WEBVTT 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:20.000 Maurice Levy: This is Maurice Levy speaking to Mary Hardy for the Oral History of Music in Pittsburgh project. It's August. Do you have any musical background? You. You began to work at the Carnegie Music Hall in 19 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:21.000 Mary Hardy: October 1st, 1930. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Levy: 1930. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Hardy: And I really wasn't hired to work in the Music Hall. I was working for the manager of buildings and grounds, but he was also the manager of the Music Hall. I didn't know that until I got there. And my, uh, knowledge of music had nothing to do with my getting that position. It was just darn lucky because it was right in the middle of the depression, and I was just out of business school, and I needed a job. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:53.000 Levy: So you're, uh, that that was your. You didn't have any musical training as such? 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.000 Hardy: Yes. I mean, I, uh, I played the piano fairly. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:57.000 Levy: Oh, you do play that. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:02:14.000 Hardy: And I'm a organist, not a real professional organist. But I've always played our church organ, not always as the official organist, but substituted, and I'm still substituting, and I played. In our church for. Ten years, I think, and another 10 or 15. So I have an organ background, but strictly amateur. And I've always I majored in music in college. A piano, although I took some organ in college to. But it was pure coincidence when I got there and had to type Doctor Heinroth's programs. That I have some idea what they were all about, and that I recognized the names of the composers. Although I hadn't studied much organ, I didn't go into playing organ. For money until. The war came along Second World War, and the organists were so scarce that I was begged to take a job here in Crafton in one of the other churches, and I did so, and I enjoyed that extra money. So I would up until about 3 or 4 years ago, I. Have been playing an organ in one church or another. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:20.000 Levy: So you began to work at the Music Hall, and Mr. Ambrose was your, uh, your boss. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.000 Hardy: The immediate boss. He had a secretary who was really the. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000 Levy: And what were your duties there? 00:02:26.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Hardy: Well, I was listed as a as a stenographer at first because he had a secretary, and I worked under her. Actually, Mr. Ambrose didn't like to dictate. So when he wrote letters, he wrote them out. And I didn't like to take shorthand. So that was just a nice coincidence that I took very little shorthand while I was there, because I'd finished a business school, but I wasn't very good at shorthand, so I, I was called a stenographer anyway, because I wrote the letters and I typed the programs for the organ recitals and sent them off to the newspapers. I usually they used to publish the program of the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon organ recitals. They would publish them in the newspapers, and I had to send them there. And then I sent them down to the printing department. At that time, we had the Carnegie Institute Press and all the printing for the library and the Art museum and the Museum of Natural History. That was all done in the building. And one of the things they printed were the organ recital programs. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:38.000 Levy: Uh, the organist when you came there was, uh, Charles. Charles. Heinroth, what do you remember of him? 00:03:38.000 --> 00:04:06.000 Hardy: I never knew him personally. He was. I think everybody was a little bit in awe of him. He was a splendid organist. And at that time they had the Saturday night programs as well as Sunday. And I used to they used to say that the organists came to the Sunday night or to the Saturday night rehearsal. To hear him. Other organists in town Sunday afternoon was the public that would stray in from the museum. That's what I was told. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 Levy: And they had larger crowds on Sunday afternoon because. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:14.000 Hardy: No Sunday movies in those days. There's nothing else to do except to go to the museum. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:19.000 Levy: And there wasn't even baseball. They weren't allowed to. Sunday baseball. No. Even though you were right there in Oakland. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.000 Hardy: Yes. No. Sunday baseball. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:27.000 Levy: And, uh. What what what do you say you you remember about him as such? 00:04:27.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Hardy: Uh, I thought he was, uh, I remember that he had, as I say, he had great respect among the other organists in the city. He was also the organist. I believe it was the organist. Yes, I'm sure it was the Third Presbyterian Church on. The corner of a on Fifth and maybe Maryland around in there. I forget just which side street that is. Uh, I remember they had a telephone at the organ. And, uh, so he could get calls. And I remember one day he was turned off, and somebody was trying very hard to get him. And I went down to the Music Hall and told him, and he said, well, who turned it off? Well, of course, I had no idea who turned it off. He could be a little bit grouchy, I remember, but he was a splendid organist. I didn't know him personally when he left. He as I remember, I think he went to the City College of New York. One of the New York or NYU? I'm not sure. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:32.000 Levy: Yeah. That's right. The CCNY, CCNY became professor of music there. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:48.000 Hardy: I understand that he went there because at that time, Carnegie Institute had no. Um. Pension program that anyone could rely on. And he could get one here. That was what I was told. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:06:07.000 Levy: He was looking for security. Yes. Right. Uh, the, uh. Of course he's the culmination. He's not the culmination, but he's one of the people who are instrumental in the story, of course, of Carnegie, who who gave those thousands of organs all over the world. Yes. And they Andrew Carnegie, do you know that? 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:27.000 Hardy: I know. About that. Our in fact, our organ at our church here in Crafton was given by him originally. And a lot of organs were and a lot of people now in these churches that are not as well off as they were. So if they all still get some money from the Foundation that that's. I understand his job. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:28.000 Levy: That's pretty good. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:29.000 Hardy: Yeah. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:55.000 Levy: So that that was an evidence of, uh, the story that he woke up on the ship, you know, and he heard the organ playing when Andrew Carnegie when he came over to this country. Boy, I didn't know that. And he was so astounded by it. And, uh, he, uh. And he was. Well, it says here he was awakened by a brass band. And then he had the of course, he had pipe organs installed in his, in his home. And, of. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Hardy: Course, I've heard that. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:15.000 Levy: Across the world, actually. Uh, the so the organ is, is the thing that many Pittsburghers remember Carnegie Music Hall for. I think because it was free. Right. Yes. And so and so you had uh, uh, thousands of people come every year, as many as 60,000 in a year. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:55.000 Hardy: And they programs were bound into one volume at the end of each season. And there's a complete set of them, I think, in the music library there should be. In fact, I have a few of them myself, because there was some left over that I just helped myself to. We they weren't for sale. They were a Doctor. Heinroth and I and Doctor Bidwell would send us a list of people that he wanted us to mail them to. And they they were, I'm sure a young budding organist would think they were wonderful because the program notes were so good. And told them about all these. Have you ever seen one of the bound volumes? 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.000 Levy: I've. No, I really haven't. But I'm going to look at I'm going to look when I get there. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:00.000 Hardy: Would you like to see them. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:07.000 Levy: Oh well when we're finished I'll. I'll get them. Sure. Fine. And I'll look at them in the library when I get back there. Um. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.000 Hardy: The notes are invaluable too. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:24.000 Levy: Notes were written by Doctor, Doctor Heinroth. And then Doctor Bidwell wrote the notes for his programs. Uh. So you didn't know him? Uh, personally. But I'm sure you knew, Doctor. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.000 Hardy: I got to know Doctor Bidwell quite well. Yes. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.000 Levy: Tell me about him. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:09:35.000 Hardy: Well, he was an entirely different kind of a person. I can't really describe him his. His wife. He married a Pittsburgh woman after he came here. Very, uh. I forget what her name had been. She'd been married before. And they had one daughter. I was at their house once, and they were spending the summer up near a place where we go in the summer. So he came over one day and spent the day at our cottage with his wife and daughter, I remember that. Yeah, I got to know him pretty well because about that time I joined the Organist Guild. I wasn't intending at all. Ever had no idea of getting an organ job. But during the war, as I say, organists were scarce. They were. All the men were all off fighting, and one of the women in Crafton was about to become a mother and she couldn't find anybody to take her place. So she asked me if I'd take it, and I thought I was supposed to go up there until the baby was born. But I stayed for nine years and nobody ever told me to stop. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.000 Levy: So that's a pretty long baby. By that. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:10:08.000 Hardy: Time, he was pretty old, and I got accustomed to that little extra money, you know? And once you get accustomed. So from then on, I just after I left there, I went to the West End Methodist and played for ten years there, and then came to our own, the Episcopal Church at Crafton, where I was baptized and grew up, and I played there two different terms, but I when I got to be 80, I retired. But this is not the Music Hall, but it just shows that I learned a little bit more about the organ all the time. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:22.000 Levy: I think it illustrates the fact that people, uh, participated in music on a personal level. It wasn't passive like it is today with the radio. And during the concert, people had pianos in their homes. Right. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:11:14.000 Hardy: That's why I think that to I belong to the American Guild of Organists, and I think they're always fussy because they can't find substitutes and they can't get pupils. And I think that. This is my own observation, but when I was growing up, everybody had a piano. They'd save money to buy a piano like today. They saved money to buy the TV. And or the VCR or whatever they are. I don't know what a VCR is. I've never yet found out what one is because I know I don't have it, but however. Um. I think that I think that's the reason. And really, you'd need a piano background to play the organ. So our organist never had a piano lesson in his life, and he's pretty good. But I'm the one in your church? Yes. I've never heard of another organist. Take the piano player piano first. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:30.000 Levy: So maybe while you've learned the American Guild of Organists. And was that the Pittsburgh chapter? Pittsburgh chapter? Well, maybe before we get into the Music Hall, you can you can tell us something about that because that's, that's a, a group that's been going on for many, many years. It's one of the. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.000 Hardy: Largest chapters in the country. I really. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:42.000 Levy: Really I know I've seen uh, uh, programs that they've put on. Yes. And they and they've had conventions here. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:12:07.000 Hardy: Oh, yes. We had the national convention here. I remember many years ago before I joined and they were having they used the Music Hall for some of the concerts. And I've been to two of the national conventions myself, not in here, but in Boston and in Washington, because I happen to have relatives in both cities, and I didn't have to pay for a hotel. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:27.000 Levy: Now, the the membership of the American Guild of Organists, where the organists in the area. Right people, the church organists, maybe people from the universities who were taught it. People like that. Teachers, things like that. What were they, uh, what was their primary goal? Uh, disseminating music? 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:39.000 Hardy: Uh, I don't know. I think you ought to interview one of the officers of the of the AGO, as we call them. Okay. Rather than me. I'm. I'm just one of the many. I say that I'm really not an organist. I'm just a hymn player because. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:49.000 Levy: But you you belong to it. You have a you have a little different perspective than somebody who sits behind a desk. Who? Administrator. Oh, yes. And what did you get out of the. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:13:20.000 Hardy: Well, I've made a lot of friends and other and other organist with whom I for whom I have a lot of respect because I know how good they are. Don Wilkins, who's out of Calvary Church and he's one of the best organists in the city, I imagine. For their. Many organists because they have full time jobs at churches like that. Though most of these little churches, all they can do to pay their clergy would allow the organist. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:28.000 Levy: Well, you you of course you did. You met people there and so forth. Uh, on a professional level, what what, uh, did that organization. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:52.000 Hardy: Well, they have good recitals and I've learned a little bit of, uh, of, uh, organ music. Not most of it would be beyond my ability to play. I was certainly I studied some of those harder numbers, but not very often. I was mostly self-taught in the organ. I took a year at college. Of Organ, but I didn't practice very hard. I was really majoring in piano. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:53.000 Levy: Where did you go to college? 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:57.000 Hardy: Elmira College in New York state. Do you know where it is? 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:02.000 Levy: We were there a couple of years ago. We saw the Mark Twain study, which is which is on the campus there. Right? 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:20.000 Hardy: Right, right, right. It wasn't when I was in college, but it was moved there a few years ago. I've seen it. I go back for reunions. I'm glad you know about Elmira, because a lot of it was never very strong among Pittsburgh girls. But. I loved it. It was a wonderful college, co-ed now. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:21.000 Levy: Co-ed now. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:27.000 Hardy: And the students didn't want it. The trustees put that over there when behind their backs, and they didn't like it at all. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:32.000 Levy: Well, that's happened to many of the so-called girls schools. They still have. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:37.000 Hardy: To. They really have to, because for financial reasons. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 Levy: So you you you took some music at Elmira? Yeah, I. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:41.000 Hardy: Majored in music. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:42.000 Levy: Yeah. You majored in music there. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:55.000 Hardy: And I got out of college and couldn't earn a living, so I had to go to business school so I could earn some money. So the has nothing to do with the musical. Yeah. It's just coincidence that I got the job there. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:24.000 Levy: No, it's just as long as it's music. Where the name of the project is the Oral History of Music in Pittsburgh. And that's music, because it isn't just everybody thinks it's just Symphony or the opera, but, uh, the as you indicated, music making was done in the home. People stood around the piano and sang. Isn't that right? Right. Sure. They the people didn't buy records. They bought sheet music. They went down to the to the music stores and bought 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:41.000 Hardy: On Fifth Avenue. And there was always a pianist in there playing these pieces. She, you they'd pick up. I would pick up. I'd never did it. But that's what I could have done if I'd been a customer. Go in there and see this song, I think. Oh, I think that sounds nice. I'd give it to the pianist and she'd play it for us. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:16:19.000 Levy: I remember. Oh yes, I remember, I remember when I was about 7 or 8 years old and that would be in the early 30s going into, I think, Woolworths. And they had a pianist. Yes. And they played the popular music of the day. Stacks of sheet music there. And the sheet music had pictures of the people who introduced the music. There would be a picture of, of of, uh, I guess Russ Columbo. Right? Yes. Right. And uh, who, whoever, uh, they associated with it and they would play the music. And then the teenagers, I guess, who were older, they would buy it. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:23.000 Hardy: There was no. Radio. So you didn't hear it on the radio. People would buy records and they'd. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:29.000 Levy: Well, there was well, there was radio and that was there. But it really wasn't central to music at that time. No. 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:31.000 Hardy: And that isn't where you learned your music. Probably. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:37.000 Levy: But that eventually died out. But it is a, uh, from what I understand, that's that's what. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:43.000 Hardy: The drug stores, our drug store here in Crafton used to sell records. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:53.000 Levy: Oh, yeah. It's all the old 78 shellac records. Yeah, yeah. So the American Guild of Organists. 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.000 Hardy: Uh, but I you should interview them as, as an organist. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:02.000 Levy: Well, I'll get that. You'll give me a name when we're finished, I can. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:25.000 Hardy: All right. They are bringing on the first Wednesday. I think it's the 3rd or 4th of September. The King's College Choir from Cambridge University in England, and they are one of the best choirs of that kind. They're perfectly marvelous. I'm sending off a. The letter to the church because I want five tickets for it. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:26.000 Levy: Where are they? Holding them in the. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.000 Hardy: In Shadyside Presbyterian. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:30.000 Levy: Church. Presbyterian. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:18:13.000 Hardy: I wanted I had a record. They put out a Christmas record some years ago. And those boys are just. Their voices are just marvelous. Of course, it's men and boys as all those English cathedrals have. And I am an Episcopalian, so I was interested in the Anglican Church as such. But one year I found that record in a record store, and I thought, I am going to England to hear that choir. So. So 1963, I was a little freer to go. My mother had died and I was freer to travel. And I went to England and I went to Cambridge, and I heard that choir, and I'm going to hear them again out there. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:28.000 Levy: Were you born in? In Crafton. Crafton? Uh. Well, Doctor Bidwell, you have anything else? I mean, aside from the spiritual attributes. You must have dealt with him, though. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:41.000 Hardy: He was a kind. Of a nervous man. He and he had an entirely different kind of personality from Doctor Heinroth. It's a little hard to describe him. Uh. I don't know how I could really describe him. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:44.000 Levy: You recall attending some of the concerts? 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:54.000 Hardy: I used to. Go to the some of the recitals, and I knew him personally because he'd come waltzing in every week with his programme and I'd have to take it and tape it, you know? And. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:00.000 Levy: That he had. No, he didn't particularly comment on what he was doing. It was was it more or less a professional relationship? 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:20.000 Hardy: Yeah. That's all. He had an office in the Music Hall backstage on the second floor. And that's where he. Laid out his notes and maybe did some practicing. I think there was I think there was a piano there, and he, both Doctor Heinroth and Doctor Bidwell practiced a lot in on the Music Hall organ. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.000 Levy: You could hear that in the, in the, in the library. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:23.000 Hardy: Oh, yes. Yes. 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:24.000 Levy: I remember being up in the music. Yes. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:35.000 Hardy: Listening to the Irene Millen used to get so mad because she said he'd make the same mistakes over and over and over again. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:36.000 Levy: Well, 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:41.000 Hardy: This is a little. Too close to them for comfort, I think, because it was right behind the organ pipes, you know. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:54.000 Levy: That's right. That wall that that you face when you come into the music room, that's the that's where the pipes are. That's where the pipes are. I can recall growing up there and hearing and hearing the music coming through the wall. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Hardy: And but going back to the Music Hall itself in the rentals and the organizations that used it. Uh. I'm trying to think of some funny things that happened. Um. I don't know how well acquainted you are with the Lutheran Church, but the Lutheran Church has a lot of different synods, as I call them. And each one of them thinks they're the only ones that should exist. And for many years every fall on what they called Reformation Sunday, which I believe is the last Sunday of October. Not sure. There are two different organizations in Pittsburgh that wanted to have a program that Sunday night, and the first at our policy at the Music Hall office, was to give the rent the Music Hall to whichever organization signed a contract for it first. Sometimes they would take an option on a date, but they just didn't get around to signing the contract. And. Usually one organization would have it the last Sunday in October, and the other organization would have theirs on the first Sunday in November. Well, one year one of the Lutheran pastors came storming into the office. And several months ahead of time they would have to book. These make these bookings months ahead of time, sometimes a year ahead of time. We wouldn't even have our books set up yet. But remember, one time one of the Lutheran pastors came in and said he wanted that. And I said, well, I'm sorry, but this other organization has it. He was furious. He said, well, you know, we are the only real Lutherans. And I said, well, I'm sorry, but I'm not Lutheran. So I couldn't decide who the real, only real Lutherans. He stormed out and he didn't get his date. That was and. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:56.000 Levy: That they used that for a service. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:08.000 Hardy: Yeah, they have had a regular service. Yeah. I never was at one. But you'd find the programmes for them. And then, um. You you did you remember May Beegle? 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:12.000 Levy: Oh, yes. Hardy: Yes, yes. Well, May Beegle was quite a character. 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:18.000 Levy: Can you tell us about her? She. She was a promoter of, wasn't she? She brought in attractions. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:23:17.000 Hardy: Yes. And she made a fortune. I understand she died a millionaire. I don't know whether that's true or not, but that was the rumor. When she died, she didn't have many of her concerts at the Music Hall in my day. She had them at the once. But she was. Kind of tricky. She would call us up and take options on certain dates. Because then if anybody called us and wanted that date, we had to call her and say, do you want such and such a date in May? Or what's going likely in the winter? November? Well, who wants that? She'd say she wanted to know what other organizations had booked their concerts. Not necessarily in the Music Hall, but at the Mosque. And we had to tell her that that date was booked. Did she want it or didn't she? Well, who wants it? You see, she was pretty cute. So we'd say, well, such and such one said, oh. Well, if they were going to, you know, it might make her change her date at the Mosque. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:25.000 Levy: In other words, she she used the fact that she knew who who optioned it to set her own schedule up. Exactly. Which was she. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.000 Hardy: Was she was cute. When I say cute, I mean cute in a tricky little word. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:31.000 Levy: I know. Hardy: But she was a good businesswoman. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:33.000 Levy: She was a sharp businesswoman. She protected. Herself. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:24:27.000 Hardy: And she. For a long time, she was the manager of the Art Society, which wasn't her, uh. She didn't belong to it. I mean, she didn't. I don't even know whether she was even paid. Probably not, I don't know, but they had their concerts in the Music Hall, and then she had her series over at the. Mosque. And after she died, I had trouble getting these. Life membership tickets that had been my uncle's that I was supposed to get every year, and I don't. I have no idea what happened to the the Treasury. They she died and somebody else managed it for a while and it just kind of died off. And they gave it a nice series of concerts every year. They were more of a solo type. Completely different from the symphony, you know. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:30.000 Levy: She brought in. She brought in singers? Yes. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.000 Hardy: Singers and well known pianists and things like that. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.000 Levy: It was the recital kind of thing, maybe that the wife does. Yes, that. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:43.000 Hardy: Sort of thing. Exactly. Now I see that the Y is over in the music. And the music. Yes. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:44.000 Levy: A couple of years ago. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:53.000 Hardy: And I don't know where I was, I was out here in crafted nine and a half. Eight and a half miles from the Music Hall. I don't know what goes on out there anymore. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:25:04.000 Levy: They finally moved to the University of Pittsburgh, bought the Y, bought the what happened? And of course the the auditorium that they had at the Y was at best primitive because the I still had. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.000 Hardy: A good concert there. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:10.000 Levy: Oh, the concerts were wonderful. But you remember the seats were a little uncomfortable. I never had those. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:13.000 Hardy: Big up in. I was up in the balcony usually when I went. Oh yeah. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:31.000 Levy: Well, you said you said in one of the regular theaters, but the ones on the first floor were upholstered. But they were. If you got there late, somebody had slid the, you know, the seats were movable. Then you had your knees up in your ears, but they're now at the Music Hall and where. 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.000 Hardy: They should be, because the acoustics are so wonderful that the the concerts would be much. Better. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:44.000 Levy: I should think that actually they're selling many more tickets. Are they? Because the Y only held 2000 and the Music Hall holds 1900. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:26:11.000 Hardy: Something like 2002, I think, or something. I used to have those figures in my head too, because people would call us I. But as I say, I've been retired for so many years that I can't remember everything. But, you know, I was just thinking. After you called me, I began to think of all the people that I worked with as employees of the Music Hall. John Luchsinger was the head usher. Mr. Fulton was the one that would. Um. 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:15.000 Levy: So the usher, the ushers were professional. They were paid. They they paid. 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:17.000 Hardy: They were paid. They were mostly college students. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:27:05.000 Levy: Oh, I. Hardy: C Tech and Pitt students. Just boys. They have girls now. And John Luthsinger was their head, and Mister Fulton was the one that would arrange the stage the way the people wanted it. You know, if they wanted the loud speaker or if they wanted the piano, uh, such and such, and are there to kind of supervise the concert for the benefit of the people who were renting it. But he's dead. I don't can't think of one person that would have been necessary to put on a concert there. There's still a lot. Except me. And it's just it's really coincidence that you should ask me because there's nobody else could answer these questions. It isn't that I think I'm so wonderful. I'm not. My memory is not too good. But they're all dead. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.000 Levy: You're doing just fine. So if if if an artist. 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:10.000 Hardy: I mean, this is on. Here now, too? 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:37.000 Levy: Oh, sure. Oh, sure. If an artist, uh, is engaged or somebody has rented the hall. Right. The procedure is, of course, they get a contract. The contract goes to the manager who approves it. And then if they have any special needs, they let them know. And then you, you contact the people, the stage manager or whatever you call them, and they would provide they knew that a they needed a grand piano or two grand. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.000 Hardy: We had our own piano, but some of them would have to bring in their own because they brought. 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:46.000 Levy: Some of them were, of course, under contract for certain piano companies. They had to play their piano. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:49.000 Hardy: Yeah, well, mostly we had a Steinway and I, most of them. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:50.000 Levy: Yeah, most of them played the same. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:53.000 Hardy: But some of them would travel with their own piano. 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:55.000 Levy: Too. But you 00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:02.000 Hardy: Getting a piano wasn't easy. They finally fixed the stage door so that they could run a truck. Truck? 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:21.000 Levy: The truck. Now it's backed up. There's a loading dock. Yeah. Yeah, right. That must have been difficult before. So they they were. So if let's say a string quartet comes, then of course, they know they have to have four stands, four chairs. And if it's a quintet and a piano quintet, then they they. 00:28:21.000 --> 00:29:13.000 Hardy: Brought their own music stands. I don't remember them, but we always had to have the chairs fixed for them, and, and, uh, they would fuss. Some of them would fuss about the lighting. They couldn't read their music because we didn't have the right kind of lights up there. And. And it was it all wasn't just, uh, there were complaints, you know, and arguments about things and and the. Uh, ushers were told not to let anyone in in the middle of a. Particular piece. Of course, most, as you know, if you must know something about music, you wouldn't be doing this. Most of the, uh. Well, let's take a string quartet would have various movements, and maybe they would be allowed in between the movements, but maybe they wouldn't. They? Usually the usher had to. They had. Usher was in charge of that. 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:23.000 Levy: They usually thought the men at the end of the first movement of the first piece. Oh, is that sometimes. Yeah. And sometimes they don't. Okay. Uh, I don't know how. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:27.000 Hardy: They're doing it now, but I remember they were very strict about that. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:31.000 Levy: Well, they should be, because the people. Come on, you don't come on time. Too bad. Yeah. 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:44.000 Hardy: So that interferes with the. It spoils the. It for the symphony or for the audience to have the doors opening and people coming, rushing down and pushing aside to get certain seats and things like that. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:50.000 Levy: Well, there were there were a variety of course, for a while the symphony was out of business. And you. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:59.000 Excuse me, that's. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:59.000 Levy: This interview is being conducted on August 19th, 1991. The interview continues on side B.