Albert Spalding Historic Theatre Violinist Antique RPC Postcard

NP145  Antique postcard of Albert Spalding with lower handling indent and a couple of lighter but evident other handling places otherwise very good - graded good plus overall - please allow - However this postcard is scarce from 1916 (wartime frank) and real photo too.

His first American appearance as soloist came with the New York Symphony on November 8, 1908. Spalding received strongly opposing critical responses to his debut playing of the Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-SaÔøΩns. Although the New-York Tribune accused him of "rasping, raucous, snarling, unmusical sounds," Walter Damrosch (who conducted the performance) announced him as "the first great instrumentalist this country has produced." A year later he soloed with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra when that orchestra toured the United States. In 1916, he was recognized as a national honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music. Thomas Edison analyzed Spaldings tone with electronic equipment and found it to be the purest of any living violinist he had heard; this led to a twenty-year contract during which Spalding made over a hundred records. His burgeoning career was soon interrupted by World War I.  During the war Spalding served in the United States Army Air Service. successfully urged Spalding to accept an assignment with the Office of Strategic Services. He was posted to London, for six weeks, and then served in North Africa until he was ordered to Naples where he was attached to the Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF.  In 1944, Spalding gave a legendary concert to thousands of terrified refugees stranded in a cave near Naples during a bombing raid