Twenty-five years of the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1900-1925Wister, Frances Anne
History
Twenty-five years of the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1900-1925
Wister, Frances Anne
Philadelphia Orchestra
The delightful luncheons held bi-weekly instilled in the workers much
enthusiasm and were attended by from 300 to 400 people each time. At
these the following well-known public and private individuals and
artists appeared, all giving freely of their time and often of their
money to help the great cause:
Miss Margaret Anglin, Mr. David Bispham, Mrs. A. J. Cassatt, Mrs.
Edward H. Coates, Mr. Cyrus H. K. Curtis, Mr. Walter Damrosch, Mrs.
Minnie Maddern Fiske, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Mr. Walter
Hampden, Dr. John Grier Hibben, Mr. Josef Hofmann, Miss Estelle Hughes
(Winner of Stokowski Medal), Mr. Sascha Jacobinoff, Mr. Otto H. Kahn,
Mr. Hans Kindler, Rabbi Krauskopf, Mme. Matzenauer, Miss Violet Oakley,
Judge Patterson, Bishop Rhinelander, Dr. Thaddeus Rich, Mme. Samaroff,
Mr. Oscar Schwar and a group of men from the orchestra.
The thrill of these occasions will never be forgotten by the
campaigners. Only those who participated can have any idea of the
enthusiasm and excitement prevailing among the workers who eagerly
awaited the reports. After speeches and music of a very delightful
nature, the chairmen were called by name and saw their totals written
on a large black-board. Many of them went to bed the night before with
nothing in their pockets and arrived at headquarters in the morning to
find their able assistants had brought in the required two thousand and
more. It is marvellous that Mr. Bok could, besides running a campaign,
manage such brilliant affairs as these were, twice each week. It was no
unusual sight to see four hundred men and women come in exhausted and
discouraged, and go forth with renewed vigor to beg money. The spirit
of excitement ran through it all, for raising money is as uncertain as
gambling in that the pursuer never knows when he accosts a victim what
the outcome will be, large, small, or nothing, and many surprises were
experienced. The competition was great, for Mr. Bok had offered $1,000
each to the first ten committees to raise their quotas.
The Officers and Directors and the members of the Women’s Committees
and their Auxiliaries swarmed at the Ritz. Over it all was the
influence of Mr. Van Rensselaer, with a courteous and cheerful word for
all the harassed.
_Philadelphia Press_, September 28th, 1919:
“400 ENLISTED FOR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA.
VOLUNTEER WORKERS WILL RECEIVE FINAL INSTRUCTIONS
AT RITZ-CARLTON LUNCHEON TOMORROW
$1,000,000 FUND THE GOAL
FAILURE MAY MEAN LOSS TO CITY OF ASSET
OF INCALCULABLE VALUE
“Musical Philadelphia is watching with a great deal of
interest and anxiety, the movement on foot to ‘make
the Philadelphia Orchestra safe for Philadelphia’ by
raising the endowment of $1,000,000, for otherwise,
it has been announced that this organization must be
seriously curtailed in its activities.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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