Wednesday, August 19, 2009

FROM STOWE PHELPS '39

Somewhere in the YGC files there is some footage (video?) of an interivew with me about Barty and especially the great 1939 YGC European tour from Paris to Brussels, Denmark through Scandinavia, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and ending in Budapest, on the eve of WWII. If unfindable, I would be happy to be interivewed again for the new film. I have a copious scrapbook and diary, with a bunch of pictures, of that fabulous trip. I may be one of the few still alive and actively singing (partly with the Whiffs or concerts at private venues) to tell the tale. As history records, Barty pioneered international tours in order to bring nations together in song. It was an ideal born of his experiences in WWI. He remained a special friend of mine over the years, to the extent of asking sing me to sing his immortal arrangements of Pretty Saro and Little Mawhee, with him at the piano, at a major YGC Reunion at Yale (Graduate School building) in the 40s or 50s.

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