[78-L] Titanic Songs

[David Weiner]

There's a great new book about the band - The Band that Played On: The
Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic, by
Steve Turner.  Just finished it and I recommend it highly.

Dave Weiner


On 4/9/12 12:10 AM, "Philip Carli" <Philip_Carli at pittsford.monroe.edu>
wrote:

>There were a number of British releases in 1912 on the sinking; some of
>them were to benefit the Titanic Relief Fund, set up to benefit crewmen
>and other service members (and some passengers) whose families were left
>destitute by the tragedy. These songs, notably "Be British" on
>Edison-Bell Winner disc and British Edison cylinder, are a little hard to
>listen to to-day because of their rather strident patriotism, but they
>gave comfort and support to their original audiences whose various faiths
>had been completely shattered in ways many did not realize.
>
>In Walter Lord's 1986 THE NIGHT LIVES ON, he mentions how shabbily the
>ship's legendary orchestra was treated both before and after the event,
>with at least one family (the parents of violinist Jock Hume) being
>dunned for uniform expenses by the Liverpool booking agency who had
>placed their son on the TITANIC.  The body of violinist Wallace Hartley,
>the ship's prinicipal musician, was recovered by the morgue ship MACKAY
>BENNETT and eventually given what amounted to a state funeral in his home
>town of Colne, Lancashire. PC
>____