Monday, Feb. 25, 1929
Musical Laporte
Many a musical person in Boston, Chicago and Manhattan felt his nose a little out of joint last week on reading a widespread report of Concert Manager George Engles. Laporte, Ind., said Manager Engles, not Boston, Chicago or Manhattan, is "the most musical city in the U. S." Nine per cent of its population (15,158) attend concerts regularly as against an average 4% for the rest of the country. Newark, Ohio, rates second with 6%. Big centres like Manhattan and Chicago, despite their great opportunities, pull down the average with less than 1% attendance. Of the larger cities, Boston, according to Manager Engles, is most genuinely musical. He described Boston as "one of the few cities which places musicianship above box-office appeal."
Musical Boston has been feeling itself hard put to preserve its reputation. A symphony orchestra is the greatest of luxuries. Its existence depends always on the beneficence of a patron or a group of patrons. Again, last week, the Boston Symphony felt sorely its annual deficit complaint, and printed in the program books a plea for funds. The Boston Symphony's prospective deficit this year is $134,000 as against $87,000 last year.