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DALLAS HOSIERY MILLS
INC.
DALLAS, GA.
Svanth'Hs IhtsiiTi/
New York Office — 93 Worth Street
Selling Agents
J. M. LYNCH & BRO.
LOUISVILLE, KY.
SOUTHERN MARGARINE COMPANY
Incorporated
TELEPHONE 653 GREENVILLE, S. C.
Manufacturers of
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these shores.
Withal, he is a hero-worshipper.
“J am one of that clamorous throng
that rudely wedges its way into
dressing rooms after each perform
ance. I am star-struck!” That
sums up his love for people of the
stage. That, combined with his
ability as a shrewd businessman,
has yielded richness in culture
and entertainment. But his innate
sharpness was native to him. When
he was very young and lived in the
village of Pogar. in the South
Ukraine, he learned much about
the ways of life from his father
who owned several tobacco plan
tations. and ran sidelines in retail
iron, steel, paints, window glass
and assorted hardware. But, the
boy decided, that wasn't the life
for him. America was the land of
real fame and fortune and so when
his father sent him to nearby Khar
kov with 1,500 rubles to learn the
hardware trade, he sneaked off in
stead and got out of the country by
turning all his funds over to an im
migration smuggler. It wasn't easy
to make himself understood in
Philadelphia. He couldn't sell
hardware in door-to-door trips be
cause the housewives couldn’t un
derstand him. And when he took
the job as street-car conductor for
twenty cents an hour, he was fired
shortly after because he couldn't
understand the language and let
people off at the wrong stops.
It was a long haul to the prom
ised land from there on. For a
time he washed bottles in a soda-
pop factory. They worked him
fourteen hours for a dollar a day
and that wasn't his idea of success.
So he moved to New York and be
came a music “nut.” He saved all
his pennies for admission tickets
and would stand two hours before
the box-office opened for the privi
lege of standing three or four hours
more to hear opera.
This was good training for Sol.
In this fashion, he picked up more
knowledge of concert crowd psy
chology than most managers gain
in a lifetime. The incredible Oscar
Hammerstein was then the giant of
Broadway and Hurok decided that
he could imitate tim. So when he
was a tender 18, he organized the
Van Hugo Musical Society, a name
he cooked up from Ludwig van
Beethoven and Victor Hugo. He
then began to arrange concerts for
labor clubs and workers organiza
tions, even inducing the famed Ef
rem Zimbalist to appear at the
Labor Lyceum in Brownsville.
He did all right with "Society,”
so well that he made a deal with
the Hippodrome for Sunday after
noon concerts where he presented
such stars as Zimbalist, Mischa El
man, Alma Gluck and Tito Ruffo—
at a dollar top. That encouraged
him to go further, so he organized
Hurok Attractions, Inc., with offices
in Rockefeller Plaza and branched
out. His activities stretched to
Paris and one of his "discoveries”
there was the celebrated Negro
contralto, Marian Anderson. In
Europe, Hurok "adopted” the Bal
let Russe, the Don Cossack Chorus
and Dancers. In South America
he signed Carmen Amaya, the
Spanish gypsy dancer. But of all
his starred artists, the most emi
nent, Hurok says, was Isadora Dun
can.
"She was the greatest woman
personality of the twentieth cen
tury of this or any other country,"
he said. "It was her influence that
freed women. She was the first to
throw away her corsets and let
down her hair. She made herself a
true woman and made it natural
for other women to be themselves."
Of all the temperamental singers
Hurok managed, Chaliapin was his
greatest problem. He once refused
to sing at the Metropolitan, calling
it a barn. On the day that he was
scheduled to sing, he’d invariably
declare he was dying. But Sol
would cure him in a hurry. He'd
go over the great man’s hotel and
sympathize with him.
"What a pity! You poor fellow
—does the doctor say it is very se
rious? Of course, you can’t sing.
I’ll cancel the engagement at once.
It will cost you only a couple of
thousand dollars."
Feodor would inevitably reply,
"Well, come back at 5 and see how
I feel then." At 5 he would still be
sick but when Hurok was ready to
call and cancel the date, he took a
turn for the better. At 7:30 he an
nounced he was ready to go
through with the date, but insisted
that Hurok announce from the
stage that he, Chaliapin, was not in
good voice because of illness. It
was an impossible suggestion and,
of course, Sol never paid any at
tention to it. But he'd lie and say
he had made the announcement.
He had to, for all the king’s men
and king's horses couldn’t get the
great Russian onto the stage other
wise.
iCopunght '47—7 ArtJ)
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The greatest collection of butterflies in the Middle East and one of
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The collection represents the life-work of Dr. Paul Reich, a former
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(50)
The Southern Israelite