In Montevideo, Uruguay, dictatorial Maestro Arturo Toscanini, nearing the end of a triumphal tour of South America, called his orchestra for a morning rehearsal on July 4. In the empty theatre he led his surprised men through The Star-Spangled Banner, waved a cheery greeting, dismissed them.
In Paris, Serge Lifar, director of the Paris Opera Ballet, whose "music-less" ballet Icarus created a teaspoon stir in the art world five years ago, revealed that Nazi Field Marshal Hermann Goring had invited him to stage a production in Berlin.
Announcing that the national defense tax, which...