Reginald Foort

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.

Speaker 30:31

This week I'm happy to introduce as our castaway an old friend paying us a rare visit, the organist Reginald Ford.

Speaker 30:39

Already, it seems a pity now that you've visited us after so long to ship you straight off to a desert island. Do you think you would have the

Speaker 30:47

inner resources to endure solitude.

Reginald Foort0:49

For a long time.

Reginald Foort0:50

I wouldn't know, but I'd be prepared to try.

Reginald Foort0:54

because um I've had a pretty wide experience of life and doing all kinds of things, and I did five years in the British Navy uh years ago in World War One, and that ought to have some effect in training one to find one's way about, even on a desert island.

Reginald Foort1:11

Can you think of any one compensation, one thing that you really would be happiest to have got away from?

Reginald Foort1:17

Well, the first thing that comes to mind, of course, is income tax. Yes, yes, it does come to mind, doesn't it? But there must be lots of other things that would be nice to get away from for a time. It would be marvelous to

Speaker 11:22

But the master

Reginald Foort1:29

Have a bit of real

Reginald Foort1:30

Plenty of spare time in solitary to kind of do a bit of.

Reginald Foort1:35

Deep thinking. When you chose your

Speaker 31:37

Eight red.

Reginald Foort1:38

Uh

Speaker 31:38

Records to take

Reginald Foort1:39

Uh

Speaker 31:39

Into exile.

Reginald Foort1:40

Where are you working? Ready, plan?

Reginald Foort1:42

No, I don't think so. Um I have a very wide love of every kind of music.

Reginald Foort1:49

And I tried to pick and choose to get as much possible variety as I could. I liked ballet and orchestras and symphonies and classic and pop and every kind of thing.

Reginald Foort2:04

And so I just kind of glanced through the record catalogue and

Reginald Foort2:09

I picked up this and that and here it is. What's the first one?

Reginald Foort2:12

The first one is Sheratz Data.

Reginald Foort2:15

by Rimsky Korsikov, and the reason I love that so much is because I used to be a great enthusiast for those marvelous diagonal

Speaker 12:21

Great.

Reginald Foort2:24

ballets with their wonderful colouring and absolute virility and everything else.

Speaker 33:27

An excerpt from Sheherazad by Rimsky Korsakov, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beacham.

Reginald Foort3:33

Yeah.

Speaker 33:33

What does

Reginald Foort3:34

Second record.

Reginald Foort3:35

My second record is the Beethoven Violin Concerto played by Fritz Chrysler. Yes. Why do you choose that work and that particular soloist? Well, I've always thought of him as the greatest of all great performers and

Reginald Foort3:50

That particular work I've always loved and I have a most happy memory of Chrysler when he came back for the first time after World War I, during which we had all kinds of rumors that he was serving in the German army, the Austrian army. He'd been killed, he'd lost his right arm, he'd lost his left arm. And suddenly in early September 1919, there's an announcement in the paper, a concert by Chrysler at Queen's Hall, at which he's playing three concertos. And I haired down as quickly as I possibly could. And I think I got one of the last dozen tickets. I've never had a memory like that.

Reginald Foort4:27

They absolutely gave him a standing ovation for fifteen minutes when he appeared, and he had to stand there with the tears streaming down his face before he could start playing.

Speaker 14:32

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 44:40

Uh

Speaker 35:36

The beginning of the last movement of Beethoven's violin concerto, Fritz Chrysler, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barber Ron.

Speaker 35:44

Ready Yeah.

Reginald Foort5:45

What part of the country do you come from?

Reginald Foort5:47

I was born right in the Midlands of a little town called Dattentree.

Reginald Foort5:51

And I presume you come from a musical family, because I know you started very early. Yes, I do. My mother was partly Welsh and very a great natural musician, and my father was a farmer's boy who always wanted to be an organist.

Reginald Foort6:05

And in those days it was very difficult to get education and to get a chance to play the organ and so on. So he had a good try, but he didn't succeed in making a go of it. And so naturally, when his son came along, he was destined to be an organist even before he was born. Yes. When did you start playing the organist?

Reginald Foort6:23

Well, I was about 11.

Reginald Foort6:26

And then when I was 12, I was lucky enough to be put under one of the greatest organ teachers of the time, Dr. Battle Johnson, who was musical director of Rugby School, because by that time we'd moved to Rugby. And I had four marvellous years with him. And then I went on to the Royal College of Music and had four years under Sir Walter Parrish.

Speaker 36:47

Yeah.

Reginald Foort6:47

At that time you had a post as organist in London. Oh yes, I was lucky enough to drop into St Mary's Bryanston Square while I was still a student.

Reginald Foort6:56

You talked about your first World War service with the Royal Navy. You saw a lot of action on those days. Well, there wasn't much action, of course, at all with the Grand Fleet, except the greatest of all, which was the Battle of Jutland. And I was lucky enough

Reginald Foort7:11

I suppose I was lucky enough to have a grand circle view by being up in the foretop, right through the action. The foretop is that.

Reginald Foort7:19

Kind of cage on the top of the tripod mast, and I could see the whole Grand Fleet spread out from one horizon to the other. We were three ships astern of the Iron Duke.

Speaker 37:29

Yeah.

Speaker 37:30

Mm.

Reginald Foort7:31

When the war was over?

Reginald Foort7:33

Well when the war was over I was I finished by being naval boarding officer out in West Africa handling all the convoys which used to accumulate in Sierra Leone where there's a marvelous harbor.

Reginald Foort7:45

And I got rather stuck out there for quite a long time before I could get away. But I got back to England and was discharged around about July 1919. Did you go back to your church? Oh, yes. The church was marvellous. They not only kept the job open for me all the time I was away, but they paid me in full.

Reginald Foort8:04

And then when I came back I went straight back to the church and I also went back to working hard. I was most anxious to become a solo pianist in those days.

Reginald Foort8:14

I believe you started broadcasting in the days even before Savoy Hill. Yes, I did. Broadcasting started around October.

Reginald Foort8:24

1923. A bit before that, I know that I was invited to give a piano recital from the old Marconi studios in the Strand in October 1923. And believe it or not, the man who was in charge of the microphone actually held it by a handle in his hand all the time you were playing.

Reginald Foort8:43

Do you remember what your fee was?

Reginald Foort8:45

I think I did it for love. I don't think there was any fear attached to it.

Speaker 38:50

Yeah.

Reginald Foort8:51

Well then what happened?

Reginald Foort8:53

Well then after that I tried very hard to be a solo pianist but it wasn't easy to get a start in those days. You have to have so much more than just a lot of talent and many hours and hours of work and that was when they started to put these what I've always thought of as comic organs in movie theaters.

Speaker 39:12

Hmm.

Reginald Foort9:13

And I dropped right into that and took to it like a duck taking the water and I never looked back.

Speaker 39:13

Uh

Speaker 39:18

Yeah.

Reginald Foort9:18

Where did you start?

Reginald Foort9:20

I started in a theatre in Edinburgh, quite close to the Scott Memorial, right on Prince's Street.

Reginald Foort9:27

And uh I lived and worked on the organ day and night uh for the first seven or eight weeks, and then I was brought down to the new gallery, Kinemine, Regent Street. When did you first broadcast on that new gallery?

Speaker 39:39

Uh

Reginald Foort9:40

Okay.

Speaker 39:40

Yeah.

Reginald Foort9:40

The broadcast then was in

Reginald Foort9:43

June nineteen twenty six.

Speaker 39:47

Well, let's break off at this point for your third record. What should we have?

Reginald Foort9:51

Um

Reginald Foort9:52

I think we ought to have some rhythm because I just, although I love classical music, I love good rhythm records as well. Let's have lullaby of Broadway.

Speaker 310:31

Alibi of Broadway by Joe Lawson is author.

Speaker 310:34

Now that first organ broadcast from the New Gallery Cinema, the first of thousands, you began recording

Reginald Foort10:40

Yeah.

Speaker 310:40

You would enjoy it.

Reginald Foort10:41

Yes, right in the same month.

Reginald Foort10:43

And through broadcasting, I found that the people all over this near part of the continent used to listen to the BBC much more than to their own station. And I found I was just as well known in Italy and France, Paris, I played there for quite a bit, and Holland, where I've been 29 times, had a marvelous time, and Denmark and Germany and

Reginald Foort11:11

all all over Sweden even.

Speaker 311:13

Yeah.

Speaker 311:14

Yeah.

Reginald Foort11:14

I am in the middle. Thirties, I think it was. became the beat. DC's resident

Speaker 311:17

Uh

Reginald Foort11:18

Oh, that was a wonderful piece of luck for me that I was chosen to be the staff organist of this.

Reginald Foort11:25

Absolutely famous organ. It was our beautiful organ, the best ever made by that particular company, and it caught right on right away. People loved it.

Speaker 311:34

Yeah.

Reginald Foort11:34

Viewer

Speaker 311:34

voted, I I believe it was in a a Daily Express poll as the most popular broadcaster of any kind, including comedians and dance band leaders and and the whole lot.

Speaker 311:44

Yeah.

Reginald Foort11:44

It's quite true, I was. The whole thing was handled by Jonah Barrington, and I went down to see him at the Daily Express.

Reginald Foort11:52

And he chatted away and said, By the way, how do you get on with Sir John Reeve?

Reginald Foort11:56

And I said, well, as a matter of fact, I've never met him.

Reginald Foort12:00

And when the Daily Express came out the next morning and I've still got the copy,

Reginald Foort12:04

Famous ace organist has never met his boss.

Speaker 312:09

Yeah.

Speaker 312:11

When you left the BBC in 1938, I know you had planned a very sensational tour.

Reginald Foort12:18

Uh Yeah.

Speaker 312:18

Uh

Reginald Foort12:18

As a follow-up. Yes, I heard. We decided to go out on tour with a big traveling pipe organ, and we let ourselves really go on it and really design one that was much unnecessarily too big. But you did have to have a big organ if you're going round, because you'd be very much in competition with the various big theatre organs in the provincial cities you went to. So we had to have a big one. And so we finally finished up with a five-manual.

Reginald Foort12:44

thirty ton organ. I can't tell you how many pipes it had, over two thousand. And we used to have to go around in five thirty foot lorries. And I had a marvelous staff of

Speaker 312:57

Yeah.

Reginald Foort12:58

Uh fifteen

Speaker 312:58

Yes, I remember the finale of that act when the the front casing of of the swell chamber was flown up and we saw that amazing sight of two thousand glistening pipes.

Speaker 313:09

Well then the war came and and it was rather difficult to transport that organ round the country.

Reginald Foort13:14

Well, when the war started, we gave up the idea altogether for a few weeks. And then when we found the bombs didn't come, we left about one-third of the organ behind and went out on tour again. But unfortunately, I went on too long, and we traveled right into the middle of the, right through the blitz. I've actually played it in Liverpool Empire Theatre with three incendiaries burning in the roof.

Reginald Foort13:36

And bombs dropping all around for 10 hours. And it was really most unpleasant, to be frank. Well, the BBC took over the organ. When the BBC's own organ, the old one that I'd been organist of, was destroyed in one of the very early air raids. As soon as I heard about that, I said to myself, here's my opportunity to get my organ out of danger and off the road, because while we were traveling in wartime, nobody would insure it. And so I offered it to the BBC, and they jumped at the idea of getting a really beautiful, great big pipe organ that you could put anywhere. And they said,

Speaker 114:09

Anyway

Reginald Foort14:10

Yes, please, send it up to North Wales. So we sent it up to North Wales and they put it in the theatre up there.

Speaker 114:12

Uh

Reginald Foort14:16

And that became the BBC Theatre All.

Reginald Foort14:19

They had it right through to the end of the war, and it did an average of 12 broadcasts a week for the rest of the war.

Reginald Foort14:26

And then at the end of the war, the BBC couldn't get another pipe organ built by anybody for delivery under four years. And I had to get my organ off the road because it was by that time a white elephant. Vaudeville had probably died out. And so we came to an agreement and they bought it for a fair price. And it became the official BBC organ installed in Jubilee Chapel on the south side. And it was...

Reginald Foort14:52

They had it for 25 years.

Reginald Foort14:56

Let's have a record number four now.

Reginald Foort14:59

This one is sung by a very, very

Reginald Foort15:03

Great, great friend of mine, Edel Nash, singing Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen.

Speaker 415:12

Among the light of the mean shot of Your death of the light of such let off in you.

Speaker 115:19

I think.

Speaker 415:29

Oh, listen, pretty maiden, while I hurl you in our time.

Speaker 315:38

Edelnaff

Speaker 315:40

I'll read you 20 years ago you decided to emigrate to the United States. Why was that?

Reginald Foort15:46

It was due to quite a number of causes. First of all, to be quite frank, I wouldn't be happy earning my living as a teacher. I love teaching and odd.

Reginald Foort15:56

Really talented pupil, but you can't live on that. And if I had to teach from nine in the morning till six at night, I'd be miserable.

Reginald Foort16:03

All the theatre organs by that time were

Reginald Foort16:08

out of action so that I couldn't get a job as a theatre organist.

Reginald Foort16:12

And now I got this offer to go off to America.

Reginald Foort16:15

And I'd been there quite a number of times previously as a visitor and rather loved the country. I got an offer to go there with a definite job to go to as vice president of the pipe organ company.

Reginald Foort16:28

And so we pulled up our hooks and moved out there, the whole family. Yes, where were you?

Reginald Foort16:33

Well, we started in Virginia and I was there for not a very long time. And later on, we moved on up to Chicago, where I had a marvelous job as head demonstrator of the organs for the whole of the Midwest. And we lived in Chicago for 15 years, and we found it a delightful place. It's a lovely city. Unfortunately, it gets down to below zero in January and February.

Speaker 317:00

Yeah.

Reginald Foort17:00

But the rest of the year is pretty sunny and mostly nice weather. It's known as the Windy City, but

Reginald Foort17:06

That's not for bed, really. Where do you base not?

Reginald Foort17:09

Well, that the whole thing in a nutshell is that after I'd been in Chicago 15 years, the company suddenly put on an age limit, so we had to retire. And we'd been down to Florida several times on vacation, so we said, let's go and live in Florida. So we now live in Florida. And you're very busy down there. You you're you're playing in a church?

Reginald Foort17:32

Yes, I'm the lucky man who did what all the organists dream to do. I managed to find two churches, or rather a church

Reginald Foort17:39

a Presbyterian church to play in on Sunday mornings, and a nice big, liberal Jewish temple to play in on Friday nights, Friday evenings and Saturday mornings.

Speaker 317:50

Splendid. Are both your children?

Reginald Foort17:52

Children are over there. Of course, they must be grown up now. Oh, yes, they are. My son still lives in the Chicago area.

Reginald Foort17:59

And my daughter, why she couldn't marry a Chicago man, I don't know, but she married a Boston man. So she's just outside Boston and they're very happily settled down. She has three wonderful children there.

Speaker 318:10

And now you've been over here in Britain on a tour and a lot of people have been

Reginald Foort18:15

I'm glad to see you back. Oh, but I've been awfully glad to see all my old friends.

Reginald Foort18:20

Let's have record number five.

Reginald Foort18:22

This one is by a brother organist, an American brother organist, and he's the most fantastic player that ever was, a fellow called George Wright.

Reginald Foort18:33

He can do more, I think, with a big theatre organ than all the rest of us with both hands and our feet. I've never heard anything like it. He's a great friend of mine personally.

Speaker 118:38

Yeah.

Reginald Foort18:42

And the one we're going to play is incredible arrangement that he's made of dancing tambourine.

Speaker 419:07

Uh

Speaker 319:20

George Wright playing dancing tambourine. What next?

Reginald Foort19:24

Well now our next is

Reginald Foort19:26

One of the greatest or the greatest of all ever British composers, Elgar.

Reginald Foort19:32

And his greatest work of all, which has made him famous all over the world, The Enigma Variations.

Reginald Foort19:38

And the one we're going to play is Nimrod.

Speaker 320:43

The latter part of Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations, Pierre Monteur conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Speaker 320:50

Now, as an ex sailor, would you be all right as a castaway? You could look after

Reginald Foort20:54

Yes, I think.

Speaker 320:54

Huh?

Reginald Foort20:54

Yeah.

Speaker 320:55

Yeah.

Reginald Foort20:55

I don't know. I think I would, probably. I if I had to, I'd have to, and I certainly would uh do the best I could to keep going. Yes, you could build a shelter of some sort. Well, I'm sure I could do that.

Speaker 321:07

Uh

Reginald Foort21:07

Um

Reginald Foort21:08

Live off the land, you can get

Speaker 321:09

Extra food of some sort.

Reginald Foort21:11

Pushing?

Reginald Foort21:13

I suppose so, yes. I never was any good as a fisherman. As soon as I

Reginald Foort21:18

put a hook in the water with some bait on it, all the fish fly off in the opposite direction. But it might be different if my life depended on it. Would you try to escape?

Reginald Foort21:28

Of course I would, but if you're really out on a desert island, it's going to take a

Reginald Foort21:35

It depends if you've got any tools. If you were lucky enough to manage to get some tools, you might start trying to make a boat.

Reginald Foort21:42

But I should think it would be impossible to build any kind of a raft that would be of any value to get anywhere, because you wouldn't have a motor to drive you along.

Reginald Foort21:53

I suppose you could make a bit of a rough mast in a sail.

Reginald Foort21:57

I think you'll show admirable caution, Reggie. Let's get on with record number seven.

Speaker 321:59

Let's get on with record number seven.

Reginald Foort22:02

Number seven is my absolutely most favorite piece of Mozart, the Symphony in G minor.

Speaker 323:08

The opening of Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor, Sir Thomas Beacham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Speaker 323:15

And now we come to your last record. What's that?

Reginald Foort23:19

I'm sure you couldn't possibly make the last record anything other than The Messiah.

Reginald Foort23:25

How out of the work are we going to hear?

Reginald Foort23:28

Oh, the only possible part the hallelujah chorus.

Speaker 324:29

The hallelujah chorus

Speaker 324:31

The Haddersfield Choral Society and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Speaker 324:37

Reggie, if you could take just one of these eight records with you, which would it be?

Reginald Foort24:44

Oh, that's a difficult question.

Reginald Foort24:47

I think I'd cheat and choose the lullaby of Broadway, not because I like that best of all, but because that must be one in a a double sided record and I'd have a whole lot of extra music to think about that I wouldn't have if I took any of the single numbers.

Reginald Foort25:05

And one luxury to take with you?

Reginald Foort25:09

Could I have some kind of an organ to play?

Speaker 325:11

Uh

Reginald Foort25:11

Yeah.

Speaker 325:11

Uh Yeah, so I don't know what we're gonna power it with.

Reginald Foort25:14

So that's what I was wondering.

Speaker 325:15

Cellular batteries, yes, of course you can.

Speaker 325:18

All right. You can have that big molar organ you used to tour, all thirty tons of it, if we can find out where it is. It's in Holland, Mr. Holland, in Helveson. We'll get it moved for you.

Reginald Foort25:25

Yeah.

Speaker 325:28

And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Reginald Foort25:34

I don't know. On a desert island I think you'd get awfully tired of any single book. What about?

Reginald Foort25:41

Uh some copies of the reader's digest.

Reginald Foort25:44

Which is pretty varied in scope. All right. A file of backdoor.

Speaker 325:48

Numbers.

Reginald Foort25:49

Yeah.

Speaker 325:49

Yeah.

Reginald Foort25:50

Yeah.

Speaker 325:51

And thank you, Reginald Fort, for letting us hear your desert islanders. Come back and see us again soon. Thank you very much. Love to.

Speaker 325:59

Goodbye everyone.