 The Cavalcade of Music presented by Dupont. The Dupont Cavalcade of Music had scheduled a program of the songs of Richard Rogers. The music of George Gershwin had been scheduled for next Wednesday. But day before yesterday, Monday the 12th of July, newspapers all over the world headlined this unhappy fact. George Gershwin has gone. And so, this evening, our program presented by Don Borey's and the Dupont Cavalcade Orchestra with Conrad Tebow as guest soloist will be a special tribute to George Gershwin, a young man whose tunes brought joy to America even as they lifted our so-called popular music to a new level. For George Gershwin was our leading interpreter of what is called the Jazz Idiom. Not a musician in the land will forget that day in 1923 when Gershwin completed a composition for Paul Whiteman to play before an audience of critical music lovers in Aeolian Hall, New York an auditorium dedicated only to classical music. Rhapsody in Blue was a milestone in the development of American popular music. For about that time, richer arrangements and more elaborate orchestrations began to have their day. But George Gershwin was already known before he wrote the Rhapsody. Just out of his teens, he composed a number that Al Jolson sang in the musical show Sinbad. George Gershwin's first big hit, Swani. At 18 years old in 1915, the boy whose piano lessons were paid for by his mother at the rate of 50 cents an hour went to work for a New York music publisher named Remican Sons for $15 a week. Eight to ten hours a day, he plugged away at the piano, promoting the company's songs all over the city. But even then, he had the urge to compose. He wrote many a number that went unpublished, but those tunes were stored away by young Gershwin for possible future use. And one appeared in the early 20s as a hit of his score of George White Scandals. Its name was Somebody Loves Me, and it's still a favorite. Ever since those early 20s, George Gershwin was an established success. But not until several years later did he actually lead a theater orchestra in a performance of one of his own shows. On Christmas night, 1929, in Boston, he climbed into the pit and conducted a performance of Strike Up the Band, a musical that contained 28 Gershwin compositions. Among them was an appealing melody called Soon. Our guest soloist, Conrad Tebow, sings it. He wrote the music for many a successful stage show, of course. One of his earliest hits opened in Philadelphia on the night of November 17, 1924. Its name was Lady Be Good. It had an all-star cast, including Fred and Adela Stair, and one of its most popular dance numbers was this one. Fascinating rhythm. In the 1920s, there was a parade of successful musical shows with scores by George Gershwin. One of them was called OK. And in this production was an English girl named Gertrude Lawrence, who responded to many an encore with a Gershwin song, Someone to Watch Over Me. One of the critics at Paul Whiteman's Aeolian Hall Concert, Gershwin's versatility was established. In 1932, he wrote the score for a musical that won the Pulitzer Prize. He was amusing political satire called Of The I Sing, and it included the rhythmic melody Who Cares, which Conrad Tebow will sing for us now. Perhaps that's because the composer himself was unusually skillful at the instrument. Phil Wall, pianist with Don Voorhees and the DuPont Cavalcade Orchestra, is presented now in two numbers from the Gershwin score of a musical hit called Girl Crazy. The tunes are I Got Rhythm and Embraceable You. It's at work in Hollywood. Movie goers will remember the toe-tingling score he wrote for the recent Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers picture Shall We Dance. We'll hear three numbers from the score. I've got Beginner's Luck, Conrad Tebow singing They Can't Take That Away From Me, and the title song Shall We Dance. It's in heartbeats of his very native land and turned them into music. Music that was jazz touched with a magic wand of genius. Music that we won't forget. DuPont joins the nation in a tribute to George Gershwin. The legacy of melody he left to keep his works high in our country's cavalcade of music, and his name, an honored one, in the cavalcade of America, some lost island. It's human nature to get a thrill, but the important thing is what comes out of such searching. To the research chemist, there's something of the adventurer's thrill in explorations of science. But here again, the important thing is what useful products are found or developed. Take cellulose research, for example. Chemistry experimented with two natural materials, cotton and spruce wood, which supply this versatile substance in purest form. They explored possible uses for cellulose, and from it developed many useful products for all of us. They include transparent wrapping material to protect our foods, washable coated fabrics for greater economy and service, shatter-proof glass for added safety and dozens of others. Human needs served by such products whose base is cellulose, resulted in broader markets and better prices for the cotton grower and lumberman. Coal, the black diamond of the earth, also attracted the attention of research chemists. From it, they obtained a sticky substance called coal tar. Long research with this material resulted in chemical bases for perfume, bases for fast dyes, insecticides and many more products of everyday use. And there's salt. From research and salt, Dupont chemists have developed several types of disinfectants. Materials to case-hardened steel and refrigerants to preserve our foods. And sulfur, nature placed it in the earth, chemists developed ways of extracting it and putting it to work for all of us. For instance, sulfur is used in sprays to protect plant life from insect attack, and of course it's the principal ingredient of sulfuric acid, the most widely used chemical of all. Thus we see a few of many examples of how Dupont chemical research, which might be called scientific exploration, works for all of us by improving existing products and developing new ones from nature's own materials. This exploration is going on constantly and there are more explorers today than ever before. Dupont alone has hundreds of research chemists that work in its laboratories and their efforts resulting in advances that touch the daily lives of us all are always directed towards the goal described in the Dupont phrase, better things for better living through chemistry. Next week at the same time the Dupont cavalcade of music will present the program originally scheduled for this evening. The music of Richard Rogers, Conrad Thibault guest soloist with Don Borey's and the Dupont cavalcade orchestra. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.