Stalin's Anthem

The new nationalistic Soviet anthem (TIME, Jan. 3) was widely played in the U.S. last week. No sooner had the music been published in the U.S. press than U.S. orchestra leaders fell all over themselves to introduce it. Winner by a hair was apparently the CBS Report to the Nation program, which set its orchestraters to work the minute the Soviet piano score arrived, had the anthem on the air within 48 hours.

The new anthem was written by Red Army Chorus Leader Alexander Alexandrov at about the time of the Old Bolshevik purges of 1936. As if the Soviet left did not know what its right was doing, Soviet hymn singers called the tune the Old Bolshevik Hymn. In 1939 it was awarded the coveted Stalin Prize. Its recent metamorphosis from hymn to anthem required a change of only a note or two and a new set of lyrics.

The Soviet Government last week was holding a competition to provide the new set of words with a fitting set of translations. Most publicized entry from the U.S. was that of Poet Louis Untermeyer:

Through terror and darkness the sun shines today,

For Lenin and Stalin have lighted the way;

We crushed the invader, we hurled back the foe,

And our armies in triumph will sing as they go:

Long may she live, our motherland,

Long may her flag be over us;

Flag of the Soviets, our trust and our pride,

Ride through the storm victorious,

Lead us to visions glorious--Flag of a people in friendship allied.*

Poet Untermeyer's lyrics drew an editorial from the New York Herald Tribune, which noted that he had telescoped the hymn's "the great Lenin lighted our path; Stalin reared us faithful to the people," to a simple "Lenin and Stalin have lighted the way." Quipped the Tribune: "In Russia, a land of nice dialectical distinctions, poets have been shot for less. . . ."

Roseland's Birthday

Roseland, on Manhattan's Broadway, is the most famous public dance hall in an insatiably dancing nation. Last week it finished celebrating its 25th birthday. Under the electric stars in the ceiling of this huge second-story ballroom, generations of clerks, shopgirls and other widely assorted humans have shuffled and spun to tunes from Pretty Baby to People Will Say We're in Love, Some danced with partners they brought, others with Roseland's mannerly hostesses. Stories about Roseland have been written by Ring Lardner, Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and John O'Hara. Millionaires have married Roseland hostesses, and superannuated dervishes have dropped dead on its dance floor.

Roseland was started by a Philadelphia accountant named Louis Brecker, who had a passion for dancing and a simple ambition to make a million dollars. His partner was a Pottsville, Pa. brewer named Frank D. Yuengling. Brecker had decided that the public wanted cheap but respectable dance halls. Brecker's first Roseland, in Philadelphia, repaid his investment in six months.

In his Manhattan venture he had two orchestras (a thing practically unheard of up till then) playing continuously, 150-odd "instructresses" on hand. Roseland's success was based on the fox trot, and the fox trot has remained the staple of Roseland ever since. The beauty of the fox trot, introduced to Broadway in 1914 by Jeanette Warner and Billie Kent, is that even the most awkward oaf, with a tolerant partner, can give a passable exhibition of it. The music has the simplest basic rhythm known to man (unaccented 4-4), is played at moderate tempos which place no great strain on a sound heart. Plenty of oafish dancing has been seen at Roseland. But Roselanders have also cultivated the nuances of the tango, waltz, shimmy, toddle, Charleston, Black Bottom, Lindy Hop, Susie-Q, rumba, conga, samba.

Salesman of Sway. Louis Brecker has livened up his soirees with female prize fights, staged an exhibition of yo-yo by the world's champion, held a sneezing contest for hay-fever sufferers. Brecker's greatest publicity stunt was a dance marathon during the early '20s. The police threatened to close the hall under a statute forbidding endurance contests of more than twelve hours' duration. Sparring for time, Brecker hired a sloop in New York Harbor, carried his dancers (still dancing) to its decks in trucks, and set sail for the three-mile limit. Unfortunately a gale was blowing, and Brecker's marathoners ended by retching and heaving at the rail.

Brecker's taste in popular dance music has been catholic and sometimes very discerning. He picked Fletcher Henderson's band, which for years made hot jazz history at Roseland, in 1924 introducing Trumpeter Louis Armstrong to Manhattan. He picked the Wolverines, who introduced Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke.

11-c- a Dance. Today ultra-respectable Roseland keeps only 15 hostesses. They charge 11-c- a dance or $1.50 a half-hour (of which the girls get 7-c- or $1). They are forbidden to leave the ballroom with a patron (although outside dates have led, among other things, to the marriage of Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler). Roseland has 15 well-dressed housemen (ex-wrestlers) who mix with the crowd--often 'way over 3,000 a day--and stop raucous jitterbugging. The bar serves beer and a sweet, sparkling wine.

For Roseland's birthday Louis Brecker's pressagents concocted some anniversary estimates. They figured that Roseland patrons had rolled up a total of 24,000,000 paid admissions; danced 297,698,574,349,922 steps; covered 10,796,497,680 miles on the dance floor. "These figures," they added, "will not be attested to by a notary public."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.