STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“THEY SHALL HAVE MUSIC." Jascha Heifetz, world’s leading virtuoso, whose bowing and fingering of great compositions has been hailed throughout the musical world, was persuaded by Samuel Goldwyn to bring his genius to the screen and make his film debut in "They Shall | Have Music,” a moving and poignant story set in New York, which will be shown at the State Theatre tonight at 8 o’clock and again at 10.30 o'clock. The new picture also marks the debut of the California Junior Symphony Orchestra, comprised entirely of boys and girls picked for their musical precocity. The cast of “They Shall Have Music” features Andrea Leeds, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan, Gene Reynolds and Terry Kilbourne. The richly human story dramatised in this picture concerns Professor Lawson, played on the screen by Walter Brennan, and the school settlement which he runs for underprivileged children who have a talent for music. Since the professor is a happy-go-lucky idealist, with no sense of practicality or finance, the school is on the verge of bankruptcy. But with the arrival of Frankie, a slum boy, who has left home because of an irate stepfather, plans are hatched to save the school from the hands of the creditors and to give it a bright new start. Frankie plots and plans to get the great Heifetz, who is in New York for Carnegie Hall concerts, to become interested in the small settlement and to lend it his patronage. The group of talented children who play in the film with Mr Heifetz, were formerly identified as prodigies by no less musical authorities than Leopold Stokowski and Alfred Newman, both of whom have wielded the baton as their conductors. However, their history, how they came to the fore as a symphonic group, is the tale of their devotion to music and their mentor, Peter Meremblum, a gifted teacher of violin who built a trio and an idea into one of the outstanding children’s groups in the United States. Advance reports were that Heifetz was temperamental, hard to get along with, that he had to be handled with kid gloves. After two days studio workers were happy to report that the musician was the mbst co-operative person and the least temperamental of anyone in town. Andrea Leeds, remembered for her unforgettable performances in “Stage Door,” “The Goldwyn Follies,” and , “Letter of Introduction,” plays the role i of the professor’s daughter, while Joel i McCrea appears as her boy friend. 1 Supporting subjects are: “The Strug- ! gle for Life” (an outstanding short : subject giving graphic details of the activities of the League of Nations Committees and Research Committee in combating disease and promoting • the health of the peoples of the world), ( a'nd “A Trip to London” (songs at the . organ). j