Of historical interest
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© 2011-17 Peter J. Brennan, All Rights Reserved
I've always been interested in history. When I was young our
family made regular summer pilgrimages to Farmers Museum
and the Fennimore House in Cooperstown, NY where my father
worked and took classes (he was a historian and teacher himself).
My college career coincided with the building of the cabin in
Schoharie County in the northern Catskill Mountains so I
immersed myself in the local history of the area for fun and credit.
I learned that the deserted crossroads at the top of our hill was
once a thriving small community, silenced by the railroads that
came through the nearby lowlands and demographic changes
brought on by the Civil War. I learned the names and histories of
some of the families in the area and traced the foundations of
their long gone farmhouses. I still love to visit the overgrown
cemetery on a summer night when the moon is full, the names on
the stones only vaguely discernable, to experience that cosmic
connection with the past that historians thrive on.
I've had an interest in the history and architecture of old theater buildings from the
time I managed movie houses in Boston in the mid-seventies. Sadly, one of the
places I worked at was torn down (the Gary, formerly the Plymouth) but most have
been saved and even restored to a semblance of their former glory: the Saxon, now
the Majestic again; the Music Hall, once the Metropolitan now the Wang Center;
and the Savoy, once the Keith Memorial, now the Opera House. Noel Coward said
there is something magical about an empty theatre with its dim ghost light
illuminating the bare stage and I quite agree. Graceful and opulent, I get excited
every time I enter the buildings and think about the wonderful performances and
history made on those stages. Its akin to the thrill I feel every time I walk up the
ramp into Fenway Park and see the green grass for the first time- a mix of
appreciation of the past and anticipation of what's about to come.
Scratching around in Old Schoharie
I've collected photos and artifacts of Boston's glorious theatrical history including a series of posters that
were rotting away in the basement of the Gary (formerly the Plymouth) when it was about to be
demolished. I was allowed to keep them. They look deceptively small here but they're each about 8-feet
high and could be seen for blocks.
Boston's beautiful and historic theaters
My undergrad thesis was on popular music
between the world wars and although I like
pretty much every kind of music, that's what I
know the most about. The show music of Irving
Berlin, Irving Ceasar, Kern & Hammerstein,
Rodgers & Hart, Noel Coward, Cole Porter,
the Gershwins, and others set a very high
standard. Just as it was a part of that
continuum that included, among other things
minstrelsy, early jazz, European operetta and
African folk it made way for the great talents
that followed: Bernstein, Comden & Green,
Kander & Ebb, Adler & Ross, Frank Loesser,
Stephen Schwartz and Sondheim. The writers
of that era that didn't write primarily for shows
were also significant and wonderful: Hoagy
Carmichael, Walter Donaldson, Buddy
DeSylva, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Jimmy
Van Heusen, Dorothy Fields, Harry Warren
and Johnny Mercer. It's the music of these
writers and those of their era that I know best
and like most.
Pop music, showtunes and jazz
AL HIRSCHFELD, the eminent portraitist of the arts and
entertainment worlds, was commissioned by the
Smithsonian Institution Press to create these drawings for
the American Popular Song collection. They are now part of
the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
I've spent years gathering audio and video recordings from commercial sources and from collections at the
Smithsonian and other libraries. I've got about five thousand musical clips, mostly from films, in my collection and
about eight hundred full length features. I have been enabled by my friends Steve Finn, Lloyd Schwartz, David Stang
and Beverly Orlove, who have joined me for periodic musicale evenings for almost twenty years. Two other friends,
Joe Beckmann and Steve Finn, have fed my addiction to films for about as long. Sue and Paul Kilrain arranged for
me to see the wonderful City Center Encore presentations of almost-lost musicals. They all have a lot to answer for!
My enthusiasm about Boston's history led me to begin
offering private tours of the city, concentrating on
Boston's history and architecture. I've had guests from
all over the US and the world, and I love showing the
city off. Click here to visit my Easy Tours of Boston site.