Madame Butterfly

There are a few notes on the backs of these photos, but they don't really tell us much.  The top, "Harry-1" the next, "Heloise, Don, & opera company," and the bottom, "Denise Webb 1 picture,  Norm -1, Cast Madame Butterfly."  I've seen more than a few plays performed in schools and churches, but never an opera,  and it does look like this is an amateur opera group, performing in a church.

The Pianist

There's a stamp on the back of this one, "PHOTO BY JAS. ABRESCH, 200 WEST 57th ST., N.Y.C."  I did a quick search and found an autographed picture of Bruna Castanga, an Italian opera singer, dated 1936, with the same stamp.   Perhaps Mr. Abresch specialized in classical musicians, possibly not.  At least 1936 gives us a clue to when he was active.  No idea who the lady is.

Eileen Heckenbach Loved the Accordion 1

Anthony Galla-Rini was an American accordionist born in 1904.  At the age of four, he was part of his father's Vaudeville act.  In time, Galla-Rini would master twelve instruments including the accordion.  In 1924, he quit his father's act in a salary dispute and formed a new act with his sisters.  In 1932, he left the act and opened an accordion studio in San Francisco.  In addition to teaching, he also began composing and arranging for the accordion.  Within a few years, Galla-Rini and his wife and son moved to New York City to be closer to the music publishers located in the city.  In 1938, he founded The AAA, The American Accordionist's Association.  In 1941, he composed the Accordion Concerto in G Minor (No. 1) which premiered with The Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra.  In 1942, he returned to California, formed a rumba band which headlined the Trocadero in Los Angeles.  He also began a long career composing music and performing for the movies.  In 1976, he returned to classical music with the Accordion Concerto in G Minor (No. 2).  In 1983 he composed the Sonata in D Minor For Accordion.  Anthony Galla-Rini died in 2006, aged 102.

The Apeda Studio was in business in New York City from 1906 to 1990.  It was founded by Alexander W. Dreyfoos, the photographer, and Henry Obstfield, the businessman.  With it's industrial developers and mechanized postcard printers, the Apeda Studio was an immediate success.  Like many studios servicing the theatrical community, Apeda, and it's staff of photographers sold prints to the general public of their sitters.  They also bought up the negatives of their competitors as well as making copies of photographs distributed by other photo studios, going so far as removing other studio logos and replacing them with the Apeda mark.  Dreyfoos and Obstfield would eventually be sued for violating the copyright of rival The White Studios.  Apeda won by arguing that copyright was the property of the sitter, and not the photographer.

Background History

I didn't buy this photograph for the people.  I bought it for the background.  The posters are a wonderful bit of history.  Right behind the people are advertisements  for a  Dwight L. Elmendorf  lecture, and a People's Symphony Concert. To the left, a benefit for German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in Siberia.  To the right the New York Symphony Orchestra.

 I found a lot of info about Dwight L. Elmendorf on line, but no actual biography.  But are all those bits and pieces about the same man?  The earliest mention of that name was linked to the murder of Maximilian  Eglau, an artist and teacher at the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes in New York.  A Dwight L. Elmendorf was the last known person to see Eglau alive.  He also provided an alibi for the Fitzgerald brothers, the prime suspects.  Dwight, also an instructor at the school, was dismissed from his position under cloudy circumstances.  That was in 1896.  Jump ahead to the Spanish-American war were Dwight L. Elmendorf was a photo-journalist.  And then from the early part of the twentieth century through the 1920s Dwight L. Elmendorf made his living as a travel writer and lecturer.  I would say it's a good guess that Dwight the photo-journalist and Dwight the travel writer were one and the same, but Dwight the teacher of the deaf?

The People's Symphony Concert Series started in New York in 1900.  But it wasn't an uptown, for the upper crust,sort of thing.  The whole idea of the People's Concerts was to bring classical music to young people and workers.  The People's Symphony is still in business. As a matter of fact, if you've got $37 to spare and can get to Washington Irving High School in New York City, you can buy tickets right now.   I don't know whether they're still trying to sell tickets to factory workers, but they're still going after the young.

The  New York Symphony poster advertises an appearance by opera singer Alma Gluck.  That was a name that jumped out at me.  Gluck was born Reba Feinsohn in Bucharest, Romania, but emigrated to the United States, with her family, at an early age. She became one of the best known operatic sopranos of her age.  I have some 12 inch, one sided, 78 rpm records she made in my collection.  Listen to the Mockingbird, and Carry Me Back to Old Virginey, the first million selling recording in history.  She was married to concert violinist, Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., and the mother of actor, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.  She retired in 1925.

The poster that really fascinates me is the benefit poster for war prisoners, sponsored by the Austrian Society of New York City, with a performance date of Monday, October 30.  It's obviously from World War 1, and by checking a calendar I was able to date it to 1916.  The United States entered the war in April of 1917, and since Germany and Austria-Hungary became our enemies...well, I doubt there were too many benefits for enemy prisoners after that.

One of the listed performers was Ernestine Schumann-Heink.  Schumann-Heink was born in Austria, which explains her willingness to lend her services.  She became a citizen before the war, in 1905, and spent April 1917 to the end of the war giving free concerts to American troops.  When she died in 1936, Schumann-Heink was buried with full military honors. She spent the last years of her life at her farm in San Diego County, but died in Hollywood.

And finally, the posters look like they're all from Carnegie Hall, so we even have a location.