERWARDS, he listened
sympathetically to the plaints of
Willow Run inhabitants, finally
decided to use Willow Run as a
sort of model for "Froggy Bot-
tom," typical housing project of
a typical midwestern university.
GIRL SPY SUSPECT AR-
RAIGNED-Judith Coplon, for-
mer Department of Justice em-
ploye, is taken from the Wom-
en's House of Detention in New
York for arraignment on espion-
age charges. The attractive
Brooklyn-born girl and Valen-
tin A. Gubitchev, 32, Soviet en-
gineer for the UN, were indicted
Thursday on charges of con-
spiracy to pass to a "foreign
power" U.S. defense and intelli-
gence information.
_.
QFF THE RECORD -
By JOHN OSMUNDSEN
During the past week, local record stores have found themselves
with an unusual amount of cash patronage. One shop owner had
a $1,100.00 day that not only startled him but also lost money for
the store. All this was due to the Columbia Record Company's fifty
per cent reduction in the price of much of their old stock.
There is more to the situation than meets the eye, and the story,
which is far from concluded, should prove interesting with further
developments. Columbia jumped the gun on an agreement with the
R. C. A. Victor Company to come out with their Long Playing records
together. It looked as though unprepared R. C. A. would be left
holding the bag. But the Victor Company retaliated by coming out
with their L. P. disc that is quite unlike Columbia's, having a speed of
45 instead of 33 r.p.m.'s and a half-inch spindle hole. When the public
found that two types of L. P. records were on the market, they stopped
buying, and the sales dropped off considerably. It was then tit for tat.
The most recent turn of events has seen Columbia make a dras-
tic price reduction on their old stock which includes a goodly number
of both classical and popular single records and albums. People are
taking advantage of the bargain and are buying up the stock as fast
Sas therecord dealers can clear their shelves. Columbia's strategy is
Squiteapparent. After a great many people stock up on the standards
in the older popular and classical records, they won't want to buy the
L. P.'s-put out by Victor which will carry essentially the same thing.
It's R. C. A.'s move next, and though it is supposed to be the early
bird that gets the worm, often it's the early worm that gets caught.
* * * *
TO DATE, Woody Herman has recorded with three record com-
panies and has had a different type of band with each. 1941 saw
Woody's dixieland outfit, the Woodchoppers, recording for the Decca
label. He signed with Columbia in 1945, and the Herman Herd, one
of the first new sounds of this era or popular jazz music, started on
its road to fame. A few weeks ago, Capitol Records released Lemon
Drop backed by I Ain't Gonna Wait Too Long (Capital, 15365) as an
exhibition of the bebop style of Woody's new band.
The new Herman aggregation features many outstanding solo-
ists: Serge Chaloff, baritone saxist; Terry Gibbs, promising young
vibist; bop trumpet star, Red Rodney; drummer, Don Lamond, and
others. All of these notables in the music world are featured on Drop,
and though Gene Krupa's orchestra and Chubby Jackson's small
group may have cut Herman on it, this first waxing by Woody's new
band should be an indication that we can expect greater things in
the future. Rodney's trumpet chorus is outstanding on this side, as
is Gibbs' vibe work, and a bit of humor is added in the last few bars
when a few members of the group take off on the Gillespie-Hagood
bebop scat style of singing. Long is a blues vocal by Woody that also
features Gibbs on the vibes and Bill Harris playing trombone. This
side is rather unimpressive compared to Drop, but it will please those
who enjoy Woody's vocal interpretations.
Kay Starr, the Memphis girl who started singing with the Venuti-
Lang orchestra upon graduation from high school, is still pleasing her
public with that old drivethat put her on top in the music world after
so many years of hard work. Kay's latest release is Second Hand Love
(Capitol, 15380), a Benny Carter composition, and it should sell out
fast if we are any judge. It isa slow blues tune that is really blue,
thanks to the Starr treatipent Kay is one of the few singers today who
is able to sing the blues as they should be sung-in the Bessie "Mother
of the Blues" Smith idiom-and it is strange to hear a vocal done in
that style backed by a band with as much bop influence as has Dave
Cavanaugh's. The effect is very pleasing though, and has sold a lot
of records for Miss Starr. The flip-over is just another novelty en-
titled, You Broke Your Promise that, though sung well, is not very
'promising'.
The "Velvet 'Frog'", otherwise known as Mel Torme, is a soft
spoken singer who realizes that the only way to make money in the
music business is to get commercial-and that's just what he does.
Careless Hands (Capital 15379), Mel's latest, is really clearing the
shelves. It is a cowboy type ballad given big band treatment, but
nevertheless, it's going over in a big way with the record buyers.
She's A Home Girl, on the reverse side, is in our opinion, the better
side. It is a pretty tune with good lyrics and is further enhanced by
Mel's whispering his way through a soft background, courtesy of
Sonny Burke and orchestra.
By PHOEBE FELDMAN
Anyone traveling from Ann Ar-
bor to Detroit before the middle
of the last century would have
needed a slide rule to figure out
the answer to "Pardon me, but
do you have the correct time?"
IN THOSE DAYS, individualism
in America really reigned supreme
-even in the fourth dimension.
Every hamlet, village and town
kept different time. There was no
need to burn the midnight oil
then. Simply by going west, a
man wanting to get ahead quick,
could gain whole days of extra
time.
What caused this chaos in
Einstein's dimension was the
earth's rotation. People origin-
ally kept time with sun-dials.
With the earth going around in
circles, noon depended on which
side of town you were.
Thus Ann Arbor had a differ-
ent time than Ypsilanti, and De-
troit had still a third one. This
was O.K. so long as no one trav-
eled around too much. But when
the railroads turned up during
the nineteenth century, engineers
soon began feeling they were trav-
eling from Anarchy to Chaos.
* * *
EVERY TOWN kept their own
time. So Casey Jones had to keep
literally dozens of watches-one
for every stop he made. With the
appearance of transcontinental
railroading, the ticking of the my-
riads of watches threatened to
drown out the roar of the engine.
It seemed as though it would
be necessary for each train to
have a special Clock Car, when
the railroad companies took the
watch problem into their own
hands.
Determined to clear their tracks
of worn-out watch movements,
they established their own Rail-
road Time, pretty much along the
Lederle Elected
The American Society for Public
Administration has elected Prof.
John W. Lederle of the political
science department to its execu-
tive council.
Betty Lou Bidwell, Grad., has
also been elected to the council.
SPRING
COATS
100' \Wool
Broadcloth
Navy
$49.95
iT'S ABOUT TIME:
Standard Time on Time at 65th Year
lines of the present four time
belts.
ANYBODY WHO has ever
tackled traveling during Daylight
Saving Time knows what that
meant. People threw up their
hands at the train schedules; and
station masters had to be mathe-
maticians to figure train arrivals.
Arithmetic teachers went mad
with problems: if it's 2:30 in
Ypsilanti, and the Wolverine
leaves Chicago at nine, what's
the clock on the town steeple
say?
This was a watchmaker's heav-
en, but people had another word
for it. Anticipating Pierre van
Passen. "Time must have an end!"
they declared.
SO, 65 YEARS AGO today, or-
der was established in the fourth
dimension. By agreement, on
March 13. 1883, Railroad Time be-
came official-over protests from
Waterbury, Conn., and Zurich,
Switzerland.
Now, no longer can a late date
say that he was Just minding his
own sweet time-unless he's in
Chicago, that is.
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MISS
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Monday, March 14th.
Miss Allen will be glad to
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correct Jantzen garments.
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As Seen
in March
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