Popular Song and Dance 1912

[Jim Kalafus]

>By far the safest method of dealing with unwanted visitors of all kinds was the strip of sticky fly paper suspended from the ceiling.

The kitchen in my Middle School cafeteria had them, blatantly visible for all to see.

 

[George L. Lorton]

Howdy Folks
Fly Paper! Sticky, yucky, icky fly paper. I too remember the blatant flypaper that would hang in a bouncy curl right above the heat trays where we young children would get our lunch for the day. My brother swore he saw a fly drop from the sticky paper right into the goulash. Of course he would chew his ice cream just to spit it up right in front of me and re-eat it. Because he knew that without a doubt I would go screaming from the room thoroughly grossed out.

 

[Dave Gittins]

My uncle once edited a fly paper.

 

[Kathy S]

I'm currently finishing Günter Bäbler’s Guide to the Crew of Titanic, and I was interested to see that on p. 133 he notes that "Before the First World War there were no saxophones played on British liners and the passengers would not dance."

Does anyone know why this is the case, or can someone point me in the right direction?

 

[Steven Christian]

I'm currently finishing Günter Bäbler’s Guide to the Crew of Titanic, and I was interested to see that on p. 133 he notes that "Before the First World War there were no saxophones played on British liners and the passengers would not dance."

Does anyone know why this is the case, or can someone point me in the right direction?

There really wasn't any place to hold a dance in 1st and 2nd class. I believe some survivors said there were no dances held on Titanic. The saxophone was associated with jazz and was considered vulgar by many in those days because of who played jazz music. Saxophones weren't included in orchestra's until fairly recently because classical music was set in it ways. Lots of blatant racism in those days. But I only know what I've read about it in the article I found. I tried to sum it up for you. You can read the whole thing and see what you think. Cheers.

Why Are There No Saxophones in Orchestras? – Soundfly

A quick historical deep dive on the journey of the saxophone from French military pride to jazz band spotlight, but never the symphonic orchestra.

flypaper.soundfly.com

 

[Kathy S]

That is so interesting; I'd had no idea. Thank you! And thanks for the link. I should have done a Google search, but I assumed I wouldn't be able to delineate the search terms properly (i.e., to yield any results). Appreciate it.

 

[Steven Christian]

That is so interesting; I'd had no idea. Thank you! And thanks for the link. I should have done a Google search, but I assumed I wouldn't be able to delineate the search terms properly (i.e., to yield any results). Appreciate it.

Your Welcome. I used the search term "why no saxophones in orchestras". There were many hits. I don't really know anything about musical instruments. But I did learn the first sax's were made of wood in the 1800's. That article touched on why I think WSL didn't have them in the days of Titanic but they eventually changed with times and had them later. As I said earlier from what I've read in the past there were no dances in 1st or 2nd class. Third class I've read both ways. I can't say for sure about 3rd class. Could have been just somebody dancing a jig with a pretty lady as they used to say in the old westerns. Cheers.

 

[Bart]

A saxophone (invented by mr Adophe Sax ) was a rather expensive instrument and had improvements from let's say 1850 until 1870. It was only used in the army. After the French-German war, it got somewhat forgotten. About 1900's, the saxophone was populair amongst some American clubs. In Europe musicians were supposed to play multiple instruments for a rather 'classical repertoire'. The leading class was fairly traditional and not very prone to accept new ideas and very opposed to changes. With all their privileges blown away after WWI, clubbing became more popular for them (they needn't hire an orchestra, could wine and dine in fancy restaurants instead of hosting themselves, etc... And all eyes began to turn to the USA way of living. So they adopted that lifestyle, and jazz was part of that. That's in a nutshell what happened.