Hungerford

1939 · 89601 — New York : Eastern Presidents' Conference 1939. Presumed First Edition First printing. Wraps. Good. Harry Horner. The format is approximately 9.75 inches by 13 inches. Unpagineated 8 pages stapled at the center. Illustrated. The Entire Production Created and Designed by Edward Hungerfors. Scenery and Costumes Designed by Harry Horner. Architects--Eggers & Higgins. Builders--George A. Fuller Company. Engineers--Gibbs & Hill. Consulting Designers__Howard Ketcham and A. Sheldon Pennoy7er. Dances stages by Bill Matons. Isac Van Grove Conductor. Twenty-seven railroads were listed at the back as sponsoing this pageant. In a 3000-seat theater with a cast of 250 members Railroads on Parade reenacted the progress of rail transportation from the 1820s through 1939. The goal of Edward Hungerford was to briefly tell the story of the railroad through a series of stage presentations with narration and incidental music. Hungerford wrote that "into every corner of our social and economic existence the railroad is tightly interwoven. It is the backbone of he country no even more it is its veritable lifeblood. In its 250000 miles of steel veins it flows to every far corner of a far-flung land it binds in its living throbbing embrace city and town and village the open country the forest the mine the forge the factory and the sea. It is indeed the nation's lifeblood the great arm not only of its industry but of its military defense. If it were to die then the nation would die." The spectacular finish of the show culminated with the cast both human and steel the J2a - Hudson Streamliner and another modern engine were used in the Grand Finale making their final appearance on stage. From a comment found posted on line: This is a playbill for a 250-member cast production performed at the 1939 Ny World's Fair entitled "Railroads on Parade" portraying "the magnificent progress of rail transport in American for the past 110 years." Talk about an industry blowing its own horn! As it happened 1939 was pretty much the top for the RR industry. WWII came along and so did the aiplane trucks suburbs the Federal Highway system - everything conspired to doom railroads to a freight system. The great thing about this booklet is the visual richness and how it captures a moment in time - from the Art Deco modern/progress motifs to the drawings of the actual Railroad exhibit. A Marion Ross is listed in the chorus--possibly the later film and television star. Edward Hungerford 1875 – July 29 1948 was an American journalist and author. His main interest was the railroad about which he wrote many books and articles. He travelled extensively by rail and was a specialist in organizing railroad exhibitions. In 1925 Hungerford approached Daniel Willard the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and offered to write a history of the company which was shortly to reach its centenary. Willard not only took up the suggestion but also hired Hungerford to be the B&O's centennial director. Hungerford had seen a railroad celebration in England and created an extravagant exhibition at a park outside Baltimore. The "Fair of the Iron Horse" opened on February 28 1927 including displays and a two-hour play Pageant of The Iron Horse. It drew crowds averaging 50000 a day. "His success in Baltimore became his chief calling card" He created five more transportation pageants during the 1930s including the Rochester Centennial of 1934 the Parade of the Years Pageant in 1936 in Cleveland; and lastly "Railroads on Parade". The railroad display at the fair which lasted until 1940 presented steam electric and diesel engines brought from Canada England and Italy. The attraction drew 2.6 million visitors during its two-year run. Kurt Julian Weill March 2 1900 – April 3 1950 was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht he developed productions such as his best-known work The Threepenny Opera which included the ballad "Mack the Knife". Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose Gebrauchsmusik. He also wrote several works for the concert hall. He became a United States citizen in 1943. Rather than continue to write in the same style that had characterized his European compositions Weill made a study of American popular and stage music. His American output contains individual songs and entire shows that not only became highly respected and admired but have been seen as seminal works in the development of the American musical. In 1939 he wrote the music for Railroads on Parade a musical spectacular put on at the 1939 World's Fair in New York to celebrate the American railroad industry book by Edward Hungerford. Unique among Broadway composers of the time Weill insisted on writing his own orchestrations with some very few exceptions. Eggers & Higgins was a New York architectural firm partnered by Otto Reinhold Eggers August 4 1882 – April 23 196412 and Daniel Paul Higgins September 12 1886 – December 26 1953.34 The architects were responsible for the construction phase of the Jefferson Memorial beginning in 1939 two years after the death of its original architect John Russell Pope despite protests that their appointment had been undemocratic and therefore "un-Jeffersonian". Critics argued a competition should have been held to choose Pope's successor. In 1941 they also completed construction of Pope's other famous design the West Building of the National Gallery of Art also in Washington D.C. For the 1939 New York World's Fair they designed two pavilions and attractions: the Railroads Building the largest at the Fair and the Schaefer center a restaurant seating 1600 with a long open-air bar. Harry Horner July 24 1910 – December 5 1994 was a Czech-born American art director who made a successful career in Hollywood as an Oscar-winning art director and as a feature film and television director. Eastern Presidents' Conference paperback