Blasphemy was uttered last week: Maestro Arturo Toscanini was criticized out loud. Beaky, bespectacled Sigmund Spaeth, "Tune Detective," barbershop balladeer and general musical quidnunc, told a Los Angeles convention of the National Federation of Music Clubs:
"Much as I respect Toscanini as a musical genius, I am forced to regard him as a menace to American music. In preference to making some honest effort to discover first-rate American music, he plays the puerilities of tenth-rate Italian composers. He has been glorified until the public thinks no other symphonic conductor is worth listening to."
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