The Chicago star., September 14, 1946, Page 12, Image 12

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
12
Entertainment
In place of soap box oratory
Pete Seeger sings people's songs
“MUSIC THAT IS CLOSE to
the working man can do a tre
mendous job in mobilizing public
opinion and inspiring political ac
tion,” said Peter Seeger, the man
who makes his banjo talk union.
That was one of the few sen
tences, “Pete” spoke last week,
when he was here to teach a ses
sion in music for political action
at the CIO-PAC school. The rest
of the time, the former almanac
singer, recorder of many pro-la
bor discs and national director of
People’s Songs, Inc., spent sing
ing.
He dedicated one of his ditties
to Bilbo-Rankin statesmen:
“I dreamed I went to Wash
ington;
I took along my little spray
gun.
I filled it up with the DDT.
It kills the cockroach and it
kills the flea
It’s wonderful stuff that DDT
Well I took my little spray
gun with the DDT in it.
I sprayed the House of Re
presentatives and then I
sprayed the Senate.
. . . you should have seen Mr.
Bilbo. And I am sorry to report
that Mr. Rankin is no longer]
among us. He has joined his fore-'
fathers.”
# # *
PETE. A LANKY LAD who
sings with a Kentucky twang and)
puts a progressive twist to fa
miliar folk-tunes, sparked the or-1
ganization of a Chicago division I
of People’s Songs, Inc. while he 1
was in town.
People's Songs will act as a
musical clearing house for
songs of labor and the Ameri
can people. It will also mobilize
talent for performance of these
songs at labor organizations 1
and citizens’ political groups.
On the temporary steering
committee for the Chicago Divi-
if
record notes”
by RAY FLERLAGE
THOSE OF US WHO regard
music as an effective spur to ac
tion will welcome the new Free
dom Sings album with out
stretched arms. A companion
piece to the powerful Six Songs
for Democracy, the new collec
tion is vividly presented by the
Spanish Republican Army Chor
us and Orchestra. Recorded in
1939, while the Spanish Republi
cans were fighting beside the
Maquis in France, the songs are
a bitter indictment of Franco.
Freedom Sings contains six
titles, two of which have been
recorded in different arrange
ments in Songs of the Lincoln
Brigade. Contents: El Pendon
Morado. El Paso del Ebro, Cop
las del Fuerte de San Cristobal,
F.I Tragala, Marineros and Ya
Sabes Mi Paradero (Kevnote 128.
3-10”, $3.75).
* * *
HAVING TURNED OUT a
definitive recording of the
BRAHMS VIOLIN CONCER
TO, Joseph Szigeti has again
demonstrated hi s complete
mastery of widely differing
styles with a remarkable read
ing of the PROKOFIEFF SO
NATA IN D MAJOR (Col. 620,
3-12”, $1.05). Throughout this
brilliant four-movement sonata
(here Is an inventiveness re
miniscent of Mozart, but in a
completely unimltatire idiom.
The recording is exceptionally
good.
THE CHICAGO STAR, SEPTEMBER lf t , 19/rf
sion are Win Stracke, Studs Ter
kel, Jack Conroy, Charlotte Mor
"% ris. Esther Garduk, William
Moore, Joe, Arnstein, Bernice
Targ, Marvin David, John Hallo
ran, Ruth Kaplan and Qregory
Paschal.
• jaggy
s W l* * '■i dppw?
..igPaPfe
Jml
“I’M A LOOKING FOR A HOME/’ sing Peter Seeger. banjo in
hand, and harnionizer Lee Hays at an informal political action song
“wing-ding”.
RADIO REVIEW
Charley McCarthy’s gags get stale
CHARLIE MCCARTHY, the impudent hunk of wood, returned
to the air Sunday, September 1, at 7 P.M. over WMAQ. It seems to
me this show is falling into that tired category that hits all funny
shows sooner or later that rely on the any-gag-for-a-laugh formula.
Under the banner of Chase & Sanborn's “shade grown
flavor” boloney, Charlie and Bergen crack wise in a pointless
way, turning ihe laughs in the wrong direction. There are so
many people in the audience because “maybe they can't find
a place to live.” Threatening to quit the show', per wornout
formula, Charlie says “I’m using my veto power,” thus playing
along with the old-devil-Russia war-making propaganda.
People laugh, and the poisoned barb is driven in a bit deeper.
Everything’s funny, but the gags are getting stale. So much of
radio humor is that same sweating play on words: Gag, gag, GAG.
# * #
THE CHICAGO DEFENDER has a show here called Democracy
U.S.A., Saturdays at 3:45 over WBBM. I listened to one about Cap
tain Harry B. Dees, Negro police captain on the South Side, who
backs a Youth League to combat juvenile delinquency. The story
concerns itself mainly with a problem kid in whom Captain Dees
interests himself, and how the Youth League snapped him out of
it. The slum background is mentioned by the Captain and then
dropped.
The writing is fair, a bit preachy, the playing somewhat
forced. Captain Dees spoke at the end of the show about the
proper handling of juvenile delinquency in the Negro area,
with “the home the most vital factor in the prevention of de
linquency.”
Nothing was said about the kind of homes the Negroes are
forced to live in, and the whole story was done in a superficial way.
I don’t know how much the Chicago Defender shares the responsi
bility for this, but once again radio is used to hide the truth.
jjoA. all accaSSionS
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Movie *uuu:
Reviewing the latest Disney film.
Joe Polooko&Bob Hope's clowning
By MARJORIE MILTON
WALT DISNEY’S new' feature
length movie, “Make Mine Mu
sic”, is a series of musical se
quences with enough variety so
that everybody should be happy.
Unlike “Fantasia”, Disney’s
previous venture into the field of
music, "‘Make Mine Music” is
composed entirely of popular mu
sic. However, the numbers range
from Benny Goodman’s wonder
ful arrangement of “All the Cats
Join In” to a charming and im
aginative sequence based on Pro
kofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”.
In between, the audience is
treated to: a “Ballad Ballet” sung
by Dinah Shore and danced
by Lichine and Riabouchinska; a!
“Jazz Interlude” with the Good
man quartet; Nelson Eddy, as
‘•The Whale Who Wanted to Sing
at the Met”, singing all the voices
in a series of cleverly contrived
operatic arias; and a great many
other numbers calculated to
please everybody.
# # #
MOVIE-GQERS will find this
Disney film less offensive than
some of his other offerings, for
the familiar Disney caricatures
of Mexicans and other Latin
Americans are missing from this
movie.
The opening sequence, “The
Martins and the»Coys”, does pre
sent a caricatured version of
mountaineers and it is also un
fortunate that the wolf in the
Prokofiev number is a night
marish creature who will scare
the wits out of Disney’s younger
fans.
But these are minor regrets.
On the whole, “Make Mine Mu
sic” is a pleasant way to spend
an evening.
' * •' rs
PUBLICITY MEN released Ibis family scene of the impudent
dummy Charlie McCarthy, Papa and Mania Bergen and their new
born babe. What would be even better if the publicity men would
release some fresh routines for Charlie. His gags are failing into
that tired category.
grove radio
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“JOE PALOOKA, CHAMP”, the
double feature at the Palace
Theater, now being shown with
“Make Mine Music”, is a nice,
pleasant, entertaining and com
pletely unimportant movie. Based
on the comic strip character, it
tells the story of the fictitious
champ's rise to fame and fortune.
The movie is enlivened by the
presence of lovely Elyse Knox,
a husky, attractive newcomer,
Joe Kirkwood, Jr. and a brief
glimpse of the real world’s cham
pion, Joe Louis.
Screen guide
RECOMMENDED LOOP:
Henry the Fifth
Caesar and Cleopatra
The Kid From Brooklyn
The Green Years
The Specter of the Rose
Make Mine Music
RECOMMENDED
NEIGHBORHOO DS:
Open City
Cluny Brown
Smoky
PARAMOUNT’S latest version
of Booth Tarkington’s perennial
favorite, “Monsieur Beaucaire”
is a faf, far cry from the origin
al. Those who remember Rudolf
Valentino's passionate , intense
portrayal of the elegant roman
tic, will be left gasping by Bob
Hope’s vastly different concept
of the masquerading barber.
As the king’s barber who woos
a royal chambermaid and takes
his zany way through the in
tricacies of French and Spanish
intrigues, Hope’s comedy bor
ders on the fine fringes of
lunacy. '
A GREAT FOLK ALBUM
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Ideal for House parties.
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3236 W. Lawrence • Irv. 6111