Three fiddlers in the drink
mainThis is not an admonitory New Year’s column on the dangers of alcohol to orchestral players.
It’s the continuation of an occasional series on musicians in the bath, the ones here being three of the most gifted violinists who ever put bow to string – Jascha Heifetz, Efrem Zimbalist and Fritz Kreisler. Good to see them keeping heads above water.
Their hostess, Alma Gluck, was one of Mahler’s singers in New York.
It was retrieved by David Schoenbaum from an article in the Columbia Digital Collections: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6309312_026/ldpd_6309312_026.pdf
If anyone is looking for Fritz Kreisler, who was having good clean fun with Heifetz, Zimbalist and Gluck, one has to go to the full article! However, it’s worth it, since Mary Bowling’s article about Constance Hope is quite a fascinating read. It contains other photos of a less aquatic nature, too. If nothing else, it’s worth reading for the list of hunting supplies requested by Lauritz Melchior, although the more serious parts of the article give a good picture of the career of this pioneering classical music publicist. Thank you!
NL replies: For some reason, I couldn’t squeeze Kreisler into the picture… he’s at the right-hand edge. See the original link for the full shot. As for good, clean fun, Gluck and Zimbalist were married. Their son was the Hollywood actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr; his daughter is the actor Stephanie Zimbalist.