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April 12, 2012 at 9:21 pm #146103Rachel RedmanParticipant
With the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking approaching on April 15, I’ve been reading survivors’ stories, and I found this one today:
http://www.webtitanic.net/framemusic.html
Amazing to read the story of some very dedicated musicians. One survivor said that it was beyond him, how the band could continue to play music, knowing that they were sinking.
April 12, 2012 at 10:53 pm #146104Jessica AParticipantYes, that is amazing.
April 12, 2012 at 11:54 pm #146105kreig-kittsMemberMy theory is that a wedding planner on board told them it would be great exposure.
April 13, 2012 at 10:04 pm #146106sherry-lenoxParticipantFunniest line of 2012.
April 13, 2012 at 10:45 pm #146107AlisonParticipantMy guess is that harps don’t float and I hope nobody knows….!
April 14, 2012 at 2:20 am #146108carl-swansonParticipantI was watching a program last night about the Titanic and heard something appalling. Apparently when the White Star line go a telegraph that the boat was about to sink, they quickly fired all of the staff on the boat so that they would not have to pay benefits to surviving relatives! Unbelievable. When the whole debacle eventually went to court, the courts overruled White Star and ordered that benefits be paid to surviving family anyway. This is apparently a true story.
April 14, 2012 at 2:49 am #146109barbara-brundageParticipantThe musicians lost their status long before that. In a story that will be familiar to many professional musicians, for several years the musicians contracted directly with the White Star Line. Then a big agency came along and persuaded the company they could do the music cheaper. The agency got an exclusive and immediately turned around and told all the existing musicians that if they wanted to keep the gig they’d be working for the agency at a much-reduced pay scale.
Now in order to be legally under the captain’s command, the musicians were still getting a very small token payment from the line as well (something like a shilling, if I remember correctly). So the musicians’ union made a direct appeal to the White Star Line to do right by these poor guys. They responded by not giving them the shilling anymore so they no longer had any kind of quasi-crew status at all, although they were still bound by all the restrictions of crew members.
After the ship sank, when tributes to the courage of the musicians were pouring in from all over the world, there was a letter from the agency, too. It was a demand for payment for the parts of their uniforms that hadn’t been fully paid for yet.
Walter Lord, who wrote the classic A Night to Remember, wrote a less well known collection of essays (The Night Lives On) after the finding of the Titanic in 1985, in which he revisited a lot of things where his opinion had changed since he wrote the first book back in the 1950s. One chapter is devoted to the musicians. It’s very interesting reading.
April 14, 2012 at 2:50 am #146110barbara-brundageParticipantOh, and the musicians’ families got nothing from the courts except sympathy.
April 14, 2012 at 3:08 am #146111barbara-brundageParticipant> the musicians’ union made a direct appeal
This was well before the Titanic sailed, just to be clear, not while it was sinking. They tried on behalf of all the White Star Line musicians, not just those on the Titanic.
April 14, 2012 at 1:29 pm #146112jessica-wolffParticipantWhat my mother would have called a “Schweinerei.” Nowadays with computers blasting news all over the place I don’t think they would dare try such sleazy tricks.
April 14, 2012 at 8:46 pm #146113emma-grahamParticipantThere’s more info on the bandleader including photos of his funeral and memorial here:
http://www.pendle.net/WallaceHartley/May 9, 2012 at 12:09 am #146114Pat EisenbergerParticipantAnyone else here know the old Harry Chapin song, “Dance Band on the Titanic?” That was in my head the whole week of the 100th anniversary.
“Well, they soon used up all of the lifeboats
But there were a lot of us left on board
I heard the drummer sayin’ “Boys, just keep playin'”
“Now we’re doin’ this gig for the Lord”Jesus Christ can walk on the water
But a music man will drown
They say that Nero fiddled while Rome burned up
Well, I was strummin’ as the ship go down..I heard the dance band on the Titanic
Sing “Nearer, my God, to Thee”
The iceberg’s on the starboard bow
Won’t you dance with me”
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