[78-L] music making a big difference to residents in rest homes

[Mike Daley]

Just in the last few months I've started doing lecture/performances in
retirement homes around Toronto - 'The Life and Music of Irving
Berlin', Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, etc. I do an hour of
anecdote-heavy biography punctuated with about 12-15 songs played and
sung live. The reaction has been great and it's been very personally
rewarding to me. This thread is giving me the idea of bringing in a
portable 78 player and spinning a few discs of the era. Could be fun.

Mike

On Sun, Apr 8, 2012 at 4:34 PM, Kristjan Saag <saag at telia.com> wrote:
> A few years ago I had the opportunity to DJ in a home for the elderly.
> Two turntables, real 78's and some talking in between.
> Everyone had a good nap until I mentioned that a certain artist was
> still alive and well and living in the neighbourhood - a coarse voice
> from behind murmured: "he's buried in the next village..."
>
> Speaking of 78's: at least one rest home in Gothenburg has 78's on
> display in the music room, in order to make the residents feel at home.
> Part of a therapeutic program to supply those units with objects and
> furniture that have symbolic meaning to elderly people.
> Kristjan
>
>
>
> On 2012-04-08 22:17, Anthony G Pavick wrote:
>> A number of years ago I was involve in a vaudeville style troupe that
>> did 30 minutes shows at rest homes. I used to sign My Blue Heaven,
>> whilst wearing a cowboy get-up. We always had a sacred number and
>> always ended with God Bless America. They'd wheel people who looked
>> sullen and lost into a recreation area and we'd make a point to
>> specifically play to those who seemed so far gone. I can still recall
>> seeing a spark of life in a person's sad eyes when we'd sing as if
>> that person was teh only one in the room.
>>
>> To a certain extent this type of musical presentation was attempted,
>> albeit half heartedly, via Bonneville's "Music of Your Life"
>> satellite distributed radio format. That, as do most corporate radio
>> formats these days, had even less animation and life in it than the
>> most moribund of patients in any rest home
>>
>> T
>>
>>
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