The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name. The artwork was by H. P. The card was posted in Shepherds Bush, London using a 1d. stamp on Wednesday the 20th. August 1924. It was sent to:
Mr. Small,
3, Marine Terrace,
Marine Parade,
Margate.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Bert,
Hope you are making the
best of your holiday. The
weather is very unsettled.
Audrey was pleased with
her card.
Yours with love,
Eva."
Nathaniel B. Dial
So what else happened on the day that Eva posted the card to Bert?
Well, on the 20th. August 1924, South Carolina Senator Nathaniel B. Dial and his challenger for the Democratic Party's nomination, John J. McMahan, were both arrested for disorderly conduct in Gaffney, South Carolina.
The arrests occurred after a campaign meeting broke up amid threats of violence. Dial approached McMahan brandishing a chair after he charged that:
"McMahan called me a dirty liar."
'The Dream Girl'
Also on that day, Victor Herbert's final production, the operetta The Dream Girl, opened at the Ambassador Theatre in New York.
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert, who was born on the 1st. February 1859, was an American composer, cellist and conductor. His ancestry was English and Irish, and his musical training was in Germany.
Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890's.
He was also prominent among the Tin Pan Alley composers, and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions.
He also composed five violin pieces with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music.
In the early 1880's, Herbert began a career as a cellist in Vienna and Stuttgart, during which time he began to compose orchestral music.
Herbert and his opera singer wife, Therese Förster, moved to the U.S. in 1886 when both were engaged by the Metropolitan Opera. In the U.S., Herbert continued his performing career, while also teaching at the National Conservatory of Music, conducting and composing.
His most notable instrumental compositions were his Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30 (1894), which entered the standard repertoire, and his Auditorium Festival March (1901).
Herbert conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1898 to 1904, and then founded the Victor Herbert Orchestra, which he conducted throughout the rest of his life.
Herbert began to compose operettas in 1894, producing several successes, including The Serenade (1897) and The Fortune Teller (1898). Some of the operettas that he wrote after the turn of the 20th. century were even more successful: Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), Naughty Marietta (1910), Sweethearts (1913) and Eileen (1917).
After the Great War, with the change in popular musical tastes, Herbert began to compose musicals, and also contributed music to other composers' shows.
While some of these were well-received, he never again achieved the level of success that he had enjoyed with his most popular operettas.
The Death and Legacy of Victor Herbert
A healthy man throughout his life, Victor Herbert died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 65 on the 26th. May 1924, shortly after his final show, The Dream Girl, began its pre-Broadway run in New Haven, Connecticut.
Victor was laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
Herbert and his music are celebrated in the 1939 film The Great Victor Herbert, where he was portrayed by Walter Connolly and which also featured Mary Martin.
Victor was also portrayed by Paul Maxey in the 1946 film Till the Clouds Roll By.
Many of Herbert's own works were made into films, and his music has been used in numerous films and television shows.
In 1940 the U.S. Postal Service included Herbert in its Famous Americans series of stamps. A Chicago elementary school is named for him.
During World War II the Liberty ship SS Victor Herbert was built in Panama City, Florida, and named in his honor.