PASHions
I also had the amazing opportunity
to get to know Ruth Etting, one of the
great stars of radio in the 1920s and ‘30s
who was known as “the Sweetheart
of Columbia Records.” She starred in
the Ziegfeld Follies, made hundreds
of recordings, and starred in early
Vitaphone talking pictures. I was able
to get her first-hand information
about what Broadway and radio
broadcasting were like in the at that
time – what it was like to be on a radio
program with Victor Young conducting
the orchestra or to be on “The Magic Key
of RCA” program in 1938, one of the great
radio variety shows of the era. Eventually,
she would tell me, “Doc, you ask so many
questions!” All I could tell her was, “Because
there isn’t anybody else who can give me the
answers!” It was a thrill to have known her.
Dr. Kass with
his 1928 Mighty
Wurlitzer
Theater pipe
organ
64
Were you always interested in music from that era?
There was always music playing in t he house
when I was growing up, everything from classical
to popular. I loved the music from the swing era
and the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. Composers like Cole
Porter and Irving Berlin exemplify the very best
in American popular music, and the songs they
created are remembered with such nostalgia.
I’ve always had a special admiration for the
music of that era and the history of radio guided
by a soundtrack. I founded a museum dedicated to
radio broadcasting history 15 years ago – the John
Milton Williams Museum of Radio Broadcasting
History. My wife and I were able to purchase the
History of Radio Exhibition, which was in the NBC
Exhibit Hall in the RCA Pavilion at the 1939 World’s
Fair. John Milton Williams was an announcer
and actor on NBC, and a good friend of Joseph
D’Agostino, who was the director of special exhibits
for NBC. When the fair closed, the collection –
all these wonderful, vintage microphones and
historically significant artifacts – were moved to
what was intended to be a permanent home at the
NBC’s Radio City Studios. However, when NBC’s
focus shifted from radio to color television, the
exhibit was scheduled to be closed and demolished.
John Milton Williams offered to serve as the
conservator of the collection for many years, and
in 2000, my wife and I got word that he would be
willing to part with the items. We made him an
offer he couldn’t refuse: We promised to name the
museum after him and to never sell a single piece of
the collection.
We built a rotunda for the collection in our
home, opened up the museum for visitors, and
many thousands of people have seen it over the
past 15 years. To my knowledge, it is the only
place that one can tour the history of radio. For
me, the most valuable treasures in the collection
are the vintage microphones. The microphone
represents the connection between the performer
and the rest of the world.
ASH Clinical News
Did that help give you inspiration for your
songwriting?
My wife, Sara, is the inspiration for all of the
songs that I write. I dedicate all my songs and
performances to her. We
founded our theatrical
production company,
Razzmatazz Productions,
25 years ago. We record and
release the many albums
I’ve made over the years; it
must be close to 100 albums by now. Sara was
influential in this venture, too, even providing the
inspiration for the logo.
Certain days I wake up and hear a song lyric
with everything all laid out; other days it’s just
not there. It’s not really under my control, but I do
have a theory that there are sounds, patterns, and
harmonies that are free-floating and, for unknown
reasons, they somehow come together at one
point. That’s when I know I have the beginning of a
song. I wish it would happen more often.
I can’t force a song to come. Most of the time,
I come up with a melody first. I try to capture the
feeling of an old standard, and then the lyrics tend to
follow the music. Either way, I love doing them both.
How did you get started writing staged musicals?
In 2013, I wrote a musical called “Tuning In,” which
was directed and choreographed by Tony-nominee
and Emmy-winner George Pinney, chairman of
the Department of Musical Theater and professor
of Stage Movement at Indiana University, and
with music direction by Terry LaBolt, who was an
acclaimed Broadway conductor before coming to
Indiana University. Cleveland-based showman Ron
Newell was my co-librettist.
“Tuning In” was a great, thrilling experience; it
was an original idea, and I wrote 25 original songs
performed by a 24-person cast and a 14-piece
orchestra with strings. About six months after
completing “Tuning In,” I started getting the itch
to start something else.
It’s hard to say where “Front Page Flo”
originated. In Toledo, Ohio, where I grew up, I
was the editor of the high school newspaper and
then worked at the local newspaper, so I knew
something about the newspaper business. The
pandemonium that went on when there was a big
story afoot seemed to be a perfect story to put to
music. I shared the idea with my wife, but told her
I was struggling with the ending. Without blinking
an eye, she rattled off the ending. I asked her,
“How did you ever come up with that?” She said,
“Well, all of life is a soap opera!”
So, Sara and I put the story together. I wrote
24 original songs for it and sent the material to
George Pinney and Terry LaBolt. They mulled it
over and asked if I could change the setting to the
1940s. That, of course, meant rewriting those 24
songs. But, that’s what you have to be prepared for
in musical theater.
In about five weeks, I re-wrote all of the
songs with the new setting, and then it began
to take off. George became co-librettist
and director-choreographer; Terry created
orchestrations as music director; and MaryAnn
Black joined as co-choreographer. It was
amazing. The creative process was just as
intense as ever, maybe even more so. It was a
thrill to watch the show take shape.
What do you enjoy most about songwriting and
composing?
I love working with the unknown. I think there are
all kinds of musical sounds and combinations,
harmonies, and patterns free-floating in the mind
of any songwriter. At those points when they come
together into a song, it’s wonderful. Many times,
I don’t know how it will turn out, and there are
plenty of times when I will be struggling with a
song and it just won’t come out.
It’s exhilarating to bring something that has
not existed before into existence, but you can’t
always predict when that will happen. Working
in any kind of creative activity, whether it’s
songwriting or painting or seeing new things under
the laboratory microscope, means working in an
area where no man has gone before.
I also love working and collaborating with show
people – or theatrical wonders, as I call them. I
have such admiration for them.
Did you ever imagine pursuing a career in music,
or were you always set on medicine?
The thought crossed my mind, but I never seriously
entertained it. As far back as I can remember, I
wanted to be a physician. Even though my father
was a pediatr ician, he never pushed me to follow
in his footsteps. I think I became interested in
medicine by sheer force of example.
Like with music, I loved hematology from the
moment I was introduced to it. I had never looked
at a blood smear under the microscope until a
histology class in the first semester of medical
school. Everything clicked when I finally did. I had
never seen anything like it before; I knew that
hematology was going to be my life in medicine.
And, after 56 years, it hasn’t stopped. ●
September 2016