Mr. Hume and Mr. Dragon

Mr. Paul Hume of the Washington Post, a somewhat provincial music critic, became a national figure by assessing Margaret Truman’s singing in honest terms—as a third-rate product with a first-class mailing address. This was lèse majesté among commercializing Democrats, but it would have gone unnoticed had not Harry S., full of the joie de vivre which cometh not from branch water, written a letter threatening to visit a particular kind of mayhem on Hume. The press had some fun with the episode.

Since then Paul Hume has marked himself down as something of a cross between James Huneker and Bernard Shaw. That estimable and civicminded organization, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, has felt the backlash of Hume’s reviews—and there are rumors in the capital that when he does not like a performance he asks for equal time.

RT

About the Author

Ralph de Toledano

Featured Tags

Mr. Paul Hume of the Washington Post, a somewhat provincial music critic, became a national figure by assessing Margaret Truman’s singing in honest terms—as a third-rate product with a first-class mailing address. This was lèse majesté among commercializing Democrats, but it would have gone unnoticed had not Harry S., full of the joie de vivre which cometh not from branch water, written a letter threatening to visit a particular kind of mayhem on Hume. The press had some fun with the episode.

Since then Paul Hume has marked himself down as something of a cross between James Huneker and Bernard Shaw. That estimable and civicminded organization, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, has felt the backlash of Hume’s reviews—and there are rumors in the capital that when he does not like a performance he asks for equal time.