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Famed Opera House of N’Orleans
May Be Restored in All Its Glory
HISTORIC STRUCTURE THAT HOUSED OPERA BEFORE NEW YORK DID AND WHICH
BURNED IN 1919 MAY BE REBUILT TO FILL VOID THAT OLD
. SOUTHERN CITY HAS FELT.
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■ Th* French Opera house at New x,
Orleans before the fire.
By WILLIAM SPECHT
Central Press Correspondent
NEW ORLEANS, La., May 11—
From the gaping, billboard-barricaded
lot of a wrecking company may rise
again a great hjew Orleans tradition
—the French Opera House.
For a movement is under way to
reconstruct on this site the famed
stucco structure vi.ich housed opera
on the Norn /‘trerican continent be
fore New York and which served a»
a shrine for musi-al arts until it burn
ed in ’919.
Movements have sprung up before
to rebuild this hifUric building: they
have made headway and died. But
the nresent mcv? appears to be mor.*
firmly grounded than its predecessors
and. if successful, muy restore to the
center of the city t Vieux Carre its
symbol o’ c H*e which combined ease
with culture. pleasu;e with art.
Tulane Owns Site
Present plans call for reconstruc
tion of the old ding in full detail
on its former .e—now owned by
Tulane university and leased ot a
building wrecker for a stock yard.
If this site is unobtainable, another
spot, preferably in the Vieux Carre,
will be selected. Funding of construc
tion is cared for in a plan said to
be submitted to WPA authorities in
Washington by City Finance Com
missioner A. Miles Pratt, himself a
theater owner.
Reconstruction of this building, if
carried out, will restore to the city
one of its famed spots and will fill
a void that has been felt by a section
of the public ever since that grim
morning 16 years ago when an awe
stricken crowd from nearby resi
dences and night clubs watched flames
eat their way through the roof and
won dered what delayed the fire en
gines.
For tne French Opera House was
more than a thtatej. It was a tradi
tion around which an older New
Orleans grew. In its red-crapeted foy
ers and loges, banker and planter
alike gathered to listen to opera.
Perched fn its topmost balcony, poor
music lovers leaned forward in ap
proval or hooted displeasure. Within
its walls the most stately carnival
balls were held.
Built in 1859
Some time in 1859, New Orleans
which Lad harbored opera since 1791,
decided it should house the art prop
erly.
A Scotchman, whose architectural
masterpieces are still his greatest
monuments here and whose name be
came so Gallicized that Creoles refer
to him as Jacques Galller Instead of
James Galller, was selected as archi
tect.
Into his work Galier plunged.
Pains were drafted and ground brok
en. The city was enthusiastic and its
enthusiasm fired the workmen with
an energy given osi’ to men who are
proud of the work they can do.
The building had to be ready for the
fall season and ready it would be.
At night they labored on to the
light of bonfires and torches.
The opening found a proud New
Orleans approving. The Scotchman
Galller had given his French-speak
ing patrons not only an opera house
combining the beautiful and the mod
ern, but he had created a marvel of
acoustics. The weakest voice sang
with ease in the comparatively large
auditorium.
* Great Names
What Galller began, the city car
ried on. On the stages of the
opera house appeared the greatest
artists of the ”.orld—the singers,
Adelina Patti, Sculchl, Nordica, Jen
ny Lind, Schumann-Heink, to men
tion a few; the czar’s pianist, Ruben
stein; the violinists, Musin and Ysaye,
greatest < f the Belgians, and the
German violinist, Wllhemnj.
In its abllet, as a mere ballerina,
danced the celebrated Adah Isaacs
Menken, who was to startle two con
tinents with her “Mezeppa.”
In Its repertory were operas pre
sented to America before New Yjrk
heard them, and to this day old
timers InSW that Reyer’s “Sigurd”
has never played New York, while it
was part of a regular opera season
here
On Dec. 4, 1919, this house of tra
dition burned. Early in the morning
flames licked their way through the
dry old building, gutting it, then
breaking through the roof to light
up a still-dark sky. The fire depart
ment was late in arriving and the
next day sections of sagging brick
wall weq® all that remained ot Gai-
Iler’s masterpiece.
Tragedy
It was tragedy to those who felt
the opera house was part of their
lives. To music lovers, who recalled
that the opera house had been dedi-
BROTHER CAN YOU
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CAUSE OF HEALTH?
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On the stage of the French Opera
house appeared the greatest art
s, -x ' 1 ists in th® world.
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O-jera house, in 1919, after the disastrous fire
HORSE AND BUGGY DAYS RETURN
PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, STROLLERS STARE WHEN
COACH AND FOUR “ROLLS’* DOWN STREET.
NEW YORK, May 11 (TP)— Early
strollers on Park Avenue looked up
in amezement today when a coach and
four with 13 passengers aboard rolled
down the street. The tally-ho party
is heading for Atlantic City, 134
miles away, to try to break a 16-year
old coach speed record set by Paul
Sorg. The 1910 record for the drive
to Atlantic City was 12 hours and 18
minutes.
Mrs. Florence Dibbe of the Oldtown
Hills Farm of Newburyport, Mass.,
drove the coach at the start. She
knows her horses, and she confident
ly predicts that she will smash the
old record. Mrs. Dribble owns the
Sprightly coach, which was built in
France for the late William Tiffany.
The tally-ho party is supposed to
glorify the Atlantic City Horse Show.
The horses are fine-blooded champ
ions, who gave the postillions a spirit
ed time before they clopped away.
There will be 15 stages of the trip,
with a change of horses each time.
The passengers were dressed in
swanky grey coats, toppers and der
cated with a New' Orleans favorite,
“William Tell", and had burned aft
er the performance of another favor
ite, “The Hugenots”, it was some
thing akin to fate. To the more prac
tical, it was equally bad, for the man
ager told the stockholders that in a
moment of oversight he had forgotten
to place the box office receipts in
the safe so that a large amount of
greenbacks went up in flame.
The opera season eked its way out
at another hall. But music lovers be
lieve that opera here was doomed
whenits home burned.
Modernists point out that the
building was outmoded and the
neighborhood unsuited to handling
large crows. Sentimentalists—who are
not in the minority—have wanted the
old building restored as it was on its
original site.
For years they have dreamed and
planned this. If« present plans suc
ceed, they will realize their dreams.
Convention ‘Referee*
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John Q. Tilson, Sr.
John Q. Tilson, Sr., of New
Haven, former representative
from Connecticut, and one-time
majority leader in the house, will
serve as parliamentarian during
the Republican national conven
tion in Cleveland in June. His
duties will be to rule on any ques
tions of parliamentary procedure
that may arise during the session.
bies. Ernest Fownes, the British
coaching expert was aboard the tal
ly-ho. He rubbed his sleepy eyes this
morning and commented with a bur
ry voice that: “This is a rotten time
of day to start doing anything.”
VAUGHAN AND WIFE
ARE NEW OWNERS OF
McGOWAN MOTORS
James M. Vaughn, one of Savan
nah’s best known automobile men
and for the past several years man
ager of the McGowan Motor Com
pany. Inc., and his wife, Mrs. Threce
L .Vaughn, have purchased the com
pany and will operate it under the
name of the Vaughn Motor Company,
Inc.
The new firm will continue the
operation of the Dodge and Plymouth
agency at the same location, 220
East Broughton street, and the used
car department at the Comer of
Broughton and Lincoln streets. In
addition to Dodge and Plymouth cars.
Dodge trucks will also be handled.
Mr. Vaughn is a man of varied ex
perience and wide acquaintance in
the automotive field in and around
Savannah. Before becoming connect
ed with McCowan Motors in Savan
nah, he was connected with McGow
an Coastal Motor Company agents
for Nash cars. Previous to that Mr.
Vaughn was an official of Claude
Nolan Motor Company of Savannah,
loca lagents for Cadillac, Buick and
Pontiac.
Berthing the Hindenburg
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Her engines still running, the giant Hindenburg is shown above being
drawn to the mobile mooring mast at the United States Naval Air Base,
Lakehurst, N. J., after her flight across the north Atlantic. The huge
airliner clipped twenty hours off the previous record for airship crossings
from Germany to New York. (Central Prest)
SAVANNAH DAILY TIMES, MONDAY, MAY 11,193 S
BASSETT TO TALK
TO U. S. DOCTORS
IN CONVENTION
LOCAL HEALTH OFFICER
TO DISCUSS RABIES AT
KANSAS CITY MEET
KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 11 (TP)
—Medicos from the four corners of
the United States are flocking to
Kansas City today to attend the 88th
annual meeting of the American
Medical Association.
Dr. Victor H. Bassett, health of
ficer for Savannah and Chatham
County, is one of the speakers on the
convention schedule. He is making a
talk on the treatment of person bit
ten by rabid dogs.
The organization is the latest pro
fessional guild in the world with a
membership which exceeds 100,000
physicians and surgeons.
Th’ latest word in American med
ical research will be given delegates
to the conveniton at series of lectures
which will feature the five-day con
vention. An exhibition of more than
150 displays of interest to the med
ical profession is another high light
of the annual meeting.
Although the convention throws
open its doors today, the official open
ing of the convention will not take
place until tomorrow night when Gov
ernor Guy B. Park of Missouri, wel
comes the delegates. Another speaker
at tomorrow night’s opening cere
monies will be Governor Alf Landon,
politically prominent Kansas execu
tive.
Fifty-eight hospitals in the United
States are using women internes and
resident physicians this year. This
employment of the women doctor was
cited by Dr. Mabie Gardner as proof
that opposition to femal practitioner
in skirts is fast disappearing in this
country. Dr. G-ydner was speaking
to the Medical Women's National As
sociation on the topic, "The Woman
Doctor: Has She Arrived?” Dr.
Gardner’s viewpoint was that the wo
man doctor is just a step away from
general recognition.
For instance. Dr. Gardner said that
there are available for women today
some 300 interneshios and 193 resi
dencies in the hospitals of the coun
try. She said that last year 207 wo
men received diplomas from Amer
ican medical
An Early Bird
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Mrs. _ Hollister Sturgis, socially
prominent, air-minded New Yorker,
was among first to book passage on
the Zeppelin Hindenburg for the
return trip from Lakehurst, N. J.,
to Germany.
(Central Preet)
lhe Queen of the Air at Lakehurst
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This remarkable picture of the Hindenburg was taken from the top of the Zeppelin hangar at the naval air
base, Lakehurst, N. J., shortly after the arrival of the German airship on her record-breaking flight from
Friedrichshafen. In the background is the U. S. Navy dirigible Loa Angeles.
(Central Press).
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The Majestic Hindenburg Arrives With the Dawn
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An extraordinary picture of Germany’s mighty Zeppelin, Hindenburg, shown on its arrival in New York
as it cruised majestically over upper New York Bay. The windows in the skyscrapers were still lighted, for
dawn had only begun to break when the ship arrived on her first trip over the North Atlantic.
( Central Press)
WASHINGTON AT
A GLANCE
(Continued from Page Four)
United States they could not uuy
from the United States. And Europe
was beginning to get back into ac
tion. The Latins switched their or
ders k the other side of the Atlantic.
M st of the No; Ln American branch
h • quit. My advertising business
shriveled tat a grate rate.
At this juncture an ill-advised in
div’cual made a bid for my paper.
Believe me. I sold it to him. It col
lapsed subsequently.
• • •
SALES ONCE MORE KILLED
Nevertheless there was a little pick
up in North American trade later.
The situation gradually readjusted
itself. About 1925 Dr. Julius Klein,
then head of the U S. commerce de
partment’s bureau of foreign and do
mestic commerce, told me tha.t while
inter-American business still was un
satisfactory ,it was "improving some -
what.’ ’
At this point the Hawley-Smoot
tariff was enacted—the highest thing
of its kind in history.
North American sales in South
America were snuffed out as an ex
ploding soap-bubble vanishes. And
this tme there has been no recovery,
except in a few republics with which
the United States have made recipro
cal trade agreements. In these few
cases—though the bargains are mere
ly three or four months old—there
already has been an increase in Uncle
Sam’s exports.
The ,<-ame thing has been true in
the case of European countries with
which reciprocal agreements have
been efefeted.
♦ * •
REMOVING BARRIERS
The fact that these agreements are
working so well would seem to hint
that a general “elimination of inter
national trade barriers,” as advocated
by Secretary Hull, would be desirable.
But it cannot be done too suddenly.
I know of only one unqualified free
trader in congress—Representative
George Huddleston of Alabama. And
even Representative Huddleston
agrees that an abrupt abandonment
of the protective system would be too
great a shock.
“It would amount,’' he once told
ms, “to a revolution—and folk starve
to death during revolutions, however
beneficial their effects in the long
run.”
Secretary Hull’s policy of reciprocal
agreements, here and there, as oppor
tunity ofefrs, is a tackling of the sit
uation by degrees—slow work but not
overly violent. a
These bargains, of course, are ida
thema to ultar-protectlonists.
“There’s a type of protectionist,"
Senator Edward P. Costigan of Colo
rado, formerly a member of the fed
eral tariff commission, said to me on
one occasion, “whose protectionist!*'
philosophy is more than economic; it
is religion.’•
For example, at committee hearings
preceding enactment of the Hawley-
Smoot tariff strong arguments were
advanced in favor of a practically
prohibitive import tax on bananas,
which cannot possibly be produced in
the United States, except “under
glass.” to compel Americans to eat
apples.
PAGE FIVE
GIANT ZEPPELIN
FUELED AND READY
FOR FLIGHT HOME
‘HINDENBURG’ SLATED TO
HOP BEFORE MIDNIGHT
TODAY
LAKEHURST, N. J., May 11 (TP).
The Zeppelin “Hindenburg” is fueled
and ready to head for home today.
The giant dirigible, the largest air
craft in the world, is slated to leave
Lakehurst some time between 10 p.m.
and midnight, Eastern Daylight time.
Dr. Hugo Eckener and Captain Ernst
Lehmann, commanders of t’he so
called “flying hotel,” explained that
only weather conditions will hold up
the eastbound departure after a mail
plane from New York brings in the
last load of European-bound airmail.
The two dirigible commanders axe
carefully studying wind and weather
charts in the hope that favorable
flying conditions will give them a
chance to shatter a long-standing air
record on the return trip to Ger
many. If things go well, Eckener and
Lehmann believe they can make the
crossing in 45 hours withflut strain
ing the motors to the limit. If they
are successful, they will have smash
ed by more than 10 hours the 55 hour
and 32 minute record for the crossing
set by the “Graf Zeppelin” in 1929.
Thirty-five passengers .including 26
Americans, will be lodged in the spa
cious cabins of the Zeppelin when it
leaves its mooring mast and beads to
ward the stars, tonight. Among the
Americans is 86-year-old Mrs. Harriet
O. Sprague, the mother of a Standard
Oil Company executive. Another
aboard the big airliner will be Boli
var Lang Falconer of Texas, who
plans to continue around the world
by Ipane and dirigible after he reach
es the Zeppelin’s eastern
Frankfort-au-Main. -
New Mdi vani Divorce?
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Princess Nina Mdivani (top) is re
ported to have chosen Dennis Conan
Doyle (bel ow), son of the famous au
thor of “Sherlock Holmes” stories,
for her second husband after her
divorce from Charles Henry Huber
ich, Paris authority on interna
lional law. Princess Nina is in
England awaiting the decree.
(Central Press)
Salary Is $303,816 T
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Thomas J. Watson
Thomas J. Watson, president of;
the International Business Ma
chines corporation, with salary
and earnings totalling $303,816
: n 1935, has been disclosed as th«
highest paid industrial executive
by the securities and exchange,
-'un mis si on,.