WCLV Marathon for the Cleveland Orchestra

Spring, 1970 - Cleveland's classic music station, WCLV 95 FM conducted its first on-air marathon to raise money for the Cleveland Orchestra. The goal was $10,000 which they raised handily within 24 hours.

The goal for their eighth marathon (1977) was $125,000.  That seems so modest by today's standards, when the Cleveland Orchestra's 2012 operating budget is $42M. But as today, the recession hit performing arts organizations very hard, and public fund-raisers like this not only raise necessary funds, but "demonstrates the wide support of the orchestra by thousands of people who may never set foot in Severance Hall," said (then) WCLV vice president and program manager Robert Conrad.

Hitting the east side and west side, the 24-a-day weekend of events (April 22-24) were broadcast live from Severance Center and Parma Town. Conrad and Tony Bianchi interviewed a host of regional celebrities, including orchestra Director Lorin Maazel, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Vincent Dowling, Fred Griffith and Joel Rose from Channel 5's Morning Exchange, among many others, including the legendary Mitch Miller.

Ours was a WCLV household, though I have never been a fan of classical music. However, at the age of eight I was definitely a huge fan of WCLV Saturday Night, which had been a fixture on the program schedule since it went on the air in 1962. Three-hours of high-brow comedy from 10 PM to the 1 AM sign-off. (Cue: Today Is The First Day of The Rest of Your Life.) It was due to this program, perhaps, more than any other influence that I became an anglophile. They played Flanders & Swann, bits of The Goon Show, Monty Python and Beyond the Fringe, as well as Nichols and May, Bob Newhart, National Lampoon (the clean stuff) and countless other comedians, comedy troupes, parody commercials and novelty songs.

The annual orchestra marathon included premiums for those who contributed, including CLE Orchestra swag, and tickets to Severance or Blossom, as well as contributed offers from area merchants and artists. However, if enough people kicked in a total of $20 per hour, every hour, my brothers and their friends would keep playing Monopoly in a tree.

No kidding. I wish I could claim to have been a part of it, but at the age of eight my limbs were still too short (and my nerves too weak) to climb the tree in our backyard. But I did try to contribute, fetching things like food and drinks to haul up in a bucket while they tree sat, huddled around a wooden frame set in the tree to hold the board, using cards and money which had been laminated for the occasion.

Because it was April in Bay Village. It rained. It was cold. As I recall, it sucked, but then I was listening to the radio all night, warm and dry in my bed.

WCLV now broadcasting from ideacenter in downtown Cleveland at 104.9 FM celebrates its fiftieth anniversary on November 4, 2012.

Sources:
WCLV.com
The Plain Dealer:
April 11, 1977 - Marathon: Serious Business by Raymond P. Hart
April 6, 1977 - Marathon for Orchestra has a star cast by Robert Finn

Allen Theatre

Euclid Avenue, 1927

The Allen Theatre opened its doors on April 1, 1921, just four days after the Hanna, rounding out the five primary theaters of what was soon after referred to as Playhouse Square.

This 2,500 seat house, named for Canadian-born owners Jay and Jules Allen, was constructed to be exclusively a movie palace. It was long and narrow, with a vast, deep balcony, and absolutely no stage or backstage space. The original capacity was for an audience of 3,000.

"With the house lights on, the ceiling suggested a cloudy blue sky; when the lights dimmed, twinkling stars appeared. In place of boxes, six side windows were softly lit from behind to suggest twilight outside." - John Vacha, Showtime In Cleveland

When the city was deteriorating, the Allen was the first Playhouse Square theater to close, in March 1968. The Ohio, State and Palace followed soon after. When these other Euclid Avenue theaters were saved and restored during the 1970s and 80s, the Allen's fate was still unclear. In the 1990s a new developer wanted to make it a parking lot.

Yes. Really. Still, even in the 1990s, there was talk of taking down buildings to create that all so unavailable parking in downtown Cleveland. In any event, it didn't happen, cabaret shows kept the place occupied for a time, before an actual theater space (stage, backstage, fly system, &c.) was created in 1998 for the musical Jolson. Or The Lion King, if you believe the woman who led my tour the other day. The Allen played home to the Cleveland Orchestra during is 1999-2000 season, while Severance Hall was being renovated.

Lady said "Lion King."

Unfortunately, the auditorium of the Allen was never truly reconfigured for live performance. The balcony ran almost half the length of the hall, making seats beneath it feel cave-like and a bit dreary. For a hall built in the 1920s, it was remarkably well-suited for rock music, and a popular concert venue. One of the few times I have ever attended a performance there it was a few years ago when Josh and I went to see The Musical Box, a Genesis cover band recreate the 1975 Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour.

Slipperman.

This weekend, the Allen takes on new life as the home of Cleveland Play House. Abandoning the home they now refer to unceremoniously as simply the 8500 Space, the Play House is taking a bold new step, joining forces with Playhouse Square and becoming part of a downtown Cleveland landscape which, in spite of any apparent or rational economic explanation, continues to grow.

Of course, Clevelanders are notorious sticks-in-the-mud. We despise change. And CPH Artistic Director Michael Bloom has had to deal with two issues on that front; selling a move into the heart of darkest downtown to subscribers who haven't been there since Stokes was elected, and also adapting a space with its own rich history and beauty.

Allen, before redesign.

How the successfully the first challenge is addressed remains to be seen. As for the Allen, the project director of the design firm was quoted in Cleveland Scene:

"We always wanted to maintain a visual link to the historic walls of the original structure, and that is the most unique aspect of the new Allen Theatre, where we are inserting a modern aesthetic while preserving many of the traditional details and elements."

So how do you take a 2,500+ house, reduce capacity to a fifth that size, and preserve the original design elements?

First, you paint it orange.

To be continued ...

Sources:
Showtime In Cleveland
cleveland.com
Cleveland Scene

Arthur Loesser

Arthur Loesser (Aug. 26, 1894 - Jan. 4, 1969) was born in New York City and began playing piano at age six. A graduate of Columbia and the Institute of Musical Art (later known as Julliard) he toured the world as a concert pianist beginning in 1913.

During World War II he was an officer and a Japanese interpreter, and later became the first American to appear in Japan after the war, with the Nippon Symphony.

Loesser had joined the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1926, becoming head of the piano department in 1953. He was program editor and annotator for the Cleveland Orchestra (1937 - 1942), and a music critic for the Cleveland Press (1938 - 1956).

He also wrote popular books on music, Humor in American Song (1943) and Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History (1954).

DID YOU KNOW ..? Loesser tells us the reason the piano became the most acceptable instrument for genteel ladies in the Western World is because of all of the things women aren't required to do to play one. They need not purse their lips, nor wrap them around anything, spread their legs or crane their necks. They just sit up straight and tap their fingers. But then, Loesser never saw Tori Amos.

In 1968, Loesser was awarded a special citation from the Cleveland Arts Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts.

Arthur was the elder half-brother to Broadway composer Frank Loesser. It was Arthur who referred to himself as "the evil of two Loessers," a line Frank would steal and use in reference to his first wife.

Sources:
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Wikipedia
Cleveland Arts Prize

Roberts Blossom

Pictured: Creepy character actor, and seated next to him, Roberts Blossom.
Roberts Blossom (March 25, 1924 - July 8, 2011) was that scary old man in Home Alone who was actually a nice old man.

He was a performer of stage and screen, you know his face, though since he retired from acting he has devoted himself entirely to his deep love of writing poetry.

Born in New Haven in the early 20s, his family soon relocated to Shaker Heights, and he attended Hawken School.

He went away to college, and served in WWII, returning to Cleveland to create a career in theater, as both an actor and a director at Karamu House and Candlelight Theatre.


Oh, and this is the trailer for Deranged, the only film in which Roberts Blossom played the main character. DO NOT WATCH THIS TRAILER.

His uncle, Dudley S. Blossom (March 10, 1879 - Oct. 7, 1938), was an important corporate and philantropic figure in Cleveland in the early 20th century.

Dudley Blossom was engaged with the Standard Tool Company, Central National Bank and Blossom Lock Company (among several others) and after serving with the Red Cross during World War I, was appointed city of Cleveland welfare director, and having a strong hand in developing City Hospital and Blossom Hill Home.

Dudley Blossom was also Chairman of the Great Lakes Exposition, and President of the Cleveland Orchestra during the late 1930s. Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls is named for him.


This weekend, conductor David Afkham makes his Cleveland Orchestra debut leading Beethoven's brilliant Third Piano Concerto and -- DUDE! Did you forget to pack the bong?
Roberts Blossom made his Off-Broadway debut in 1955 in the Shaw's Village Wooing, and the performance won him the first of three Obie Awards.


Blossom.
Sources:
Wikipedia
cleveland.com
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
The New York Times

George Szell

George Szell did your momma.

George Szell (June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970) turned the Cleveland Orchestra into the greatest orchestra in the world.

"We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review."
- Christoph von Dohnányi

Szell was born in Budapest, who was fortunate enough to be touring the United States in 1939 when war broke out. He and his family stayed and he became a naturalized citizen in 1946, the same year he was asked to become Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra. The Cleveland was already a "highly regarded" orchestra, Szell turned it into his personal fiefdom. He grew the orchestra in size, fired imperfect musicians at a moment's notice, and reportedly told the custodians how to mop the bathrooms of Severance Hall.

He rehearsed his artists exhaustively, berating those who disappointed him, but also showing great appreciation for those who nailed it. He took the Cleveland Orchestra on its first international tours of the Soviet Union, Europe, Japan and Australia. He loved to cook and loved driving fancy cars. By 1954 he was an annual guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

Szell received honorary degrees from Western Reserve University and Oberlin College, and was a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

Source: Wikipedia
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Jazz at Oberlin

"Jazz at Oberlin" was an extremely popular record for Brubeck’s quartet and a smashing success in the Oberlin community. The concert and album presented an audience largely uneducated in jazz with some of the genres finest players, all performing at the top of their game. And while a successful jazz concert at Oberlin these days is a regular occurrence, such was not the case in 1953, when the concert halls at Oberlin were filled with Bach, Beethoven, Brahms — and occasionally Bartök — but not with Basie or Baker.

- Oberlin Online

On March 2, 1953 The Dave Brubeck Quartet played Oberlin. And my father was there. The quartet was Dave (never David) Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Ron Crotty on the bass and Lloyd Davis on drums.

The concert had all the ingredients of a major disaster. Aside from Oberlin’s indifference toward jazz, Brubeck and his outstanding saxophonist, Paul Desmond, had just had an argument, bass player Ron Crotty had just been given his notice, and drummer Lloyd Davis was ill with the flu and had a 103-degree fever.

- Joe Mosbrook, Jazzed in Cleveland

My father was seventeen, in his senior year at Lakewood High School. The night in question was a Monday night, otherwise he is sure he could have gotten someone to go with him. But as it was a school night he could not, so he drove to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music on his own, and experienced was he still calls “one of the greatest musical experiences I ever had.”

Brubeck also later called that night's gig, "the best thing we’ve ever done."

Tracks included on the original LP include These Foolish Things (Reminds Me Of You), Perdido, Stardust, The Way You Look Tonight and How High The Moon.

Back in 1953 any form of on-location recording was by no means a commonplace event. So much of the technology that is taken for granted today had not even been imagined: to record during ‘live’ performance meant setting up a portable machine for one-track (monaural) taping, using relatively insensitive microphones and no monitoring systems, with little or no physical or acoustic control over the surroundings.

- Orrin Keepnews in the liner notes for a 1986 CD release

My father was turned onto jazz by a guy whose name he cannot remember who worked at Lamp’s Melody Lane on Detroit, just around the corner from his home on Mars. This fellow (in his 20s? 30s? Dad’s not sure) “inculcated” my father with jazz -- and lots of other music, too. In fact, when I was speaking with him about it tonight, he was remembering how the piece he heard the Cleveland Orchestra play this weekend, Bartök’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, was first played for him by this guy at Melody Lane.

When my father went to college he found the opportunity to go with friends to other jazz clubs, though most were pretty strict about not letting people under 21 in. He found most of them to be integrated -- mostly black clientele -- but from his perspective no one really cared.

My senior year in high school I saw Maynard Ferguson at Rocky River High School. Not the same thing.

Cleveland Orchestra

Severance Hall, built with a $1.5M donation from John L Severance in 1929, was completed in 1931 and has served as the home of the Cleveland Orchestra ever since.

In 1936 the orchestra was led by Polish conductor Artur Rodziński, pictured. He raised the prominence of the already noteworthy orchestra even higher, and granted American debuts to several innovative and modern works such as Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk among 14 other staged operas, and increased the number of orchestra radio broadcasts.

1936 also marked the performance of the Cleveland Women's Orchestra, the oldest orchestra of its kind in the world.

The President of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1936 was Dudley S. Blossom, whose name was given to the Blossom Music Center, which opened in 1966.