NINETY MEN AND A GIRL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 101, 30 May 1941, Page 42

NINETY MEN AND A GIRL

| SHALL not forget my first impression of Winifred Carter. I had gone over to 2YA to interview her, and as I approached the door of her room I could hear the sounds of a harp. My knock was unheard, so I gently pushed open the door and stood unseen in the doorway while she continued her playing. Up. till then I had always disliked harp players-I hated the way their fingers plucked claw-like at the strings — but Miss Carter’s playing was a revelation. Her fingers glided over the coloured strings with a smooth effortless motion, and the whole effect was one of grace and beauty. Her slim, black-clad back was towards me, surmounted by a tiptilted hat’ with a provocative blackspotted veil through which her fair hair shone. Rather unusual wear for a harpist, I felt, accustomed as I was to visions of floating draperies and otherworldly facial expressions. Miss Carter turned the last sheet of the music, and in doing so noticed me

standing in the doorway. With a single swift movement she drew me into the room and sat down beside me on the settee, Aimee’s Angel *‘T’ve never met anyone who played the harp before," I confessed. "One usually begins and ends (at an early age in my case) with the piano." "Well," began Miss Carter, "my father and his father before him played the harp. When I was ten my father gave me a little Irish harp of my. own. Later I gained a scholarship to the Melbourne Conservatorium and gave many concerts in Sydney and Melbourne. It was at one of these concerts that Aimée Semple McPherson, the famous woman evangelist, first saw me, and insisted upon dragging me to America with her. Well, not exactly with her. I followed later. I remember her meeting me at the station with five hundred people and driving me to her Temple in a snow-white car. All publicity, of course, but good publicity." "Weren’t you known as Aimée McPherson’s angel?" "Yes, that was my official position. Aimée had built a wonderful temple, ‘Echo Park’ in Los Angeles. It seated 5,000 and was packed every night of

the week. I used to sit on the platform playing the harp while below me thousands of people rocked in an ecstasy of spiritual abandonment. It was an amazing experience." She Used Her Imagination "Did you know Aimée very well? What was she really like?" "Yes, I actually lived with her for the twelve months we were together, sc I suppose I knew her as well as anybody could, but she’s extraordinarily difficult to describe-except for the fact that when I first knew her she was a brunette. Just saying that she was temperamental or had a very magnetic personality doesn’t really explain the extraordinary effect she had on people, But she was a delightful person to live with-she had such a capacity for enjoying simple things. She would shriek with delight at the prospect of a picnic or a swim, and she had a wonderful imagination. She certainly made good use of it." We both laughed. "After I had been with Aimée for a year I became harpist in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and so our ways parted. I was with the Symphony Ore (Continued on next page)

(Continued ‘from previous page) chestra for sixteen years, and my whole life was bounded by it. I lived in a hotel just opposite the Symphony Hall. The days were spent in rehearsals and the nights in concert work." "And week-ends?" "On Sunday nights we used to play for the Ford Sunday Evening Hour, which is perhaps the most famous of broadcast programmes. That photo over there is a candid camera shot of me and Eugene Ormandy the conductor (you’ve probably seen his name on records) bending over a score at one of these concerts. Dressing In A Harp-Case "One of these days I’d like to give a series of talks called ‘Adventures With A Harp.’ I had a wonderful time with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It was rather amusing being the only woman among ninety men, especially when we went on tour, and a single compartment had to serve as dressingroom for the whole orchestra. But my harp-case served as dressing-room and wardrobe for me. I met so many interesting people in connection with my orchestral work. I have played harp accompaniments for many famous people, including Nelson Eddy and Deanna Durbin." "Isn’t it rather an anti-climax coming back to New Zealand?" "Oh, no. It’s just wonderful being home. And I’m /looking forward to my work here. Henri Penn and I are planning to present several works not often performed in New Zealand. And I am working out ways in which the harp can be used both by itself and in combination with other instruments. Since the days of the minstrels it has been rather neglected, but I’m planning harp solos, and concerts for harp and piano, and harp and voice. American Women Aren’t Catty "Tell me something about the women of America," I asked. "What chiefly impressed you about them?" "The fact that they are never catty." "That isn’t the impression one gets from a play such as The Women." "That, of course, gives a very false picture of the average American woman. Not. that American women are fundamentally kinder than we New Zealanders. It’s just that they regard beauty. as so important, and by behaving in an ugly manner they feel that they betray their conception of beauty. It’s one aspect of the magazine philosophy that if you live beautifully you grow beautiful, It’s a case of the means being far more worthwhile than the end. "Another thing that one notices about American women is that they never allow themselves to slip, physically or mentally, when they reach middle age. Women in New Zealand tend to: sit with folded hands once they’ve brought up their family and to regard their work as done. But in America it’s quite usual for a woman of fifty to take up a completely new course of study. They never allow themselves to become kitchenminded though they may become tinopener minded. But the women of America are culturally awake to a much greater extent than we in New Zealand. Almost every woman belongs to some form of club, and these clubs are responsible for much of the cultural life of America. They arrange lecture tours, art exhibitions, symphony concerts, and/

educational broadcasts on every possible subject. The American woman takes a pride in being abreast of modern thought, and long past middle age she keeps the enthusiasm of youth in her eyes and heart. I feel that this is one very important thing which we in New Zealand can learn from our allies, the women of America."