Comments from paula_eisenstein_baker

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paula_eisenstein_baker
paula_eisenstein_baker commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Sep 4, 2011 at 5:10 pm

Hi Tinseltoes, thanks for the suggestions. I’ve been through the material at Lincoln Center, including the scrapbooks that the Capitol (NOT the Roxy!) kept, and I have read Variety, Billboard, many of the NY newspapers AND the papers devoted to the movies in the 1920s (as well as The Metronome, Musical Courier, Musical America, Musical Digest, etc.). Zeitlin was mentioned in a Capitol press release in 1927 (the text of which appeared in a number of papers), and his death, in 1930, was reported almost everywhere (from the NYTimes on down). So you certainly could have come across his name.

Zeitlin receives credit for a couple of his overtures in theatre programs that I have seen, but Yasha Bunchuk (the conductor at the Capitol, beginning in 1929) is credited with several others that (I think) may have been composed by Zeitlin. Hence my interest in finding programs.

paula_eisenstein_baker
paula_eisenstein_baker commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Sep 3, 2011 at 3:25 pm

Thank you for writing, Tinseltoes. Sorry! The man’s name was Leo Zeitlin (1884-1930), and I’ve been able to document that he composed many arrangements for the Capitol from the playlists kept by WEAF in the 1920s. Most of his arrs were played on the Sun evening Capitol Theatre radio program (the playlists are in the Lib of Congress Music Section, Dept of Recorded Sound), but by 1929-30 he was also writing overtures for the theatre, and those MAY have been credited to him in the theatre programs, which is why I’m eager to find any that I can.

A colleague and I have published Zeitlin’s chamber music (I can provide information about that volume, if anyone is interested), and we are working on an edition of one of his overtures (from Sept 1929).

paula_eisenstein_baker
paula_eisenstein_baker commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Sep 2, 2011 at 7:03 pm

I’m writing about a man who composed musical arrangements for the Capitol Theatre between 1925 and 1930. Does anyone know of collections of programs from the Capitol for that period other than those at the Theatre Historical Society? I’ve found only one posted on the web. (This query is addressed especially to Tinseltoes and Warren G. Harris, if they are still reading this list.) If private replies are appropriate, use eisenbak@stthom.edu.