August 26, 1939
3,000 Shiver in Park to Hear ‘Ghost Singer’
By Edward P. Halline
The “ghost singer of Hollywood” appeared in the flesh at Humboldt park bandshell Friday night and revealed the warm, expressive voice which has given some film stars the vocal glamor they lacked.
She is Miss Diana Gaylen, singing for herself this time and doing so well that the 3,000 listeners, although they were shivering in the chill air and somewhat damp from the dew, demanded a full quota of encores.
The aria, “Il est doux,” from Massenet’s “Herodiade,” she sang quite eloquently, and she fairly carried her audience away with Arditi’s lightly osculatory “Il Bacio.”
She also did the brilliant “Jewel Song” from “Faust.” She was better in the less known, but much more interesting Bizet song, “Ouvre ton coeur,” which was written for “Carmen,” but never included in that opera.
Accompanying her were the Wisconsin Federal Symphony orchestra, directed by Dr. Sigfrid Prager, and Howard Stein, pianist.
Outstanding in the orchestral program were Dr. Prager’s own Prelude and Scherzo on three Negro spirituals, through most of which “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” rolled its rhythmic way. The syncopations in the Scherzo almost had the more agile auditors jigging in the grassy aisles.
The other numbers were the “Sea” movement from Rimsky-Korsakow’s “Scheherazade,” Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun,” Voelker’s “Hunt in the Black Forest” and Strauss’ “Tales From Vienna Woods.”
The Milwaukee Sentinel
Old Time Radio Bulletin 