Sex and Booze and Symphonic Music....

Arrested Developments: The Darker Side of the Boston Symphony Orchestra 1917-1924 is the music-related program at the Franklin Historical Museum on this 'third Sunday,' May 18, at 1:15 pm.

The presenter, Dr. Jon Ceander Mitchell, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Boston, starts off with a 'scandal' involving German-born conductor, Karl Muck, who became the target of the rabidly-pro-British fabulist and`muckraker'  John R. Rathom, who accused Muck of refusing to play the Star Spangled Banner, raising a hue and cry that the New York Times and other equally lazy publications swallowed up hook, line, and sinker. The upshot was that President Woodrow Wilson's security apparatus picked up Muck and imprisoned him until well after the war's end with no attempt to ascertain the truth of the matter.

Then there was a sex scandal involving  Muck that Mitchell describes as  "the juiciest," but there was also the insolent behavior of the BSO concertmaster Fradkin, and hilariously, the booze scandal, when the BSO orchestra members during the time of prohibition, having performed in Canada, tried to sneak liquor back into the States. 

It will be a good time for those attending, says Mitchell. Doors open at 1, the program begins at 1:15 and the event is free. The museum is located at 80 West Central Street.