Benny, Bojangles and Bernard Shaw from the vault

Milton, Mass., native Agnes Moorhead

I've been doing a little digging through the Celebrity Series archives this summer in preparation for putting our performance history online, and I've come across a few historical gems that I think are worth sharing. Older readers will, I trust, forgive my "gee whiz" reactions at realizing that icons indeed walked the earth, and that some of them even worked for a living.

Among the many finds: numerous recitals from the 1920s with a piano accompanist by the name of Arthur Fiedler, a 1943 duo-piano recital at Jordan Hall that was canceled because one of the pianists was drafted (!), the Boston debut of the Trapp Family Singers' (yes, The Sound of Music kids) in 1940 (they got through Edelweiss and got over here quickly), and in 1951, there was an engagement of the First Drama Quartette in George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, with a cast that included Charles Laughton, Charles Boyer, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and Agnes Moorhead.

Ditta Pásztory and Bela Bartók in 1937

And this...the exact billing in an ad for a concert from the 1940-41 Aaron Richmond Celebrity Series reads: "Benny Goodman, appearing with noted Hungarian violinist, Joseph Szigeti, and the noted Hungarian composer Bela Bartók." Say what? Who knew that concert had ever taken place? Well, not me. And how did one of the greatest composers of the 20th century rate third on the bill? (Well, I guess that part is typical). A few programs later, an ad related that Bartók's wife, Ditta Pásztory, was also on the bill. Quite a group.

The previous season, in 1939, the Celebrity Series presented an engagement of Hot Mikado, the jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, to benefit Masasachusetts Memorial Hospitals (this was before the Series was a not-for-profit corporation, of course, when Mr. Richmond actually pitched the Series as a fundraising vehicle for other organizations). OK, that's a charming enough bit of history as it stands, but the kicker is that the cast featured Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (that's him on the right). Yup, Mr. Bojangles was once presented by the Celebrity Series. Put that in your pipe.