James P. Johnson's signature tune for 1920s

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1923, the comedy team of Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles were the star attraction in a new musical called Runnin’ Wild, which opened at the Colonial Theater at Broadway and 62nd Street.

In their day, Miller and Lyles were the African-American equivalent of Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy. The plot they crafted for Runnin’ Wild, like many musical plots back then, was flimsy: two Southern con-men on the run head north to St. Paul, Minnesota, but find the natives too strange and the climate too cold. This plot provided an excuse for comic sketches to be sandwiched in between snappy song and dance numbers, the latter invariably involving leggy showgirls.

One dance number in the show struck gold for its composer, James P. Johnson.

Johnson called this tune Charleston, after the dockside home of many recent African-American immigrants to New York City’s west side. Scholars have traced this dance step back to the west side of Africa, however — an Ashanti Ancestor dance, to be exact. But whatever its source, this catchy rhythm made Johnson famous, and rapidly became the signature tune for the Roaring Twenties, a decade of flappers, bathtub gin, and all that jazz!

Music Played in Today's Program

James P. Johnson (1894-1955): Charleston; Leslie Stifelman, piano; Concordia Orchestra; Marin Alsop, conductor; MusicMasters 67140

On This Day

Premieres

• 1787 - Mozart: opera, Don Giovanni, in Prague at the Nationaltheater

• 1837 - Donizetti: opera, Roberto Devereux, at the Teatro San Carlos, in Naples

• 1920 - Edward Burlingame Hill: symphonic poem The Fall of the House of Usher (after Poe), by the Boston Symphony with Pierre Monteux conducting

• 1950 - Copland: Quartet for Piano and Strings, by the New York Quartet at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. at a Coolidge Festival concert. This work was commissioned by Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Coolidge Foundation.

• 1955 - Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1, by the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Svetlanov conducting, with David Oistrakh as the soloist

• 1956 - Bernstein: musical Candide (original version) in Boston as a trial run at the Colonial Theater, directed by Tyrone Guthrie and conducted by Samuel Krachmalnick. The show opened officially on New York at the Martin Beck Theater on December 1, 1956. According to Opera America magazine, this is one of the most frequently-produced American operas during the past decade

• 1966 - Milhaud: Music for Indiana, by the Indianapolis Symphony

• 1967 - Persichetti: Symphony No. 8, in Berea, Ohio, by the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory Orchestra, George Poinar conducting

• 1980 - Off Broadway premiere of Sondheim: revue Marry Me a Little (compiled from various Sondheim musicals)

Others

• 1734 - The famous Italian castrato Farinelli (Carlo Broschi) makes his debut in London at the opening performance of The Opera of the Nobility, a company formed to rival Handel’s Royal Academy (Gregorian date: Nov. 9). The performance takes place at the King's Theater in the Haymarket, formerly the home of Handel's company.

• 1739 - Handel advertises for subscriptions to his new set of Concertos, Op. 6 (Gregorian date: Nov. 9). They are published by John Walsh the younger on April 23 (Gregorian date: May 4) the following year.

• 1739 - Handel completes his Concerto Grosso No. 8 (see Julian date: Oct. 18)